Season 1 | episode 14
Welcome to the Coaching Studio Podcast
This podcast features fun, lively conversations with masterful coaches who are creating an impact. Get to know them, their journey into coaching, and discover what wisdom they would offer you about being a better coach.
Let’s go!
the Coaching Studio Guest
I am very excited to welcome Lynn Scott, MCC to the Coaching Studio Podcast.
Quick Links from Episode
Visit Lynn’s Website and learn more about effortless leadership.
Book(s): Get your copy of Lynn’s free e-book The Effortless Leader Revolution
Lynn’s LinkedIn
Lynn’s FaceBook Page
Credits
- Host: Lyssa deHart, LICSW, MCC
- Music: Frolic by Harrison Amer
- Production Editing: Lyssa deHart
- Social Media and Communications: Michele Logan
About This Episode
Read the transcript of this episode of the Coaching Studio Podcast:
| Lyssa deHart | Hello Lyssa deHart here and welcome to the Coaching Studio. It is my honor to introduce Lynn Scott. She is a Master Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation. She began her life story in Britain. And through her career has lived in nine countries. Over the last 20 years, she’s been working with leaders and their teams to help them beat overwhelm, boost confidence, and banished those annoying inner critics. All the while building purposeful focused teams. Her passion became her mission following her own struggles and senior leadership. Lynn now lives by the maxim. We make leadership complicated and it doesn’t need to be. Lynn is the founder of the Facebook group, The Effortless Leader Revolution, a great space for leaders to help each other with all things leadership. At this time Lynn is living near Carcassonne in the South of France with her husband Brian and their border collie Poppy. Lynn, welcome to the Coaching Studio. |
| Lynn Scott | Thank you so much, Lyssa. It’s really great to be here with you. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yay, so let me ask you, I mean this is sort of my initial question to everyone what got you into coaching? |
| Lynn Scott | Well, you said it beautifully actually in your introduction Lyssa because I am, I was one of those people who started at the bottom of the ladder if you will. I started my career. Well, initially as a bilingual secretary and then I moved into the travel industry, having a love of languages and wanting to use them. And not really wanting to be a secretary for very, very much longer. Um and so I started my career there, which was how I came to have the opportunity to live in those nine different countries. But as I moved from country to country, I moved further up the greasy pole, as we say, the leadership ladder. Until I got a very big promotion. And that meant leaving my autonomous life, running my teams in a particular country I was in, and going back to the UK into a big corporate office, open plan, little rabbit hutches, and having that sort of hierarchical structure which I had never worked in before. So it was a really huge baptism of fire, very scary. And I faced all those things that you that you mentioned. I was overwhelmed, I didn’t know how to spend my time or what to prioritize. I was fearful, everybody else knew more than me was clever than me, who was I to be in this big senior position. And so I lack confidence and I lost my voice. So from having autonomy, running my own show, doing my own thing. It was a massive change in lifestyle in working style. And it was, it was a big shock to the system. So that was my career for 10, 15 years total. And I got an opportunity to in a rather difficult year for the travel industry to do a new role. Which was a customer service role, customers ahead of customer service or to take a redundancy package. That was an offer. And it took me, I would say a millisecond to decide this is my time, I’ll take the money, I’ll go and do something else. I had no clue what. All I knew was that I loved the leadership element of my role. I’d had no training in it and I wanted to know more. So that took me ultimately into coaching, although it took me into the world of training and development first of all. And what I learned when I started doing some work as a trainer that, I’d love to go in and see an organization for a day or a couple of days. But then I’d leave and they’d have a great time. They learn a lot, but I knew that that learning wasn’t being applied. You know, they go back to the day job, don’t they? And, and stuff gets forgotten. And somebody told me about coaching, which in the UK I’m talking back in 2000 was not really very well known at all. But I could see how she was working with people, how she was helping people to change. And how she was working with them once one and over a period of time. And I just saw that that had to be the way forward. And that took me into my very first coach training program, Which I completed in 2002. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, you know, and it’s really interesting as you’re talking, you know, I’m hearing that thread of the lacking confidence, you know, the imposter syndrome, if you will. And then that thread of realizing that training isn’t enough, that there really has to be a longer relationship with a client to really create that sustainable change. So, you know, a lot of people call themselves coaches and a lot of people come into the coaching industry and I’m curious what was it that had you going, “This is the thing I really wanna put the time and energy into, to become a masterful coach? “ |
| Lynn Scott | Yes. And, and so I said, I did my first training back in 2002. Uh and subsequent training in Coaching Psychology, which I completed in 2005, but I had this hunger for learning more and becoming a craftswoman, if that’s the right phrase. And, so I always had supervision as I went along to help me. the guy who done my first training course who’d run it was a real role model for me, you know, I look at him and think, I’m never going to be anywhere near that good. And he’d actually started as a psychotherapist and moved into coaching. So he had years in the field and I just aspired to be the person that made the difference that he did. Um so that led me to going for mastery really, and what I realized Lyssa, was that mastery wasn’t just being masterful with other people, there was a lot about myself, I had to get to grips with. So master of myself, which was the most difficult bit, I would say of the whole thing um was one of the things that’s always been in a thread. And I always say we’re always working progress, aren’t we? We never we never master ourselves completely, but we get to understand ourselves a whole lot more. Which can only improve our coaching, our work with other people. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, and you know, and as you say that, you know, the thing that is it seems to be such a common story, honestly, which is this recognition of the self-awareness and the development of the self-awareness and the self-reflective piece. I mean, and you’re doing coaching supervision at a time when, like, I mean, I would say even people today aren’t as familiar with coaching supervision, although I do think that’s changing. What drew you to coaching supervision at that time so early in your game? |
| Lynn Scott | I think because the guy I mentioned was uh he’d come from a psychotherapy background. So he talked about supervision and as you say, it wasn’t really heard of or used much in those early days of coaching. And there was a bit of a belief of, oh, I don’t really need it, you know, I know how to coach. um But I think having had some first supervision in those early days of my learning, I got to understand how powerful it was. And it was helping me understand things about myself that might be blocking my coaching. It was helping me see my own patterns and things that got in the way. And I got to understand more and more that you can’t work well with other people and understand them and see what might lie underneath. If you haven’t done that work on yourself. It’s it’s a whole piece of the jigsaw that’s missing. So I’ve always done it, I’ve worked with different supervisors throughout my coaching career. And I can’t imagine not having that place for me to take things to improve what I do, to learn more. Um and just again, it helps with with becoming more masterful in our in our craft. And I’m now a coach supervisor as well. I did that training in 2009. So it’s a joy to be able to offer it to other people and have it for myself as well. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, I really, it is so interesting. I came from a therapy background and had supervision. And much like you just said, you know, came into coaching thinking, [laugh]. |
| Lynn Scott | What do I need? |
| Lyssa deHart | What’s this, it can’t be that hard, right? Like and then that bias that I think shows up around coaching, which is, it can’t be that hard. I already am helpful to people. I know, you know, I know how to ask questions. And that bias actually is is considerably problematic to how we actually trapse around in somebody else’s internal landscape without that self-reflective piece of like what hooked me here? What am I not asking about? How could I be bolder or how do I need to take back like my expertise hat. Or whatever that is, right? Like whatever showing up for boats. And so supervision is, I’m I’m a convert at this point to the idea of supervision for coaches, where I’d always been a convert for supervision for therapist, but now it’s also taken on for anybody working with other people in any form of helping field I really think is so crucial. |
| Lynn Scott | I so agree. Yeah, definitely. |
| Lyssa deHart | How has your life changed as a result of becoming a coach? Like just for you personally, what have you discovered about yourself? |
| Lynn Scott | Oh, so much and particularly in those early learning days, you know, I went naively into coach training in away thinking this is all about helping other people and you know, helping them be great. What I hadn’t realized and I was very fortunate to do a coaching program that worked at depth. Was this is about working through some of my own um things first. So I think I, I developed my self-awareness and you know, I’ve never even heard of that before. We’re talking about 2000 and in, in the sort of world I lived in, it wasn’t something we talked about. I learned that I’ve been denying my emotions, I’ve been pushing them down. You know, there’s a very British stiff upper lip thing that I grew up with. So I realized that actually, I had emotions. I could learn how they were playing out, what they were meaning for me. I mean, I can tell you in that first coach training, I spent a lot of the sessions quite tearful and so on. Is this is this whole new learning came to me. And this whole new awareness about life and humanity. I mean, it was really tough, but I say to this day that it’s the best learning I ever did. Because it showed me a couple of things that showed me you do have a choice and it showed me that, you know, that that this is just the way I am is not true. We’ve got those choices, we can choose to change how we are um in the world. And every single one of us can do that. And that that was probably the best learning I’ve ever had. And I, you know, it’s something that I remember so strongly from, from those early days of learning. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, it’s really it’s a it’s a I love the transformation from, oh, I have emotions, |
| Lynn Scott | duh… |
| Lyssa deHart | The curiosity around what that emotion may mean for you and the meaning that you’re making from, the emotions that show up. I mean, that’s an evolution right there, right? We’re where we, instead of being afraid of strong emotions, we become comfortable enough to be curious. Not that the emotion is comfortable, but that we aren’t overwhelmed by it to such a degree that we can’t be like what is this emotion trying to tell me? |
| Lynn Scott | I know exactly what is this emotion trying to tell me, what do I want to do about it? And that that’s sort of people, someone says we can then respond rather than react. And it’s just so liberating. Of course sometimes we’ll forget won’t we were all human. But just knowing that we have that capacity and everyone has that capacity to do that is a wonderful thing. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah. And I think, I mean I absolutely agree with you and I also think it is such an interesting intersection where we go from emotions are scary to emotions are really a place of curiosity and and a deeper exploration. And I think connect us to the greater human experience, which then allows us to show up much more transparently with the people were in relationship with. Yeah. It’s just that such an important, thank you so much for sharing that part of your journey also because I think it is so important for other people to hear. Whether your coach or not a coach right? Like this is that transformation. And you know, as you’re talking about it and you start off with this impostor syndrome and this sense of not having confidence. What do you discover about yourself as you become much more comfortable with your own self-awareness in these emotions? What shows up for you then? |
| Lynn Scott | Indeed, yeah, it does, it definitely does. And I often say to the leaders I’m working with, you know, they often come as you know to coaching conversations well, this person is really difficult and I’m really struggling with this. And what’s the tactic to to get over it. And you know, one of the things I talk so much about is what’s the trigger? What do you notice in your body when this happens? And people are often not in tune, are they with the feeling in the chest or the punch in the gut. So just making them aware of that and being able to hold it and do a little bit of breathing and think about how do I want to respond? Do I want to use my default response or is there another one? And just just learning that process, which as we all know takes practice. But once people see that, um they can really change the way they do things. Um so much more easily and mantra always helps I find. So I I’ve got one that says to me, I’ll notice my punch in the gut and then, oh, it’s that thing again. So what do I want to do? You know, it happens in milliseconds. So I think that’s a really great thing that we can, we can all do once we’re aware that it’s, it’s available to us. And of course it’s available to everybody |
| Lyssa deHart | Well and I think that’s it, right? It’s available to every single person like this, this thing that you live in, this body that you live in is actually a pretty finally tuned instrument of awareness if you you know, pay attention to it. |
| Lynn Scott | Exactly. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah. Like what all is available to you as a result, it was sort of interesting, I remember having a conversation with a client and I said how do you discern between things that you’re at? A hard yes versus a hard no. At and at that point that client started to really discuss like what his gut was telling him, like my gut is where I make those kinds of decisions. so we know that stuff but we know it unconsciously and I think what I’m hearing you say is really bringing that into conscious awareness, puts us in a position of being at choice. Reactive versus proactive. And really being a choice to determine how we want to move forward. It’s just so, so important. How are you keeping your passion for coaching alive in your life at this time? Like how do you do that? |
| Lynn Scott | Yeah, I mean with everything that we’ve had with COVID interestingly because I work in France and my clients tend to be International, I’ve been used to working in this virtual world anyway. But what I really missed was my face to face travels either within France or outside to work with people in the room. Particularly with groups and teams and so on. I miss that. But I took the decision that I love what I do, it’s just finding different ways to do it. So I put together an online leadership program. But what I love what keeps me passionate I think is that people are always interesting beings. They’re all different even though lots of things they bring to the coaching conversation are the same. So, I might work with a surgeon one day and somebody who’s running a marketing business in the other. They’re completely different people are completely different organizations to work in. And yet some of the things we hear from them will be, will be the same. But of course they’re all individuals. They’re not clones of each other. So finding ways to work with each of them to help them raise their awareness. It never stops exciting me. And when I see people make those breakthroughs and they might be massive changes that they make, but they might be really small ones, but those small ones are powerful in their own way. So I just like to see people progress. Particularly when they’re stuck and particularly when they’ve maybe been stuck for a while and they’ve kept telling themselves, “I’m too busy right now it’s not the right time. I’ll do it when I’m less busy. ” And when they actually bite the bullet and say, you know what, I’ve got to deal with this now I want to start making change now when they take that decision then so much can happen for them. Um And that’s what keeps me, that’s what keeps me, my flame alight. If you were with seeing those shifts in people. Yeah. |
| Lyssa deHart | You know when you said something I think really important to which is this sort of unique qualities of individuals, right? This diversity of, you may be working with somebody who is a physician one day, Somebody who’s in marketing, maybe an attorney the next or somebody who’s maybe a coach. Like I mean like there’s all these different people that you’re working with and you’ve lived in nine countries as we mentioned earlier. |
| Lynn Scott | I had to count. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah. One. Two. I am really curious like how has your experience in being in so many different places, informed you on issues that we’re hearing a lot around diversity, inclusion, equity. But I mean, how is being in all of these different places, informed your capacity to be culturally competent when working with your clients? |
| Lynn Scott | Yeah, it’s interesting listening because those words when I was working in trouble, you would never have heard them. You know, they weren’t in the the language if you weren’t they weren’t the mindset wasn’t there? The thinking wasn’t always there or if it was, it certainly wasn’t as out there as it is now. So, I worked in um Southern European countries. I worked in Muslim countries. I worked in the U. S. I worked in different places. So I got to understand um that whilst whilst as human beings, we we often care about the same things. We hope for the same things we want the same things particularly for our families for our loved ones. Um It got me into the idea of being so curious about how people lived. What they wanted, how to not assume that in a working capacity what I thought was right, was right. Another thing I think I realized was that the organization I was working for some of the values were off. If I can say that. They didn’t chime with my own. So some of the things we were doing as an organization were not fair on some of the people that we were working with. They took advantage of them. Now at that time I wouldn’t have thought values. Why is this making me so unhappy? I wouldn’t have made that connection. And it’s only since that I realized one of the reasons I decided to take that redundancy was because there were some things the organization we’re doing which weren’t morally or ethically right. There weren’t illegal probably. But it kind of didn’t sit well with me. And so understanding um that I think was really helpful to my working with people from different cultures. I think it also made me braver, because um it’s very easy to sit and worry. I might upset somebody I might say the wrong thing. Um but I learned also to rather than assume not to be afraid to ask questions. And if I didn’t understand something then to to ask rather than to sit on my hands and say, well I can’t say that it might be offensive. So and I think that’s really helped me as well. And it took me awhile. |
| Lyssa deHart | And it took you a while. Yeah, I heard something that you said which was to not make assumptions and I mean, and then when I hear you saying, you know, ask and like be brave enough to ask versus just work on the assumption, I think, you know, from my own experience of observing people and observing myself, it’s those assumptions where we can get into so much trouble. |
| Lynn Scott | True |
| Lyssa deHart | know, my worldview is the only world view is a ridiculous assumption that that really um hinders our capacity to be with other people. So yeah, it’s really, really important. Important. What do you think? Um you know, what do you think is something that new coaches really, really could benefit from understanding about coaching? |
| Lynn Scott | That’s a great question. I would say. Um it’s not all about the tools and techniques. I think based on everything you and I have been talking about now, you can want to learn more. Which I did, but I wanted to like, I think I wanted to learn more generally. Whereas some people will say I need another tool, I need another psychometric or I need another instrument to use with people. But actually use of self as instrument as we say, I I think is one of the most powerful coaching tools if I can use that word, it’s probably not a tool. So tuning into what we’re experiencing when we’re with somebody and being able to put that out there as a as an interesting observation, as a hunch, as a question. Being able to notice the impact that somebody is having when we’re with them. And knowing what that might be about, knowing whether it’s something that comes from me, whether it’s something that might be impacting other people the same way as me and we don’t always know that of course, but being able to often say the brave thing. I think particularly with senior leaders that people will nobody that nobody else will dare say. Not because we want to judge and be smart, you know, clever, but because we want to really help them grow and develop. So why coach somebody if we’re not going to be the one that’s going to say the brave thing because we want them to succeed. We want them to do the best that they can. So I I think doing that work on ourselves helps with that. Practicing, I can remember the first time I was what I thought was really brave and said something that was quite important. I just remember that deep breath thinking, dare I don’t I, you know. But just saying actually this is important and and actually it landed really, really well and it was it was a very important thing for the person to hear. So that’s where I think a lot of the work needs to be done. We can go on courses and learn another tool, we can learn, we can get qualified in another psychometric, but that work on ourselves I think is the thing that gives us real power with our client. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, I I often when I’m working with new coaches say you are the tool. |
| Lynn Scott | Exactly, you are the instruments |
| Lyssa deHart | You are it. Yeah, right. Like, I mean you can know all kinds of things. You can be an expert in all sorts of tools, but how you use those and how they inform your curiosity is what makes you a coach. And something else that you said that I think is just crucial to to be reminded of regularly, which is this idea that, you know, it isn’t this stuff at the surface. Like if we’re just going in coaching the surface, like let’s just get you to this solution, whatever this solution is. I’m just gonna get you two X if we don’t explore the landscape that it takes to get to X. It really reduces that capacity of that person to make those sustainable changes. It’s really appreciate you bringing that forward because I think it is so important to for young coaches to remember, it isn’t just about hitting a solution, it’s about that bravery that you’re talking about to go below the waterline, so to speak with your clients. |
| Lynn Scott | Yes, because a quick fix, as you say, only last for so long. It’s a bit like putting a, I think you call it a band aid, we call it a plaster on a, on a gaping wound. And so it’s, as you say that it’s not sustainable. Um so helping people to really see below the surface themselves is a, is a gift for all of us. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah. And if you haven’t done that work on yourself, how do you show up in that way with another human being? |
| Lynn Scott | Right. So if you’ve only learned the GROW model, you’re only going to be so effective, aren’t you? And yes, there’s any part of the story. Yeah. |
| Lyssa deHart | yeah. How do you, how do you Sharp? You know, Stephen Covey talks about sharpen the saw, you know, how do you replenish yourself so that you have the bandwidth to, I know you’re doing coaching supervision, but I’m just, I’m curious like how else do you take care of yourself so that you can show up so fully with your clients? |
| Lynn Scott | Oh, this this is so important for me because I had all those years of working like a crazy woman, working late, working weekends, having no time out. And so I’ve come to realize more and more as I got older. And and so on as well, how how important it is. So you mentioned it beginning to have a dog. So my day always starts with a dog walk. Um and where I live in France at the back of my house, we’ve got some vineyards. So I often take her out into the vineyards and and just let my mind run free. I have proper lunch breaks, you know those things so many people will sit at a screen and eat. Um and I know that that doesn’t help. So my husband’s home too. So we’ll have lunch together, we’ll sit outside when the weather is nice and just enjoy that proper break. Before the lockdown of Covid. I used to do a lot of Pilates classes. I used to go to classes. I have to say I’m not so great at doing the online ones. I’ve not persevered. So is the fresh air and the exercise that um that keeps me going. And just moving around and stopping work, having a nice dinner. I love to cook. So cooking is really relaxing for me. So we always eat really well. We locally produced food whenever we can and enjoy it with a glass of wine. Of course, |
| Lyssa deHart | Of course, you know, and I think that, I mean, I think a couple of things showed up there, but one is, if something worked once, but maybe isn’t working now in a new way, don’t get attached to that. Move on to something else that works, right? Like find the things that work for the place that you find yourself in and I love that I’m not so good with those online exercise classes either. Um I don’t know, something about the energy is just different and it doesn’t work quite the same. So finding different ways of uh of being active is really important. |
| Lynn Scott | Definitely. And just even those stretches, you know, when you’re in a screen all day, you often don’t realize how tense you can be. So those stretches just to get everything moving again and fluid again |
| Lyssa deHart | And fluid again. And I mean, like I’ve moved to a stand-up desk and I find I love it because I can move as I’m standing there. And walk away and walk back. And so finding kind of interesting ways to be in a different relationship, even with your tools that you use for your… |
| Lynn Scott | I must investigate a stand up desk, that sounds like a really. |
| Lyssa deHart | You know, it’s really, it’s actually. |
| Lynn Scott | Your back must be so good. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, there you go. Yeah, definitely. |
| Lynn Scott | I would say, yeah, it has to be, it has to be important for sure. |
| Lyssa deHart | And so talk a little bit then about what you’re up to um in the world at this time? |
| Lynn Scott | Well, interestingly, I’ve booked my first bit of face-to-face work in September so, and it feels quite strange because I’ve not been on a plane for nearly two years now. So that seems like a real exciting thing to look forward to, to, to be in a room again with people. Um I launched my seventh online leadership program today, which I I mentioned earlier. So that’s exciting. And one of the things, you know I, I learned about, we were talking about inner critics and imposter syndromes. And I think probably a few years ago I would have waited for it to be perfect, you know, and so I would never have never have got it out there, but I’ve learned that just get your first thing out there and build on there. So that’s nice. Um the weather here is is lovely, so I’m enjoying the flowers, I’m enjoying the garden, I’m enjoying seeing the grapes growing. Um and so I’m just enjoying this time of year, it’s a it’s a beautiful time of year and getting out in the fresh air. So um and I’ve got a new supervision groups starting, so lots of things work-wise, that are really, really lovely things to be doing. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, well, I will definitely have a link in the, in the text below for people to follow and go check out the work that you’re doing. |
| Lynn Scott | That will be great. |
| Lyssa deHart | Yeah, and thank you so much for being on the coaching studio today. This has just been a wonderful conversation with you, Lynn, I really appreciate it. |
| Lynn Scott | thank you for inviting me it’s been so nice to talk about all things coaching. And to just just think about it with you and think out loud and talk out loud, so thanks very much for the opportunity |
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Lyssa deHart, LICSW, MCC
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Lyssa deHart ditched her therapy practice to become a Leadership Confidence Coach. Along the way she discovered a passion for professional coaching and wanted to find ways to share that passion with the world. Come join her in discovering and meeting some of the most amazing professional coaches on the planet. Her goal is to inspire coaches. Lyssa is the author of StoryJacking: Change Your Dialogue, Transform Your Life , and The Reflective Coach. Lyssa is an ICF PCC Assessor, Certified Mentor Coach, and budding Coach SuperVisor. Lyssa uses her understanding of the ICF Core Competencies, combined with her knowledge of Neuroscience, to work with people to become extraordinary professional coaches. Let's Go!
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