This issue of The Future of Coaching is devoted to a series of reports that convey and interpret results from two version of a questionnaire that was initially prepared by the Development of Coaches Research Collaborative in cooperation with the Collaborative Research Network of the Society for Psychotherapy Research. The initial survey was completed in 2009 by 153 coaches from throughout the world. The second version, distributed in 2015, was based on the first (with only minor editing changes) by the Library of Professional Coaching in cooperation with ITLCInsights.
Fifty-eight coaches provided responses to the second questionnaire — yielding a total of 211 responses to the two surveys. The time interval between the two surveys was six years, enabling us to get a preliminary sense of possible changes in coaching attitudes over this period of time, as well as a sense of stability (low levels of difference in mean scores and variance) in the attitudes of professional coaches regarding their own development. Results from the two studies were found to be quite similar, suggesting that the attitudes and perspectives of professional coaches have remained quite stable—though it should be noted that this first phase of the project offers quite preliminary results given the somewhat limited (and probably biased) sample of respondents to both surveys.Unlike most coaching surveys, the two surveys conducted in 2009 and 2015 were directed toward those who are actually doing the coaching, rather than the users of coaching services. Furthermore, these surveys were completed by a relatively wide-ranging groups of coaches — coming from several different countries and from several different coaching schools and perspectives, as well as ranging widely in age and years of experience in providing coaching services.
While the respondents to these surveys might have not been fully representative of those working in the field, both surveys do hold one very important advantage. Many surveys of practitioners in the field of professional coaching are funded and sponsored by organizations with a particular stake in the outcomes or have been conducted by faculty in high prestige, research-oriented universities (who tend to seek responses from others of similar status). By contrast, these two surveys are being conducted by sponsors (the Library of Professional Coaching and ITLCInsights) who have no specific stake in the outcomes, and are being distributed to practitioners at many levels of practice and status. These surveys are truly ‘”neutral” and “democratizing.”
We are providing you with all eight of the reports that have been published over the past several years in the Library of Professional Coaching. We also include the very important (though admittedly lengthy) ninth report that provides a summary and broad interpretation of results obtained in this first phase of the Development of Coaches project. You will find that the results obtained are often a bit surprising or at least intriguing. They lead us to question some of the widely held assumptions about the world of professional coaching. Issues are identified and analyzed concerning such matters as coaching certification, cross-cultural perspectives on professional coaching, and ways in which coaching challenges are addressed.
There are even some glimpses into the potential future direction of the field. Most importantly, the themes identified in these reports—and particularly the ninth report—are intended to be provocative rather than definitive. We hope that constructive dialogue might ensue among those representing different sectors of the professional coaching community. We hope that the findings and interpretations we offer will lead to members of this community joining us in planning for and mounting the next phases of this important research project. Now, on to the brief description of and links to each of the nine reports.
Report One: Tactics and Strategies
This first report not only provides a general description of the project and the methods used (which we have removed from the subsequent reports), but also offers results from the two surveys regarding the respondents’ perspectives on the tactics and strategies they engage as professional coaches. A conclusion is reached regarding the precision, subtlety and finesse of the coaching process.
Report Two: Challenge, Autonomy and Support
The second report continues to report on the general perspectives offered by survey respondents—focusing on responses to several of the list of survey questions. A conclusion was reached regarding the need for collaborative coaching inquiry.
Report Three: Influence and Learning
This third report concerns the ways in which professional coaches are influenced in their work and the manner of learning that has occurred in their life. I introduce the concepts of hard and soft learning and turn to the insights offered by Daniel Kahneman, the Nobel-prize winning behavioral economist, in his description of fast and slow thinking.
Report Four: Does Gender Make a Difference?
In the fourth report we look to see if men and women differ in their perspectives regarding the professional coaching that they practice. We found very few overall differences in their perspective.
Report Five: Does Age Make a Difference?
As in the case of gender, there were few significant differences to be found as a function of the professional coach’s age – though future analyses will be conducted that more discriminating regarding differentiation of various age groups.
Report Six: Does ICF Certification Make a Difference?
It is in this sixth report that we find the most interesting differences in perspectives regarding coaching practices. While the categorization being used was imprecise (ICF or not-ICF certified), two worlds of coaching seem to be revealed, with one world (populated by those with ICF certification) embracing a more externally focused perspective on their practices and the second world (populated by those without ICF certification) embracing a more internally-focused perspective. In this report, the metaphor of a frontier town is first introduced with some residents wanting the town to remain relatively untamed and other residents wanting to make it more respectable and law-abiding.
Report Seven: Are There Differences Between Personal and Organizational Coaches?
The seventh report brings to the fore the perspectives of those practitioners who are primarily engaged in personal coaching and those engaged primarily in organizational coaching. While the categorization is once again quite imprecise (since many coaches are involved in both types of coaching), there were a few interesting differences in mean scores, suggesting that the organizational coaches responding to these two surveys might be more experienced than the personal coaching respondents. It is also interesting to note that the organizational coaches might more readily work in isolation from other coaches – or the personal coaches might be more open to receiving support and insights from their colleagues. The present study offers many intriguing questions regarding personal and organizational coaching that require more study in the next phases of this project.
Report Eight: Are There Any Differences between Coaches from USA and from Other Countries?
The final specific report concerns potential differences in perspective as a function of the country in which a professional coach is practicing. Once again, the categorization in this initial study is imprecise (USA-based or non-USA-based). Even with this imprecision, some intriguing findings emerged from the analysis that point to the value of future cross-cultural dialogue. The USA coaches tend to be more optimistic and are less likely to have problems with their clients; furthermore, USA coaches are significantly more likely to refer a client with whom they are having difficulties than is the case with non-USA coaches. I offer several possible reasons for this cross-cultural difference.
Report Nine: Summary of the Eight Phase One Reports
This lengthy summary report incorporates findings and discussion from all eight of the previous reports, as well as outlining the plans for three additional phases of this Development of Coaches project. We end this summary report by asking what might will be lost if the “pioneering spirit” which has been so prevalent among the founders of the professional coaching field is no longer present in this field? We also posed a more immediate question: is the push in these reports for a “culture of evidence” likely to hammer a nail in the coffin of this pioneering culture?
On the other hand, might our advocacy of a global dialogue serve as a counter-balancing plea. To quote from the final sentences in this final report:
If enacted this dialogue could help to keep the pioneering spirit alive. With the increasingly cosmopolitan makeup of the town and the digital expansion of boundaries in the field of coaching, we are likely to find some fresh air (perhaps a minor hurricane) blowing through the [professional coaching] town. The source of this fresh air will be the diverse perspectives offered by new international arrivals to the town and from communication between the coaching town and other nearby towns that are being established . . .This gentle (or not-so-gentle) breeze will convey new ideas, provoke dialogue, and point to a bit of town-rebuilding.
We hope that you will take time to read some if not all of these documents and that you will be provoked by the findings obtained and observations made to participate in a future global dialogue and perhaps even join us for the next phases of this project.
William Bergquist
Bill Carrier
Co-Editors