Hello, I am Roach the Coach and I will be your guide through the Coaching Chronicles. There are 4,500 species of us cockroaches so we are well placed, across the globe, and across time, to tell you about coaching…
We have arrived in Rome. Who could forget that incredible scene in Gladiator when Russell Crowe takes off his helmet and says to Joaquin Phoenix: “My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the coaches from the North, general of the Felix mentoring legions, loyal servant to the true paying client, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered mentee, husband to a coaching wife. And I will have my vengeance in this life or the next.”
Awesome! And that word pretty much sums up the Romans’ approach to coaching.
When you think about the Romans, you can’t help but think of the amazing things they have given the world: roads, running water, government, the calendar, aqueducts, concrete, law and the legal system – and let’s not forget language. If ever there was a group of people who knew how to get results from coaching, it was the Romans.
The Romans were serious god worshippers and there were two gods in particular who had ‘responsibility’ for coaching and mentoring. The first was Maia, Goddess of Growth, daughter of Atlas. Having inherited her father’s desire to make easy-to-read reference maps offering direction, she created the first coaching ‘map’. Sadly, this book never made it to the mortal world but her name is frequently uttered by modern-day coaching clients when faced with a challenging goal. I’m sure you’ve all heard a client say, “How Maia going to do this?”
The second god was Minerva, daughter of Jupiter, God of Wisdom, Intelligence and Learning. Minerva was part of the holy triad which Roman mortals incorporated into coaching as the holy tripartite goal setting, a practice still in use today.
She is often depicted with her sacred creature, an owl, which symbolises her ties to wisdom and also shows up in clients. If you listen carefully, the question you will hear your client asked when faced with a challenging goal is, “Owl Maia going to do this?”
Hands on approach…
The word Roman, as you may know, is Latin for ‘wandering about or exploring’ and that sums up the Romans’ approach to tasks. Let’s take one famous example.
Julius Caesar – so famous he had a salad and a dog food named after him – conquered Gaul in a brilliant campaign, which is still used when training generals today.
How did he do it? He took his thoughts to his senate who acted as coaches and mentors and helped him explore the notion of conquering the world. His girlfriend was Cleopatra, also steeped in coaching history.
Once he had thought through all the options he broke down his targets (clear goal setting), set his sights on Gaul – and the rest is history.
Another group at this time who were heavily influenced by exploratory ways of coaching were the Druids. They got their name from the way they worked, ie, they drew out people’s Ids (one of the three parts of personality according to Freud) and explored how to leverage them to best effect.
Very little is known about the ancient Druids, as they left no written accounts about themselves – the only evidence a few descriptions left by Greek and Roman authors. Not one single artefact or image has been unearthed that can be connected with them. That’s because all their work was carried out through coaching conversations – and we all know you don’t need an artefact for that.
Oratory was an art, to be practised and learnt, and good orators commanded respect. Good oratory was one of the objectives of the education system and children would start training for public speaking at the age of 12. This training was important as Roman coaches had a lot of competition when pitching for business so any support in selling and influencing paid off.
The first coaching governing body also started in Rome and was housed in the Colosseum. As you may know, ‘Colosseum’ is Latin for large body of people from the helping professions. This governing body was called MCC, which people have wrongly thought was an abbreviation of Mentoring and Coaching Council. In fact it was the number of coaching hours you needed to have before you could join.
The Roman mindset of exploring and amassing competence resulted in another learning technique that has fallen out of use – the coaching orgy. Roman coaches believed orgies led to ‘learning and development’. Thankfully, today, coaching conferences are far more civilised!
Sam Humphrey is an independent coach
Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 4