MEANING, LEADERSHIP and COACHING

Introduction

The question of meaning is perhaps the most central question we humans face—and it has been with us since the dawn of conscious thought. From ancient philosophers to modern neuroscientists, the pursuit of purpose has been at the core of what it means to be human.

We ask ourselves: Why do I do what I do for a living? What should I do with my life and my career? How do I make my work meaningful? What kind of relationships, and impact do I truly want to have on others and the world?

These are not just abstract musings; they are lived questions that show up every day in offices, board rooms, zoom calls, and leadership conversations. For professionals these questions are no longer optional. They shape how employees engage, how leaders make decisions, and how organisations navigate the complexity of our chaotic modern world.

Leadership coaching, when it goes beyond mere goal-setting and performance metrics, becomes one of the most powerful tools to help individuals and organisations grapple with these big, human questions.

Not just what to do, but why. Not just how to lead, but what makes leadership purposeful.

So let’s explore how meaning-making plays a role in leadership coaching today, why it matters more than ever, and how we can put it into practice.

Why is the topic of meaning so important today?

Over the last few decades, our social, cultural, and working conditions have shifted at a dizzying pace. Technology advances faster than we can truly integrate it. Tools arrive and disrupt industries before we’ve learned to use the previous ones well.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused us all to promise a new normal to ourselves, but instead of becoming calmer, slower, and more balanced, the new normal we have created (or allowed ourselves to fall into) seems more demanding, exhausting, and expensive—financially, emotionally, and mentally.

This backdrop of disruption and unpredictability highlights why the search for meaning has become urgent. Miklas Luhmann (1998), the German sociologist, used the term 'hypercomplexity' to describe how everything in society can now be arranged and described in multiple, often contradictory ways. Very few things have clear, unambiguous definitions anymore. This uncertainty places identity, not least of all the responsibility of leadership identity at the centre: Who am I in this shifting landscape? Who can (should) I become?

At the same time, there has been a paradigm shift in how society organises itself. We’ve moved from a disciplinary society—where obedience and external rules shaped our work—to a meritocratic one, where everything depends on self-drive. As sociologist Alain Ehrenberg (2010) points out, this relentless demand for self-discipline and self-optimisation is linked to higher levels of burnout, anxiety, and self-doubt. We're told, if you want something you have to work for it, and if we aren't happy then we only have ourselves to blame. So we move through life with accelerated pace; grabbing at more and bringing intention to our thinking less.

Philosopher Byung-Chul Han (2017) offers a radical but deeply relevant antidote: the art of lingering. Instead of rushing headlong into solutions and chasing productivity, he argues for slowing down, reflecting, and reclaiming presence. Coaching, when grounded in meaning and personal values, can provide exactly this pause—a place where leaders rediscover not just what they are doing but why it matters.

What is meaning?

So what do we actually mean when we talk about "meaning"?

At its simplest, meaning is born when we give direction to life and its events. It’s not something we simply stumble upon—it’s an active process of making sense of experiences, challenges, ambitions, and choices.

Think about a work situation: every project, every conversation, carries a demanding character. It asks something of us. In these interactions, we establish a relation of meaning—we connect what is happening externally with what we value internally. When you, as a leader lets say, interpret a crisis not only as a threat but also as an opportunity to model resilience for your team, you are engaging in meaning-making. The crisis becomes a point of growth.

It’s important to emphasise that meaning is not static. It is dynamic, unfolding through perception, reflection, and action. Finding meaning is an active process of interpretation, reframing, and choice.

In leadership coaching through this lens, Neurodynamiq coaches help clients not only to see what situations mean to them now but also to ask: What could I learn if I chose to see it differently?

Finding and making meaning with a leadership coach

Traditionally, coaching has been associated with sports, performance, and the pursuit of clear, measurable goals. This goal-achievement model has its merits, and still forms the basis of all coaching in my opinion, but as David et al. (2013) point out, its narrow focus is increasingly criticised in the literature. Why? Because the world is simply too complex for rigid, linear goal-setting. Things change very fast.

Organisational scholars Weick and Sutcliffe (2015) describe the danger of mindlessness: following fixed rules, applying old categories to new challenges, and operating on autopilot. In today’s hypercomplex environment, this rigidity isn’t just unhelpful—it’s risky. And's be honest: it's boring. Abdication of choice is the enemy.

That’s why coaching is evolving. We might think of it in generations:

1. First-generation coaching focuses on short-term goal acquisition.

2. Second-generation coaching emphasises client strengths, context, and solution-imagining.

3. Third-generation coaching, as described by Stelter (2014), goes deeper. It helps others to reflect on themselves, navigate complexity by their values, and create meaning across multiple contexts of life—professional, personal, and social.

That reflection shifts coaching from problem-solving to identity-shaping and is exactly the calibre of coaching you can expect from Neurodynamiqs.

Fulfilling meaning as a central task in leadership coaching

So how do we actually "make" meaning? It happens when we attribute values to experiences, actions, and relationships. Meaning isn’t imposed from the outside—it’s constructed as we interpret events in light of what we hold dear; its how we make sense of all that we can and can't control

For example, consider a leader navigating layoffs. On the surface, the situation is painful and challenging. But when the leader connects their actions to values of honesty, care, and responsibility, the process gains a different kind of meaning. They may still experience grief, but they also see themselves as someone who leads with integrity. Someone who can hold another person in their vulnerable, suffering. Someone who can extend the olive branch of emotional support if they can't offer economic support.

In Stelter’s (2014) third-generation coaching, as its being called, the coach intentionally elevates conversations to the level of experience, sensation, and values. Instead of focusing only on tasks or performance metrics, coach and client together ask: What does this situation mean to you? What can it say about your values, your purpose, your identity? How will you navigate this authentically and courageously?

This is not a soft or indulgent approach. It’s practical. Leaders grounded in meaning are more resilient, more consistent, and more capable of navigating uncertainty. Research consistently shows that employees who connect their work to meaning and purpose report higher engagement, lower turnover, and stronger performance. 

In short: meaning isn’t a luxury—it’s a leadership necessity.

Three approaches to creating and making meaning in leadership

There are many ways to integrate meaning-making into coaching, but three approaches stand out:

1. The individual’s subjective experience

Here, the coach begins with the client’s own lived reality. What is life like for them? What is their story? What does it feel like to be them in this situation? By discovering subjective experience, the leader can examine the habits and routines shaping their sense of meaning.

For instance, a leader who spends every evening answering emails might discover that this habit undermines their deeper value of family and social connection.

2. Collaborative meaning-making

The second approach focuses on the relationship between coach and client. In dialogue, new narratives can be written. As perspectives shift, leaders begin to see their situation differently. A CEO who initially frames a failed project as a personal failure might, through coaching, reframe it as a learning experience that strengthens the organisation’s adaptability.

This reframing isn’t just semantics—it’s transformational and its long-lasting.

3. Values-based action (Protreptic dialogue)

Finally, there is a deeper form of dialogue known as protreptic coaching, rooted in the Greek term protreptikos. This approach directs attention to core human values and existence. Instead of asking "What do you want to achieve?" the coach asks, "What do you want your life and leadership to stand for?"

This level of reflection can be uncomfortable but profoundly powerful. It anchors leadership not just in goals, but in purposeful leadership.

The practice of meaning making

How can leaders and coaches bring these ideas into daily practice? Here are some concrete strategies:

1. Storytelling as reflection: Encourage leaders to tell stories about significant experiences. What happened? What did it mean? What values were at play? Research shows that storytelling strengthens coherence and resilience. What, if you can control the story, is the message at the end?

   
   

2. Journaling with values: A simple exercise is to write about the day and then highlight which values were honoured or ignored. Over time, patterns emerge that reveal whether life is aligned with what truly matters.

   
   

3. Dialogue with curiosity: In coaching sessions, ask open-ended questions: What does this mean to you? What story are you telling yourself? What value is calling for your attention here?

   
   

4. The pause practice: Inspired by Byung-Chul Han’s "art of lingering," leaders can learn to pause before reacting—to reflect, name what matters, and then act with intentionality. With a coach this is easier because we are trained to hold silences that linger a little longer than is comfortable - it's where the larger gems of insight are found.

   
   

Consider this anecdote: A senior executive once shared with me how she dreaded annual performance reviews, seeing them as bureaucratic exercises. Through coaching, she reframed them as opportunities to connect employees to the organisation’s values and to affirm their sense of purpose. Through her journeying, the process became not something to fear but something to be excited for. An opportunity to guide and empower others, and align expectations with the values of the company and meaning of her team.

Conclusion

In today’s world of complexity, volatility, and division, meaning-making is no longer a private luxury. It is a central task for individuals and organisations alike. Leaders who can anchor their decisions in meaning create cultures of trust, resilience, and innovation.

The challenge is real: growing pressures for self-realisation, diminishing mental resilience, and rising stress make it harder than ever to stay grounded. Yet the opportunity is equally clear: by placing meaning at the heart of leadership coaching, we can help leaders rediscover themselves, reconnect with values, and lead with clarity in a chaotic modern world.

As Ralph Stacey (2001) noted, leadership and management literature increasingly recognises the perspective of meaning. Yet few coaching providers are equipped to engage with this deeply human dimension. That’s where the next evolution of coaching must focus. And its where Neurodynamiqs flourishes as human specialists, not coaching generalists.

So, I leave you with a question: As a leader, what does your current challenge mean to you? And what story do you want to tell about yourself when you look back at how you navigated it?

Because in the end, meaning-making is not just about surviving the complexity of leadership—it’s about fulfilling the deeper human drive for purpose and connection and a life worth living.

References

David, S., Clutterbuck, D., & Megginson, D. (Eds.). (2013) beyond goals - Effective strategies for coaching and mentoring. Gower.

Ehrenberg, A. (2010). Weariness of the self: Diagnosing the history of depression in the contemporary age (Franz. Original von 1998). McGill-Queen's University Press.

Han, B.-C. (2017). The scent of time: A philosophical essay on the art of lingering. Polity Press.

Luhmann, N. (1998). Die Gesellschaft der Gesellschaft. Frankfurt a. M.

Stacy, R. (2001). Complex responsive process in organisations: Learning and knowledge creation. Routledge

Stelter, R. (2014). A guide to thris generation coaching. Narrative-collaborative theory and practice. Springer Science + Business Media.

Weick, K. E., & Sutcliffe, K. M. (2015). Managing the unexpected (3. Aufl.) Joessey-Bass.