In 2009, during a workshop, I met my yet‑unborn great‑grandchildren. They sat in a horseshoe around me and asked, with concerned seriousness:
“When you realized just how alarming the situation was—what did you do?”

I can still see their faces. I meet their eyes with sweaty palms, dryness in my throat. That moment never left me, and as I’m writing this, tears blur my sight. It became the defining moment in my adult life.

Our graduates do not primarily report that they’ve gained a new professional identity—but a new inner and relational capacity.

They feel more at ease in difficult conversations, understand their own emotional reactions, respond rather than react, meet others with dignity—even in disagreement, and first and last, stay self‑connected under pressure.

These skills don’t belong to coaches, they belong to life. And coaches draw deliberately on them in coaching. Which leads to more than a new professional identity.

You may think you choose with reason. In reality, emotions come first — and they point to our needs. Learning to listen changes how free our choices feel.

Read Pernille Plantener’s reflections after purchasing a hand mixer.