Hello, I am Roach the Coach and I am 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…

China, home to Jackie Chan, pandas, sweet and sour prawn, bamboo and Cato. Ah yes, Cato, the greatest Chinese exemplar of coaching and mentoring that ever lived. I can hear your gasps of surprise but in the Pink Panther films, Cato’s scenes were filled with coaching and mentoring insights. His frequent attempts to ambush Inspector Clouseau were just his way of ensuring his client was constantly in a mindful state. His servile role mirrored a classic mentoring relationship in which his boss would try and teach him various skills and connect him into his network.

Minging dynasties

When you think of Ancient China, the Ming Dynasty springs to mind, but there were many others home to coaching and mentoring approaches, which as you can imagine led to battles about who was right or wrong.

One famous ruler, Kubla Khan, was actually called Konsultant Khan. He ruled with a rod of iron (his grandfather Genghis Khan having set him a fine example). Konsultant Khan had no time for leaving people to their own means. He had had a bad of experience of this when he was very young and his grandfather, Guru Genghis, had given him 16,000 households to run. The young Konsultant Khan left his officials to run them on his behalf but they were corrupt and stole from him. He soon realised the importance of contracting and developed a systematic approach towards developing his people: Konveyor Belt Training.

After many bloody battles, the Ming Dynasty, or Mentoring Dynasty as it was properly known, came into power. Mentoring emperors believed that developing large groups of people was best done by a master/apprentice model whereby the skills, crafts and old ways of working could be preserved and passed on through the generations. Vase making was used as a vehicle to help people develop mentoring skills. Every house had dozens of vases from each family member who had been mentored.

However, homes were already cramped and the people began to get very disillusioned with this way of being. One day there was a revolt and an unnamed Chinese boy said, these are not mentoring vases but “minging vases” and smashed his on the ground. This small act created a tidal wave and soon everyone in China was smashing their vases – hence the rarity of Ming vases nowadays.

Confucius say…

After the Mentoring Dynasty came the Qin or Coaching Dynasty. It was during this time that the Great Wall of China was begun, one of the biggest construction projects of all time. The Coaching emperor believed that the project could not be realised without the commitment of the people.

At this time, there were two opposing schools of thought about how Chinese people should live their lives. Lao Tzu created Taoism, which stated that people shouldn’t get what they want through force, but by using compliance and natural forces.

Taoists believe there is a universal force flowing through all living things and that respecting that force is essential for a happy life – a non-directive approach.

An alternative approach was that of Confucius, who espoused that people should do their duty and follow their leaders and god faithfully. He believed that if everyone does what they are told and what they are supposed to do, there won’t be any fighting and nobody will be upset – a directive approach.

The emperor at this time didn’t know which way to turn, but liked the idea of a flowing force and agreed that the wall builders would be managed in a non-directive way, using their natural forces to overcome problems and improve performance.

Too hot!

Sadly, this approach proved unworkable as the emperor had forgotten to let his team know what the budget was, so costs spiralled and the wall was in danger of not being finished. To save face, the emperor decided to silence the opposition, which included burning books and burying scholars. This is where the modern phrase relating to a good book comes from – it’s too hot to put down!

I hope you will agree that this period of history was a fascinating one in the development of coaches and mentors. In this long and rich profession, it seems fitting that we finish with a career coaching quote from Confucius himself:

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”

Sam Humphrey is an independent coach

Coaching at Work, Volume 6, Issue 5