Renee Freedman and William Bergquist
Coaching is a personalized service that is classified as one of the helping professions. Coaches help their clients to mature, to expand their world view, to grow their capacity for generative action, to develop self-confidence and peace within, to care for their well-being, and to develop into someone who can create their desired difference in their communities and, perhaps, the world.
When we think about ‘the greater good’, it is often in the context of altruism, generosity, and service. There is general acceptance that the ‘greater good’ refers to some type of service or action on behalf of others, beyond our selves. It entails prioritizing something in order to take care of something bigger than us. For coaches, this equates to being of service by providing coaching for ‘the greater good’ of the community, to support an individual or team focused on solving a challenging social, health, or economic issue, and/or to make a difference that will result in world betterment.
Coaches often enter the field of coaching to support others who wish to discover and achieve greater good in the world they want to impact. We do this by helping our clients to expand their perspectives, stop self-sabotaging behaviors, open their hearts, and become aware of who they truly want to be in the world. In many ways, coaching is organically a phenomenon of the greater good and as we expand the perspective and consciousness of each person we coach, we contribute to the collective ‘greater good’ culture.
Early in the evolution of professional coaching, most coaching engagements were focused on creating effective and efficient teams or helping people live a happy purposeful life. However, added to that mix now is a large population of coaching practices that focus on supporting people to make an impact in the world. We suggest that the primary motivation driving this direct engagement is what one of us as identified as Role One Generativity (Bergquist and Quehl, 2017). This is caring deeply about the greater good by providing direct support to those wishing to impact the world in a positive manner.
There are many ways coaches provide these direct Generativity One services. They might coach social activists, CEOs who aim to disrupt a specific industry, social entrepreneurs using their businesses to solve social or economic challenges, executive directors of non-profits attempting to serve a marginalized population, or by transforming the consciousness and capacities of teams who play too small.
There is also the opportunity in the field of coaching to mentor other coaches who aspire to coach toward the greater good. These are often dedicated women and men who are often just beginning their career as professional coaches. Those who are providing this second order coaching are motivated by Role Two Generativity. By coaching the coaches, the orientation toward coaching the greater good is spread even further.
A third type of generativity is to be found among the seasoned coaches who not only promote coaching to the greater good, but also help to document how this coaching orientation can best translate into effective practices. Motivated by this Role Three Generativity, coaches are further broadening the spread of knowledge about skillful coaching practices. In the words of George Vaillant, they are becoming “guardians” of these practices.
Finally, there is a fourth way that coaches can serve the greater good. They can help to build collaborative ventures that not only extend the reach of coaching practices oriented toward the greater good, but also build bridges and networks that enable sharing of best practices and coordinated international coaching initiatives directed toward the greater good in such areas as environment protection, social justice and workplace equity. The Role Four Generativity that motivates these collaborative efforts resides at the heart of those who have contributed to this issue of The Future of Coaching.
When taking into account all four generativity roles, it becomes clear that our opportunity as coaches to shape a world culture of ‘greater good’ is boundless. Of course, there are those clients who are not yet ready for the conscious awareness that is required for an orientation to the greater good. Yet, as coaches we are capable of supporting our clientele to move towards this orientation—and supporting the field of coaching itself towards this orientation. As coaches, we are indeed a conduit for instilling the mindset of a ‘greater good’ culture. It is in this context that we offer this issue of The Future of Coaching.
In this issue of The Future of Coaching we explore the relationship between ‘the greater good’ and coaching by soliciting new written essays as well as including several essays already published in the Library of Professional Coaching or (with several revisions) in our predecessor publication, the International Journal of Coaching in Organization (IJCO]. We have also ventured fully into a new mode of publication in the Library of Professional Coaching (LPC). We have conducted interviews with accomplished coaches, as well as advocates and sponsors of coaching, who have offered services on behalf of one or more of the four roles of generativity.
Generative coaches were identified by each of us as editors and were all interviewed by one of us [WB]. Each interview was conducted and recorded via Zoom. The recording was then transferred to Vimeo and posted in the Library of Professional Coaching along with written summaries of major themes introduced during the interview. This new medium of documentation will be commonly used in future issues of The Future of Coaching, as well as in other documents published in LPC. Our world is moving into a new era of digitally based publications, and those who are curating LPC are pleased to be among the first taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by this new mode of publication.
We invite you to read the excellent articles contained in this issue and to view the insightful interviews. Here is a brief description of and links to each document.
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The first two documents are essays written specifically for this publication by both of the editors.
William Bergquist: Generativity and the Greater Good: The Life and Work of Two Professional Coaches
Generativity can be a source of inspiration and motivation for those of us serving as professional coaches who wish to engage in work on behalf of the Greater Good in their local community, their nation, their environment –and ultimately their world. It is to the theme of Generativity that I turn in this essay and it is to the work and life of two men—Lee Salmon and Rey Carr==that I turn to exemplify the ways in which generativity (in four roles) shows up in the engagement of coaching for the Greater Good.
Renee Freedman: Coaching as a Conduit for the Greater Good
It can be said that the theme of ‘coaching for the greater good’ is an oxymoron. The basic purpose of coaching is to support the growth and development of an individual human being or a set of human beings (often referred to as a team). The type of growth sought is almost always perceived as a potential source for a positive outcome. Thus, ‘coaching for the greater good’ is naturally implicit in the basic act of coaching. Although quantitative results such as finite achievements and measured outcomes are often requested, coaching is mostly qualitative in nature. There are four qualitative experiences for which coaching is a beacon.
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The next five documents all contained recorded interviews. In each case, those being interviewed are dedicated to coaching for the greater good and have provided services related to all four roles of generativity.
Ruth Ann Harnisch: Coaching for the Greater Good
Ruth Ann Harnisch is one of the legendary stewards of the professional coaching field. In many important ways, this field would not be what it is today without the leadership and thoughtful support provided by Ruth Ann and The Harnisch Foundation. Ruth Ann suggests that any one of our coaching clients can have a major, positive impact on the world in which they live. As a coach, it is our role to be an open and appreciative partner to our client. This sometime means that we must be direct and honest with our clients in challenging their own assumptions and perspectives about the world in which they live and work. As citizens of a troubled 21st Century world, we are all traumatized by the polarizing, threatening and seemingly overwhelming challenges we face. As coaches, we can be there for our clients to help them engage this troubled world with courage and decency.
Don Maruska: Coaching on Behalf of the Environment
The complex environmental issues we are facing (including those related to climate change) are tightly interwoven with the other major societal challenges we are facing, for those who are most profoundly impacted by environmental degradation are those who are poor, marginalized and discriminated against. It is through coaching that we can enhance our response to what needs to be done in our communities—and in our world. As a coach, Don is not an expert on the environment, but I do know something about how to boost and amplify what people are already doing on behalf of the environment.
Nancy Strojny: Mentoring for the Greater Good
Nancy has for many years been a leader of the remarkable chapter of SCORE that is located in Portland, Maine. This chapter won the award as best SCORE chapter in the United States in 2019 and Nancy has played a key role in making this volunteer organization provide services for the greater good to members of the Portland community–especially small businesses. Ms. Strojny speaks about mentoring of individuals, mentoring and training of other SCORE mentors, honoring and celebrating the contributions made by SCORE mentors in the Portland community and envisioning the sharing of SCORE experiences and expertise with other organizations inside and outside the United States — all for the greater good.
Alex Petroff and Bill Carrier: Coaching for the Greater Good
Alex and Bill focus on not only the incredible work that Alex has done in addressing the issue of poverty in East Africa, but also on the need to take care of oneself while coaching to the greater good. Alex indicates that he is one of those weird people who finds that his life becomes very simple and easy under conditions of stress. His problem arose when he was no longer in this stressful circumstance. Bill helped Alex realize that he was not adjusting well to this shift in circumstances. Without Bill’s help, Alex might have only had a year or two in him before he crashed. The 20,000 people that Alex and his colleagues eventually helped wouldn’t have happened if Alex hadn’t gotten himself in shape.
Perry Rhue: Coaching to the Greater Good
Perry Rhue has been coaching for many years and has always perceived coaching to ultimately be for the greater good. However, following the death of George Floyd, Perry became involved in sessions with other coaches who explored deeply embedded issues regarding race. Histories regarding race were never lost (especially among those who had experienced discrimination and injury). These histories were not forgotten; instead, they were hidden. The narratives that are now emerging regarding race contain and induce trauma for all parties. This trauma might have been best addressed in South Africa rather than the United States. It might be in the search for truth and reconciliation that racial wounds can begin to be healed. The future of coaching might best be directed in part to this process of discovering truth and finding ways to reconcile with other people regarding the matters that divide us and that lead to violence (both physical and psychological).
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We conclude with two written essays. Both address broad societal issues that can be addressed by coaches and their clients. One of these was originally published in IJCO and recently revised by one of the editors [RF]. The other was co-authored by Vicki Foley and one of the editors [WB] and published several years ago in LPC.
Renee Freedman: From Conflict to Collaboration: Creating Cultural Change Amidst Polarization
When the greater good is thought about, usually its in relation to solving social issues or improving the conditions and opportunities for marginalized populations. Yet, there are other situations that also fall into the context of greater good. One of them, the ability to heal long term conflict between groups, is the focus of this article. When two oppositional groups must work together an environment composed of distrust, contention, and polarization is created. Changing the quality and dynamics of such a relationship requires building new skills, constructing venues for problem solving, and allowing for a different understanding of one another. This article describes an integrated process of learning, coaching, and facilitation that was implemented over four years in order to transform a highly contentious relationship between a company’s union leadership and its operational management teams into a collaborative, productive partnership.
Throughout the Western world, we are now living in a time of turmoil and economic uncertainty, even chaos. Many contemporary economists and political analysts speak and write about a world that is in a state of “super-criticality” – a state in which minor aberrations in the economic or political system bring about major alternations (and even collapse) of the global marketplace. While the challenges imposed by this state of super-criticality has many profound implications at the macro level, there are also profound implications at the micro-level with regard to the lives lived in “desperation” by men and women who have lost their job or at the very least have given up hope of realizing lifelong dreams. They are living in the organizational underground, a world populated by the unemployed and underemployed. Foley and Bergquist propose that organizational coaches have an extraordinary opportunity—perhaps even an ethical obligation—to begin doing work in this organizational underground.
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We hope that you find what we’ve assembled to be of value. Take your time and savor our written and recorded documents. We hope that this issue provides some guidance and motivation for you as a coach who is dedicated to the greater good.
Renee Freedman, Guest Editor
William Bergquist, Editor
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Reference
Bergquist, William and Gary Quehl (2017) Caring Deeply: Engaging the Four Roles of Life-Fulfilling Generativity. Library of Professional Coaching. http: Caring Deeply: Engaging the Four Roles of Life-Fulfilling Generativity | Library of Professional Coaching