What can we learn from how others see the world? This new column peers through different lenses, exploring how ideas and perspectives might be woven into coaching and mentoring
David Megginson, Bob Garvey and Paul Stokes
The great thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome have valuable lessons for 21st century coaching
We have learned much about coaching approaches from thinkers in classical antiquity. Here we give perspectives from Greece and Rome.
Socrates’ life and thoughts were chronicled by Plato. Athens had developed a rich culture and invented many of our democratic ideas and ideals, but there was complacency too. Socrates developed the Socratic dialogue – questioning reflecting on the words used by the ‘client’ to expose lack of clarity and contradictions in their thinking. Rud1 says that “Socrates’ insistence upon painstaking analysis signalled for Nietzsche not only the end of the vitality of Greek culture, but also the beginning of an age of men with diminished spirits dependent on rational analysis rather than creative myth.”
Socrates’ contemporaries weren’t keen on him either and had him condemned to death for corrupting the youth. He is a useful reminder of the high stakes we play for when we see coaching as being in the service of truth.
Aristotle was probably the last person to know everything there was to know in his time. He was a pupil of Plato, and disagreed with almost everyone – a reflective thinker or a smart Alec?
One of his many observations, relevant to coaching practice, is that all human actions have one or more of seven causes: chance, nature, compulsion, habit, reason, passion and desire. Questions on these may help us to explore the client’s core motivations and lead to insights on thinking and behaviour.
Seneca was the richest man in Rome other than the emperor. He lived on a diet for six months a year that was worse than he would get in a Roman prison. He was the kind of coach who had deep experience of business and helped others find their moral compass. He was condemned to death by burning, but not before he had contributed to the extensive development of the Roman Empire at a time when its highest leaders were destructively dysfunctional.
Plutarch was a commentator on his society – he compared it with early Roman virtue and early Greek wisdom. He was also an exemplary Roman. He was clear-sighted in his view of his heroes but also wrote about their weaknesses. He was a great model for coaches who wholeheartedly support their clients in a context of tough love.
Each of these figures brings a unique perspective on helping others that can be useful to the modern-day coach. They also have two key qualities in common: role modelling and speaking truth to power, to borrow a Quaker phrase. Modern coaches face the dual ethical challenge of a) practising what they preach, and b) avoiding the temptation to collude with powerful clients to perpetuate the relationship.
Each of the thinkers above sought to hold true to those values, even dying for them. Modern coaches don’t have to go that far but while there is greater risk to the coach by holding firm on these values, the lives of these thinkers show that the achievements are greater also.
1 A G Rud Jr, “The use and abuse of Socrates in present-day teaching”, in Education Policy Analysis Archives, 5 (20) November 24, 1997.
http://epaa.asu.edu/ojs/article/view/621
David Megginson, Bob Garvey and Paul Stokes are with the Coaching & Mentoring Research Group, Sheffield Business School, at Sheffield Hallam
Coaching at Work, Volume 5, Issue 5