If we first look back at our previous study, we find that the statistical analysis of differences between personal and organizational coaches responding this specific question yielded the most significant results yet obtained in this study. By contrast, there is only one significant difference to be found between USA and non-USA coaches – but it is an interesting difference and quite significant (.02 level).
While most of the respondents to this inventory indicated that they rarely are “unable to find something to like or respect in a client”, the mean score is higher for the non-USA coaches. We might speculate that the USA coaches are embracing a classic American character of liking everyone they meet. Will Rogers, the famous American humorist and Hollywood cowboy, indicated that he never met anyone he didn’t like. Another Rogers (“Mr. Rogers”) offered a similar universal opinion about all human beings. There is even a third Rogers (the famous therapist, Carl Rogers) who preached (and practiced) “unconditional positive regard.”
Are USA coaches, perhaps, permeated with this Rogerian positive regard—which might complement a more general sense of optimism and an action-orientation. If this is the case, then we might wish to speculate about how this influences the nature of coaching being engaged. Perhaps, an appreciative perspective is more common among American coaches. We might also point to the ICF emphasis on placing responsibility for problem-solving in the hands of the coaching client and the comparable emphasis on being sure that the monkey (problem-ownership) remains on the client’s shoulder (Bergquist and Mura, 2011). Future studies might focus in part on this fascinating and important difference—if it does exist—between USA coaches and coaches residing in other countries.
I would also suggest that these cultural issues might be interwoven with issues regarding the coach’s personal values and ethics, when working with clients. In the previous essay on personal and organizational coaches, I noted that:
. . . .organizational coaches are slightly more likely to be unease or troubled about these matters when working with their clients than are personal coaches. Is this because values and ethics issues are more prevalent or challenging in an organizational setting than they are in a personal setting? Or do these concerns on the part of organizational coaches relate to their use of subtle (and perhaps sometime elusive) practices, rather than the “tried and true” techniques and strategies that might be more frequently (and effectively) used by personal coaches? Is part of the “Mastery” that personal coaches report more frequently than do organizational coaching related in some way to their clearer sense of personal values and ethical practices as related to their coaching work? Does the mastery of coaching techniques and strategies provide more structure for the personal coaches, allowing them to feel more comfortable than organizational coaches in negotiating the relationship between their work with clients and their own personal values and ethics? These are important questions that should be addressed in future coaching dialogues.
Are there some inter-connections between these ethical issues and the unconditional acceptance of a client’s worth and capacity to solve problems? Do we find that an appreciative/positive perspective regarding our coaching clients is more likely to be aligned with a more flexible ethical code? Is one of the costs of a strict code of ethics the tendency to be more judgmental not only about one’s own coaching practices, but also about the level of respect for one’s clients? We will be exploring this interplay in our future studies using the existing inventory data – and hopefully date from additional studies.
