Three minutes to midnight
A series of columns on our role in tackling the complicated economic, environmental and social challenges we face. It is a place to question, offer, share, explore, challenge, dissent, celebrate, reflect, learn and enjoy.
Change – coming to a coaching organisation near you
Change is in the air.
The latest International Coach Federation (ICF) global strategic plan starts with the words: “In service of humanity flourishing…”
The Association for Coaching’s (AC) core purpose includes “make a sustainable difference to individuals, organisations and, in turn, society”.
And the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) tells us it has been working on a common vision and objectives to develop what it does “for the benefit of society”.
The major coaching and mentoring bodies are defining not just the ‘what’ of what they do, but also the ‘why’. So why are the greater purposes now becoming explicit?
As Sarah Corrie, chair, Special Group in Coaching Psychology, British Psychological Society, explains, “There is a move towards creating a better world…and a recognition that a brand new wisdom will be required if we are to engage with the complexities we face, both locally and globally. Coaching psychology and coaching have a major contribution to make at all levels, from individual well-being, to enhancing performance, to helping create and sustain leaders for the future.”
And what’s actually happening on the ground? There are many stories of coaches and mentors making a difference at grassroots level. Our research indicates that the organisations themselves are struggling to work out how they may turn their bold statements into practical action.
One thing they can provide is recognition.
EMCC coaches have been awarded for ‘solidarity coaching’ – supporting people with very low incomes while enduring difficult transitional periods in their professional/personal lives.
Janet Harvey, immediate past president of the ICF, tells how they celebrated the ICF chapter in Russia, providing 2,500 people with an experience of coaching in just one week. Coaches in the AC continue to support Kids Company, with 40 young people set to receive coaching and mentoring in a bank-funded scheme.
Are the major bodies doing enough? Harvey is clear: “No”. The bodies all speak of collaboration, including the Global Coaching & Mentoring Alliance, as being part of the answer. Lise Lewis, EMCC president, speaks of how this meets the realities of limited volunteer capacity and the “emphasis on what we can do together making more from less”. Damian Goldvarg, ICF president, tells how the ICF Foundation is working on supporting coaching in not-for-profit agencies.
And some big questions remain. Tracy Sinclair, president of the ICF in the UK, asks, “Should we explicitly bring these ‘values’ into our coaching conversations with clients” as “our whole ethos implicitly conveys messages of social, economic and environmental support and concern?”
Just because our organisations are taking a stance, should members be made to as well? Which is more ethical: to speak our values or to hide them? How does any of this affect what we actually do?
There is clearly some way to go.
Neil Scotton and Alister Scott are co-founders of The One Leadership Project; providing support, research and partnership for organisations that want to make a positive difference www.enablingcatalysts.com
Alister Scott: alister@enablingcatalysts.com
Neil Scotton: neil@enablingcatalysts.com
coaching at work, volume 8, issue 3