This blog is intended for coaches and trainee coaches looking to deepen their capability and confidence in coaching.
Lesson #1 : It's not about the methodology
What some are calling the coach industrial complex, is a mixture of untrained 'coaches' and graduates from a forest of different schools who have ‘named, claimed and framed’ specific coaching methodologies. Keen to develop, we coaches pick our way through the forest, trying to figure out which schools to choose and then what to discard and what to integrate from what we learn.
Last month’s blog explored the idea that it’s not the tools and techniques but how we learn to show up in coaching relationships that makes a difference.
So what should we be looking for if not methodology alone?
One factor to consider is whether there is a coherent philosophy behind the methodology and from what domain that is drawn. What is its theory of change? What are its assumptions? Does the methodology embrace the full biological, social and philosophical aspects of being human?
Furthermore, for developmental coaching of any kind, we also need to be on our own path of development. So finding a school which creates the conditions for that is key.
Keep reading for four other lessons you wont learn at most coach training schools....