However, the extent of Adler’s influence on coaching appears to go beyond the specific coach training program at AGPS. In a dissertation on the history of coaching, based on interviews with 170 individuals active in coaching organizations in the 1990s and early 2000s, Vikki Brock (2008) listed Adler as the first “Key Influencer” of the “Originator Generation” of coaching (approximately 1920s to 1970s) and the only one before the mid-1930s (p. 459). In doing so, she confirmed Adler’s grandparentage for all of coaching’s progeny.
In sum, Adler’s contributions to underlying coaching theory have been both central and substantial. Co-author Page claimed (2009) that these contributions have gone largely unacknowledged by non-Adlerian coaches (and psychologists and psychotherapists) because Adler drew on a systemic paradigm that was less accepted as “scientific,” and thus legitimate, during his lifetime. For example, in philosophy, anthropology, and sociology, “…between the beginning and end of the 20th century, there was a shift in how we understand who we are – from assumptions of individualism through relatedness to complexity.” (Page, 2009, p. 112) Similar shifts occurred in fields foundational to coaching including health sciences, psychology, psychotherapy, and management, bringing them more in line with Adler’s philosophy (see also Rock and Page, 2009).
However, one crucial Adlerian contribution was not central to early coaching ideas but was identified by Sinclair and other members of the faculty (2006) during their development of the AGPS Coaching curriculum: social interest. In so doing, these coaches made an innovative contribution to the future of coaching theory.
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