William Bergquist and William Carrier
One of the central issues that emerged during our wide-ranging discussions in Santa Fe about the future of coaching concerned the challenge of coaching across the generations. There was actually two parts to this challenge. The first part concerned the challenge of coaching someone from a different generation than our own. Can a young person coach an older person? How much credibility does an older coach have when coaching someone much younger than themselves? Are there conceptual or emotional barriers between generations that make it hard to coach across generations? The second part of the challenge that was addressed in Santa Fe concerns the future of coaching within a generation – but outside the contemporary parameters of coaching during mid-life. Can professional coaching be successfully used with high school students? Is there such a thing as Kindergarten coaching What about coaching to those in their 70s, 80s and even 90s?
We have assembled a set of essays, interviews and thought-provoking questions that address some of these challenges and lay the groundwork for fertile discussions in many other settings regarding the future of coaching across the generations.
What’s in Store for You: Contents of This Issue and Links to the Articles
We begin by offering a roadmap for our exploration. It was written by our colleague, Gary Quehl, as a roadmap for a study that one of us [WB] did with Gary about the role of emerging and senior leaders in community engagement activities (called the “Sage Project’). Gary offers a summary of the generational differences (“X-Gen” etc.) to be found in contemporary Western societies. While we all (including Gary) realize that these are very broad generalities that can easily be questioned, we also recognize that these intergenerational comparisons yield insights regarding not just differing assumptions about leadership, citizenship, responsibilities, change, etc. but also more specifically about what issues those who coach across generations and coach within nontraditional age groups are likely to confront:
The Social and Cultural Characteristics of Generational Age Groups
We offer two other roadmaps in our second and third essay. One is a brief overview prepared by one of us [WB] regarding the two foundational models of human development first presented by Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson:
Searching for Vitality: Coaching through the Lenses of Adult Development Theory and Research
The second essay offers even more detailed and related directly to the coaching profession. Written by Pam McLean, President of the Hudson Institute in Santa Barbara, California, it is reprinted from an issue of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO) that was devoted specifically to the topic of coaching across the generations (“Developmental Perspectives and Organizational Coaching”):
A Developmental Perspective in Coaching
Our fourth article moves directly to one of the issues discussed in Santa Fe: the challenge of coaching in a nontraditional age group. Written by Vicki Foley and one of us [WB], it explores the use of coaching in undergraduate and graduate education programs—coaching being a tool set that anyone might use in their life planning and in their own career within organizations, as well as being a peer-based service that young men and women might use in facing their immediate issues as someone who might be leaving home for the first time and might be facing the many demands associated with completing a collegiate degree program. This article also addresses the challenge associated with coaching young, high potential employees in contemporary organizations and suggests ways in which coaching might be engaged with even younger clients:
Our fifth article sustains the focus on coaching across generations that was discussed in Santa Fe: what about coaching to someone from a different generation? This article (like Pam McLean’s) is reprinted from the issue of IJCO that focused on developmental perspectives. Written by Sandy Smith, this essay concerns her own work as a senior-level organizational coach with young men and women who are leading startup high tech companies. Smith offers a fascinating study of the opportunities facing anyone who is coaching across the generations:
We turn in the second half of this first issue of The Future of Coaching to several of the regular features we hope to provide in this magazine. First, we offer a leadership interview – in this case with a participant in the above mentioned Sage project. This interview is conducted by Gary Quehl with Norman Westmore, who is retired from a high level leadership position in a California Corporation, but is now providing just as important leadership in his new community located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California:
Senior Leadership in Community: Interview with Norman Westmore
Another of our other regular features provides practical tips and insights regarding the practice of professional coaching as these tips and insights relate to the theme of this issue: coaching across generations. One of us [WB] offers a specific tool that can be used by coaches as they explore life and career transitions with clients who are moving through the distinctive developmental transitions of their own generation. Called Life Shields, this coaching tool seems appropriate whatever the age of your client:
A third regular feature is our Bookshelf in which we briefly review and recommend a specific book that relates to the theme of this issue. We have chosen George Valliant’s Triumphs of Experience, which is the capstone of a remarkable 70 year-long longitudinal study of men who had been students at Harvard University during the late 1930s and early 1940s. Filled with many insights about all stages of life (including the 70s, 80s and 90s), this book points the way to new work that might be done by coaches who wish to work with clients who are in their senior years:
The Book Shelf: George Vaillant, Triumphs of Experience
The last of our regular features centers on a series of Animation questions linked to the theme of the issue. Borrowing a tool developed by one of us [WB] for use with the International Consortium for Coaching in Organizations (ICCO), the Animation questions in the current issue focus on the implications of adult development theory for professional coaching practices:
Coaching Across the Generations: Questions to Ponder Based on Research/Theory