The Cross-Cultural Coaching Kaleidoscope: A Systems Approach to Coaching Amongst Different Cultural Influences
Jenny Plaister-Ten
Karnac Books (Professional Coaching Series)
978 17804 9096 0
4 out of 5
Coaching is a global phenomenon, but its model of practice was often based on the Western perspective, which may not be appropriate in various cultures.
Previous writers who addressed this challenge tended to focus on different attitudes, factors or dimensions of cultures that may impact on coaching. This book is different. It re-models cross-cultural coaching using Kaleidoscope as a metaphor to emphasise its dynamism.
It gains credibility on two counts.
First, the author’s personal experience is embodied in her understanding and practice. She “is married inter-culturally and has a son raised in three different cultures” as well as practising across cultures (Netherlands and the UK).
Second, the book is based on the author’s Master’s research as well as drawing on a number of case studies from practitioners with diverse cultural backgrounds and experiences using the Kaleidoscope approach. This gives it both academic rigour and practicality.
This book offers a unique, individualised cross-cultural approach that challenges cultural stereotypes.
Ho Law is a coaching psychologist and founder of Empsy Cambridge Coaching Psychology Group
Clean Coaching: The Insider Guide to Making Change Happen
Angela Dunbar
Routledge
978 11388 1637 4
4 out of 5
Recent years have seen the emergence of Clean Language (CL) from a corner of NLP training into a bolder position as a discipline in its own right. This welcome trend continues with the publication of Angela Dunbar’s admirably accessible and comprehensive new book.
The author goes beyond other accounts of CL with an illuminating discussion of the nature of non-directive coaching and of how CL aligns with it. She shows how CL is both a very purposeful intervention, while being one which importantly seeks to minimise the extent to which the coach gives direction to the client’s content.
At the heart of it, and something Dunbar makes brilliantly clear, is that CL proposes a different quality of attention. She describes the demands this makes on the coach and their ability to track the client’s narrative; and how it crucially invites the client to access their inner wisdom through their own metaphors.
The author ranges from the basics to more demanding material derived from the work of David Grove, creator of CL, bringing together CL, Clean Space and Emergent Knowledge as one discipline.
This is an important contribution to the literature on CL and its place in coaching.
Ken Smith is an accredited executive coach and coaching supervisor
www.kensmithcoaching.co.uk