Introduction
This chapter presents and explores the ancient wisdom of Ubuntu as it applies to the fast-growing and evolving profession of coaching. The chapter shares the author’s perspective of what Ubuntu is and is not. It explores a selection of background perspectives that inform Ubuntu and Ubuntu Coaching. The chapter concludes with an overview of Ubuntu Coaching and how Ubuntu Intelligence unleashes Ubuntu-informed ways of being or becoming a versatile coach, or a humane being, in a fast-changing digital world.
Coming Back Home to Ubuntu Wisdom
Ubuntu is a global phenomenon that is best understood experientially. It is when we encounter it that we can fully grasp what it really is, or what it can be, and know what it is not. Yes, Ubuntu means ‘I am because we are’. However, Ubuntu means far more than this old and well-known cliché. Ubuntu is not simply about loving each other and singing kumbaya (freedom) while dancing in merriment to assumptions of collective understanding and attunement.
Ubuntu means that when I obstruct you or anyone else from becoming the best version of yourself or themselves, I directly or inadvertently rob and deny myself and the rest of humanity the gifts that can only come through and be expressed through your unique gifts and talents. I rob the world of your genius. Ubuntu helps us co-create sacred shared spaces where everyone can unleash their true brilliance.
When we embrace Ubuntu into coaching, we help unlock human greatness through genuine connection which often is initiated through genuine rapport and contracting, what I have called ‘conscious greetings’ (see Magadlela, 2023, page 72-73, section below on ‘conscious greetings’). For anyone interested in high level training on Ubuntu Coaching, I encourage you to look up the Ubuntu Coaching course delivered by Nobantu Mpotulo. The course is accredited by the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and you can read more about what it offers from parts of Chapter X by Nobantu Mpotulo in this book.
‘Ubuntu and ‘Conscious Greetings’ to Open Human Connection Channels
In isiZulu, the language of the Zulu people (called amaZulu), people greet each other by saying ‘Sawubona’. This literally translates to ‘I see you’. It means that I see you as you are, and not the story I have read somewhere, or from some anthropological or National Geographic episode somewhere. Greeting others consciously is a gift we give ourselves and those we encounter. It is what sets the tone for genuine Ubuntu connection, engagement and relationship building.
When we meet, see, and consciously, intentionally and mindfully greet others as we encounter them – without for a moment referencing whatever we think we know about them – we give space and room for them to present themselves, and for a new relationship to emerge based on a genuine ‘mutual presentation’ of each other to each other. What I have called the ‘fore-story’ about others can easily be a misconstrued or edited version of who they are. The ‘fore-story’ is often someone else’s take, their perspective or narrative, and may lead us away from who the one we are meeting really is.
The magic of Ubuntu conscious greetings is in co-creating space to meet others where they are. When we put what we think we know about them aside (the fore-story), we give ourselves the opportunity to ‘see’ them as they see themselves. This is the affirming power of conscious greetings that Ubuntu values enable and unleash.
I believe that in a safer world, there is no harm in saying hello to a ‘total stranger’ and meaning it. Watch what happens within you when you seek to connect authentically. It helps to prepare to take some punches of rejection along the way in this disconnected world. It is worth it in the long term.
Re-introducing Ubuntu Intelligence (UbuQ)
While Ubuntu is the essence of being an interconnected human, Ubuntu Intelligence (UbuQ), is the ability and capacity to constantly live with and embody the qualities and values of Ubuntu in daily life and in everything we say, do, and become. It is the living out of clear intention to actively help co-create spaces and opportunities for others (and myself) to become the best version of myself. The following is an excerpt from the Ubuntu Coaching and Connection Practices book on Ubuntu Intelligence (UbuQ):
“Ubuntu Intelligence is the ability to navigate social relationships I ways that benefit those involved I the relationships without conscious or unconscious prejudice or discrimination. Ubuntu Intelligence requires new mind-sets and especially new heart-sets that enable us to see the self in the other, and most importantly, to feel genuine empathy and connection with other beings. Ubuntu Intelligence equips us with ‘laser eyes’ to see through the layers of taught (or learned, programmed and conditioned) narratives about others, to see them as they present themselves in shared (and sacred) safe spaces. Ubuntu intelligence … frees us from the learned separating and programming, and from our smaller circles which are often laced with (sometimes unconsciously) taught biases and stereotypes” (Magadlela, 2023: xiii).
Coaching with Ubuntu Intelligence (UbuQ) Awareness
Ubuntu coaching recognises that the ability to coach anyone is a gift to at least four parties engaged in any coaching engagement. It benefits the coaching client (coachee), the coach, the coaching relationship as an entity, the coaching client’s relationships such as team members or direct reports of a leader or manager, and the organisation that they are part of. Ubuntu coaching heightens systemic awareness of the need to ‘see the systems’ at play.
I have argued many times that coaching is little else if it is not one of the ‘most sacred human endeavours. I believe that coaching is a sacred engagement where one serves to co-create and hold the space for another to work on becoming the best version of themselves and doing so non-judgmentally and confidentially. With Ubuntu and Ubuntu intelligence in coaching, the sacredness takes on another character and steps up to another level. It becomes a collective gift to whoever is involved in ways that can shape whole organisations, societies and the world at large.
In some parts of the world, coaching is still not well-known as a way of managing, leading or supporting others to become their best selves. Sometimes mentoring is used interchangeably with coaching as if they are one and the same thing. They are different.
There is an intersection between Ubuntu Intelligence coaching and some forms of mentoring in indigenous communities. Malidoma Some (1999) describes the great role and immeasurably powerful value of mentoring in indigenous communities, and suggests that the rest of the world, and especially the western world, could draw valuable lessons by learning from how mentoring is practiced in some communities.
Conclusion
This chapter explored Ubuntu as a concept, a philosophy, a way of being, and a worldview, that can be deployed in coaching with great results for the client and all involved. The chapter shared extensively about the different narratives and diverse understandings of what ubuntu is and is not. The idea of spending substantive space articulating what ubuntu is informed by growing calls to both explain and clarify what Ubuntu is and how is fits in, in a relatively new and fast-growing field of coaching.
Overall, I believe that Ubuntu and Ubuntu intelligence in coaching offer the discipline of coaching and all of humanity, an invaluable instrument to successfully navigate the fast-changing landscape of people development and technology. As the coaching bots and other technologies step into the coaching space and grab coaches’ lunch, it is important that human coaches become even more humane to maintain their (our) relevance. I believe that Ubuntu and Ubuntu Intelligence (UbuQ) are the software required for human connection that is needed more now in the digital age than ever before. In a world where machines are now listening, watching, and imitating everything humans do, we can only become the best that we can be, and Ubuntu offers us the gift to be more of who we are: humane beings.
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