Knots, Grain and the Work of Becoming
What carving has taught me about attention, adaptation and working with what is actually present.
A coach with a knife
I have spent much of my professional life helping leaders discover more about who they are and who they are becoming. I have also spent many weekends and quiet winter afternoons with another enduring interest: woodcarving.
One pursuit is rooted in conversation and the other in craft, yet they have more in common than first appears—especially when I begin working with a raw, unseasoned piece of wood.
The knots always show up
I sometimes bring back a green log from a walk and begin working with it. From the outside, the wood may look clean and full of possibility. As I carve deeper, something unexpected nearly always appears: a knot running through the grain, a mineral stain, a change in density. By then, the work is well underway.
So the design shifts. I work with the grain rather than insisting on the original plan. Often, what first looked like an imperfection becomes the most distinctive feature of the finished piece.
Something similar happens in coaching. As people examine their assumptions, patterns, fears and ambitions, they encounter their own knots: a defensive reflex, an old story about not being enough, a perfectionist voice that never rests.
These are not flaws to fix. They are truths to be understood and integrated.
Working with what is there
Carving requires patience, preparation and respect for the material. It also requires enough humility to alter the design when the wood reveals something the carver did not anticipate.
Coaching asks for much the same discipline. The work is not to impose a preferred form on another person. It is to pay close attention, challenge when necessary and help them make more conscious choices about what they discover.
I have learnt to pause before trying to cut a knot out. It may be telling me something about the grain—and about the form the work now needs to take.