“Peeling the onion” helps to uncover our true goals.

One of the tools coaches use to help clients uncover their true wishes and goals is sometimes referred to as ”peeling the onion.” Layer by layer of intention are examined and peeled back until the client is left with the “real” goal or goals. At that point, more effective strategies and solutions can be developed to reach the client’s goals.

So says executive coach William R. Murray on his Emotional Intelligence, Resilience and Leadership Blog.

Knowing your answers at a deep level gives you great energy to be resilient—to deal with life’s setbacks. Usually your first answer is not the final word. You need to dig deeper.

Using the example of a company VP who was upset that a subordinate was not turning in a report on time, Murray walked the client through the examination process with a series of probing questions. After looking more closely at his situation and “peeling the onion,” the VP discovered that he had several goals, including keeping a good relationship with his CEO and getting the subordinate to take responsibility for the report. With that clarity of intention at a deeper level, the VP was ready to come up with more useful strategies for working out the problems and getting what he wanted.

Moral: Dig deeper into what you really want so you can craft more resourceful strategies and stay resilient.

You can learn more about William R. Murray and read the complete blog posting here.

Other resources about emotional intelligence include: Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ, Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence, and Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence, Renew Your Relationships, Sustain Your Effectiveness.

Executive coach says meaningful work is part of emotional intelligence.

Citing an article in the The Harvard Business School Alumni Bulletin, “How Business Schools Lost Their Way,” December, 2007, Executive Coach William R. Murray questions whether business schools are doing all they can to help graduates to not only have the requisite business skills, but a path on which they can reach their personal values.

HBS associate professor Rakesh Khurana has written a book that points out problems including, “…business schools on average are not providing some way for them (students) to link the values they have to the work they are going to be doing. And as a consequence, many students have adopted a view of the world in which they believe they cannot live their values through their work.”

Murray says that helping leaders find meaning in their work is a central part of his approach to executive coaching: 

I have for decades assisted leaders and professionals to find meaning in their work. In my approach, your first step in finding meaning is to look deeply inside yourself to gain clarity on what you really value. Then develop strategies to make your values more honored in your work. I assist clients to take these steps in my individual Executive Coaching and in some modules of my Group Executive Coaching described on the link Executive Coaching Services on the above navigation bar.

To read more and explore Murray’s Executive Coaching Program, click here.