Arete Coach 1203 Sam Spear "Movement as Medicine: Exploring Movement and Meaning With Athletic Psychology"
- S1E1203
- 59:40
- December 27th 2024
Welcome to the Arete Coach Podcast, hosted by Severin Sorensen, with an episode that explores "Movement as Medicine: Exploring Movement and Meaning With Athletic Psychology."
In this episode, recorded via Zoom on October 1st, 2024, we are joined by Sam Spear, founder and CEO of Coaching Instinct. Sam brings a unique blend of expertise as an executive leadership coach, licensed marriage and family therapist, former advertising and marketing executive, and lifelong competitive athlete. With an impressive client roster including Disney, Netflix, Target, EA, and SpaceX, Sam combines psychological insights with physical activity to unlock deeper organizational insights and model effective leadership.
Sam Spear's journey reflects a fascinating evolution from competitive tennis player to journalism graduate, then to psychotherapist and successful advertising executive. His path led him through roles as a copywriter, creative director, and eventually global creative director before founding and later selling his own agency. Throughout his 20-year business career, Sam maintained a small clinical practice, which unexpectedly merged with his business experience when a Fortune 100 CEO client suggested he consider executive team coaching. This pivotal moment led to the creation of Coaching Instinct, where Sam developed his distinctive approach combining athletic activities with psychological insights to help leaders break through mental obstacles and resistance. His methodology, grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and solution-focused psychotherapy, helps clients achieve greater efficiency, connection, and impact while fostering environments of authenticity and growth.
Sam Spear's approach to executive coaching demonstrates the power of combining physical movement with psychological insight. His methodology shows that engaging clients in athletic activities can create breakthrough moments that translate directly to leadership capabilities. By observing how clients respond to physical challenges, coaches can identify patterns that manifest in their professional lives and help address them more effectively.
The episode highlights the importance of maintaining a balanced approach between future-focused coaching (85-90% of the work) and past-oriented counseling (10-15% of the work). This distinction allows coaches to help clients move forward while occasionally addressing historical patterns that may be hindering their progress. Spear's framework of "wins, losses, and notables" provides a structured way to track progress and leverage successes while learning from setbacks.
Perhaps most significantly, Spear emphasizes the value of slowing down and maintaining perspective in leadership development. His mantra of "STFD" (Slow The F*** Down) encapsulates the importance of being present and making thoughtful decisions rather than rushing through challenges. This approach, combined with his focus on building trust through consistent actions over time, offers a powerful framework for sustainable leadership development and organizational growth.
The Arete Coach Podcast seeks to explore the art and science of executive coaching. You can find out more about this podcast at aretecoach.io.
This episode was recorded on October 1, 2024.
Copyright © 2024 by Arete Coach™ LLC. All rights reserved.
Arete Coach: Exploring the Art and Science of Executive Coaching
“Arete Coach Podcast" Explores the "Art and Science" of Executive Coaching hosted by Severin Sorensen. The “Arete Coach Podcast" is for executive coaches and anyone considering becoming an executive coach. The podcast is especially valuable to executive coaches who are lifetime learners with deep curiosity about the "art and science" of coaching. In this podcast, the ‘art of coaching’ is explored through engaging interviews with leading executive coaches from diverse backgrounds sharing their individual coaching journeys, learnings, methods, best questions, and situational approaches to executive coaching. Beyond best practices, the podcast will regularly mine research on the ‘science of coaching’ and explores ongoing scientific discoveries and studies looking for what works and why, with an aim to improve the core body of knowledge for executive coaches and the industry. Severin Sorensen has provided over 7,500 hours of paid executive coaching sessions and he holds the following coaching certifications: ICF/ACSTH Certified Executive Coach (CEC), Certified Organizational Development Coach (CODC), Certified Life Coach (CLC); and the IAC: Coach Masteries Practioner. Severin Sorensen has an M.Phil in Economics at King's College, Cambridge University, and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Political Science from the University of Utah.
The Arete Coach Podcast is the copyright of Arete Coach LLC.
Severin Sorensen is host of the Arete Coach Podcast, where he interviews executive coaches and researchers with the aims to celebrate and explore the art and science of executive coaching today.
Severin is a senior executive coach, serial entrepreneur and lifetime learner with a passionate curiosity about people and businesses. Severin is the CEO of ePraxis LLC, a premier level retained search firm that provides executive headhunting, talent selection, and executive coaching. (www.epraxis.com)
Severin is a certified coach with an IAC Masteries Practitioner designation and 800+ hours of ICF/ACSTH and other advanced training in Executive Coaching, Organizational Development, EOS, Life Coaching, Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and Positive Intelligence (PQ). Severin has over 7,500+ hours of paid executive coaching working with high performing executives, owners, and operators of public and private companies throughout North America.Severin's coaching clients include boards of directors, CEOs, Presidents, GMs, COO, CFO, CTO, VP Engineering, VP Talent, and many other positions.
Severin lives in Park City , Utah and his virtual coach practice includes clients throughout the Americas.
From 2010-2018 Severin was a Vistage Chair where he coached three CEO and Key executive groups. In 2011, Severin received the "Rookie of the Year Chair Award" from Vistage. Since 2013, Severin has added international speaking for Vistage, CEO conferences, executive peer groups, and corporations on the topic of identifying and hiring difference making top talent.
In terms of the types of clients coached, Severin has coached new CEOs (with less than 2 years experience), large company executives (e.g., Managing Director of Rio Tinto), numerous high-growth entrepreneurs operating INC 5000 businesses, multi-generational family owned businesses, and primary-equity business owners who are still actively managing their companies. Severin has experience coaching both private and public company executives and their executive teams.
Severin's own coaching practice is tool based, using diagnostics, surveys, and Socratic questioning to get to root issues. You can learn more about Severin at epraxis.com (insights), LinkedIn, Quora, and Twitter. If you think you might be a good fit for executive coaching with Severin, he is happy to give you a free test drive coaching session to see if this would be good for you and your team. You can book a free test-drive 30 min coaching huddle at: calendly.com/epraxis.