Rachel Nyarazo Adams, widely known as the Courage Coach, is redefining leadership by embracing "the messy human stuff."
As the founder of Narachi Leadership, Adams (RA) draws from a deeply personal history — marked by a childhood mystery regarding her father — to champion the power of courageous conversation.
In this insightful dialogue on the In Conversation with Trevor platform hosted by Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN), she explores her "ABC framework for transformation: Awareness, Breath, and Conscious choice.
From resolving corporate crises to guiding individual transitions, Adams argues that true empowerment stems from internal accountability, ultimately transforming personal pain into a profound professional purpose
TN: Greetings, welcome to In Conversation with Trevor, brought to you by Heart and Soul Broadcasting Services. Today I'm in conversation with Rachel Nyarazo Adams, the Courage Coach. I call you the Courage Coach, but what do you do, and how do you do it?
RA: I'm a leadership and transformation specialist. I work with leaders and organizations to amplify and center how people do leadership.
We get called for two particular reasons: Organisational dynamics - when organisations are going through tough, complex human dynamics, when the messy human stuff starts to happen, that's when I get called in.
And individual leadership - I work with individual leaders to clarify what they're trying to accomplish in the world, their mission, the values that drive them forward, and what will ultimately give them courage to do their work.
- Turning personal pain into professional purpose
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So, I work at both an organisational and individual level as a coach.
TN: You call your company Narachi. Tell us why.
RA: It's actually Narachi, it's evolved into Narachi Leadership. "Rachi" is what my family calls me. Most of my childhood, I was called Rachi or Rashi.
The name represents a promise to my clients that when I walk into the room, we're having an intimate, honest, and brave conversation. I'm committing my gift into that room so we can do the most sincere and powerful work possible.
TN: Walk me through the thinking process.
RA: When I started Narachi Leadership 11 years ago, I Googled how to name a company. It said the name must be simple, a child must be able to say it and to put together two unlikely words.
TN: Walk me through your approaches for an individual leader trying to find themselves versus a messy human relationship issue in a corporate setting. Are the approaches similar?
RA: Let's start with the individual. Usually, people reach out at a point of transition, a promotion, trying to get promoted, or realising in the second half of life that what made sense initially doesn't anymore.
They're trying to step into more courage, or they struggle with public speaking. Sometimes it's very personal, an unhealthy relationship they need to work through.
We start with a chemistry call to understand if I'm the right coach for them. Once established, we go through a journey. In coaching, we work from the assumption that the client already knows their answer.
My job is twofold to help them access the courage to acknowledge they already know the answer and to give them frameworks, tools, and insights to support their decision-making.
I use a process called ABC: Awareness, take a Breath, make a Conscious choice. Awareness: Deepening awareness about how you've co-created what you're experiencing.
Take a breath: Coming back to yourself and your center. When leaders aren't centered, they act out of externalization. All problems start from within.
Conscious choice: Your life is an outcome of every decision you've made.
TN: Someone might say, "But I'm a victim."
RA: You're a victim of your own choices, yes. People will always do things to you, life has always had circumstances. Somebody will do something unfair or that doesn't agree with who you are.
But the world is unfair because we come from different value systems. That doesn't mean you're disempowered from acting within choice, even in the most difficult circumstances.
TN: How do you walk with clients in terms of fixing it?
RA: We must never fall into the trap of thinking we can fix things for people. What we do is ground them in clarity about their next step and give them tools and frameworks.
With those, they can walk their journey. Sometimes they come back for another phase, but the idea is to have such an empowered conversation that hopefully I don't see you again.
I've never been one of those coaches trying to keep clients for 10years. I think that model is parasitic. In coaching, the idea is to empower you, like a football coach training you to play your game.
TN: Do you ever look at someone and think, "They need my help; let me go to them?"
RA: Yes. Usually, the decision to coach comes from recognising a resonance between yourself and the client. But there are also times, though rare, where you meet someone and say, "I don't think I can help you."
That happens for two reasons, one, some people are uncoachable, they just want validation for whatever belief they've come. And secondly, my skill set isn't what they need; their challenge is beyond me
TN: What's your methodology for diagnosing and working with organisations?
RA: Two things are usually happening. Training, People want to learn a skill, like how to do conflict in a healthier way. I come in running a training session deploying skills. Facilitation: I'm called to work through a dynamic, like when two executives had a fistfight in front of a client.
The conflict had reached crisis level. They'd moved past misunderstanding to deciding the other person was an enemy. My job was to work through why we got there and what work we need to do together.
That's when we step into courageous conversation. If you can't name sharply what the organization is experiencing, you can't solve the problem.
TN: You say you were a quiet, observant child who loved watching people. What in your growing up made you fascinated by human nature?
RA: I was always curious about adults and the decisions and choices they made, the cause and effect. I grew up in a vibrant home in Kadoma and Gweru with 12 brothers and sisters. A blended family with different personalities converging.
But there was something else. I didn't know who my father was. I discovered this when I handed in my birth certificate at school and the teacher unskillfully asked, "Why doesn't your birth certificate have a father's name?" There were dashes next to my father's name.
When I asked my mom, I realised this was a taboo topic.
For all intents and purposes, I had a happy childhood, but I was working internally with this unanswered question.
That's where my curiosity about courageous conversation started, why can't we just talk about this thing? Any conversation we cannot have creates suffering; it creates a shadow.
TN: Was the question answered? Who is your father?
RA: It remains a bit of a mystery. Conversations were had, but it remains a mystery. It used to be a great source of pain, but no longer. I started to understand that what you experience as your life story is not an accident.
There's wisdom to it. That appetite for courageous conversations is what brought me to this work. I developed a real relationship with human suffering and wanted to sort it out.
TN: Everything we buckle with can be turned into a gift to humanity.
RA: Exactly. Every experience is in service of the most profound version of yourself, to show you yourself and give you insight about what's available to work through.
Pain becomes purpose, powerful insight about what's missing, what traits or skills you need to develop, and most fundamentally, what sacred contract you came to fulfill on this earth.
TN: There was a time when you thought you would be a pastor.
RA: I've always been deeply spiritual. From about age six or seven, I had a deep relationship with God.
By 16, I was deeply into the Pentecostal movement. At 20, while working in the UK, I was in Bible college training to be a pastor. I graduated and became a youth pastor.
Around age 24, I started questioning the difference between being religious and having a relationship with God.
That question led me to leave religion and become more spiritual. I've studied many faiths, Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism. For me, a relationship with God is recognising that every breath is a prayer.
TN: How does that manifest daily?
RA: My day starts with about an hour of contemplation and meditation. Then I take my walk, my "walk with God."
I walk alone; it's when I connect to the question, "What is your purpose for me today?"
