Holding Space at Work: The Quiet Power of Presence
What It Really Means to Support Others Without Taking Over
“Holding space” may sound soft or abstract, but in the workplace, it’s a powerful leadership skill.
Whether you’re managing a team, navigating a tough conversation, or supporting a colleague through a challenge, the ability to hold space for someone else is often the difference between meaningful growth and missed opportunity. For those of you in the realm of executive coaching or mentoring, either as a client or a leader cultivating others, understanding how to hold space is a practice worth exploring.
🟡 What Does It Mean to Hold Space?
To hold space for someone is to offer your presence without control.
It means creating a container of trust, safety, and curiosity so another person can think, feel, and express themselves fully, without being rushed, edited, judged, or redirected. In coaching, holding space is a foundational principle. It is a core part of the coaching certification curriculum and something I actively work on. But in the workplace, it’s still surprisingly rare.
Holding space doesn’t mean being passive. It means being deeply present:
You don’t interrupt or redirect.
You don’t rush to offer advice.
You don’t center your own perspective.
You let the silence breathe.
This is sometimes referred to as Level 2 or Level 3 listening.
🔵 Why It Matters at Work
Most professionals are trained to solve, optimize, and move quickly, which can lead us to jump in too quickly when others are working through something. People often explicitly or implicitly compete to offer up a solution faster than their coworkers. But many breakthroughs (creative, emotional, or strategic) happen only when people feel truly seen and not judged.
When you hold space well:
A direct report feels more confident in their own insight, leading to more independent, self-directed work.
A peer feels less alone navigating uncertainty.
A team member may open up about a deeper issue.
A coaching client uncovers a new way forward, powered by their own internal insight and creativity.
The Leadership Power of Holding Space
Holding space builds trust. It shows emotional maturity. And it signals that your leadership isn’t just about authority, but also about connection and containment.
Consider these moments where holding space is especially valuable:
A team member is struggling with performance but unsure why.
A colleague is navigating personal stress that affects work.
You’re mentoring someone who’s hitting a leadership plateau.
You’re in a meeting where a quieter voice needs room to emerge.
In each case, your capacity to stay present—not to provide an instant solution—becomes a source of strength.
How to Practice Holding Space
Here are a few practical ways to bring this into your daily leadership:
Slow down your urge to solve.
Before offering a suggestion, ask, “Is there more you’d like to say?” This was my Achilles heel early in my coaching practice - 35 years of management consulting had hardwired some behaviors that did not serve me or my clients in coaching.
Listen with full presence.
Put away the laptop. Let go of your own internal to-do list. Pay attention with your body. Be curious about this unique situation and don’t mentally project what is coming next. You might be surprised.
Let silence do the work.
Discomfort often leads to insight. A pause invites deeper thought. Practice letting there be space in a conversation.
Validate, don’t rescue.
You can say, “That sounds really hard,” without jumping in with a fix. Ask yourself whether your biggest role is to solve the immediate problem for your teammate/direct report, or to help them grow in their capabilities.
Ask open-ended questions.
Try: “What feels most important about this right now?”, or “What options do you think we have?” Questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no” don’t invite as much creative thinking or dialogue.
🟠 For Coaching Clients: Use This Tool On Yourself
In coaching, we often ask leaders to extend compassion and presence to others. But here’s the twist: Can you hold space for yourself?
Can you sit with your own discomfort or uncertainty, without rushing to a solution?
Can you explore your own edges with curiosity instead of judgment?
The way you hold space for others is often mirrored in how you hold space for your own growth.
🔚 Final Thought
Holding space is not about staying neutral—it’s about staying present. It’s about resisting the urge to control someone else’s process and instead offering a sturdy presence in which they can do their best thinking.
As a coaching client, you have the opportunity to practice this in your conversations, meetings, and reflections. The more you trust the process—not just the outcome—the more others will rise to the occasion.
Question: what happens when you hold space for others that you work with?
I love the idea of holding space for yourself. I often wonder, having not been in a school as a manager/leader for nearly a year now, how that might look and resonate with my direct reports.
A retired Pastor who is a friend of mine calls this the “ministry of presence”. He speaks of it in the context of deep personal loss, but it can also be useful in the workplace.
I would note that both parties need to be open to creating space. I’ve tried this with people who really just wanted an answer. Framing what you are trying to create (the space) with the person can be helpful.
As someone who enjoys talking I have found that it takes more of your personal energy not to intervene vs. providing a solution. You need to get very clear with yourself about how much energy you will need to create the container for exploration and insight.