Do We Need A New Purpose for Coaching? Part 2

If like me, you love your books, you will probably also be someone who finds a particular delight in reaching onto the bookshelf to retrieve a book you bought some time ago, and which really caught your imagination, but which you never got round to reading!

And now, today, it is 'the' book you needed to dip into!

And magically, it talks to many things you are trying to make sense of.

So, for me, this week, that book is 'The Future of Coaching: Vision, Leadership and Responsibility in a Transforming World' by someone I really admire - Hetty Einzig.

In todays Blog I will share the extracts which most resonated with me and which give more shape and colour to my question of 'Do We Need A New Purpose For Coaching?'

Let's begin with the dilemma in coaching - do I bring me, my views, my agenda, into the coaching room?

Since I wrote Part 1 two weeks ago (and actually for a long time - but it feels more urgent, or 'of its time' now) I'm in conversations with supervisees around the extent to which they can 'switch hats' as the coach (to give advice, to give of their experience), as well as to take a stance or a view on what the coachee is saying - informed by their own views or - importantly - values / beliefs, around what is important in the world today.

As I listen to these coaches, really listen, as opposed to thinking 'There's a right way to do this, ethically the profession of executive coaching has a stance on this' - instead....

Instead, I hear a long-time professional (usually of several disciplines - OD, leadership, training, psychology, coaching) recount a complex, multi-layered, challenging situation, where the intervention they chose was skilful, wise and caring. For example, it showed understanding of the wider system, it showed empathy for the individual in a very difficult situation, it was given gracefully, and from the heart.

And I affirm all of this with the supervisee. In this interaction, I've let go of the 'should' of coaching being completely non-directive, and enabled them to let go of this 'should' as well. They smile, they pause, they let the affirmation and permission sink in, and they're somehow standing taller, standing into their own knowing, and sense of power.

It's like the 'should' is a ghostlike menacing quality, floating around, carrying authoritative energy and with the ability to pounce at any moment and cast a critical judgement upon us.

And of course there are times when a clear 'should' emerges, and needs to be heeded, because it is the professional and ethical thing to do. But it just seems to be, that more and more, the 'should' is getting in the way.

So, I'm reminded of Peter Hawkins' words from my last blog (around the need for executive coaching to free itself of its roots in the humanistic psychology of the 1940s and 1950s (following World War Two) - where individualism, humancentrism, and endless growth and consumption reigned supreme).

I'm also reminded of our culture's privileging of the left brain, and the linear, rational, mechanistic, atomistic paradigm. Not to denigrate this way of thinking and being in the world, it has its place (but its become way too dominant).

Applied to the 'shoulds' in executive coaching - ?

• An example is the preponderance of linear, staged models.
• Another example is the heavy focus on asking questions - like this 'defines' what coaching is, and therefore 'should' be at the heart of coaching.

(Again, as a reminder, because our minds love to 'go binary', I'm not saying the left brain way of coaching is 'wrong'; I'm advocating balance, and offering permission to open our minds to an expanded view of coaching. Particularly - for 'our world today'. With its myriad challenges, dissatisfactions, complexity and crises.)

So at this point in the (relatively new) story of 'executive coaching' we have the opportunity to write a new chapter. How exciting!

To actively inquire into our Purpose.

I love how Hetty Einzig lays this out:

"The multi-faceted context we now work within indicates the need to progress from narrow definitions of coaching to a more expanded concept. The space for leaders to explore the complex challenges we face today along with the intimacy required to face our deepest fears and our greatest dreams is desperately needed.

I believe that coaching is uniquely well placed to provide that forum because coaching is neither completely of the organisational world nor completely apart from it.

Coaching is informed by psychotherapy, but does not spring from the medical model - it cannot be pigeonholed in the arena of mental health nor, at the other extreme, pure business consulting.

Distinct from counselling and psychotherapy, coaching is grounded in an empowerment and transformative model of the human, not a pathological one.

Coaching is a 'cross-over' profession and this...protects it from reductionism. Coaching was born out of sport, education and learning theories, a range of psychologies and spiritual philosophies and practices - it resides at the the delta of these confluences.

We can celebrate this rich history.....

Coaching belongs to the street and the marketplace.

As such it has acquired the savvy and robustness of these public spaces, enabling it to change orthodoxies.

Can we do this not just with our clients but also within the profession itself, ensuring that coaching continues to remain responsive to the times we live in?" (pp43-44)

Einzig articulates several threads in her Essay, I've picked a few that feel particularly pertinent to me, and my self-questioning around the 'purpose of coaching' in todays world:

• "I hold that coaches and the leaders we accompany belong to the world beyond the organisation and thereby have a role as citizens, with rights and responsibilities..." (pp43)
• "We must position coaching as a partnership with leaders in service to a joint agenda, that which serves a higher purpose." (pp48)
• "One of the core founding maxims of executive coaching, that the coach should be impartial, an aide who follows only the client's agenda, is, I believe, both outdated and no longer fit for purpose.....In a VUCA world it is values that constitute our essential compass, and values cannot be impartial......Whether leader or coach it behoves us to choose our values and our position towards the world, our work and our purpose." (pp49)
• "Coaching is at a fork in the road. We could continue down the road of more models and techniques and become ever more brilliant technicians with fat toolboxes of engaging exercises. Nothing wrong in this, but the most we can aspire to be is master craftsmen.....(I believe...) coaching is an art....combining skill, self-expression and purpose. The coaching of leaders demands that we take (a) more challenging road. Such coaching is risky, as it operates in the realm of uncertainty: it looks to the future, it looks to facilitate change and it works to promote paradigm shifts. And in our especially uncertain times we know that in all domains the future cannot be a version of 'business as usual'. As leaders and businesses are starting to recognise the contribution they can make to address global challenges, then coaches must do likewise if they wish to remain relevant." (pp44-45)

There's a call to the coaching profession if ever there was one!

In summary what's standing out for me:

• knowing our values, our philosophy, as coaches
• this having relevance to the reality of the world we are all living in
• we are all citizens beyond the organisation
• partnering with our clients 'in service of a joint agenda, that serves a higher purpose'

I'm full of appreciation for Hetty Einzig having put this out into the world - at least 7 years ago.

I look forward to continuing conversations with supervisees....the journey we will take....

To get in touch with me: [email protected] or Comment on LinkedIn.

?‘Til Next Time ….Go Well