The Development of Coaches Survey: I. Do Coaches Change and What Are Their Competencies?

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Positive Attitude

Both surveys seem to be replete with optimism and a positive attitude. Taking the absolute scores as “reality,” there seems to be an “up” to almost every self perception of the coach respondents. It is only the one negative item (“How much do you regard this [change] as a decline or impairment?”) that gets a low rating — actually a very low rating.  The other items on question one were rated consistently high by respondents to both surveys:
How much do you regard this as progress or improvement?
How much have you succeeded in overcoming any part limitations in your coaching skill and knowledge?
How much have you realized your potential as a coach?

Change seems to be a good thing for our respondents — even, in this instance, when related to changes occurring among the coaches themselves. They overcome limitations and have begun to realize their potential as a coach (though there is relatively high levels of variance in the potential ratings). In commenting on the qualitative responses of respondents to the first survey, Campone and Awal (2011, P. 11) note that “while most coach training and education experiences might be construed as positive, even disappointing experiences seemed to have a constructive impact.” Later in their article, Campone and Awal (2011, p. 13) offer an even broader conclusion concerning the positive attitude of the survey respondents: “coaches learn from both positive and disappointing experiences. Adverse personal experiences lead to the development of empathy.” In many ways these findings can be expected, given that coaches are often encouraging their clients to embrace change or at least plan for ways in which to successfully engage the changes they are confronting in their life and/or work.  The coaches become cheerleaders for their client’s ongoing development and overcoming of limitations.

We might introduce an even broader scope–the culture in which the coaches live. The positive attitude and optimism about change might be embedded in the social unconscious of the environment pervading the world in which the responding coaches live and work. Given that many coaches come from the United States or have been trained in programs that originated in the United States, we might find the widespread optimism of America in the hearts and souls of the coaches. As noted in the title of a very American country song: “I’m just an old chunk of coal, but I’ll be a diamond soon . . . ” Change will be positive, we keep saying in the United States, despite the many political and environmental woes we are facing as a country and as a world.