Institute of Coaching - Positivity

This MasterClass presents the work of Ben Zander and Rosamund Zander, and their inspiring theme and book, The Art of Possibility. Enjoy exclusive interviews and supporting research on possibility and resilience, along with recommended books.

Watch as Ben Zander and Rosamund Zander discuss their model presented in the book The Art of Possibility:

Article Content:

About Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Zander:

Benjamin Zander is the conductor of the Boston Philharmonic and the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestras, and is a guest conductor all over the world. He released his 9th recording, Mahler's 2nd symphony, in 2013. Mr. Zander is also one of the most sought-after speakers in the world. His partner, Rosamund Zander, and he have collaborated on a best-selling book, The Art of Possibility, which has been translated into fifteen languages. As an author, Rosamund has drawn on her background as a psychotherapist and executive coach to create a leadership model that enables individuals to step into lives of vision, passion, and contribution. Her writing, teaching, and coaching all seek to promote human growth and development through a lens of possibility.

Watch as Ben Zander and Rosamund Zander discuss their model of possibility:

Transcript:

Rosamund Zander: I am Rosamund Zander and I'm the partner of Benjamin Zander and we have together written a book called The Art of Possibility and we have modeled a whole movement that we're behind in the world of training people in possibility thinking and speaking.

Benjamin Zander: We have a very simple model. It has two diagrams, if you like two worlds. One is the downward spiral: complaint and competition and success and failure and all the things we spend our life worrying and thinking about. Then we have another domain which is the art of possibility which is radiating possibility. It is a shape with arrows going out in all directions and you can choose which world you speak from. You can either speak from the downward spiral or you can speak from possibility. We refer to the art of possibility as the art of going from the downward spiral to radiating possibility and leadership is taking people with you.

Rosamund Zander: The way that you can choose to go from the downward spiral or choose which one you want to speak from is in the consciousness that life is a story you tell and your life evolves out of the story you are telling. The downward spiral is a story about survival and struggle and triumph and the realm of possibility is a story about creativity and storytelling and vision and contribution and partnership and connection. We have a very strong statement that for ourselves that it is ourselves that we pay attention to and listen to the clients so if a client is in a downward spiral and we are struggling with that then we're in a downward spiral and we'll just stay there. So our job is to move ourselves into possibility and lighten up on everything about the downward spiral and they will catch the tune.

Benjamin Zander: To quote Ros, "possibility is always only one sentence away." Something like a talisman, I have that in my ear and whenever things get tough or difficult or the mountain seems to high to climb I remember possibility is always only one sentence away. So the thing is to come up with a sentence and to think what it is we can say and also physically manifest that will take us into possibility. It can be something very simple and it is always there, you can never fail to find it.

Transcript:

Benjamin Zander: It is interesting about the stories because each story captures the whole thing. It actually doesn’t matter what the story is. So in Boston here, there is a Holocaust museum - a very, very simple museum which consists of six pillars in plexiglas and on each of the plexiglas pillars there’s a story and five of the pillars have stories about the terrible cruelty and inhumanity of the way the Jewish people were treated during the war and the holocaust and it breaks your heart to read these stories. Then the last one is a story about a little girl, who is five years old, who is in Auschwitz, the death camp, and she finds a raspberry - one raspberry and she picks it, puts it in a leaf, and puts it in her pocket and keeps it for the whole day and then gives it to her friend who is also five. Now the other stories break your heart and that makes your heart sing. So you can ask what kind of a world is it in which a child would have one thing, keep it all day and then give it to her friend. So that’s one tiny little story and I met the woman to whom the raspberry was given and now the story gets passed on and passed on and passed on and so possibility lives in these stories. In the choice that we all have at every moment of every day to either choose, “I only have this thing and it’s mine and I’m going to eat it and who cares about everyone else”, which is normal. Or the terrible stories of suffering and inhumanity and cruelty which we all know about and we endlessly repeat them and the press has infinite patience to reproduce more and more of them, but those special stories which shift our way of experiencing being human. That’s where possibility lives.

Transcript:

Rosamund Zander: What we can say is that when you want to change something, you don’t put your hand out to the world to try to fix it and change it, you change the story your telling. And that will change everything and I have a quick story that I could tell you that has to do with something I changed in my own life that made all the difference: and that is when I was writing The Art of Possibility. I would go to a cabin south of Boston and I’d go for the weekend and I’d get everything packed and I’d take my dog and I’d get all ready to write for a weekend and when I got there the dog would be anxious to be walking and I’d go out and walk and then I’d have lunch and then I’d feel a little bit tired because it’s been a long week and then I’m taking a nap. Before I know it I’m thinking, “I’ll never get this book written”. So within 2 or 3 weekends like that I began to develop something, in language, called a writer’s block and not only did I have all the tiredness of the week but I had a writer’s block to battle. I finally realized, change the story not the circumstances. Don’t push yourself towards the computer, change the story. I changed the story and it went like this - possibility is only a sentence away, remember. Everything I do when I get to the cabin until I leave is write. Walking the dog is writing. Having lunch is writing. Taking a nap is definitely writing and doing video games is writing. As long as you have an intention, intention is out there moving on it’s own accord, then you don’t have to struggle. And you can make up a story like that and I realized all sorts of things of evidence came in that it is a much stronger story to be living in that everything you’re doing here is writing then narrowing it down to the computer. So that’s an example.

Transcript:

Benjamin Zander: I do. I’ll give you an example of a Ros coaching. I have a school here in Boston. A school for young musicians. Four times a year all these musicians come to hear the Boston Philharmonic, hear my concerts. They sit up in the balcony, about 60 of them, and one day we had a wonderful concert. It was one of the best, most interesting concerts we ever gave. The violin soloist was, I think, my favorite violinists in the world. He had never been in Boston. He was 78 years old and it was a great event and everybody was excited about it and people flew in from New York and they came from all over and there was a great event. So when the concert began I came out and every seat was taken. I looked up in the balcony there were 30 empty seats all together. It was my kids from the school. They had gone to the mall. They had gone shopping and I was so pissed off. I was really furious. So I was driving to school the next day and I was talking to Ros on the phone and I’m saying “these kids were so irresponsible, it was stupid they didn’t go to the concert and they missed it” and I was going on and on and she said, “Ben remember to apologize to them.” And I said “What do you mean apologize? They knew they had to go. They had their tickets. They were keeping other people away because it was sold out. They couldn’t get in. It was just so irresponsible.” She said it again, “Remember to apologize”. Of course I had no idea what she was talking about at that point, she just seemed like a sphinx. I can’t understand her. Anyway when I came to the school I suddenly realized what it was that she meant. I went into the school, into the class and I said “I am so, so sorry I didn’t tell you about this amazing violinist. I didn’t tell you if you came to this concert it would change your whole way of experiencing music for the rest of your lives. I didn’t tell you that so of course I didn’t enroll you and so I let us all down. I am so sorry.”. The moral of that the message of that is if people don’t do what you want them to do you can apologize to them because you didn’t enroll. That you didn’t enroll them. So that’s a shift of being and is not readily available particularly if you are upset because if you are upset it’s all about making other people wrong and blaming them and finding fault and all that. That’s what we do when we’re upset. People don’t do what we want them to do and the discipline of shifting the opposition to realize that of course they didn’t do what you wanted them to do because you didn’t take the trouble to enroll them. It’s a total shift of being and now the next time, now with the class, when I know there is a concert coming up I spend some time in the previous class telling them about the music, telling them about the soloist, and telling them how incredible it’s going to be because I learned that lesson. That’s not advice. It doesn’t come in the advice and it’s certainly not positive thinking. What it is is shifting your being so that you can see the whole situation in a completely different light. That’s a very particular ability. I think it’s genius to be able to do that.

Content Type:

Premium Resource Type

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Possibility, Positivity

Institute Premium Resources:

MasterClasses

Webinar: Positivity Part 2 with Margaret Moore

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Moore, Margaret

Summary:

Co-Director Margaret Moore disusses in this webinar generating positive emotions: past, present, future.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology

Resource Topics:

Positivity, Positive Emotions, Webinar

Resource Content Type:

Webinar

Understanding Strengths-Based Coaching

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Biswas-Diener, Robert

Summary:

Most people think that strengths are those skills or talents at which we excel. This is the commonsense view of strengths and the way most people use the term in the English language, to mean “The things we do well.” Some psychologists, however, add another dimension to strengths: they are not just the behaviors at which we excel but also those that energize us. When we work in our areas of strength we tend to feel enthusiastic and aroused. This energy helps us to distinguish between strengths and learned behaviors, those things we may do well but which do not come naturally and which tire us out by the end of the day. Understanding strengths are relevant to human flourishing. This article will help you learn more about strengths-based coaching.

Article Content:

Most psychologists working in the field think of strengths as being similar to PERSONALITY TRAITS. That is, some people are likely born with a particular strength, such as optimism or courage, and this strength will naturally come more easily to them than to people who have learned the strength. Some people naturally get some strengths, such as curiosity and other folks get a different set of strengths, such as creativity. Most scholars believe that strengths most often serve an evolutionary purpose: they help individuals function and lead to better group harmony and effectiveness, thereby allowing people to survive and pass their genes along. Curious people, for example, are likely to elicit closer relationships, know their surroundings well, try out new activities and be more creative.

Despite the fact that most researchers take a personality approach to strengths they also generally believe that some amount of strengths can be learned and that STRENGTHS ARE AFFECTED BY SITUATIONS. Some situations may call for humor while others call for bravery. Stanford researcher, CAROL DWECK, cautions that thinking of personal abilities as traits—a common trap she refers to as a “fixed mindset”—actually leads to underperformance. Her studies of the grades of intelligent school children support the idea that not exerting effort is a safer strategy for kids who have been branded as “smart.” Dweck recommends people lean toward a “growth mindset,” the notion that even our strengths can grow and develop and require effort. To learn more on Carol Dweck’s research, watch her discuss her findings on the differences between the ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindsets.

Dweck Interview Part 1

Dweck Interview Part 2

Dweck Interview Part 3

Positive psychologists also do not believe that strengths should be focused upon at expense of attention to weaknesses. We live in a realistic world and acknowledge that problems are often urgent and that weaknesses can keep us from performing well. Instead of ignoring weaknesses most positive psychologists suggest that people attend to their weaknesses to keep from failing but develop there strengths to push forward toward success. The late DON CLIFTON, former CEO of the Gallup Organization, advocated an approach that is best described as “manage your weaknesses, but develop your strengths.” Psychologist Alex Linley argues that it is our strengths, not our weaknesses that are our greatest areas of potential growth. Still, ignore weaknesses at your own peril. For more information on strengths in organizations, and the relationship between strengths and weaknesses see this article on STRENGTHS BASED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT.

The VIA

Strengths are something of a Holy Grail to positive psychologists. For years the field of psychology labored under the weight of a problem focus, with clinical psychologists interested in depression, anxiety, trauma and other psychological problems. Problems are both pressing and painful, and it makes sense that people in the field frequently chose to address these topics. To help clinicians work more effectively with their clientele researchers created a formal system for diagnosis, enshrined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS). The DSM serves as a guidebook to diagnosis. Clinicians can use it as a reference guide to see if specific symptoms, such as not eating food, are related to an eating disorder or might be related to the experience of depression.

Positive psychologists, MARTIN SELIGMAN and Chris Peterson chief among them, argued that there should be a similar volume that helped diagnose mental health (as opposed to mental illness). They began the process of assembling a list of universally recognized character strengths. To do this they read religious texts, etiquette manuals, famous novels, and even the “Klingon Code” from the popular Star Trek television series. Their study yielded 24 VIRTUES that were widely recognized and valued across cultures and throughout history. Peterson and Seligman created an assessment to measure these 24 character strengths [link to pdf- VIA 24 character strengths], which included virtues such as creativity and forgiveness, and this measure became known as the “VIA” which stands for Values in Action.

Coaching Series Leading From Strength: Making a difference as only you can.

Watch Carolyn Foster, a coach at Google Inc., talk about using signature strengths as the best route to sustain top performance in the workplace.

The VIA has been used as the basis of most of the psychological RESEARCH ON STRENGTHS within positive psychology. Scientists have found, for example, that STRENGTHS USE is related to higher confidence, self-esteem, resilience and higher rates of happiness. Among the most notable of the strengths related studies is the finding by Seligman and his colleagues that identifying and using strengths led, IN A CONTROLLED INTERVENTION STUDY, to higher rates of happiness and lower rates of depression. Strengths have also been examined in the organizational context. DON CLIFTON reports that top managers typically focus on their best workers and emphasize a strengths focus. CLICK HERE or an overview of the research on the benefits of strengths use.

There are a variety of strengths assessments available. The most widely known within positive psychology is the VIA, which is a computer based measure that rank orders the 24 virtues from those that an individual endorses the most to those that he or she endorses the least. An extended report is available for a fee.

To learn more on how to conduct a character strength assessment as a coach, click below to view Harvard associate professor, Christopher Krebs’s presentation on strengths assessment. (INSERT CHRISTOPHER KREBS- VIA STRENGTHS ASSESSMENT)

The strengths measure that is the most widely used within organizations is the CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER, which also uses computer based administration to identify 34 strengths. The GALLUP ORGANIZATION, the publisher of the StrengthsFinder, has also produced a number of BOOKS on strengths that include case studies and tips for using them in educational and business contexts. Finally, the CENTRE OF APPLIED POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY publishes a strengths assessment called the REALISE2. The Realise2 is a computer based measure that places 60 candidate attributes into one of four conceptual categories: realized strengths, unrealized strengths, learned behaviors, and weaknesses. There is also a Realise2 team report available for teams of up to 15 people.

While each of the three assessments listed above helps individuals (or teams) identify their strengths there are a number of other assessments that help people to measure their ability to KNOW, USE, and SPOT strengths in everyday life. Click here for a wide range of case studies in strengths-based RECRUITMENT, LEADERSHIP and PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT.

AVIVA strengths based recruitment video from cappeu.com

Watch Robert Biswas-Diener discuss why strengths are relevant.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Internal/Organizational Coaching, Health / Well-being, Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Positive Psychology, VIA, Strengths, Positivity

Powerpoint Slides: Self Compassion

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Moore, Margaret

Summary:

Powerpoint Slides on Self-Compassion

Content Type:

Presentation Slide

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Positivity, Self-Compassion

Webinar: Positivity Part 1 with Margaret Moore

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Moore, Margaret

Summary:

In this webinar, Margaret Moore, Co-Director, discusses positivity, specifically positive emotions and positive health.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology

Resource Topics:

Positivity, Positive Emotions, Webinar

Resource Content Type:

Webinar

2018 April Coaching Report

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 17:12:46 +0000

Summary:

What is the most courageous thing you’ve done in coaching?
Was it speaking a truth to someone in power?
Was it caring enough to confront someone in a way he/she needed?
Was it showing up authentically to present and create an environment that was an ideal balance of compassion and confrontation to help your client grow?
Are you aware of what can encourage your clients or yourself?
What kinds of questions, reflections or comments can we pull together at moments like these?

One of the things I love about coaching is how it offers clients so many different pathways to access their courage, and therefore, to make more choices available to them.

The field of psychology has a long history of treating anxiety and reducing stress. In coaching, we can focus on those issues, but more excitingly, we can also focus our work on helping our clients access the courage they can’t connect with on their own.

I remember understanding this differentiation clearly in one of my very first coaching classes at Mentor Coach in 2003. My teacher was Bonnie Hill and she described the following vignette:

You are working with a client who is deeply anxious about a meeting they have to run where the participants are highly important to the organization. We were to come up with questions for the client. We did the usual, what could you do to this or that. After a bit, we petered out, the questions were all fine, but without realizing it, we were all hooked by the obvious solution to the obvious problem: the need to decrease anxiety.

Bonnie posed a question that was very different, and with a tone of voice that was warm and challenging. She asked, “When you see yourself in front of the room, leading this meeting, who do you want to be?”

Think about that question for a moment. I’ve thought about it for over fifteen years now.

Who do you want to be?

This way of thinking is an entirely different pathway to development. It elicits an entirely different way of thinking and pulls on a different aspect of our identities. It also activates different neural networks in our brains.

Coaching can help clients access their purpose, values and intentions in order to help counter the clashing assumptions that can block them. If we can be fueled by purpose, and led by our values, whether or not we feel confident (a subset of courage) isn’t what will make us successful. Confidence in ourselves can be replaced by confidence in what we are meant to be doing and to our process of coaching. Who we want to be is a conduit for what the people in the room need to hear. The more we are in the spotlight, the less it is about ourselves. It’s about the people we are there to serve.

We will explore these concepts in different ways this month at the Institute. On April 19th, Eric Kaufmann (no relation!) will present his webinar: Showing Up: Courage, Presence and Power in Coaching Relationships. If you can’t make it – we will have it recorded and made available on our website. Eric has previously presented at our 2017 Annual Coaching in Leadership and Healthcare Conference. You can watch his conference talk: Beyond Beliefs: Going Further with Mindfulness, Courage and Compassion on our website, as well.

Our featured research article explores what unlocks courage and reduces anxiety in coaching. It’s a great article written with academic sophistication and real pragmatism. Kudos to the author, Joanna Jarosz.

An integrative literature review on the impact of life coaching on courage, fear and anxiety artfully walks us through a number of theoretical perspectives and research studies. Joanna explores:

How are courage, fear and anxiety characterized in the theoretical and empirical literature on life coaching?
What is the role of life coaching in enhancing courage, and helping with fear and anxiety?
What is the mechanism for explaining potential improvement (or lack thereof)?
What results have been documented or suggested in the literature?

A key aspect in Joanna's research is the coaching relationship.

Who do you want to be in your coaching sessions? How can you create an environment that allows your clients to expand the range of what is possible for them?

Thanks for being with us,

Carol

Author:

Kauffman, Carol

Content Type:

Premium Resource Type

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Transformation, Self-Determination Theory, Positivity, Coaching Report

Institute Premium Resources:

Coaching Reports

RLP Thumb:

An integrative literature review on the impact of life coaching on courage, fear and anxiety

ericpwhitehead_81 — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 20:13:01 +0000

Author:

Jarosz, Joanna

Summary:

Abstract: The demand on techniques, approaches and processes that have a positive impact on courage, fear and anxiety is very high in general population. The evidence-based and theoretical literature supporting life coaching as a successful approach building individual courage and helping with fear and anxiety is scarce. This integrative literature review synthesizes data from previous research studies about the impact of life coaching as an intervention to enhance courage and decrease fear and anxiety. Findings obtained in this study suggest that life coaching is a reliable approach that may enhance individual courage and decrease fear and anxiety.

Joanna’s abstract truly does not do justice to the richness in the article. If you want to take yourself on a deep dive, read the article and start exploring some of the theorists and researchers she cites – they are THE classics in the field. She unpacks aspects of coaching and takes you through the literature on courage, fear and anxiety. But then she addresses the big questions most research articles don’t, in her words: "What are the mechanisms of what happens in coaching that explains the potential improvement (or lack thereof)?"

Here is some of the information she covers, in outline form, pulled directly from what she writes in her article. These can help your coaching!

The mechanism explaining the potential improvement (or lack thereof):

Accessing courage itself hinders the development of fear and anxiety – eg focus on building courage vs. reducing anxiety. (You can think of them as antagonistic, building one can reduce the other.)
Exploring existential issues, and having someone to help the client face them alone is a courage-building exercise. Exploring core fears in a safe environment (which requires the coach to support, but also give space to the client).
Trust and Truth: first create trust (safety), then challenge with the truth. Both are key and can result in increasing the client’s awareness of a larger set of choices that are available.
Self determination theory is a key theory toward helping the client explore their core psychological needs. Autonomy, relatedness and competence builds up the internal reservoir of strength that can help the client access and build courage.
Over time courage can be internalized as they access their psychological resources and develop a positive cycle where increased self-awareness and emotional regulation build self-responsibility and commitment. This cycle then strengthens courage and results in higher self determination
Applied positive psychology: building positive experiences and skills, looking for what is right and cognitive hardiness and resilience

FEAR:

Building hope and self -regulation, with a focus on positive outcomes can reduce fear
Broaden and build theory
Downey, his focus is increasing openness to learning and focus, seeing the available choice points between growth and fear as a core aspect of coaching
The relationship creating "a place to play" where courage can be developed.

Citation:

International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, August 2017, Vol. 15, No. 2

Content Type:

Journal

Coaching Specialty:

Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Anxiety, Courage, Self-Determination, Positivity, Journal: IJEBCM

RLP Thumb:

Resource Content Type:

Journal

Longitudinal Study

ericpwhitehead_81 — Mon, 05 Mar 2018 03:07:23 +0000

Author:

Waldinger, Robert J.

Summary:

PowerPoint slides to compliment Dr. Robert J. Waldinger's Research at the 2017 Harvard Medical School Coaching in Leadership and Healthcare Conference.

Content Type:

Presentation Slide

Coaching Specialty:

Health / Well-being

Resource Topics:

Research, Positivity, Social Support, Optimism, Conference, Conference 2017, Keynote

Institute of Coaching - Positivity

Books on Positive Emotions

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

Webinar: Positivity Part 3 with Margaret Moore

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

MasterClass: Positivity to Possibility

About Benjamin Zander and Rosamund Zander:

Resilience as the ability to bounce back from stress: A neglected personal resource?

The primacy of positivity - applications in coaching context

Books on Possibility

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Institute Premium Resources:

Webinar: Positivity Part 2 with Margaret Moore

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

Understanding Strengths-Based Coaching

The VIA

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Powerpoint Slides: Self Compassion

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Webinar: Positivity Part 1 with Margaret Moore

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

2018 April Coaching Report

The Four Virtues of a Leader: Navigating the Hero's Journey Through Risk to Results

2017 Conference Talk: Beyond Beliefs: Going Further with Mindfulness, Courage, and Compassion

An integrative literature review on the impact of life coaching on courage, fear and anxiety

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Institute Premium Resources:

An integrative literature review on the impact of life coaching on courage, fear and anxiety

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

Longitudinal Study

Health & Wellness: What Science Can Tell Us About the Good Life

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics: