Clarity call
As the Roundtable of Professional Coaching bodies in the UK, we found the View from the Balcony article, Too much of a good thing? (vol 5 issue 2), an interesting read.
For some time we have been aware that the landscape of qualifications and accreditation has been potentially confusing to coaches, clients and buyers. We have been considering what we could do to provide greater clarity for all those interested in coaching and mentoring.
We have agreed to form a cross-body working party to report on the range of individual coach accreditation/credentialing schemes available from the professional bodies, the areas we hold in common and the differences.
We will continue to work closely with Coaching at Work to keep readers informed of our progress.
Gladeana McMahon, Association for Coaching
Mike Hurley, European Mentoring and Coaching Council UK
Jeremy Ridge, Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision
Kathryn Pope, International Coach Federation
Gender divide
I was interested to read the feature on gender (“Do we connect?” vol 5, issue 2), but want to suggest that the preferences and style of the coach, and even their brain structure, are only half the story. At least as important are the unconscious projections that the client brings to the coaching relationship, and how these affect the dynamic, including what is or is not discussed in the sessions.
For example, I have lost count of the number of alpha male clients who have told me that the feelings of insecurity and vulnerability they have discussed with me would have been withheld from a male coach, due to “instinctive male competition”. Clearly it can be useful to explore such assumptions with a client because they will inevitably influence how the client behaves “out there” in the workplace, as well as in the coaching space.
It does, however, require the coach to be alive to the emotions evoked in the client by their coach’s gender and the unconscious transfer of such emotion.
Barbara Picheta, Executive Coach
Coaching at Work, Volume 5, Issue 3