The Symbiotic Relationship of Being and Doing

I want to become a coach!

Being is the Who.  The things you cannot physically see or touch.  Being includes awareness, thinking, feeling, and skills.

Doing is the What.  Actions you take and tasks you perform.  Doing includes motion, effort, action, and physical functions.

While the Being focuses on emotional or intellectual energy, the Doing focuses on physical or mechanical energy.  

Now, let’s over-simplify: if you focus only on the being, who you are, and refrain from doing, your value and existence are limited. The Doing is how you eat, breathe, sleep, and support yourself financially.  If you focus on the doing to the exclusion of the being, your value and efforts are limited.  The Being is how you process information, consider choices, and make decisions.

When you maximize both the Being and the Doing, and even better coordinate the two, you maximize your potential.

There are times when a focus on only the Being or only the Doing is important or even necessary.  Of course, the other continues to operate even if minimally.

How can a coach prepare to work with both the Being and the Doing?  To state the obvious, start with coach training.  Earning membership in the International Coach Federation, ICF, really is a minimum standard for calling yourself a coach.  Coach-specific training teaches the ethics and competencies. Both are foundational to Doing and to Being.  Then, keep going.  Move on to earning a credential with the ICF.  As an illustration, at the first level of credentialing, the ACC, a focus primarily on the Doing is considered acceptable.  At the PCC and MCC levels a focus primarily on the Doing is expected. It is easy to then extrapolate that the significance of Being in a coaching relationship is very high, and that developing the skill for that focus takes time and experience.

Cathy Liska

For content specific to coach training and coaching, guest blog posts are welcome.

Most blog posts here are written or curated by Cathy Liska, Guide from the Side®, CDP, MCC.

Cathy is CEO/Founder of the Center for Coaching Certification, CCC. As Guide from the Side®, she is a sought-after trainer and coach with over 30 years of experience in business management and ownership. Cathy built her diverse team at CCC that includes trainers, customer service, and coaches. She was Co-Leader for ICF’s Ethics Community of Practice, on the Leadership Team for the review and updating of the Code of Ethics in 2024, and active in the Ethics Water Cooler. To ensure she stays current in related areas of expertise, Cathy has earned the following: ICF’s Master Certified Coach (MCC), Certified Coach Trainer, Certified Consumer Credit Counselor, Certificate of Excellence in Nonprofit Leadership and Management, Grief Support Group Facilitator, Certified in the Drucker Self-Assessment Tool, Certified Apartment Manager, Certified Civil and Family Mediator, and Certified in DISC.

Cathy’s clients range from attorneys to corporate executives, government to nonprofit, entrepreneurs to children, under or unemployed to newly retired. She specializes in communication, management, conflict, and leadership. Her personal mission statement is “People.” Cathy is known for her passion to serve others so they achieve the results they want.

Podcast: https://www.coachcert.com/podcast.html

Publications: Coaching Perspectives (a series of books with chapters by coach training graduates) https://www.coachcert.com/resources/recommended-reading/coaching-perspectives-series-by-the-center-for-coaching-certification-and-more.html

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