Coaching World Issue 1: February 2012 | Page 2

The 7 principles of thinking like Leonardo Di Vinci “This is really the beginning of you working effectively as a coach and embodying the principles of effective coaching. It’s a deep curiosity of your own growth and evolution. It is about being curious regarding your own self-awareness, and your own mindfulness. It is recognizing your own challenges and being curious about how you can learn and grow and overcome obstacles. 2 Coaching World | February 2012 | www.coachfederation.org Demonstrazione – Learning from experience “This is all about cultivating your own independent, original thought. It’s literally the discipline of looking at things from different perspectives, different angles. Really questioning what your beliefs and assumptions are. This is especially true the more leadership position you’re in. Leaders by nature tend to consciously embrace the overwhelming amount of approval thrown at them. You start believing your own publicity. We all want confirmation about just how smart and clever we are. Demonstrazione is really a matter of self-discipline. All great leaders tend to be disciplined in challenging, questioning and considering different perspectives.” Research Through his research, Gelb has identified seven principles of How to Think like Leonardo Di Vinci. These practical, everyday exercises are something that all professional coaches can use to bring wisdom and personal growth to themselves and their practice. 2. Marketing Considered history’s greatest genius, Leonardo Di Vinci’s innovative thinking and creativity continue to inspire us. From inventing the parachute before anyone could fly, to plans for submarines, flying machines, and the collapsible ladders we use today, his ability to think creatively would be an invaluable resource to a coach or anyone in a leadership position. Coaches really have to be a role model in this aspect. This is really about having the important ability of asking questions – It’s probably the most important coaching skill. Asking questions with the greatest point of leverage. What is the core issue for someone at that current time? Can you inspire their curiosita so they can rally to come up with some creative insight to help meet that core challenge. “What is the key point of leverage? What is the core issue? Then you should ask, ask how do we get there? How do we get to the essence of finding what it is we need to discover.” B