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Body Talk

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A recent survey found that nearly three-quarters of you are members of a professional coaching organisation. But for those of you who aren’t, confusion still reigns. Liz Hall brings clarity with an in-depth look at what’s on offer.

Professional bodies aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but as coaching buyers begin to ask more questions about accreditation, standards and ethics, more coaches are signing up. And they are discovering the real benefits to be had.

A recent cartoon by our resident humorist Kipper struck a nerve with many of you, highlighting the confusion that still reigns over who does what. How do you decide what body to join? Which are relevant to you? What do they offer?

Some 74 per cent of respondents to Meyler Campbell’s survey of coaches (see news, page 12) are members of a professional coaching body, up on last year’s 65 per cent. There was no clear leader last year either, but in 2009 the Association for Coaching (AC) pulled ahead by a long shot (59 per cent), followed by the International Coach Federation (ICF; 29 per cent), as shown in Table 1.

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News: ‘Sloppy work’ is biggest timewaster

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Half of UK employees feel their employer doesn’t help them develop good team working skills, suggests a survey of 2,000 people by training consultancy Cedar. Employees understand their own work contributes to team targets, but one-fifth have never attended a meeting in which team performance was discussed. Four in ten have a manager “who does […]

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News: Professor Passmore wins the 2012 SGCP Research Award

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Jonathan Passmore has won an accolade for his ground-breaking research into the psychology of coaching within driver learning. Professor Passmore won the 2012 British Psychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology (SGCP) Research Award for a distinguished research project. The award was given for his research into the psychology of coaching as a learning methodology […]

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Viewpoint; Help or harm?

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by Sarah Dale

Does coaching work? Should we use hard evidence or our own judgment to tell us if it’s good? Or is client feedback enough?

As an occupational psychologist who coaches, I was pleased to attend discussions about the evidence for coaching effectiveness at the Division of Occupational Psychology conference, specifically in sessions led by Professor Rob Briner. Evidence-based practice was also the theme of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology’s annual conference in December 2012.

The arguments echo a wider debate, often associated with Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science, which challenges how we decide what works. They raise important questions about what constitutes good evidence. Ignoring these could put us in the same well-meaning boat as 17th century doctors wedded to their useless (or positively harmful) blood-letting practices. However, few of us work with cast-iron evidence for everything we do. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, parents – and psychologists – all rely on their own judgment at times. As a practitioner, the debate leaves me questioning what I should be doing. I get positive feedback from my coaching.

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TroubleShooter: The path less stressed

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A corporate high flier finds herself at a careers crossroads. How can this executive choose a path that maintains a positive career, while balancing work commitments with personal ones? Andrea has been employed by a leading global bank for nearly 20 years. She is considered a high flier and is a member of the company’s […]

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Rising Tsars

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Coaching in Russia is at a much younger stage of development than in the UK. It lacks focus and regulation, and is poorly understood. Yet, coaching is beginning to find its place in the Russian business psyche, reports Lena Smirnova Business coaching classes may not require students to swallow pills, don ear muffs and wriggle […]

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Bring back joy

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Unprofessional, fluffy? The idea of mixing mindfulness with ‘hard’ business has faced a difficult press. But the tide is turning, including within coaching. Mindful coach, Liz Hall, shares the results of her Mindfulness in Coaching 2012 survey and other research. Meditation used to be seen by many as the preserve of hippies and ochre-robed monks, […]

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Leading Ladies?

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Are women still sitting waiting to be asked to dance? Mairi Eastwood reports on research on how to help organisations get more women into the executive group Now that the proportion of women non-executives is moving upwards, attention is focusing, rightly, on the pipeline of senior women in the executive group. Most chief executives we […]

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The S factor

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Spirituality has the potential to connect us all, to let us know what it means to be human, but how can we unbundle it from religious traditions? Katherine Long presents the Refraction model, and the dynamic dance at its core that could give us all a glimpse of an elusive Oneness In spite of an […]

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How to… set up and develop a successful coaching practice

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By Gladeana McMahon and Antoinette Oglethorpe This second article in the series identifies the decisions you need to make about whether your coaching practice will be full- or part-time, as well as the all-important financial considerations Part two: Planning your coaching business 1 Your practice: full- or part-time? One of the first and most important […]

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