For our June session, Lucy Mair will focus on the Japanese concept of Ikigai and how it might be used in a coaching context.  She will also touch on some other Japanese life or aesthetic principles which people may find useful.

For those familiar with the concept of ikigai, it’s often associated with a Venn diagram with four overlapping qualities: what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

For Japanese however, the idea is slightly different. One’s ikigai may have nothing to do with income. In fact, in a survey of 2,000 Japanese men and women conducted by Central Research Services in 2010, just 31% of recipients considered work as their ikigai. Someone’s value in life can be work – but is certainly not limited to that.

In a 2001 research paper on ikigai, co-author Akihiro Hasegawa, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at Toyo Eiwa University, placed the word ikigai as part of everyday Japanese language. It is composed of two words: iki, which means life and gai, which describes value or worth. Lucy will share more about this research.

The session will be an interactive one with opportunity for group/pair work and possibly coaching trios if there is an appetite for trying the model in a coaching context.

Lucy has a background in providing leadership development for key talented Senior Managers and Directors within a global leadership development programme in the corporate sector since 2001.  She qualified as an Executive Coach with the OCM in 2012 and works with a diverse portfolio of Senior Managers, Directors and Partners to enable career transition, improved performance, deeper self-knowledge and an ongoing curiosity for development.