NEW E-Quip 8 Part Series: The Eight Domains of Human Potential

Laurel Elders:
Welcome to equip's weekly coaching tips that equip coaches, future coaches, and coach like leaders to develop their excellence in coaching. I'm Laurel Elders, founder of the Institute for Integrative Intelligence. I'm a master certified coach through the ICF, and I got my start as a professional coaching geek in 2005. I have with me today, Bryant Alexander and Jill Aronoff. Bryant a coach that works with us in admissions, helping people align with coach training options that are best suited for them and their organization. And Jill is also a coach, and she's here to dialogue with us and also answer questions in the chat and post links as we go. And today, we have a very exciting topic. We are kicking off a series called the eight domains of human potential. So we're going to be covering each domain and how they impact the coach, how they can impact leadership and positively impact our clients as coaches. All right, shall we?

Bryant Alexander:
Let's dive in. Um, where would we like to start?

Laurel Elders:
Well, let's just dive right into the heart of what are the eight domains!

Bryant Alexander:
Mhm.

Laurel Elders:
So, covering each of those, in essence, the eight domains are the avenues for expanding our capacity as a human being. And the definition - we're looking at the definition of potential. Oxford language says "having or showing the capacity to become or develop into something in the future. " Another second definition "are latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future successes or usefulness".

Bryant Alexander:
Okay. All right. So, I guess, with these eight domains, and I know this is something that's unique to the institution. I guess before we get into the what, Laurel, can you just talk a little bit about the why? Why do you think that this is important to really discuss? Because I know we talk about human potential that has become a topic today, but why do you think, right now, this is something that's important to really address?

Laurel Elders:
So, one thing is about developing our fullest capacity. So if you've got a leader that's developing their executive presence or even just their efficacy as a leader, and also as a coach, you can use the eight domains to fully develop your skill sets and presence as a coach. And it's a way that we can also help our clients. So, we're living in a time where, after COVID, we hit a lot of stress points. And, what they found is, under stress, we disintegrate naturally. Right. Makes sense. We disintegrate. So the best part of ourselves kind of get hidden and we become more reactive under disintegration. So making a conscious effort to integrate back into our potential and really expand, our own presence in whatever role we're playing, this is just one powerful avenue to really accomplish that.

Bryant Alexander:
Got you.

Laurel Elders:
So one of the ironies I have found about potential is that once we define it, we incidentally limit it by placing a box of perception around it. And the goal is really, not to stay put, but just to keep inviting further integration. Mhm. And yet ironically, we have to define some potentials in order to reach them. Mhm. So the eight domains can be a really powerful lens and a roadmap to accomplishing that. Mhm.

Bryant Alexander:
Yeah, there you go. Okay. I was going to say, let's talk about these eight domains. I think the potential. That is quite a word to use when it comes to these domains, because being that there's eight, it's like, how do you tackle all eight of these domains? Because there's so much potential around them. So I guess before we even talk about the how, just kind of going through the domains and what they actually mean, I think that's really important, in relation to potential.

Laurel Elders:
Mhm. Yeah, absolutely. So just to give a quick overview, we've got the somatic. So this is the physical body and our experiences in the body. We also have cognitive, which is the mind. So mindfulness, positive psychology. Also Howard Gardner's work on multiple intelligences are cognitive. We also have emotional, um, eq, for example, and relational. So what is our self identity? What is our relationship to ourself? What is our relationship to others? What is our cultural context? All of that. And then spiritual. Spiritual, not necessarily being religious, but sometimes it could be a religion. And, our definition of spiritual in this context is a connection to something greater than the self. So am I aware of a purpose? Am I aware of how I'm impacting the bigger picture? And what is my role? And then, motivational, there's a direct connection to what motivates me, what's underneath the surface. This could also be very connected to life purpose. And energetic is one that's often overlooked. So what energy am I bringing into what I'm doing or not bringing into what I'm doing? Am I aware of my energetic footprint, on my team? And then we've got integrational. So this is bringing it all together. How can we be aware of all of these domains so that, we can really engage all of them and have them interplay. So we see, like, for example, with Einstein, he engaged cognitively, but he also was much more open spiritually and looking at relationally. So he was engaging multiple intelligences to come to some of the pretty profound conclusions he did as a scientist. Mhm.

Bryant Alexander:
I would say, I guess these are just very, profound in a sense, because they all work together, which is how we get to integration. And when you talk about, I guess, potential in using these different, domains, it's just like, how would you go about, I guess, picking the ones that you want to focus on? Because it's hard to focus on eight different things. So how would you go about really focusing on, like, all right, these are the top two. This is the one, or this is the three that I would like to focus on.

Laurel Elders:
We teach a whole process around that. So really self identifying. What way am I in balance in this area, and what way am I out of balance, and what does success look like for me? What does my potential look like in this area? Am I aligning in that? So if the coach is presenting a way for the client to do their own self assessment, that's one way. Another way is to just go through a self inquiry process as a leader and say, how am I showing up? Am I aware of, my energy, of my motivations? Clean. So you can use it for self reflection, and as a coach, you can reflect on how am I bringing my whole self into what I'm doing? Am I clear on my motivation for why I'm a coach? Do I have a solid relationship process with my clients? So again, it can be, kind of like this really neat roadmap for, someone to really go deeper into their life.

Jill Aronoff:
I'm super excited about this, because my favorite is probably somatic, for sure. But I'm excited because I get the cognitive and the emotional mixed up a lot. M these are so similar. Well, in my mind, they're similar, so I'm excited to see the differences.

Laurel Elders:
Yeah, we're going to go into each of these more in depth. So we're going to be doing one a week. We'll do a deep dive into what to consider in that domain for yourself as a coach or a leader, and covering some of the distinctions, like Jill, you just brought up. All right, so that is a quick overview of what is to come. Jill's going to be placing some links in the chat, specifically geared around, integrative intelligence. There'll be a link to that. And, um, yeah, we just wanted to hop on today just to give you an idea of what we're going to be doing in our eight part series, and we hope you will join us. We hope that, um, this process isn't a lantern to you in your path as a leader or a coach. We are really here to help people elevate their own potential through the art and science of masterful coaching. So if you're an individual or organizational leader seeking to bring coaching into what you do, please reach out to Bryant here on LinkedIn. You can also visit us at integrativeintelligence.global, and we hope to see you next time!

Bryant Alexander:
Sounds good. Thank you.