Survey: 54% predict coach income boost
The results are in for our Coaching at Work Readers’ Survey 2013, evoking strong feelings on subjects, such as chartered institute status – yet plenty of positivity, too.
As we enter 2014, there do indeed seem to be green shoots of economic recovery appearing. This year, income in coaching will increase, predict 54 per cent of respondents to the annual Coaching at Work Readers’ Survey, compared to 15 per cent last year (when 62% predicted it would stay the same).
The top priorities for 2014 are: becoming more aligned with business (36%), followed by evaluation/ROI (33%), then forming a chartered institute for coaching/and or mentoring (24%), followed by accreditation (22%; see Table 3).
It is hard to get too excited about the prospect of economic recovery in some parts of the globe, when so many have been badly burned, when others are still suffering and when such a recovery is likely to be based on repeating mistakes from the past.
Certainly, playing a stronger role in sustainability is a priority for a number of you (21%), in joint fifth position with supervision.
For Bob Garvey, professor of business education at York St John Business School, the top priorities will be: playing a stronger role in sustainability and paying attention to ethics in coaching and mentoring.
For Kevin Oubridge, partner at Blue Chip Coaching, “the burning issue for the next few years is not professional development or accreditation, it’s learning to market our services as a profession, not as a collection of cottage industries”.
For Darren Robson, founder of DRArete, as well as playing a stronger role in sustainability, it’s “mastery, excellence, purpose and contribution”.
For David Megginson, emeritus professor at Sheffield Hallam University, the main priorities are becoming more aligned with business issues, playing a stronger role in sustainability and “values, soul and coaching culture”.
Achievements
For Megginson and many others, one of the greatest achievements last year was professional bodies working together in various arenas.
Maria Symeon, Global & UK coaching leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), highlights: “Getting the accrediting bodies to engage with each other and map their standards across.”
Clutterbuck highlights the Global Coaching and Mentoring Alliance (GCMA) supervision standard, while Tracy Sinclair, UK ICF president, highlights: “Increased professionalism and rigour in credentialling.”
For coach, Mike White, it’s “demonstrating value” and for Lise Lewis, president of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council, the main items on the agenda, are “the professional bodies agreeing to co-operate as the GCMA with the purpose of working together in professionalising the coaching and mentoring industry, raising of standards internationally as the industry grows, and coaches/mentors wanting to demonstrate professional practice, and growth in supervision for quality managing and developing coach/mentor practice.”
Chartered institute
Opinions were divided on whether we need a chartered institute of coaching (see News, page 7 and Table 2). Along with many others, Sinclair isn’t sure. Lewis says, “Possibly, but not yet! I think it’s important we have different voices in the industry, although I like the idea of strengthening the voice of the coaching and mentoring industry. Perhaps when we meet the criteria of being a profession, a chartered institute will be appropriate.”
For many, including Clutterbuck, having a UK institute is the wrong approach because we need to think globally. Penny Abbott, partner at coaching/mentoring consultancy MDQ Associates, in South Africa, says, “We need to be more global and increase harmonisation, rather than have a UK-centric institute.”
Creativity is a concern for others, including Lis Merrick, managing director, Coach Mentoring.
Stephen Palmer, director of the Centre for Coaching, London, says: “The UK coalition Government has taken a different approach to regulation. The Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care now accredits voluntary registers operated by professional bodies or councils (bit.ly/1jFFDBS). Already it has accredited registers for counselling, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy and complementary medicine. This could mean that each professional body could have its own accredited register without the need for a chartered institute, which is not particularly easy to set up in the UK and would probably exclude the different professional bodies we currently have already established.”
John Reed, coach and managing principal at Quinn Reed Associates, thinks so too: “The field is over 30 years old, still unregulated and lacking in fundamental service quality control standards and consumer protection.”
Along with other coaching sponsors, including GlaxoSmithKline, News International and KPMG, Symeon from PwC believes so, for consistency of standards, greater quality control, greater clarity and for the coaching profession to have a stronger voice.
Personal development coach
Anne-Marie Rodriguez de Killeen says, “I hear a lot of criticism from people in other countries, such as France and Russia, that they don’t believe in coaching as it doesn’t appear to be a profession with rigorous standards…perhaps having (an institute) would be a good thing.”
Shifting shape
We also asked whether you think coaching is becoming more directive, shifting towards consultancy, and/or becoming more blurred with therapy. Unsurprisingly, again, opinions differ (see Table 3). However, the survey does seem to point to a shift towards consultancy, with not much difference between those who think there is (39%) and those who think not (44%).
Merrick is one of those who do see such a shift: “Some coaches do not understand the boundaries, and as more coaches join the marketplace, I feel there is less distinction in some coaches’ practice.”
Garvey thinks coaching is become more directive, shifting more towards consultancy and that the line between therapy and coaching is becoming more blurred.
Megginson agrees coaching is becoming more directive, although he doesn’t see the boundary between coaching and therapy blurring. He does see coaching shifting towards consultancy, as does executive coach Maria Iliffe-Wood, who says, “Many people calling themselves coaches are actually providing consultancy – not helped by the Government’s GrowthAccelerator Coach programme, which actually offers more consultancy than coaching.”
Goal-setting
The recent publication of Beyond Goals (ed: S David, D Megginson and D Clutterbuck, Gower, 2013), has added to the debate about the use of goal-setting in coaching. We asked readers how much they used it (see Table 3).
Some use goal-setting all the time, including Sinclair. Megginson uses it occasionally, as does Merrick. Garvey says he never uses goal-setting in his coaching. Nor does Robson either: “It’s beyond simply goals – we have moved way beyond the GROW model – that is a great foundational piece.”
CPD plans
We also asked you about your plans for CPD next year. The list wasn’t definitive, as some of you pointed out (for example, we didn’t include positive psychology), but from our list, these were the most popular (see Table 1): mindfulness, neuroscience and team coaching.
ABOUT THE SURVEY
The Coaching at Work Readers’ Survey 2013 was circulated via LinkedIn and the Coaching at Work newsletter, attracting 74 respondents. In addition to the survey, some leading thinkers and key players were approached directly.
The most common descriptions ticked by respondents were: executive coach (81%), leadership coach (67%), mentor (51%), performance coach (47%), careers coach (45%), team coach (42%), coach trainer (38%), life/personal coach (35%), internal coach (32%), transformational coach (32%), coach supervisor (27%), stress management coach (20%) and coach academic (20%).
Coaching at Work, Volume 9, issue 1