Co-Active Coaching: Focus on the Whole Person

See the Whole Elephant: Coach the Whole Person

Maybe you've heard the parable about several blind men, each encountering an elephant for the first time. 

Imagine you’re blindfolded and touching an elephant for the first time. You grab its trunk and think, “Ah, it’s a snake!” Someone else feels its leg and swears it’s a tree. Another brushes against its side and bets it’s a wall. Each person is technically right but completely wrong at the same time. Why? Because they’re only focusing on one part of the elephant—not the whole.

Coaching is no different. When we laser in on just one problem—like a career dilemma, a relationship struggle, or a fitness goal—we risk missing the bigger picture: the whole person sitting in front of us.

That’s why “Focus on the Whole Person” is one of the four cornerstones of Co-Active Coaching. It’s a guiding principle that reminds us that no challenge exists in isolation, and real transformation happens when we acknowledge the full complexity of a person’s life—mind, body, heart, and spirit.

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