Intimacy is seen mostly as a good thing in coaching and mentoring, suggests research unveiled at the European Mentoring& Coaching Council annual conference in Dublin on 18-20 November. Only 10 per cent of coaches and mentors in research by Sheffield Business School felt intimacy was unhelpful to the learner in coaching and mentoring. There were concerns among respondents about clients becoming too dependent but many had had "good outcomes with high levels of intimacy", said Lis Merrick, senior lecturer, who led the research. Half of the respondents cited trust as an element of intimacy....