Letter from South Africa
A new coaching and mentoring body has improved the profile of a profession previously seen as catering only for the privileged minority. As an executive coach working in Cape Town, one of my primary aims has been to establish the credibility of the profession in a country where it has been seen as unregulated and a privilege for a tiny minority.
This is an ethical dilemma: white executives are the main beneficiaries of coaching. Many of the black men and women who suffered under apartheid do not qualify for coaching as they are not in sufficiently senior positions. With coaching, they might be. Three years ago, when I began my doctoral research project with the i-coach academy at Middlesex University, I realised there was a desperate need for an ethics and standards body for coaches in South Africa. It became one of the requirements of my project to help create an organisation for coaches and mentors in South Africa. The aim is to develop professionalism and standards for continuing professional development.
I initiated a dialogue that took me to Johannesburg and Durban to determine what organisations already existed that might help to create standards for coaches and unite in one national organisation. Intensive meetings over a two year period debated what type of organisation was desired, for what purpose and how we could link up internationally. My doctoral supervisor, David Lane, and some of his colleagues at the European Mentoring and Coaching Council helped enormously. We have now founded Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (Comensa). It has branches in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, nearly 500 members and 20 committees, which are investigating such issues as research, supervision, ethics, standards and continuing professional development. This is an important initiative that will have a long-lasting influence on coaching in this country.
A key requisite for Comensa has been to create an umbrella association to provide for the regulation of coaching and mentoring, and to develop the credibility and awareness of coaching and mentoring as professions. One vital impact of Comensa has been to encourage collaboration among buyers, providers and trainers in a country that has a history of division and disempowerment. Comensa has not only created a way to promote best practice trends in coaching and mentoring, but a forum where coaches and mentors work, share ideas and values, and develop a sense of community.
The i-coach academy programme at Middlesex is now recognised as one of the leaders in the field in developing professional executive coaches in South Africa. The Coaching Centre of Cape Town has built an alliance with i-coach to develop a practitioner and advanced diploma in coaching, which leads to the i-coach master’s degree. As a result of my work with Comensa, I feel privileged to have been invited to sit on a panel of business experts from the World Association of Business Coaches to research the competencies required for coaches worldwide. Comensa has thus begun to reach out to create international networks, as well as supporting and developing professionals in South Africa and helping them to empower their own clients in order to achieve their
full potential.
Sunny Stout Rostron is an i-coach academy doctorate, a founder of Comensa, South Africa’s national coaching and mentoring body, and an executive coach based in Cape Town.