A charter for race equity in coaching jointly agreed by professional coaching, coaching supervision and coaching psychology bodies is one step closer.
Representatives from professional coaching and coaching psychology bodies met again on 15 June at the fifth Towards Race Equity in Coaching roundtable, launched and hosted by Coaching at Work. They shared progress within their bodies and started to explore what a charter might look like. Its aims would include reaching out to groups currently excluded from coaching and highlighting best practice around racial diversity and inclusion in coaching.
Participants agreed that the charter needs to be a “living document”, pointing “to our ability to sit with errors and learning as an active process”, sharing enquiries rather than seeking to be experts.
The gathering was attended by Coaching at Work editor Liz Hall, Fenella Trevillion, representing the Association of Coaching Supervisors (AoCS), Will James, chair of Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Working Group in the Association for Professional Executive Coaching and Supervision (APECS), Ashnee Naidoo, social and ethics committee chair at Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA), Síle Walsh, committee member in the Psychological Society of Ireland Coaching Psychology Special Interest Group (PSI CP SIG), and Hande Yasargil, UK diversity and inclusion director in the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) UK.
Participants agreed that cross-body collaboration has power, including to shift perceptions, for example, that coaching is very white-dominated.
Representatives from the UK International Coaching Federation, the Association for Coaching UK, the British Psychological Society Division of Coaching Psychology and the International Society of Coaching Psychology have attended previous meetings and pledge their support for the initiative.
As part of best practice, the charter may explore legal elements that practitioners need to be aware of, recognising that different countries have different requirements. Participants agreed it would be important not to over-simplify, for example, being culturally nuanced, “having a shared common space while allowing people to not be the same, otherwise we’re not honouring complexity”, said one.
Professional body updates
COMENSA recently carried out an audit of its current standards measured against local and international laws and regulations. One of the five areas focused on was social and economic development. The audit highlighted the need to address and validate socio-economic equity, and to implement an equity statement for COMENSA. It’s currently revising its transformation policy. In addition, said Naidoo, “COMENSA is proud that it has a diverse board of directors.”
EMCC Global has a diversity initiative led by Linbert Spencer, looking to agree definitions and principles, while EMCC UK is exploring “how to improve how we communicate around diversity and inclusion … website, and how to embed best practice in the industry, encouraging members” (Yasargil).
APECS’ focus is on the “inner transformation that needs to happen for the coach or supervisor to create safe spaces where there’s the opportunity to discuss and reflect on how difference is showing up or not” (James). APECS has held a number of webinars around diversity and inclusion, and a working group is reflecting on what’s needed. It hopes to share collective learning and reflections by the end of the year.
Representing AoCS, Trevillion said bi-monthly meetings on diversity and inclusion continued at AoCS, while Walsh from the PSI CP SIG said exclusion is an area of focus – some “have been surprised by how many barriers there are to entering the profession, including the amount of courses people need to complete…Training may be exclusive and not necessarily linked to quality.”