Are Coaches Artisans?
In whatever way coaching resembles the Professional culture as identified by Bill Bergquist and Vikki Brock in our forthcoming coaching anthology, it may indeed be useful to think about coaches as artisans. In a paper I wrote recently, I described it as follows, “it is a new era in which coaches are seen as people who are skilled in an applied art and master craftspeople who can adapt, as necessary, the mediums through which they deliver their work. As coaching matures, those who continue to excel, will do so by weaving together the strands of science and practice at higher levels.”
As Stacey Basting requested in her post, I have uploaded a pre-press version of the article, “Finding our way home: Coaching’s search for identity in a new era“. I would love to get people’s reflections. The paper attempts to place coaching within an historic and developmental context as the basis for decisions about its future, e.g. the relationship(s) with science and evidence. One of the gifts of the Coaching Commons as it grows will be as a forum to help coaching professionals position our field in the existing landscape while at the same time evolve new ways of thinking about what it means to be a profession. I believe we can do so with vigorous and rigorous imagination and courage.
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Comment by Stacey Basting on 8 April 2008:
David,
Thank you so much for sharing your article. I love how it encourages us to look with new eyes at our evolving field.
Thinking of coaching as a movement rather than a profession greatly intrigues me. I often describe coaching as exploring the “hows”, rather than the “whats” or the “whys” in our lives. I wonder: As coaches, if we’re all about seeing things differently and exploring alternatives…does it really make sense that we would build a box for ourselves as a profession? Are we simply falling into the same trap that we assist our clients out of? As you say…have we thought about what the ramifications of this approach might be? I have a friend who works in several arenas - consulting, politics, and education. While she is trained as a coach, she does not take on the label. She views coaching as her tool, not her profession. What if we looked at that model on a grander scale. Interesting!
Another field we may learn from is Adult Learning. In the arena of Adult Learning, traditional approaches, such as university classes and executive trainings, have become commodified (ala Karl Marx). They are packaged and sold using a problem/solution paradigm. The executive clients I’ve been speaking to in my research have shared that what they value in coaching is the individualization–the art of coaching–not the package of strategies they’ve encountered in course materials or how to leadership books. They make individual connections with individual coaches as human beings and artfully design a new perspective on the world for the client. Given my experience with Adult Learning, I would hate for coaching to ever become commodified!
This got me to thinking… Many coaches have left professions driven by rationality and science. What is it that drove us away from those fields? Why is it that we embraced coaching as an alternative? What a great research project this could be!
And once we find that out….how can we protect those precious aspects of coaching as we continue to evolve and grow?
Comment by James on 6 May 2008:
David - here are thoughts from a fellow pot stirrer. I hope you love a good dialog…wink!
The only fork I see is a strong need by a more intellectually driven community to define something in such a way that they then can justify their desire to pursue what otherwise would challenge their justification for being an intellect.
Why is there this unrelenting need to compare coaching with something it is not?
If this discusion is going to hold any kind of value, the distinction of what coaching is and isn’t would be most helpful…so, in it purest form…what is coaching?
Coaching is an intentional form of communication built on listening, curiosity, inquiry and acceptance.
Anyone, and I do mean anyone, in any moment, can be masterful at communicating as such.
One of the most provocative elements of the coaching movement is the sense of “FREEDOM!” The ability (permission to be) to simply be who and what we are without condition or judgment. This goes against all social conditioning! It’s time for a change!
Rather than share my bias on certification, I simply make the point with these questions: how many coaching certifications are available today and who is it that’s going to lay claim to defacto standard?
The article for me has a great sense of urgency and what I know is this: the urgency is not a product of coaching itself, rather it is the product of a subset of coaches and their need to quantify or even justify their value.
Coaching itself does not seek anything…and as for it’s roots…well…hmmm…how long have we humans been around?
Once you place a proprietary framework around the process of coaching you are no longer speaking entirely of coaching. In fact I would argue that coaching at that point is only a very small part of the discussion.
The beauty of coaching in it’s purest form is that there are no intellectual barriers, no social barriers, simply put there are no barriers. Any barriers that are presented, depending on the associated agenda, will only add to “domestication” as coined in the book “The Four Agreements” in varying degrees.
I guess for some there is an “unprecedented phenomenon” — all I see is a group of people saying “I’m ready to claim what has been taken, through social conditioning for so many generations, from me!”
Notice how there has never been a push to certify or define the self-help world…why is that?
Perhaps because it is most often incomplete, with occasions of brillance, and most importantly it has never intruded or threatened an established domain of commerce and intellect…coaching on the otherhand is effective, result oriented and does intrude in what some feel is their domain of commerce and intellect.
If we as a group are really concerned about the well being of coaching I suggest that the solution does not lie in a formal definition or professional designation. Rather it lies in preserving the open architure and form that is inherently coaching in it’s purest form.
Just once, if we could get over this need to validate and justify, and pay attention to history, perhaps we can choose to play and live by a new set of rules…as few as possible!
Quit trying to hold onto to something that is not meant to be held.
Coaching is not seeking a place within the broader scholarly and professional landscape. People are seeking that position for coaching! Let’s be clear about this!
Coaching itself does not have an agenda! People do!
James