Alfred Adler and the Future of Coaching: Ethics, Equality, and Eternity

Conclusion

In developing and introducing a coach training program for AGPS in 1998, non-Adlerian curriculum designers discovered that basic coaching principles overlap almost entirely with Adlerian systemic and humanistic assumptions. The coach trainers declared that Alfred Adler should be considered a grandfather of coaching, and this conclusion was supported in a subsequent survey of coaching pioneers. As the AGPS coaching program developed, it became clear that resolving the seeming conflict between one’s individual interests and those of others, via social interest, is a key to developing human potential, a prime goal of coaching. Coaching, along with all the world, currently faces urgent ethical, equality, and eternity challenges. We propose using Adlerian principles of psychology of use, ironclad logic of social living, and sub specie aeternitatis as guides to expanding the usefulness of coaching in meeting those challenges.

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