Why Are Metaphors So Powerful?
The elephant in the room. To be as smooth as butter. Leaving a sinking ship. Cutting the Gordian knot. The tip of the iceberg. A relationship beginning to sprout. Riding a roller coaster.
I’m sure each of these expressions evokes some kind of internal response in all of us. But why?
The power of metaphors lies in the fact that the moment we hear them, an immediate image appears in us about a situation or about a person. But that’s only the beginning. An emotion tied to that image is also evoked, and often a previous memory as well. Then comes the visceral layer: when we hear a powerful metaphor, we instantly know whether we are safe or in danger, whether the person described is someone we can trust or someone we should keep at a distance. Strong metaphors don’t only shape our emotional stance; they also give us immediate guidance on how to choose or behave in a given situation.
In coaching conversations, many topics arise that are impossible to describe with concrete facts: workplace dynamics, the desires and fears tied to building a company, the nuanced weighing of leadership dilemmas. In these moments, a well-chosen metaphor can move the coaching work forward on at least five levels:
It supports understanding between the client and the coach.
It deepens the conversation, because the emotions and visceral experiences tied to the metaphor activate instantly; we don’t need to “dig” to access them.
Metaphors are not static; they’re dynamic. They can be narrowed or expanded, one element can be deepened, or even the opposite can be explored.
Because we don’t store metaphors cognitively but emotionally and viscerally, they’re not easy to forget. Metaphors continue to live and evolve within people (and often within coaches as well) between conversations.
They can mobilise creative forces within leaders, making action planning much easier.
I’m thinking of a session when I asked my client what image would best describe the management team he is part of. After a short moment he said, “It’s a trench coat.” We explored what the trench coat meant for him, and he brought many examples from the lived experiences of the management team. It also became clear why he chose a coat rather than another piece of clothing: he felt the leadership team was focused almost entirely on the outside world - market shifts, customer needs - just like a coat relates to the external environment. The inner needs of employees received hardly any attention.
That conversation was fascinating in itself, but as a leadership coach, what interested me even more was where my client saw himself and his own team - the largest team in the organisation - on this coat. He answered immediately: “We’re one of the buttons.” And as he said it, both of us fell silent.
“How is that possible?” I asked.
He lowered his head and said, “I know this isn’t right. At the very least we should be one of the sleeves. I haven’t paid attention to this before, but it’s time to create a strategy around it.”
In our next session, we worked entirely on this strategy. It was truly exciting. I felt as if we were in a large tailoring workshop, not only figuring out how one of the sleeves could become much stronger, but also imagining the pattern of the fabric, and how the sleeve could integrate organically with the rest of the coat.