In 2016, I stopped spending up to five hours a day reading and writing at my local café and realised I could never return. I’d finally finished my PhD thesis—Lodwick, D (2016), Contextualist coaching for complex times—and those eight years were life-changing.
Over the nearly 8,000 hours of immersion, involving many visits to the dictionary, lunches with my (extremely) patient and amazing supervisor, Dr Tim Haslett, and forays into multiple academic databases, I gradually (think, very slowly) began to appreciate philosophy as essential for effective leadership and coaching. The balcony view shapes everything: our conversations with ourselves and others, whether implicit or explicit.
Interestingly, in the eight years since then, I've observed many experienced coaches undergo a period of apparent stagnation, initially troublesome and presenting as a flatness. However, over time, it turned out to be a transitional shift in how they made sense of themselves, and signifying an intense period of growth. With hindsight, they recall how this growth subsequently changed their coaching or leadership style, with less reliance on frameworks from training courses and a greater emphasis on the practical applications of philosophy. In retrospect, they had developed a level of maturity that gave them a unique presence.
Some Language of Philosophy
Phronesis, a term from Ancient Greek philosophy, encapsulates the essence of practical wisdom and intelligence, pivotal for effective action. It represents a fusion of sound judgment, exceptional character, and virtuous habits. This concept, deeply rooted in the philosophical discourses of ancient Greece, continues to resonate in contemporary thought. Aristotle’s ethical framework uniquely positions phronesis apart from other forms of intellectual virtue, like episteme and sophia, highlighting its practicality. The term's traditional Latin rendition, prudentia, underpins the modern English notion of "prudence".
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