This chapter is written by Rhiannon Galen-Personick and focuses on diversity awareness.  The author uses four areas of diversity to help coaches think through their biases, the biases of the people they are coaching, and the biases of the teams around them. This is in an effort to teach all of us to be better coaches and, dare I say, people.

Over the past two chapters, the book has drilled us on recognizing and adapting to situational nuances as a crucial skill for effective coaching. I will admit that my first few years of coaching were formulaic. I did not spend the needed time to understand and address nuances of context or differences in individuals’ journeys through life. I do not remember when I learned that roles and situations change the trajectory of coaching, as does the starting point of the person or persons you are coaching. At some point, I got the point. In this chapter, diversity is an omnibus term used to describe inclusiveness across a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, life experiences, and more. Galen-Personick focuses on four specific areas. Rather than recounting the four, what struck me during this read was the impact of privilege has on both delivering and being coached.  

One of the common themes in Extraordinary Badass is the need to know yourself.  Rhiannon suggests beginning by using your journal to explore what you think of when you hear or use the word diversity. Whether you journal or not is less material than taking the time to introspectively explore your biases, in this case, around the topic of diversity. Knowing your biases can help you understand and compensate for them. Part of the introspection process, I have discovered, is to understand and come to terms with your privilege. Having conversations about privilege in polite company can be difficult in 2023. It has taken me years to come to grips with the idea of privilege, partially because of my race, gender, social class, and job. All have inferred privilege in the society I work and live in that I have benefited from. That is a hard thing to admit. As ChatGPT pointed out when I asked about privilege,

“Privilege is often invisible to those who have it because they have never experienced what it is like to be without it. For example, a person who has grown up in a wealthy family may not understand the challenges that someone from a lower socioeconomic background faces in accessing education, healthcare, and other basic needs.”

(Note -I have been looking for a reason to continue exploring ChatGPT.)

 A simple example of how situational privilege impacts my day-to-day work when coaching: this week, during a coaching session with an internal coach we were discussing the need to speak truth to power. I modeled the behavior earlier in the week for the coach and asked them to experiment with the approach as input into our next session. They were uncomfortable and reluctant to accept the homework. I was perplexed because I had shown them how effective the approach could be. They noted that I was successful with the approach because I was an outside consultant and that they would be judged harshly if they lead the same conversation. In other words, I had more “privilege” than they did. My belief that all coaches internal or external have the same ability to speak truth to power and then accept the consequences was based on a personal bias fed by a type of privilege. In a perfect world, each person and idea would be judged on merit. We don’t live in a perfect world, what we can do to progress forward is to come to grips with our privilege and the biases they generate and support. Knowledge is the first step in working toward being a better coach.