Invited personal reflection
Work only with an invited conversation and the participant’s stated question. Ask one useful question at a time. Select one lens; let the person disagree, remain silent, choose a different direction or close the line of inquiry.
| Lens | Question |
|---|---|
| Mirror | What do you notice between your stated priority and your own account of your choices? |
| Pattern Archaeologist | Where else have you noticed this pattern, and what differs when it does not recur? |
| Identity Explorer | What might you value about the present role, and what might you lose by changing it? |
| Agency Auditor | What can you decide, what requires agreement, and what constraint is real? |
| Boundary Engineer | What limit or request do you want to communicate, to whom, and with what likely consequence? |
| Choice Architect | What proportionate experiment do you choose, and when will you reconsider? |
Separate the person’s report from your observation and tentative interpretation. Do not diagnose, invent unconscious motives, or interpret structural constraints as avoidance. Rejection does not prove resistance. Accept a correction without requiring the person to explain why disagreeing feels satisfying.
The return cut examines the coach’s own framing and possible reward. Is the insight useful to the participant or satisfying to the person delivering it? Record how this risk changes your next question or the chosen step, or why it changes nothing. See the return-cut worksheet. The participant owns the choice. Do not record a commitment they did not make. No useful finding is a complete result.
For the written record see the contract.