Coaching

at Work
www.coaching-at-work.com
VOL 16 • issue 2

Catherine Gorham on
the many benefits of
making Nature your
coaching co-partner

Let’s get
outside
David B Peterson Race equity Key worker support Let’s talk money
At the cutting edge A wake-up call to Coaching through How do you calculate
of executive coaching tackle racial injustice Covid, one year on supervision fees?
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in Executive Coaching
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as a coach. Live-online or in-person programmes.

Coaching Open Day

Join Professor Jonathan Passmore live-online
on Wednesday 19 May.

Find more information at henley.ac.uk/coaching

ACCREDITED CERTIFICATE
IN COACH TRAINING
 Coaching
at Work
www.coaching-at-work.com Editor’s
Talking Point
VOLUME 16 ISSUE 2 MARCH/APRIL 2021
ISSN 1748-9113 (print) ISSN 2516-015X (online)
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Coreene Archer Principal leadership coach and OD consultant,
The Tavistock Institute | Linda Aspey Past chair, BACP Coaching
Tatiana Bachkirova Professor, Coaching Psychology, Oxford Brookes
University | Nicole Berg Executive director and founder, Charis Community
Trust | Sally Bonneywell Founder, Bonneywell Development
Sally Brown Executive specialist for communications, BACP Coaching
Harry Bundred Director, Institute of Training and Occupational Learning
Louise Buckle Head of partner development and coaching, KPMG
David Clutterbuck Special ambassador, EMCC & practice lead, Coaching
and Mentoring International | Professor Sir Cary Cooper 50th Anniversary
professor, Organizational Psychology and Health, MBS Manchester
University | Tim Dench Head of Coaching and Mentoring, Euroclear
Dr Mark Farrall Former chair, AICTP | Stuart Haden Programme manager,
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development | Nicki Hickson Director
of Coaching, EY | Jackee Holder Coach and coach supervisor
Sam Humphrey Partner and head of Coaching Practice Group, Møller PSF
Group | Carol Kauffman Assistant professor, Institute of Coaching, Harvard
Medical School | Samantha King Head of executive development, Standard
Chartered Bank | Jens Boris Larsen Former chair, Society of Evidence-
based Coaching, Danish Psychological Association | Dr Ho Law Director,
Empsy Ltd | Jennifer Liston-Smith Head of coaching, My Family Care
Gina Lodge CEO, The Academy of Executive Coaching | Liz Macann
Former head of executive, leadership and management coaching, BBC
Sanna Malinen PhD, Lecturer in Management, University of Canterbury,
New Zealand | David Megginson Professor, Coaching and Mentoring
Research Unit, Sheffield Hallam University | Lis Merrick MD, Coach
Mentoring Ltd | Dr Siobhain O’Riordan Chair, International Society for
Coaching Psychology | Professor Stephen Palmer Wales Academy for
Professional Development and Applied Research, and founder director,
Centre for Coaching, London | Kathryn Pope Former president, UK ICF
Steve Ridgley Founder, idcoach limited | Aboodi Shabi Coach and trainer,
and Lecturer in Coaching and Behavioural Change, Henley Business School
Ole Michael Spaten Director, Coaching Psychology Unit, Aalborg University
Rita Symons President, EMCC UK | Adina Tarry Board director, with
specific responsibility for Communications, PR & Branding, APECS
Katherine Tulpa Chief executive officer, Association for Coaching Global
Peter Welch Board member, Association of Coaching Supervisors
When Coaching at Work launched
its global Climate Coaching
Action Day initiative last year,
on 5 March 2020, we were
bowled over by the response.
I remember the sense of tapping into a
rapidly growing global community of coaches
who care about this topic, the creativity, the
outpouring of emotions expressed by participants,
including grief and anger, but also compassion and joy.
At the same time though, on that day I was holed up in a
poky, stuffy motel room near Gatwick Airport, and climate-
crisis-guilt-about-flying aside, was feeling anxious that I
might not be able to fly home, and about being on an
aeroplane as fears escalated over catching Covid-19.
And somehow, in the subsequent months, the pandemic
took precedence over climate. I know this hasn’t been the
case for everyone. I applaud those involved in the Climate
Coaching Alliance for their ongoing dedication, for example.
But I know I’m not alone.
The second Climate Coaching Action Day on 4 March 2021
is an invitation, a gentle reminder that the climate
emergency is still here, and that there’s so much coaches can
contribute. On pages 8-9, we round up who’s doing what to
mark the Day – although there will be other initiatives
announced after we go to press so do keep an eye out on
social media.
This issue, we’ve also included a feature about engaging in
a tripartite alliance between coach, client and Nature
(‘Nature’s invitation’, pages 30-33), and coaching
around climate is the topic of this issue’s
Troubleshooter (pages 18-19).
Happy Climate Coaching Action Day!

© 2021 Coaching at Work. All rights reserved. This publication (or any part thereof)
may not be reproduced, transmitted or stored in print or electronic format (including,
but not limited to, any online service, any database or any part of the internet), or
in any other format in any media whatsoever, without the prior written permission
of Coaching at Work Limited. Coaching at Work Limited accepts no liability for the
accuracy of the contents or any opinions expressed herein.
 Coaching at Work Series of Masterclasses 2021
Developing INSIGHTS©: Building Transition
Resilience in the COVID-19 context
Dr Siobhain O’Riordan & Sheila Panchal
Date: Thursday 29th April 2021. (Half Day)
Venue: Online Zoom Platform
Timings: 10:00 am – 1:00 pm

MASTERCLASS OUTLINE
The novel coronavirus has initiated an unprecedented global DR SIOBHAIN O’RIORDAN PHD CPSYCHOL CSCI FISCPACCRED
Siobhain is a Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, International
transition. This session reflects on the impact of COVID-19 on
Society for Coaching Psychology Accredited Coaching Psychologist and
individuals’ wellbeing. It also considers the INSIGHT (Palmer &
Supervisor and Principal Practitioner member of the Association of
Panchal, 2011 a,b) model of transition resilience to offer ideas and
Business Psychology. She is a Course Co-Director/Trainer on the coaching
strategies that can help promote wellbeing during this challenging
and coaching psychology programmes at the Centre for Coaching and
time. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact upon all levels
Centre for Stress Management (UK).
of a nation state, from the people, organisations and
She is a past Editor of the International Journal of Health Promotion
communities to the health, activity and wellbeing of the whole and Education and The Coaching Psychologist. Currently she is Editor of
country, including the short and long-term financial implications Coaching Psychology International and a Co-Editor of the European
of countries in lockdown (Palmer, Panchal & O’Riordan, 2020; Journal of Applied Positive Psychology and the International Journal of
Panchal, Palmer, O’Riordan, 2020). Stress Prevention and Well-being. Siobhain is also the Founder Chair of the
International Society for Coaching Psychology and a member of the
MASTERCLASS AND OBJECTIVES International Research Centre Development Team of the ISCP
During this session we will also explore ways we might leverage International Centre for Coaching Psychology Research (http://www.
coaching psychology techniques, interventions and approaches iscpresearch.org).
that have been successfully applied in many other transition
coaching situations, such as mid-life, becoming a new parent, or SHEILA PANCHAL (CPSYCHOL, MISCPACCRED)
within executive and leadership coaching. Sheila is a business psychologist with 20 years of experience working
across a range of sectors. She specialises in transition coaching, and is
MASTERCLASS CONTENT co-editor of ‘Developmental Coaching: Life Transitions and Generational
Participants will work with INSIGHT© (Palmer & Panchal, 2011) – a Perspectives’ with Professor Stephen Palmer (2011).
model of transition resilience, grounded in coaching and positive
psychology. They will both understand the theoretical basis for the
model as well as exploring practical applications. LOGISTICS
REFERENCES: FEES BOOKING PROCEDURE
1. Palmer, S., & Panchal, S. (Eds) (2011a). Developmental Coaching: Life Transitions and Half-day price: Please fill in an application
Generational Perspectives. Hove: Routledge. £34.99 (subscriber), form on-line at:
2. Palmer, S., & Panchal, S. (2011b). Life Transitions and Generational Perspectives. In S. Palmer &
S. Panchal, (Eds), in Developmental Coaching: Life Transitions and Generational Perspectives. £49.99 (non-subscriber) www.coaching-at-work.com/
Hove: Routledge. All prices include VAT masterclasses
3.Palmer, S., Panchal, S. & O’Riordan, S. (2020). Could the experience of the COVID-19
pandemic have any positive impact on wellbeing? European Journal of Applied Positive Groups of 3+ :
Psychology 4(10). A further 5% discount
4. Panchal, S., Palmer, S. & O’Riordan, S. (2020). Enhancing Transition Resilience: Using the
INSIGHT coaching and counselling model to assist in coping with COVID-19. International is available
Journal of Stress Prevention and Wellbeing 4(3).
contents
march/april 2021 VolUme 16 issUe 2

News

7 emcc Global announces coaching award winners

8 climate coaching action Day, 4 march 2021 –

calendar of events

10 conference roundup: Compassion in Therapy

Summit, online, 30 January to 3 February 2021

12 Jenny Garrett, leadership coach, awarded

oBe for services to women in business

regulars

12 review
Stepping into your Power – An embodied
approach to developing women leaders

13 Opinion: contemplation
contemplating coaching practice.
Part 3: Coaching perspective, by amanda ridings

14 Opinion: white privilege

the key to tackling systemic racism

16 supervision 32
how vulnerability in coaching supervision can
show us what it means to human

40
17 reflections
We must ensure the client can be heard – silence
isn't always golden, says lindsay Wittenberg

18 Troubleshooter
a client's climate agenda becomes a personal
life-changing issue for the coach

48 Opinion: teams
the do's and don'ts of teamwork magic, by
erik de haan and Dorothee stoffels

49 Talking teams
tcs team coaching competencies:
8. Relationship systems

50 Toolbox: roadtest
lego® serious play®
36
52 Toolbox: Tried and Tested
the 3G model of pandemic-related constraints

54 How to…
…coach your clients to delegate
IN THe NexT Issue Climate Coaching Action Day
4 March report – Who did what?
58 The real business of coaching
avoiding the clichés, by Kim arnold
Team coaching supervision
Website: www.coaching-at-work.com
David Clutterbuck and Lise Lewis report
Subscriptions:
59 research
the ethics of coaching clients in 'burn-out', by
Fees
1. Part 2 in our series on fees: coaching
www.coaching-at-work.info
tony Geraghty and adrian myers Contact:
2. Gift-based – an alternative approach
www.coaching-at-work.com/contact-us/
62 It's a funny old world
a round-up of unusual stories
 contents

25

44

features

20 profile: DaViD B petersoN

David B Peterson has been at the cutting
edge of executive coaching since the 1980s,
helping leaders and coaches go from good
to great. Liz Hall reports

25 CoViD: a Year iN CoaCHiNG

one year on, coaching through covid
continues to offer pro-bono coaching to
nHs and other key workers, reports Liz Hall

32 Nature's iNVitatioN
Rather than viewing coaching clients
outdoors as coaching plus outdoors, we
should work in alliance with nature, says
catherine Gorham
20
36 raCe CoNsCiousNess
the first in this series of articles about race
equity in coaching by tammy tawadros.
Part 1: Race equity and coaching – a call to
conscientisation?

40 CHarGiNG poiNt
How do you calculate a ‘fair exchange’ ask 18
clare norman and Michelle Lucas in this
series on fees in coaching and coaching
supervision. Part 1: supervision

44 BuilDiNG WellNess
coaching cancer patients has informed a
framework for empowering clients to be
more resourceful and to adapt to change.
Andrew Parsons, sue Jackson and
Jackie Arnold share what they’ve learnt
 Up Front
EMCC announces 2020 global award winners
BY LIZ HALL
g
rant thornton
International has won an
award for its efforts
towards creating a
global coaching culture.
the professional services business
was one of 13 individuals and
organisations picking up awards in
the European Mentoring & Coaching
Council (EMCC) 2020 global Awards,
announced last month (February
2021). the award ceremony will
be held virtually during the
27th EMCC global Conference on
12-14 May 2021.
Last year, grant thornton’s steps in
growing a coaching culture globally
included reimagining its global
Exceptional Coach Programme as
solely online. the programme is
designed to complement participants’
technical skills to enhance agility with
talent, teams and clients. the business
offers a suite of coach development
programmes including an online
Manager-as-Coach programme. It has
hundreds of partners, senior leaders
and people managers coaching
within member firms and on cross-
border client engagements. this year,
its goal is to expand coaching
throughout the network and to
develop new initiatives for CPD for its
coaching alumni.
Lucy Daykin, coaching lead for the
global network at grant thornton
International, said “this award
recognises the outstanding work of
the grant thornton International
coaching faculty who have
demonstrated agility, adaptability
and innovation to develop and
strengthen our organisation and to
realise the firm’s global coaching
vision during a world pandemic,
lockdowns and travel restrictions.”
other winners in the Coaching
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Prof. Peter Hawkins has been globally recognised for his contribution to supervision
Award category were Coaching
outdoors, recognised for combining
coaching and the outdoors into two
innovative and inspiring programmes
(interactive and online) as an impactful
and effective way for coaches to
reconnect with the natural world.
three individuals also picked up
awards: Ekktaa Daithankar, for helping
to raise awareness around emotional and
mental health through group coaching,
and Susana Fernandez Casla and Joanne
Wheatley, co-founders of In good
Company, a global coaching training
provider.
tom Battye, Professor Peter hawkins
PhD, Felicia Lauw and Lily Seto won
awards in the Supervision category.
hawkins, who developed the 7-eyed
supervision model used throughout the
world, was awarded for his thought
leadership and globally recognised
contribution to the world of supervision.
A professor of leadership at henley
Business School and chairman of
renewal Associates, hawkins has been a
coach, psychotherapist, supervisor, team
coach, and organisational development
consultant for more than 40 years.
he said, “It is very rewarding to see
how coach supervision has rapidly taken
off and is becoming accepted as an
essential part of the life-long
development of practising coaches and
team coaches.”
tom Battye’s contributions including
developing and enhancing the EMCC
Coaching Supervision Framework,
overseeing the development of EMCC’s
supervision standards and supporting
the development of EMCC’s supervision
accreditations.
Senior faculty with Coaching
Supervision Academy, Felicia Lauw was
recognised for her efforts in spreading
the word about supervision in Asia
Pacific, and Lily Seto, the first EMCC
accredited supervisor in Canada, for
raising the profile of coaching
supervision in the Americas including
through facilitating the monthly
Americas Coaching Supervision network
and co-hosting the annual Americas
Coaching Supervision Conference.
In the Mentoring Award category, red
Business Market, Société générale
global Solution Centre, Elena
rodriguez-Vieitez, and gillian Slater
were acknowledged.
Société générale global Solution
Centre was recognised in part for its
highly successful odyssey Mentoring
Programme, and the development of a
digital platform.
CoAChIng At Work 7
Up Front

FREEPIK.COM/VECTORS/CITY’>CITY VECTOR CREATED BY UPKLYAK

Climate Coaching
4TH MARCH 2021
Action Day 2021
on 4 March 2021, it’s the second Climate Coaching Action Day.
Who’s doing what and how can you get involved?

Calendar of Climate Coaching Action Day events

All timings are UTC/GMT
Full timetable: http://bit.ly/3uyynb6
THE DAY BEFORE
3 March (11.00 GMT)
l to launch the Climate Coaching
Alliance’s 24-hour conversation,
‘What’s Mine to Do?’, tom rivett-
Carnac, chief political strategist for the
landmark Paris Agreement on climate
change, adopted by 195 countries in
2015, serving alongside former Un
Climate Chief, Christiana Figueres, joins
his coach, Jo Confino, a leading
sustainability activist, journalist and
Zen mindfulness practitioner.
they’ll explore how leaders can
increase their agency, and recognise
that climate change is an ‘everyone,
everywhere’ opportunity to build a new
world that we can only create together.
ON THE DAY
4 March
podcast (released 4 March): Coaching
at Work editor Liz Hall interviews
Dr Alister Scott, leadership coach,
sustainability expert and co-founder
of the one Leadership project.
Going Towards
how do we go towards pain, fear and
grief in embracing the scary reality of
the climate emergency? how do we as
coaches help people do this? And how
do we imagine ourselves and with our
clients better futures that we want to go
towards? What’s the role of coaching in
helping us let go of more, more, more?
What does success in a calmer, kinder
and more sustainable world really look
like? And what are the challenges for
coaches? how can we truly bring an
independent mindset that enables
through challenge and humanity?
l 24 hours: 00:00 to 24:00 GMT
the Climate Coaching Alliance (CCA)
is hosting its third 24-hour marathon

8 CoAChIng At Work March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com


What is it?
This is a global event launched last
year – but not owned – by Coaching
at Work magazine with the aim of
promoting and inspiring coaching
around the climate crisis.
#ClimateCoachingActionDay
but this time with a difference. CCA
members from around the world will
host free events. the theme is ‘What’s
Mine To Do?’
Eve Turner is hosting a 75-minute
panel discussion ‘Let the ecology do
the coaching and supervision’ with
Catherine gorham, Jackee holder,
Lily Seto and Professor Peter hawkins, at
18:00 Uk time. You can register for this,
and all the many other events, free here:
https://lnkd.in/dVD9BBx and please do
join the CCA: https://lnkd.in/dHjfMnK
24-HOUR MARATHON
Video marathon on Facebook and
Instagram with Greece-based coach
training organisation Positivity
Coaching.
Choose Life
l What do we do as professional
coaches to highlight the importance of
the planet and our environment?
l What small changes are we
committed to do noW and how do we
set a good example to others around us?
l Where and how do we start to declare
all the above?
Positivity Coaching will run short videos
launched every 60 minutes on the hour.
Send your video with your answers on
the above questions to:
communication@positivity.gr
l 8.00 GMT
Morel Foreman and Saima Butt, ICF
Foundation Trustees, England
Climate Change? Call the Coaches!
‘Delivering Greatest Possible
Contribution to Humanity and
the Planet’
As coaches, we know the right questions
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
at the right time in the right place can explain their niches and then throw
change conversations and make an open the session for an in-depth Q&A.
impact. Come to this session to identify Come with questions, leave with
what matters for bridging the gap purpose. this aimed at coaches, but all
between what’s needed, and possible, are welcome.
through the transformational benefits l Join here: http://bit.ly/3kiXBiy
of coaching for the benefit of our planet. l 15.00 GMT
l Join here: http://bit.ly/3qOOBnS Cristine Custodio, ICF Foundation
l 9.00-10.30 GMT Ambassador, Puerto Rico IN SPANISH
Compassion Space Tras el huracán: coaching y el cambio
Join Coaching at Work editor Liz hall climático (After the Hurricane:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-hall- Coaching and Climate Change)
8b37826/ and CEo of the Conscious Description
Leader Mark McMordie https://www. Custodio shares her experiences of
linkedin.com/in/mark-mcmordie- navigating climate change, having
b5461121/ for an experiential session experienced hurricanes Irma and Maria
to help you become present, set your in her native Puerto rico. the session
intentions, and bring in some will explore how coaches can help
compassion for yourself and others others face up to climate change, and
around the climate emergency. work for environmental justice.
l Join the Zoom meeting: l 19.00 GMT
http://bit.ly/2ZLmzxM Morel Foreman & Saima Butt, ICF
Meeting ID: 814 8821 5287 Foundation Trustees, England
Passcode: 374998 Climate Change? Call the Coaches!
l 12.00-13.00 GMT ‘Delivering Greatest Possible
4 ways to niche your coaching practice Contribution to Humanity and the Planet
Join four of the Climate Change Coaches (repeat of earlier event)’
team to hear how they’ve niched their l Join here: http://bit.ly/3qOOBnS
coaching practices in service of our l 23.00-24.00 GMT
environment, sharing insights and ideas Closing
about the distinct coaching areas that Open Space – reflecting on the 24 hour
they occupy, including: green career ‘What’s Mine To Do?’ with the CCA
transition, connecting to nature, eating co-founders, and Climate Coaching
for the planet, climate entrepreneurship Action Day initiator and Coaching at
and developing leaders in sustainability. Work editor Liz hall.
As coaches, we know there are myriad Come and share your thoughts,
ways we can support people who want insights, learning and commitments
to do something for the environment. that have resulted from the day. there’s
the team hope to spark ideas with this no set agenda, and the hope is that we’ll
free conversational hour together. collectively hear about different sessions
hamish, Megan, Emily and Climate we’ve attended, and collate themes, and
Change Coaches founder Charly Fox will give space for follow-up ideas to emerge.
Get involved
Climate Coaching Action Day is on social media. Follow us, spread the word about
the initiative, share what others are up to and post what YOU’RE doing to mark
Climate Coaching Action Day. Use the hashtag: #ClimateCoachingActionDay
l Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/ClimateCoachingActionDay/
l LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8869975/
l Twitter @Climatecoachday
l Full timetable of events: http://bit.ly/3uyyNb6
CoAChIng At Work 9
Up Front
compassion in therapy summit, online: 30 january to 3 february 2021
the pain and reward of compassion
BY LIZ HALL
COMPASSION: A SUPERPOWER
D
eveloping compassion helps
the pain of suffering be less
overwhelming, supporting
work with struggling clients and
promoting more adaptive strategies
and mind states such as motivation
and hope, said researcher Kristen
neff at the recent Compassion in
therapy online summit.
In her presentation on The Power of
Self-compassion, neff described
self-compassion as “a mind-state, an
attitude we take towards ourselves
when we struggle.
“It feels like a loving connected
presence in holding the pain of
ourselves and clients with that. When
we do that, we feel the pain but it’s less
overwhelming. Love is holding the
pain like a buffer,” she said.
“this loving connected presence is
absolutely protective against
10 CoAChIng At Work
maladaptive strategies. PtSD reduces, so
does depression and anxiety. At the
same time, it generates positive states of
mind, including motivation and hope. It
reduces the negative and enhances the
positive. It’s a superpower!”
“If we look at fMrI studies of people
experiencing compassion, they’re
feeling the pain, but also their reward
[brain] regions are activated…there’s a
bitter sweetness. We learn to find
meaning and value in the love
accompanying the pain.”
COMPASSION FATIGUE OR
EMPATHIC DISTRESS?
When caregivers, including health
professionals, therapists and coaches,
burn out in the face of the suffering of
others, are they suffering from
compassion fatigue, or empathic
distress? And does compassion
fatigue even exist?
these were among the questions
explored at the Summit, including by
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
FREEPIK.COM/PHOTOS/CREATED BY JCOMP
self-compassion researcher kristen neff,
psychologist tara Brach, and
kelly Mcgonigal, a health psychologist
and lecturer at Stanford University.
the term compassion fatigue was
coined by Charles Figley to describe
what happened as the result of
secondary traumatic stress among those
caring for people who are suffering
(Figley, 1995). But this term implies it’s
compassion itself that’s fatiguing, which
isn’t the case, said neff.
“his choice of term was a bit
unfortunate. Compassion is not
fatiguing. Empathy is fatiguing...
because it activates lots of pain centres
in our brain,” said neff.
Brach too highlighted the difference
in impact on brain regions between
empathy and compassion. She said,
“Empathy involves activity in the limbic
system so we can get burnt out.
Compassion involves activity in the pre-
frontal cortex – it’s pleasant and
rewarding because it serves our species.”
 When people talk about
compassion being overwhelming or
draining, often what they’re thinking
about is the intensity of empathy, said
Mcgonigal in her session: The Practical
Science of Compassion.
“When someone is suffering, we’re
then in it with them…that kind of
empathy can be difficult to be in. So we
change the topic or we move to fix it, to
make the suffering go away, or we’re
looking for coping strategies,” she said.
“Lots of people when they talk about
compassion fatigue are talking about
overwhelm, about being stuck in that
process of sharing in the suffering. It’s
draining because it activates
avoidance. You feel less vibrant
courage, you no longer feel the
instinct of touching others, your brain
and body are trying to protect you.”
But she does believe compassion
fatigue exists, and that denying its
existence can have a potentially negative
impact, including “when people hold
the value of compassion, and something
happens so they can no longer sustain it
and [then they] hear someone say,
compassion fatigue doesn’t exist, you’re
just doing it wrong.”
“I think compassion fatigue is what
arises when you’re fully in the flow of
compassion but you’re not getting the
energy back for whatever reason, or
you need to engage in the suffering in
a healthier way, or the suffering is out
of proportion to what you can bring to
the moment.”
Sometimes the problem for those in
caring roles is that they feel they’re not
supported by the system, perhaps
there’s lots of red tape or a holding
back of resources, she said, and this
“sense of not being supported can be
exhausting”.
“Compassion comes from believing
in the good in human nature, that it’s
possible to alleviate suffering. So
[people] can feel fatigued when [they]
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
In their own words
l Some people have the misconception that we only have five [say] units of compassion
and if we give some away, the less we have but it’s not like that. The more we give to
ourselves, the more we have to give others
Kristin Neff
l The prerequisite for transformation is beginning to soften and to hold ourselves with
kindness – strong back and soft front and presence…[with] courageous compassion
Tara Brach
l Caring for others triggers the biology of courage and creates hope
Kelly McGonigal, quoting from her book, The Upside of Stress (Vermillion, 2015)
l We are not the survival of the fittest; we are the survival of the nurtured
Louis Cozolino (quoted by Brach)
l Compassion is the medicine the world needs. We’re all part of this wave that’s
deeply necessary
Tara Brach
l As a therapist, or person attending to your own body, heart and mind, to pay attention in a
way that leads to freedom requires that it has love in it…[otherwise], it becomes distant or cold
or potentially judging
Jack Kornfield
l In India, they talk about the glance of mercy, in relation to gurus but it could be
therapists that someone can look at you with such compassion for all the drama of your
life, the suffering and successes and see you beyond that, and that changes everything, to
see that secret beauty in another, that’s all
Jack Kornfield
l What would it be like if our clients all experienced the glance of mercy? It brings tears to my
eyes just thinking about it
Chris Germer
feel cut off from that belief system. “But when you look at the
“In those cases, it’s not about neuroscience for sustainable
finding ways to deal with distress, but compassion and empathy that’s not
ways to access your support system, overwhelming, you specifically see
your practice, and moral elevation to increased activation in the brain areas
counteract the moral outrage you feel that help you distinguish self from
about the world. See the compassion other. We have a brain system that helps
around you so it’s energising, us create boundaries so we’re not
celebrate it and feel like you’re part of merged but we can [still] have... mindful
it… really sense the ripple effect, and relationship and engagement.”
[that] you alone aren’t the cause or to sustain compassion, it’s also
the solution.” important to seek out joy: “never think
Being able to distinguish self from of [doing this] as self-indulgent.”
other is also key. She said that some
people “idealise compassion”, talking REFERENCE
about “a total lack of distinction C Figley, Compassion Fatigue: Coping
between self and other [there being] with secondary traumatic stress disorder
no more separation and [a sense of] in those who treat the traumatized,
we’re all one.” Brunner-routledge, 1995
CoAChIng At Work 11
Up Front
Jenny Garrett awarded oBE

J
enny Garrett has been awarded an
officer of the British Empire (oBE)
for services to Entrepreneurship
and to Women in Business in the
2021 Queen’s Honours List.
“i thought it was a joke at first. when
i realised it was actually real, i was
delighted and excited,” said garrett.
garrett’s contributions have
included supporting women in
business through women’s leadership
programmes, pro-bono social media
events and talks to women’s groups.
“i’ve spent many weekends inspiring
women and sharing my journey from
humble beginnings to running my
own business for 15 years,” said garrett.
“i didn’t grow up with a role model
of women in business and didn’t even
think of it until i was in my thirties.
But i come from a line of strong
women.” these include her late generation to
grandmother who arrived in the Uk develop
in the 1960s from the Caribbean and entrepreneurial
demonstrated courage, hard work and spirit, agility and
determination: “so i feel i have a bit of flexibility,
responsibility to empower my character, self-
daughter and others.” esteem and good mental
the leadership coach is a member of health.” it adapted to an online offering
the Company of entrepreneurs’ last year, running webinars and a
outreach committee. she also conference attended by more than
co-founded a social enterprise, Rocking 500 students and their teachers. she also
Ur teens, to “support the next launched a BAMe coach directory.
AOCS AND AC TO LAUNCH ETHICAL RESOURCES
The Association of Coaching Supervisors and the Association for Coaching have joined
forces to curate and develop a resource to raise the bar in ethical practices for
coaching and mentoring supervisors. Ethical Resources will be web-based, sourced
from across the profession. It’s expected to also be relevant to coaches, mentors and
coach training organisations to help them explore ethical issues and learn more about
ethical practice. We will explore this further in the next issue of Coaching at Work.

Reviews
BOOK

Title Stepping into your Power – An embodied approach to

developing women leaders
Author Eunice Aquilina
Publisher Matador
ISBN 978 1800 46242 7
Usefulness HHHHH

t ruly a book for our times, Stepping into

Helen Mundy is an
executive master coach, team
coach and supervisor at
Wide Awake Leadership
l wideawakeleaderchip.com
l helen@
wideawakeleadership.com
your Power provides inspiration and
guidance in abundance for women leaders
across all realms to embody the leadership
we want to see in the world. through
courageous true stories and powerful
practices to try for yourself, eunice and
co-authors weave a story of women
finding their purpose, dignity and voice.
the common thread is women’s
unconscious bias to step back, stay small
and stay silent in the face of systems of
‘default male’ power and conflict, and
how they have all learned to alter their
psychobiology to be able to step up, be
true to their purpose and humanity and
speak truth to power.
the narrative of the transforming power
of somatic work is supported by the
themes from eunice’s action research with
more than 100 senior women leaders. she
shares her learning with typical generosity
of practice and spirit, so that we can
‘try on’ her suggested practices and be
stimulated by her questions towards our
own power. these authors model for us
what centred female leadership can bring
and how the world needs more of it now.

12 CoAChing At woRk March/April | vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com


AMANDA RIDINGS
Our ethical edges
This is the third in a series of four pieces inspired by Amanda Ridings’
recent book, Weekly Leadership Contemplations.
Part three: What factors shape our coaching perspective?
W
hen we consider frames such
as skillsets, professional
backgrounds, paradigms,
personal nature and factors
like location and age, it’s clear there are
many ways for practitioners to come to
coaching work.
For some, coaching is a natural extension
“While all of related fields of learning and development
coaches may such as training. Others come from business
share some or sport, with a desire to help others grow. Yet
principles and others have roots in fields such as social work,
practices, the nursing or therapy. Our context and evolution
shape our practice, bringing richness and
nuance and
diversity to our profession.
emphasis of our I see a parallel with disciplines such as
work differ, and t’ai chi or yoga, in which one term embraces
the arenas in many styles of practice, related but not
which we have homogenous. It’s important we recognise this.
greatest impact A coach who comes from business, for
example, has a different hinterland from a
are unlikely to
coach immersed in psychology and/or care.
be the same” While all coaches may share some principles
and practices, the nuance and emphasis of our
work differ, and the arenas in which we have
greatest impact are unlikely to be the same.
Our approach to ethical questions may also
vary. For example, when offered the
opportunity to work with clients who are
close colleagues or in a line relationship, our
approach will be coloured by our professional
roots. For some, such situations represent a
blurring of interpersonal dynamics that is to
be avoided. Others believe that working with
l Amanda Ridings is a different individuals within a system will be
seasoned executive coach and
coach supervisor based in the developmental for that system provided it is
Cairngorms National Park. handled with careful contracting, rigorous
Weekly Leadership Contemplations
(2020) is her second book. Her ethics and good supervision.
first, Pause for Breath (2011), Our view may also reflect how we perceive
focuses on leadership
conversations. the balance between individual and
l www.originate.org.uk organisational interests, aspirations and
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
OpiniOn:
CONTEMPLATION
growth. It will be influenced by the readiness
and awareness of the potential clients and by
our own experience and maturity as a coach.
Seasoned coaches may regularly have
navigated intricate human systems and
become alert to their own blind spots and
biases, while those in the early stages of
practice may prefer clear guidelines.
The bottom line is that many ethical
matters are complex and nuanced, and what
seems acceptable to one coach may appear
inappropriate to another.
A further complication is that our
livelihood is linked to our coaching work,
bringing business ethics alongside those of
our accrediting body. In addition, we probably
have an internal compass of values and
principles that guide our personal integrity.
What we believe to be ethical (or not)
becomes layered and multi-faceted.
In a piece entitled ‘Ethical edges’ in my book,
Weekly Leadership Contemplations, I describe a
sense of vertigo induced by balancing the
suitability of an assignment and my need to
earn a living. Trying to square the integrity of
my practice with lucrative work that doesn’t
inspire me can feel like walking a narrow ridge
– there’s no ‘right answer’ and each choice has
a significant downside.
In such situations it matters that we
understand the factors that shape our
perspective and are clear about our personal
capacity and limitations. It also helps to keep
our attention on whatever is most important
in the long run. l
CONTEMPLATION
l What is your most common ethical
dilemma? How does your evolution as a
coach shape your perception of it?
COAChINg AT WOrk 13
 OpiniOn:
White
PriVilege
Take a look in the mirror
White coaches and supervisors need to stop looking to our black and brown
colleagues for answers on tackling systemic racism and start with reflecting
on our own whiteness, says Fenella Trevillion
L
ike many people, George
Floyd’s murder last year was a
seminal event for me. I can still
see the vivid TV footage of fire
and anger with the message that
Black Lives Matter (BLM) coming
across loud and clear.
I reached out to family and friends. I
attended events where this was
discussed, and the felt senses of shock,
anger and unspoken guilt were present.
‘What can I do?’ I wondered. My
inclination was to connect with Black
and Asian (brown) coaches and ask
them. Over time I realised that the
starting point had to be with me and
my own racism, and to connect with
white coaches and supervisors over it.
When was that ‘aha’ moment?
Having joined with many black
people over this, I asked around in the
white coaching community about what
we can do to respond. I was met with
comments such as: ‘not sure what BLM
has to do with coaching’; ‘my view is
that all lives matter’; ‘actually BLM has
not been a thing for me’; ‘I treat
everyone with the same respect and
“unconditional positive regard”’
(Rogers, 2004), and ‘I grew up in an area
where there were no black people, so
racism is not my issue.’
My visceral response was not to let
the event pass; this time I had to act. I
looked back at my history, attempting
to understand its significance for me.
Often the question arises: when did I
notice the colour of my skin? I grew up
in white apartheid South Africa. One
day, I made a racist insult to a member
of the kitchen staff on my
14 CoaChing at Work
grandmother’s farm. She was visibly
and furiously upset. She told my
grandmother who immediately sent
me to my room.
Eventually my grandmother came in
and told me never ever to say that to
anyone again and particularly not to a
black person. I was perplexed, yet this
event made me aware of the difference
in skin colour, and my six-year-old mind
told me I’d seriously done wrong. After
a time, I accepted my innate racism.
Spending my childhood in a
“We need to stop turning
to our colleagues of colour
for answers and start a
reflection on ourselves as
white coaches and how our
whiteness plays out in our
lives and in our coaching”
privileged liberal South African
environment meant living with a
perpetual sense of discomfort and, at
times, fear. This was topped up by
witnessing regular violence against
black people. An added element was
the dissonance within the white race;
being liberal brought its own dread
and sometimes I was the subject of
name calling.
An opportunity arose for me to move
to the UK, and so, with a deep sense of
guilt, shame, and abandonment, I left.
Arriving in the UK gave me a sense of
relief. I tried (unsuccessfully) to change
my accent, and when I saw the
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
FENELLA TREVILLION
possibility of a question arising about
South Africa and an assumption being
made about my racism, I ‘othered’
white South Africans and clarified that I
did not support apartheid.
Ten years later, I stepped into the
racism spotlight again when working in
a residential care home for young black
male adolescents, for my first social
work training placement. It was in
Lewisham, London, six months after
the New Cross fire in which 13 young
black people died in a racist attack.
Relationships with institutions –
particularly the police – were poor, the
sense of injustice stark. Despite this,
the young black people, management
and staff at the care home were
welcoming, and keen to support and
educate my fellow white student and I.
We responded as rabbits in the
headlights, utterly naïve, with no sense
of the psychological environment, and
endlessly relying on our black
colleagues to navigate us through this
tricky time. I read avidly about racism
and black people and gained a much
greater understanding about the issues.
Over the next few years I worked in
mental health services and occupied
various leadership positions. I raised
the issue of racism – often not taken
particularly seriously by other white
colleagues – and felt an implied
message that because I was a white
South African, I had an issue about it.
I came across some who took it
seriously, some who avoided a
conversation about it, and others who
were colour blind. I called it out where
possible, yet often met with a sense of
awkwardness by black people who
‘didn’t want any trouble’. There was no
discussion about allyship, and the ‘R’
word was mostly avoided.
Fast forward to my MSc in Coaching
and Behavioural Change during which,
among other things, I reflected on my
strong political lens – what was it
about? Later, adding in my training in
mindfulness, I examined the ‘striver’ in
me and perhaps it was a relief to let go
of this as an issue. On my MSc course,
racism was never mentioned and
curiously nor was the issue of bias.
Nevertheless, my internal
understanding increased exponentially.
Journey of change
Like many white friends, when
George Floyd was killed and thousands
of black and brown people were dying
of Covid-19, I leaned into action. With
others in a national organisation at
which I volunteered, we organised a
Zoom discussion with a panel of black
experts on ‘Racism, Inequality and
Bereavement’, including the well-
known coach, Obi James. When asked
‘how do we become a more diverse
organisation?’ she gently pointed out
that if we were going to do that, white
privilege needs to be addressed, with
white people committing to a journey
of change. My first ‘aha’ moment.
DiAngelo’s book: White Fragility: Why
it’s so hard for white people to talk
about racism, became a key text. She
writes about the challenge of talking to
white people about racism, white
women’s tears and white fragility – I
recognised them all. I started to notice
the information all around me on the
experiences black people have in
grappling with racism and how they’ve
been saying the same things for years
without white people listening.
I finally understood why Eddo-Lodge
had written the book, Why I No Longer
talk to White People about Race. I took
on board the thought that white people
need to listen and do our own research
about our part in the many hundreds of
years of institutional racism.
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Join the conversation
l To engage further in a
conversation on the topic of this
article, contact Fenella: www.
fenellatrevillionassociates.org/
or email:
fenella.trevillion@gmail.com
l Join Fenella Trevillion and
Liz Hall online on 13 April,
17.30-19.00 for a discussion,
White, Privileged and Fragile.
With a commitment to social
justice and kindness, how might we
explore together as coaches the
impact of our white privilege?
l Zoom Meeting:
http://bit.ly/3aUU2wd
l Meeting ID: 881 3442 9287
l Passcode: 231807
This was my moment of conceptual
pivot and second ‘aha’ moment; I’d
begun the journey. Yet my behaviour of
avoidance allowed me to stay at the
cognitive level of reading, seeing and
listening.
Exploration continued: I investigated
coaching bodies’ responses to this
momentous issue. Many NHS
organisations had a statement or
information about racism and anti-
racist practice on their websites, the
British Psychological Society had
started a conversation and a group
discussing it and BLM.
Of the coaching organisations, none
mentioned racism or anti-racism. The
Association for Coaching (AC) website
said very little, although the July 2020
edition of its magazine, Coaching
Perspectives, had a strong section on
BLM, and I understand that ICF did
have a statement on it. With regards
to policies, the AC, the UK chapter of
the International Coach Federation
and the European Mentoring &
Coaching Council (EMCC) stated
commitment to the Global Code of
Ethics (GCE) and the EMCC had its
own equality and diversity policy,
though neither mentions the word
racism. Their websites had a ‘white’
feel to them.
self-reflection
I connected with a white thought leader
in coaching; we had a congruence of
view, shared book titles and she
suggested I contact a number of people
with whom we could consider starting a
conversation. I realised these thinkers
and writers on race and coaching were
black. Where were the white coaches in
the space of white privilege? I noticed,
yet again, I was seeking out people of
colour to give the answers.
My third and most significant ‘aha’
moment came while attending the
second day of the Coaching at Work
2020 Conference.
Whilst listening to Grace Owens on
decolonising leadership, my mind
turned to decolonising coaching and
my question on ‘where do we start with
changing the coaching profession?’
I reflected on the presentation on
Coaching through Covid from Mark
McMordie and other co-founders.
McMordie told us that it was set up
through a group of coaches getting
together and “holding a safe space for
a compassionate enquiry using the
collective intelligence in the field.”
Yes, this gives us a way here. We
need to stop turning to our colleagues
of colour for answers and start a
reflection on ourselves as white
coaches and how our whiteness plays
out in our lives and in our coaching.
Only then will the coaching profession
become part of the solution in
actively dismantling systemic racism
and the pervasiveness of
white privilege.
Reference
l R DiAngelo, White Fragility, Allen Lane, 2018
l R Eddo-Lodge, Why I Am No Longer Talking to
White People about Race, Bloomsbury, 2018
l R Menakem, My Grandmother’s Hands, Central
Recover Press, 2018
l C R Rogers, On Becoming a Person, Constable, 2004
l J Ryde, White Privilege Unmasked – How to be part
of the solution, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2019
l Fenella Trevillion is an executive coach and
supervisor who coaches doctors and public sector
leaders. In addition, she runs workshops exploring
discomfort in areas like climate, Covid and racism
through using somatic experience, mindfulness and
coaching to deepen understanding.
CoaChing at Work 15
 OpiniOn:
SuperViSion
Behind the mask
This issue: how coaching supervision can deepen our relationships with
coaches, enabling us to explore what it means to be human and vulnerable
A
s human beings we strive to make
meaning of things, often to
support our own view of the
world. Yet when we pause and
take stock, we can be challenged to look at
the world through a new lens and a
different perspective.
This can take courage and a willingness to
be vulnerable, to face our fears, hold them like
precious objects with a sense of curiosity and
compassion, really look at them from all
angles, and then choose our next steps.
I often talk to my clients about vulnerability,
which for me means lowering our guard,
‘dropping the mask’ to allow our real selves to
be visible. Personally, it has taken me many
years of self-exploration to recognise the
professional mask I wore in my early career.
Now I see it for what it is: a pattern I’d become
used to, that protected me (or so I thought)
from others and the world. As I learned to drop
the mask, I noticed people warmed to me,
engaged with me more and felt I was more
connected with them. By allowing my clients
to see all of me, it offered an invitation for
them to do the same. I believe this is a
cornerstone of our work in supervision.
The challenge is that when we’re under
pressure, our old patterns can emerge, often
from left field, rocking us to our core and
triggering internal language and patterns of
behaviour that hold us back, stifle our
relationships or weaken our resolve. I’ve
found the work of Dr Sarah Hill helpful in this
context, working with our childhood stories
and narratives that, once we become aware of
them, can be subtly changed, allowing us to
practise a new narrative that serves us more
usefully as adults.
As coaches we invite our clients to be
vulnerable so when we engage with
16 CoaChing at Work
JAN BRAUSE
supervision it’s an opportunity for us to
practise what we preach. Being vulnerable can “Being
be a big ask. If we’ve lived behind our mask for vulnerable can
many years, what does it mean to show our
true selves? Will we be liked? Will we be
be a big ask.
judged? This innate fear is laid down in our If we’ve lived
early years through the influence of significant behind our
others in our lives and childhood experiences. mask for many
Supervision supports many areas of our years, what
personal and professional development and it does it mean to
can shine a light on our patterns, particularly
the unhelpful patterns, but only if we’re willing
show our true
to bring all of ourselves to the discussion. selves? Will we
Otto Scharmer describes a process of be liked? Will
letting go to let something new emerge. He we be judged?”
encourages us to sit with an open heart, mind
and will; to stay with any discomfort, to be
comfortable with not knowing. The quality of
the supervisory relationship is critical here as
both supervisor and supervisee are present in
this place of not knowing together.
I recall a supervision session where I sat with
my supervisee in presence and silence as we
wrestled with a pattern that had presented in
a recent coaching session. We were vulnerable
– my client holding their sense of shame and I
a sense of tension, waiting for what needed to
emerge. Both silently acknowledging the Reference
unknown between us, our masks lowered, l S Hill, Where Did You Learn To
ultimately leading to a deeper conversation Behave Like That? A Coaching
Guide For Working With Leaders,
with new learning and insight for both of us. Dialogix, 2017
Such is the richness of supervision. l C O Scharmer, Theory U:
Leading From The Future As It
Emerges, Berrett-Koehler
Find out more Publishers, 2009
l AoCS is an international
l Jan Brause is a CSA
community of coach supervisors and accredited coach supervisor and a
source of good practice, where you can member volunteer with AoCS:
easily find an experienced, qualified and l https://www.association
ofcoachingsupervisors.com/
often accredited coach supervisor to supervisors/profiles/
work with: www.associationofcoaching jan-brause
and can be contacted at:
supervisors.com
l jan@janbrause.co.uk
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

LINDSAY WITTENBERG
When silence isn’t golden
We must create a climate for our clients in which the truth can be heard.
Acknowledging ‘what is’ in the relationship makes it psychologically safe.
A
s I write this, a president of the
US has – uniquely – faced
impeachment twice.
Did silence help to bring things
to this point? If some of those loyal to a
president behaving in unethical ways had
not been silent, could some of his actions
have been prevented? Did the silence
happen through blind loyalty, fear of the
threat to individual careers or to status, or
“Cultures in simply not knowing, not seeing that the
which it’s hard silence needed to be broken?
to express, and We sometimes see processes like this in
to hear, the organisations: a leader may be on a path
facts are judged by others to be heading in the wrong
direction, or enacting less than desirable
contexts
behaviours. What’s obvious may not be
which are articulated – sometimes because it’s so
psychologically obvious that it doesn’t occur to anyone to
unsafe” call attention to it. I’ve found especially
useful a perspective that John Whittington,
in his work on Systemic Constellations,
refers to as being ‘radically inclusive’: the
simple (but not easy) articulation of ‘what is’.
A Gestalt approach to coaching also calls
attention to what’s here in this moment, and
encourages its expression.
I hear people of colour expressing
indignation that a white coach may be silent
about the client’s colour or ethnicity, which
as a defining aspect of their sense of identity
may merit enquiring into as part of the
coaching. In that silence and lack of
acknowledgment of ‘what is’ lie
opportunities for the coach’s assumptions
and beliefs not to be surfaced or
explored – and so to not appropriately
l Lindsay Wittenberg is articulate and recognise what needs to be
director of Lindsay Wittenberg Ltd.
She is an executive coach who
acknowledged.
specialises in authentic leadership, In that lack of recognition we stay silent
career development and
cross-cultural coaching
about our differences from each other, and
www.lindsaywittenberg.co.uk so we don’t release the significant
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
OpiniOn:
refleCtions
advantages of our collective intelligence. Yet
can we afford not to notice and articulate
difference?
It seems to me that relationships resting
on these incomplete foundations also risk
being incomplete – or at the very least may
dilute the richness of the relationship. What
are the implications for coaching
relationships – which at their best are built
on trust, openness and honesty (and in fact
require these characteristics if they’re to
fully succeed): is there a sense in which
these relationships risk being only partly
true?
Hearing the views and the experiences of
people of colour in these situations has
increased my alertness not only to what I’m
not seeing or hearing in a coaching
encounter (which I’ve written about
elsewhere – for example ‘Inconvenient
Truths’ in Coaching at Work, Jan/Feb 2019)
but also to what I’m not saying.
Researcher and business author
Jim Collins calls this “confronting the brutal
facts” and the importance of creating a climate
in which the truth is heard. Cultures in which
it’s hard to express, and to hear, the facts are
contexts that are psychologically unsafe (and
which could benefit from, for example, a tool
such as the Fearless Organization’s
Psychological Safety Index). They don’t release
individuals’ thinking, and thus they diminish
the release of the team’s potential.
Silence is golden in contexts where
hearing the coaching client, and enabling
space for them to hear their own voice, is the
most important factor. But in contexts where
silence is a veil over something or someone
that needs acknowledging, that gold is
tarnished.
I’m not only listening differently these
days. What I say is changing too.
CoaChing at Work 17
 troubleshooter
Journey of awakening
to mark Climate Coaching action Day on 4 March, this issue we focus on a
climate coaching related issue
The Issue
A
coach is working with a senior client who is
making the transition from the private sector
into government to lead part of the government
response on the climate agenda. The client is also going
to be playing a role in the team contributing to the lead
up to the COP26 global conference in Glasgow in
November. The client wants to work on making an
effective transition into this very different culture, and
to maximise their impact quickly, as 2021 is such a key
year to achieve change.
The coach becomes aware from their initial
conversation that the coaching client is way ahead of
them in terms of climate awareness. The coach is aware
that climate change is a problem but sees it as not
18 CoaChing at Work
something they can personally affect and not very
relevant to their coaching practice. They do not see that
their coaching practice needs to change in the light of
the climate and ecological crisis, rather, they see they
should carry on doing what they’ve always done with
their clients as it has been incredibly successful to date.
As the coaching proceeds, the coach realises she is
struggling. She has some awareness gaps around the
policy area, and the international nature of the context,
but more importantly, she is realising that she has not
really processed her thoughts and feelings around what is
happening to the world. She is emotionally very impacted
by the information the client is sharing. Her coaching is
affected and she is finding it difficult to focus.
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
The Interventions
Zoe
Cohen
Master coach,
coach supervisor,
and carbon
literate coach
T
his is a really interesting scenario,
and I believe situations like this will
become increasingly common as
businesses and other organisations start
the much-needed transition, and the
reality of where we are starts to dawn on
more and more leaders.
Like the coach in this scenario, there is
a risk that coaches, and other OD/
leadership practitioners, will find
themselves really challenged. This brings
up a range of questions as well as growth
opportunities for our profession.
Alison
Whybrow
Chartered
psychologist and
coach supervisor
O
ur climate and living
environment is not something
‘out there’. It’s not separate to us,
it’s everything: the air we breathe, the
food we eat, the water we drink. We can’t
choose whether it’s in our coaching
practice, we can’t choose whether it’s on
the agenda – it’s there already.
Going through our own awakening
will come, we have all already started
that journey – consciously or not.
Conscious connection to our
unravelling systems and the depth of
‘what is’ brings grief. The emotional
impact experienced is not surprising
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
How aware are coaches of their
thoughts and feelings about the
interconnected crisis in our living
systems and biosphere? To what extent
are we doing the necessary work with
ourselves on this and the commonly
attendant emotions of guilt, denial, fear,
sense of disempowerment, and so on?
How ready are coach supervisors to
work with these issues (and their own)?
And how likely are coaches to bring
related issues to supervision, if indeed
they have a supervisor?
Just as the pandemic has given us the
unavoidable sense of being in the same
sea (albeit in different boats) as our
clients, and the challenges (and
opportunities) of being impacted by the
same kind of rollercoaster of emotions;
the wider climate and ecological
emergency (of which Covid is a
symptom) does this ten-fold.
“It’s best not to try to hold
on to the grief. Instead,
invite the coach to step
into a wider sense of self”
and yet it can overwhelm. Grief is what I
am sensing in this scenario. How you
meet that grief may be a street fight
or acceptance.
This journey from eco-curious to eco-
engaged is ongoing, and developmental,
and the work needs to be done outside
your coaching practice.
Working with this coach, I might invite
her to participate in a mindfulness
exercise shared by Macy and Johnstone
(2012). Rather than trying to hold this
grief, I would invite the coach to step into
the flow of grief, allowing the grief to fill
“Climate heating and its
consequences will take
decades to stabilise even if
we stop all emissions”
The pandemic will eventually come to
an end, whereas climate heating and its
consequences will take decades to
stabilise even if we stop all emissions
tomorrow (and the oceanic impacts
much longer) – while the 200 daily
species extinctions of the Anthropocene
are forever.
This is the rest of our lives. And, like the
coach in our scenario, we all have a great
deal to learn to be truly in service to our
clients, communities, the human family,
to those yet unborn and to life on earth.
her up, flow through and back out into
the wider universe, to the creativity of the
earth itself. Earth has been performing a
beautiful, agile experiment around
creating the conditions conducive to life
for 3.8 billion years.
It’s best not to try to hold on to and
own the grief. Instead, invite the coach
to step into a wider sense of self, into a
deep ‘interbeing’ with humans and
other sentient beings, offering
a new way of being and acting.
Doing this work in community is
incredibly helpful.
Knowing she is on her own journey
of awakening and sense making with
others, may allow this coach to find a
way to continue to sit with and partner
her client, unsticking, refocusing and
becoming the coach her client needs.
l J Macy and C Johnstone, Active Hope:
How to face the mess we’re in without going
crazy, New World Library, 2012
Coaching at Work 19
 Profile
the
iCe man
David B Peterson has been at the cutting edge of executive
coaching since the 1980s, helping leaders go from good to
great. His knack for reinvention is a valuable asset in today’s
rapidly change environment. Liz Hall reports
Q
uestioning
assumptions
and active
experimentation
are at the core
of coaching but
David B Peterson, former head of
executive coaching and
development at Google, and
Coaching at Work award winner,
takes these to a whole new level.
throughout Peterson’s working life,
he’s set about provoking new thinking,
and enabling shifts from mediocrity to
mastery – in his leader clients and
in coaches.
“My whole career i’ve been focused on
uncovering the real dynamics of what’s
going on,” he says. he’s currently on a
major mission to support coaches to be
great: “it’s clear that most are mediocre”.
last year, Peterson received a lifetime
achievement award in the Coaching at
Work 2020 Editor’s Awards for his
contributions to executive coaching.
the award recognises him as one of the
coaching profession’s pioneers, with a
knack of not taking things for granted,
asking at times uncomfortable
questions, and shaking things up. in her
recent history of the field of coaching,
Vikki Brock listed Peterson as one of its
20 CoaChing at Work
primary influencers, both for his early
influence on the emergence of executive
coaching in the 1980s, and for
continuing to shape the field as
someone “on the cutting edge of the
profession, doing and saying surprising
and thought-provoking things”.
from GooD to Great
in a bid to work out what would help
coaches embrace mastery, Peterson
“began seriously experimenting”.
“When i talk about leaders as coaches,
they want to try something that will
work. [But] when i talk about
experimenting in coaching, i’m talking
about things that might not work. if we
talk about powerful questions, for
example, i want to experiment with
extended silence, interrupting people,
asking ‘stupid’ questions.”
in his own journey as a coach, there
have been “several critical moments”; he
says. he watched as coaching became
what he saw as “more bloated and
expensive”.
“i wanted to be faster, lighter, to add
more value by the minute.”
his thinking was prompted by
working with clients in technology
companies including hewlett-Packard –
what would “following the computer
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
model” mean in coaching and
leadership?
“it got me thinking about the future.
how fast do i need to be to change? it
became clear that as the [tech] industry
when through different stages of
disruption, all of these changes in
technology changed the leadership and
organisation. and are coaches learning
faster than the pace of change? no,
they’re still coaching on topics they
started with. So i started talking about
the future of coaching, and how coaches
need to evolve.
“i started saying six years ago that in
five years’ time, the value of coaching
will be different, the needs of learners
will be different.”
he looked at lots of masters
programmes but “couldn’t find any i
thought were addressing how do you
help really good coaches be great ones”.
So he launched 7 Paths forward with
David goldsmith as executive director
to help good coaches develop mastery
faster. “We just saw a huge need for
good coaches who want to be
great to find a community for their
development, and how coaching
needs to be part of the pace of
change to be more efficient.”
one problem is that good coaches
 Profile
“Time is so valuable in people’s lives and we
don’t have time to build trust slowly. You need
to get [quickly] to a level where you’re having
the real conversation, learning what’s really
going on…. It’s all about efficiency and impact”
will get “great feedback”, he says, but
“their client doesn’t know what great
coaching looks like”.
“Starting faster, going deeper and
ending stronger is the essence of the
approach, amplifying the value”,
he says.
“time is so valuable in people’s lives
and we don’t have time to build trust
slowly. You need to get [quickly] to a
level where you’re having the real
conversation, learning what’s really
going on here so you can spend time on
what really matters the most…. it’s all
about efficiency and impact.”
Pioneer
Peterson is widely acknowledged as an
influencer and a pioneer. he developed
the first leader-as-coach training, for
example, and his book, Leader As
Coach: Strategies for Coaching and
Developing Others, co-authored with
Mary Dee hicks, is a classic.
he’s proud of his trailblazing
multi-year research carried out between
october 1987 and august 1992
(Peterson, 1993). the longitudinal study
was carried out among 370 coaching
participants in an intensive one-to-one
coaching programme, called individual
Coaching for effectiveness (iCe),
covering at least a one-year time period
for each participant. the study
“established there was pretty significant
impact in [participants’] resilience and
effectiveness at work.”
the iCe programme consisted of
diagnostic assessment, coaching and
follow-up ranging from six to 12
months. individuals’ objectives
22 CoaChing at Work
included being able to accept feedback
and criticism openly and non-
defensively. the research design used
each participant’s individual objectives
as the primary evaluation measures.
“i think it was an incredibly
well-designed piece of work. it was
hard to get controlled groups so we
used control items (things that
don’t change).”
thus participants, bosses and coaches
were able to distinguish what changed
as a result of the coaching (coaching
items) and the control items.
Peterson has also been a pioneer in
supporting coaches to help individuals
manage their environments, teaching
them to interview all the stakeholders
and work with the feedback.
“nobody was talking about this at the
time, and my company was seen as quite
revolutionary... . equipping people to be
more effective and better learners, that
was implicit in my approach all along.
David Clutterbuck talks about coach
maturity; it’s a similar thing.”
GooGle
Peterson joined the technology
company, google, as director,
leadership and coaching. his role saw
him provide coaching to senior leaders,
oversee internal and external coaching
programmes, hire coaches and support
a range of executive development and
organizational learning.
When he joined, there were many
coaching programmes with different
managers and processes so he launched
a coaching strategy that was more
integrated. People saw it as “the most
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
impressive coaching options they’d
seen anywhere”, building a well-run
process he’s “really proud of” and which
“virtually never got any complaints”.
at google, he launched a portfolio-
based approach, which sought to find
and supply the “most competent, most
effective coach” rather than the most
expensive. the portfolio included
external coaches and internal coaches,
some of whom were professional
coaches who came into their own when
internal knowledge was required and
the coaching was around more
internally confidential matters.
the organisation invested strongly in
developing its internal coaches, and
“matched and invested in matching
participants based on their needs”.
“google was growing really fast and a
lot of googlers wanted to be coaches.
We channelled them to where they’d be
most effective. When i started, there
were very few accredited coaches, and at
least 100 certified coaches when i left.
We also had three internal professional
coaches full time.”
the coaching strategy was a success:
“the ratings of all our coaches was
incredibly high for many years, typically
4.9 out of 5 for internal coaches, 4.95 for
external coaches.”
he points out that much of the
coaching work at google was carried
out effectively via videoconference,
whereas for some this has been a newer
element as a result of the pandemic.
“So many people resisted and
struggled with that, but it’s just
different. You learn how to be effective.”
CoaChinG
Peterson became a coach by accident,
having joined Personnel Decisions
international, later known as PDi nh
(ninth house), one of the first
companies to start an executive
coaching programme. at that time –
1985 – coaching didn’t even exist as a
profession.
By 1990, Peterson, who earned a
PhD in Counseling and industrial/
organizational Psychology at the
University of Minnesota, US, was head of
PDi’s coaching practice, responsible for
training coaches. he eventually served
as senior vice president and practice
leader for its worldwide coaching and
leadership development services.
his consulting work with PDi nh
focused on coaching for senior
executives in global 100 companies, as
well as helping organisations design
their own coaching and leadership
development programmes. his clients
included target, genentech,
hewlett-Packard, Microsoft,
Levi Strauss, Stanford University,
Chevron, Shell and Wal-Mart.
But in those early years, there wasn’t a
blueprint. “twenty years ago, there
weren’t any coaching conferences and
we figured it out and made it up as we
went along.”
Edgar Schein’s model of process
consultation informed work with
executives. however, although
powerful, Peterson realised that it could
be problematic as it “starts from the
assumption that something’s not right;
it takes a fix-it approach.”
So he experimented with what he
called ‘positive coaching’ – “before
Positive Psychology became a thing”.
“the key component [in his positive
coaching model] was: go where the
energy is. instead of a detailed
assessment, ask [clients] what they want
to get out of it. it was a much more
participant-focused approach.”
Great coachinG
When Peterson turned his attention to
developing master coaches, “the first
thing that became really evident was
that coaches have lots of opportunities
to fail. Coaches don’t by and large
experiment with ‘could i have asked a
better question?’ Maybe it takes them
five rounds to get there. a great coach
would ask one question, which prompts
the client to respond with ‘i never
thought about that!’ [Something] that
gets to the heart of things and makes
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
the client work faster. Coaches can miss
the point.
“it’s really easy to blame the client
when they don’t change – ‘they weren’t
ready’, ‘the environment doesn’t
support them’, ‘they’re narcissistic’ – all
those notions of coachability. People
who are highly coachable, self-aware
and committed to self-development
don’t need coaches. it’s the others who
need coaching. My goal was how to
coach the people who don’t want
coaching – that’s where we add value.
“We need to shift to [the notion of]
coach-ability. the coach isn’t equipped,
so what do they need. it’s back to the
Positive Coaching approach.
“[We often] start with the assumption
that a bad person doesn’t want to
change or grow but what that really
means is they don’t want to change the
way i think they should. it’s ridiculous –
you [the client] won’t do what i want so
you’re uncoachable. go where the
energy is – what do you [the client] want
to get better at? Don’t beat them over
the head.”
Peterson did a lot of work with his
co-author Mary Dee hicks, walking into
team meetings and saying, ‘i hate it
when people say people resist change.’
“after getting tired of me ranting, she
said, ok, let’s write about this,” which
they did, writing about the half-truths
and real truths of coaching (Hicks &
Peterson, 1997). one half -truth is that
people resist change, he says. “no,
people love change. What if i said, you
will do the same thing every day, and
never meet any new friends? People
resist being forced to do things they
don’t want to do.
“People are motivated by multiple
goals. We care about so many things.
that’s why lots of development fails.
how do we make choices in a world full
of competing goals? For example, i want
to spend more time with the team.
[then we think], they seemed so
motivated. But we weren’t addressing
what happened outside [of the
coaching]. So i shifted my focus from
the coaching session to what they do
when they leave – that’s when the hard
work happens. [it’s about] bullet
proofing the process.
“as the field of coaching started to
evolve, coach training proliferated, and
many of them focused on listening skills
and were very procedural, and didn’t
match the real world. they’re still very
skills based. We need to know how to
ask powerful questions, and also when
and where, and when to repeat, and
when to be silent. What’s the right
balance of challenge and support for
this [particular] client? how can we get
the client to generate their own
feedback? i started experimenting with
interrupting – what is the opposite is
true? or we say nothing?
“in our workshops, one of my
favourite games is coaching without
asking any questions. For example, ‘tell
me what would be helpful.’ it
accomplishes the same thing without
asking a question. is there a difference?
one of the things i hear from
participants is, ‘i feel so much freer now.’
“[People] come with a narrow
window of what is coaching, and what’s
acceptable. they seem obsessed with
coaching; i’m obsessed with clients
learning and growing. [they might say],
‘you can’t do that, that’s consulting.’ or,
‘i don’t do advice.’ i’m less enamoured
of questions than i am of creating better
leaders for the world. if i can help
someone grow, who cares? What’s been
revealed is a mindset of right and
wrong. it’s more about coach and client
preferences.
“all the models i developed are meta-
models, [addressing questions such as]
what are the necessary conditions for
development? What does the client
need? rather than what does the coach
do. For example, [a coach might say],
‘i always do 360.’ again, what does the
client need?”
Peterson says that often when it
comes to goals, thinking is “simplistic”.
a client may say they want to make
money or manage their time, for
CoaChing at Work 23
 Profile

passion. in all of our [Peterson with

A client may say they want to make money or David goldsmith] programmes are
layered some artistic things. the aCe
manage their time, for example, but we all (accelerating Coach excellence) Coach
accelerator programme draws on
have lots of goals. As coaches we need to metaphors from poetry, while the aCe

make sure we’re aware of our own goals, so
we don’t “blindly impose them on the client”
example, but we all have lots of goals. as
coaches we need to make sure we’re
aware of our own goals, so we don’t
“blindly impose them on the client”.
Client voiCes
another area in which Peterson’s been a
pioneer is in privileging the client’s
story. “for many years, only coaches
were telling the story, so i launched a
campaign to get clients’ voices out
there. i invited some of my clients to
speak at conferences, including one on
the east Coast. a Coo from Capital one
spoke about how the first thing they
realised was that your coach isn’t your
friend. Your coach has to be able to piss
you off.”
in 2005, he published an article
co-authored with a client, Jennifer
Millier (Peterson & Millier, 2005). Millier
began the coaching in 2000, and over
the subsequent five-year period she was
promoted three times, including to a
significantly more challenging role.
Prior to the coaching she hadn’t been
promoted for years. “She was working
varieties of wine grape – Cabernet (who
died recently) and Pinot.
“there are two main parts to my love
of wine. the intellectual challenge: there
is so much to learn and understand
about it, and the social component:
drinking with friends as an aspect of
community [pre-pandemic, Wine
Wednesday was a regular feature in his
and wife, alexis Shoemate’s social
calendar]. the hedonistic component
comes only third.”
art and music, too, have been sources
of inspiration in his life. in an interview
for Forbes magazine, Peterson is quoted
as saying he wanted to be a rock star
when he was younger, and “had a love of
the creative process, a love of words, and
a sense of fun”. (Cohn, 2018)
“i love music. it’s always been a
references and further info
l A Cohn, ‘Embracing the future of leadership and coaching’, in Forbes, 2018
http://bit.ly/3aI6ZcF
l D B Peterson, ‘Measuring change: A psychometric approach to evaluating indi-
Virtuoso programme draws on music.
for example, neil Young’s music is
woven into the coach development
programmes: “he [Young] reinvented
himself any number of times over the
years and exemplified that challenging
of the status quo, experimenting.”
Peterson also makes an effort to
regularly listen to a range of new artists
from different genres. he believes
people benefit from exposing
themselves to new challenges.
Peterson also loves quotes. one,
which he includes on his website,
highlights the kind of person Peterson
clearly is not. he cites french romantic
artist, eugène Delacroix: “Mediocre
people have an answer for everything
and are astonished at nothing.”
in these times of rapid change and
unpredictability, it’s the Petersons of
our world, with their curiosity,
willingness to confront and challenge,
and their knack for reinvention that
may just see us through.

very hard to be good at her [current]
job, not the next job.”
to help her get promoted, Peterson
encouraged her to seek out and solve
problems, and find projects to realise.
“rather than being known as
someone who is good at following
orders, she became someone good at
solving gnarly problems which got her
promoted to a senior leader [role].”
who is peterson?
Peterson is known for his love of wine,
even calling his tibetan terriers after
vidual coaching outcomes’ In annual conference of the Society for Industrial and
Organizational Psychology, April 1993
l D B Peterson and M D Hicks, Leader As Coach: Strategies for Coaching and
Developing Others, Personnel Decisions Inc, 1996
l D B Peterson and M D Hicks, ‘Just enough to be dangerous: The rest of what
you need to know about development’, in Consulting Psychology Journal, 49(3), 171-
193, 1997
l D B Peterson and J Millier, ‘The alchemy of coaching: You’re good, Jennifer, but
you could be really good’, in Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research,
57, 14-40, 2005
l D B Peterson and M D Hicks, Development First: Strategies for Self Development,
Personnel Decisions International, 1995
l 7 Paths Forward, www:7pathsforward.com

24 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

 Covid-19

M
any of us
remember
vividly when we
first registered
the severity of the
threat posed by Covid-19. When
we realised just how tough it
was going to be for health
professionals in particular.
And when we decided we wanted
to be of service.
For Mark McMordie, the call to action
came when he watched a video of
medical professionals working in
tragic conditions in northern italy
during the first wave. Many coaches,
including myself, were moved to
respond to his subsequent Linkedin
post inviting coaches to step forward.
i found myself recalling that oft-

Covid:
mentioned question, ‘where were the
coaches as the banks crashed?’ i knew
simply re-painting my walls or tidying
my drawers just wasn’t going to cut it
when i reflected later on what i did as
the pandemic struck. and it seemed
obvious that coaching would have so
much to offer.

a year in coaching
Within days of posting on Linkedin,
McMordie was joined by fellow
leadership coaches Carole osterweil,
Lindsay Wittenberg and myself
[Liz hall], and we’d set up a scheme to
speedily roll out pro-bono coaching to
frontline workers, eventually as
One year on, Coaching through Covid continues to
Coaching through Covid (CtC).
Wittenberg says, “i was struck, in
offer pro-bono coaching to NHS and other key
particular, by the personal price that
some clinicians were already paying.
workers, and to role model agile compassionate
i was hugely engaged by the role that leadership. Coachees report benefits such as reduced
excellent coaching could play.
a compassionate, listening ear could anxiety, and greater levels of resilience and
provide opportunity for them to
express what working with Covid self-care. Volunteers are benefiting too, reporting a
meant – at an emotional, psychological
and professional level.” greater sense of purpose, tapping into community,
She had another compelling reason
too: “My own son – a consultant learning and even joy. Liz Hall reports
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com CoaChing at Work 25
 COvid-19

anaesthetist – was amongst those

catapulted into this new and very
challenging situation.”
gina Lodge, chief executive of the
academy of Executive Coaching
(aoEC), was also drawn to the Linkedin
post. “Compelled by a sense of ‘how can
i help?’ on behalf of aoEC, i offered a
connection with aoEC coaches.”
She joined the core CtC team for
six months.
We know we’re not the only ones
who’ve made a difference. My sister is
among those who made scrubs and
masks at home, and even following
guidelines to stay at home has been a
huge contribution. there’ve been other
programmes set up by helping
professionals. But this is our story of
how we responded, what the impact
was, and what we’ve learnt.
impact of coaching on CtC coachees
Benefits include:
l Increased wellbeing, including around self-care
l Greater resilience
l Increased self-awareness
l Greater clarity in cognition, behaviour and emotional regulation
l Developing an ability to cultivate mindfulness and be more fully present at work as
well as at home
l Accessing time to pause, reflect and then re-engage, at work and at home
l Boosted confidence and trust in self…speaking up (more)
l Greater ability to navigate the pandemic
l Having a ‘safe space to talk freely’
Issues covered in the coaching have included:
l Burnout
l Leadership at a difficult time
l Distress and overwhelm
l Making time for self-care, refocusing energy on self, setting boundaries
l Addressing boundaries

l Confidence with decision-making and relationships

Our stOry
as i write, almost a year later
(24 February 2021), CtC has matched
504 nhS and care workers including
doctors, nurses and porters with a
coach. it currently has 239 coaches on
its books, and has delivered more than
1,294 coaching sessions in 69 trusts.
Coachees report a range of benefits,
including increased resilience and
wellbeing.
Dr ravi Mangwiro, a consultant
anaesthetist who has received coaching
through CtC and now sits on the CtC
core team, describes it as
“psychological PPE”.
one coachee described the coaching
as a “life-saver”. another coachee even
attributes saving a patient’s life to
having received coaching. her coach
says, “i received wonderful feedback
today from my coachee who wanted
me to know the difference this is
making in her life. the example she
shared was of saving a patient from
committing suicide, and reflected that
she couldn’t have done this without the
coaching support she has been
receiving!”
l How to respond to challenges
l (Dealing) with enormous work pressures and work challenges during the pandemic
Source: data from coachee feedback
GettinG GOinG
Faced with so many health workers
struggling, we were motivated to get
going as quickly as possible. We were
inspired by World health organisation
executive director Mike ryan, who last
March (2020) made a powerful video
briefing about how to best respond to
the virus.
“Speed trumps perfection … the
greatest error is not to move. the
greatest error is to be paralyzed by the
fear of failure. if you need to be right
before you move, you will never win,”
he said.
‘Speed, not perfection’ became a
mantra for CtC. our first virtual
meeting took place on 20 March,
three days before the first lockdown
in the Uk. By 26 March, we were
up and running with our first
pilot coaching session, with a
consultant anaesthetist at the royal
Free London nhS Foundation trust.
Leadership coach Sasi Panchal, who
joined CtC in July 2020, says, “it simply
takes my breath away to hear that it
was just a matter of days for CtC to go
from ideation to actual delivery! it
showcases great leadership and the
collective call to action when one is
moved by others’ suffering and
wanting to serve with compassion and
kindness.”
Very quickly, hundreds of coaches,
and coach supervisors, volunteered, and
we were joined by a host of supporters,
from Coaching at Work, to the leading
professional bodies: academy of
Executive Coaching; association for
Coaching; association of Coaching
Supervisors; association for
Professional Executive Coaching and
Supervision; European Mentoring &
Coaching Council Uk; henley Centre for
Coaching; hult ashridge Executive

26 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

 covid-19

Education; Storytagger and Uk

international Coach Federation What coachees say
Eve turner volunteered as a coach
and a coach supervisor. She says, l Empowered, curious, confident, valued, calmer, happier.

“i had a sense of wanting to support l My coach was an amazing listener and very compassionate.

those who were on the frontline... l I used to stress about shifts before they happened. Now I am learning mindfulness

drawing on skills i had…. i didn’t want techniques and ways of approaching this.
to just be an onlooker in such a l I am noticeably calmer, more resilient.

challenging situation.” l It’s had an incredibly positive impact on all areas of my life.

For turner there were other reasons l I had a high degree of anxiety and was finding it difficult to manage the

for getting involved: “People i
respected had launched CtC, and i
trusted in their plans and their
passion. and this was borne out by
the adult-adult nature of all the
uncertainty and the difficult emotions that I was feeling…., I am now much
more mindful and generally I feel calmer and more able to cope with the
frequent changes at work. My relationships at work and at home are also
more positive and I feel more able to cope with the uncertainty.
l A new-found layer of resilience.

relationships, the way we were valued l Strength to get through the immense challenges within my roles.

and made to feel partners.” l The programme has been a life-saver for me and the way it was designed and

HigH quality,
appropriate service
While we were motivated to roll up our
sleeves and roll out the service rapidly,
we knew we couldn’t compromise on
quality, safety or fitness for purpose –
particularly given the conditions faced
by potential coachees. We knew from
the outset that mental health challenges
would be part of the territory.
With this in mind, we developed a
rigorous on-boarding process. it
requires all our coaches to be highly
experienced and highly accredited,
under personal supervision and to
have requisite professional insurance.
We were seeking what
David Clutterbuck has described as
mature systemic eclectic coaches –
highly experienced, able to work
systemically and not be wedded to a
single approach. Working relationally,
they’d be able to offer generative
attention and unconditional presence
– even when faced with a coachee’s very
challenging experiences.
learning in an
emergent system
Compassion, mindfulness and
psychological safety are at the heart of
CtC’s coaching and are central to the
way the team has created and
embedded a learning culture.
implemented has provided me with vital support – I don’t know how I would have
coped without it.
Dr Kate Sherratt, consultant anaesthetist, and a member of the CtC core team, shares
how coaching helped her offload and process what’s going on: https://bit.ly/36lngS2
CtC had clear values developed from
McMordie’s vision of what a “healing
organisation” and psychological safety
might look like. these values are: be of
service, reduce suffering, do no harm,
be agile, courage, ethics and integrity-
check intentions, do the right thing,
collaborate, compassionate leadership,
inclusiveness and diversity.
Wittenberg talks of humility, of
“ego-free and adaptive leadership”, of
“[having] no agenda around ‘being
right’.”
it’s helped that the team was united
around a very strong common
purpose. CtC expressed this as:
To be of service to NHS and care sector
front-line staff…by offering high quality
professional coaching and timely, demand
led resources which are bespoke to
individual needs and schedules…in a way
that is relational, compassionate and
tangible…in order to support staff to find
meaning, learning and growth from their
experiences, attend to their own wellbeing
and deliver sustainable care to those they
serve.
as well as compassion being part of
CtC values, leadership and service, CtC
has offered three compassion
cultivation training (CCt)
programmes. one was gifted by the
Compassion institute to clinicians at
the royal Free London nhS Foundation
trust, and two were offered pro-bono
to CtC coaches either directly by the
Compassion institute or by a teacher
trained by the institute. all have
received wonderful feedback.
to help bring his vision to life,
McMordie provided a clear framework
for team meetings. these started with a
mindfulness practice and were
followed by check-ins from everyone.
another regular feature was ‘inquiring
into what was emerging’, using
nancy kline’s timed rounds.
this approach allowed the disparate
group of people, some of whom had
never met, let alone worked together,
to come together quickly as a high-
performing team.
test and learn
We described our approach as ‘test and
learn.’ it felt ok to make mistakes, to

28 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

speak up when overwhelmed, and to
try out new things. We knew that a
learning, rather than a risk-avoidant
culture was in place. and this has made
it easy to access collective as well as
individual intelligence.
Welcoming clinicians into the CtC
core team has been important to help
us stay connected to the client’s world,
and to access collective intelligence.
Since it launched, four consultant
anaesthetists have volunteered.
on ‘test and learn’, turner says:
“it’s so often talked about. But to see it
happening in reality, to not worry
about doing things right...was
liberating. and hugely beneficial for
personal as well as organisational
learning... it promoted a sense of
equality and co-creation, of learning
on the job and being fleet of foot rather
than ‘perfect’, that allowed us to be so
much better than we might have been
otherwise.”
Walking in fog and
psychological safety
We’ve been able to learn and adapt in
an emergent system.
Part of this was about being able to
acknowledge the shifting and foggy
territory we were, and are, in.
osterweil, introduced the concept of
‘walking in fog’ from the world of
project management (Osterweil, 2019).
at times being able to say explicitly
‘we are walking in fog, and we can’t
really see the way forward’ was itself
get involved
l CtC has re-opened coach applications (although can’t guarantee you’ll get
matched quickly). If you’re interested or would like to help with matching, coach
selection, or managing relationships with trusts, contact:
l info@coachingthroughcovid.com
l www.coachingthroughcovid.com
Social media:
l Twitter: https://twitter.com/Coaching_Covid
l@Coaching_Covid
l Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coachingthroughcovid
healing. it promoted psychological
safety, and meant we weren’t thrown
when things shifted, as with new
variants.
“Framing it as foggy gave us an
opportunity to embrace the inevitable
challenges as just part of the journey
and as opportunities to learn, with no
judgement attached,” says osterweil.
this approach was complemented
by a partnership with the
Fearless organisation, and access
to its Psychological Safety index
(PSi), a tool developed with
Professor amy Edmondson to measure
and develop psychological safety in
a team.
Panchal describes how she
experienced psychological safety as a
new arrival. “i was surprised at how
compassionate, open and supportive
everyone was. From day one... it felt safe
to offer ideas and suggestions...
anything was possible. For the first
time in my working life, i’ve felt heard
and seen! i felt i was a part of a team
whose members really valued and
respected each other, everyone’s
opinion mattered and was considered,
with respect and inclusively.”
turner notes the “support, adult-
adult relationships, feeling valued,
collegiality and collaboration,
community” within CtC.
one early example of innovation was
prompted by realising how hard it was
for nhS workers in overwhelm to take
time to sift through the various
wellbeing services. We developed a
number of internal champions and
‘focal points’ – people who could liaise
between CtC and these internal
champions. this approach makes it
easier for potential coachees to find out
about and access our service, and builds
recommendation by word of mouth.
We’ve adapted how we support CtC
coaches too. We’ve offered CPD around
topics including resilience and
wellbeing, including with resilience
experts Jenny Campbell and
Carole Pemberton, and lately, joy.
and early on, we appreciated the
importance of CtC coaches being
‘trauma-sensitised’. We consulted
trauma experts, and brought in
helen-Jane ridgeway, an integrative
psychotherapist and counsellor and a
certified sensorimotor psychotherapist,
to deliver ‘trauma pods’ to support
CtC coaches in identifying and working
safely with trauma. We’ve supplied a
trauma resource pack to coaches.
We also learnt that not all front-liners
will be struggling. as turner says, “it was
important not to assume that everyone
would feel the same. Some frontline
staff weren’t traumatised in the first
wave. of course, this could be because
they were just getting on with the job
and not reflecting, but for some the
work was actually quite monotonous,
even tedious, compared to their usual
work. they might feel guilty for saying
so, but for some, their careers were put
on hold, they were moved out of
specialities they loved and put into roles
that were not theirs by choice.
We’ve bumped up against a learning
edge around being of service, with
many questions surfacing, including:
l What happens when our desire as a
coach to help those struggling is
thwarted? We don’t meet the criteria to
be accepted as a coach on this or
another programme? We may not get
allocated a coachee? or our coachee
seems fine and ‘merely’ wants career
coaching? What does our response say
about our own needs?

March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com CoaChing at Work 29

 Covid-19
l how do we avoid tipping ourselves
into depleting empathic distress,
instead staying more in a nourishing
compassionate zone?
l how do we avoid feeling guilty
because we’re not on the frontline,
then guilty again because we’re finding
it tough even though we’re not key
workers? how can we be
compassionate to ourselves?
feedbaCk
Evaluation of CtC is ongoing, currently
led by Panchal. one aspect of data is
coachee feedback, gathered after the
final session (CtC offers up to
12 sessions pro-bono).
it’s clear CtC is having a positive
impact on coachees (see box, page 28,
and feedback, right) with benefits
including greater wellbeing and
resilience, and an ability to cope in
challenging working conditions. it’s
also having a wider impact, including
on volunteers, and beyond.
as one coachee says, “if this is the
impact it has had on me, my family, my
colleagues, my organisation and my
patients then the collective impact
must be phenomenal.”
in addition to the coaching itself, it
seems CtC’s way of working has rippled
out, as we’ve consciously focused on
nurturing relationships, including
within the team, between coaches and
coachees, between the team and our
organisational sponsors, and in
alliances with professional bodies
and others.
Wittenberg says, “i suspect that the
ethos of the team transmitted itself to
the coaches, and from them to the
coachees. it’s helped to resource and
strengthen not only coachees, but their
families and their teams – enabling
learning that can sustain them.”
We’ve also consciously sought to
take a systemic stance, outside and
within team meetings, and acted with
agility where needed.
as well as offering a safe space for
coaches to explore difficulties, and
30 CoaChing at Work
serving to build
psychological safety
within the CtC coach
community, our
reflective Practice
groups (rPgs) have
helped to surface
common themes.
We launched these in april
2020 to supplement CtC
coaches’ own supervision. Coach
supervisor hosts have included
Simon Cavicchia, graham Lee, Eve
turner, Benita treanor, Mike Munro-
turner and Emma Donaldson-Feilder.
Common themes have included:
l Clinicians used to feeling in control,
and thus struggling at times when it’s
so much harder to feel this way
l health professionals used to staying
strong and looking after others
struggling to focus on self-care
l Systemic racism
these themes have helped informed
next steps. For example, the theme of
systemic racism has prompted us to
step up what we’re doing in the area of
diversity and inclusion. We’re trying
harder to reach out to communities
including midwives, nurses, porters
and cleaners who may be from BaME
backgrounds, which have been at times
harder hit by Covid-19.
We realise that in these communities,
coaching may not be known about or
trusted. Ella Clark, core team CtC
member, and a coach, is boosting
coverage on mainstream social media to
promote CtC, with stories being
gathered from BaME coachees.
We try to recruit coaches of colour
where possible and we’ve identified
which of our coaches have experience
in coaching coachees of colour. hall
and Panchal are currently exploring
further steps as part of the CtC Working
group on this topic. We’re following
up a well-received webinar in 2020
from leadership coaches of colour
Jackee holder and Jenny garrett, with
webinars from Salma Shah, and
Jenny Plaister-ten.
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Above: Feedback from NHS coachees
who’ve received coaching via CtC
impaCt on volunteers
CtC is also having a positive impact on
many volunteers, offering community,
meaning and purpose, learning and
growth, and joy, even in the midst of
trauma and crisis. this has certainly
been my own experience, and that of
others too.
Joy
reducing the likelihood of empathic
distress is likely to have been the case
for a number of the volunteers as well
as coachees. health psychologist and a
co-creator of the Stanford Compassion
Cultivation training programme,
kelly Mcgonigal, in her presentation at
the online Compassion in therapy
Summit on 30 January, distinguishes
between empathic distress and
compassion fatigue. But she says that
“even if we’re doing everything right”,
we can tip into compassion fatigue if
we feel our system is unsupportive.
antidotes include tapping into
community, and accessing joy, both of
which CtC have fostered, almost as
by-products.
osterweil says she’s accessed “joy on
a daily basis” through participating.
and Lodge says, “i have experienced
the joy of working with a team whose
sole focus is to try to support those in
need at a pivotal and unprecedented
moment in time, which will become
all our history at some point. it may
sound odd to say you can experience
joy in such difficult circumstances, but
in such dire times, working with an
amazing team unselfishly focused on
the benefit of those in need has been a
heart-warming lesson to learn.”
Wittenberg too says she’s attained,
“Joy through a sense of deep
connection and trust with the other
co-founders, and with other
colleagues, in tandem with a deep
sense of shared values and generosity
of spirit. Joy through a sense of
making a contribution to enabling
what our coachees needed to be
resourced and resource themselves
in their various extreme and not-so-
extreme situations and making it easy
to access.”
Meaning and purpose
having a sense of greater meaning and
purpose comes through strongly, from
members of our operations and
administrative team as well as coaches
and co-founders. as osterweil says,
“meaning in a time where it would be
easy to lose a sense of purpose and
meaning.” Wittenberg talks of having
gained “an opportunity to more clearly
and profoundly realise, and find
expression for, what my personal
purpose is”, realising “what a
significant impact our philosophy can
make on all those who come into
contact with it.”
Many of us have gained confidence.
i certainly have, in these alternative
ways of working, in the power of more
spacious mindful coaching, in the
contribution compassion can make,
for example.
osterweil says she’s gained
“confidence in myself and my abilities
and shall we say ‘less conventional’
ways of thinking and being…. i’ve
found my voice, and discovered an
ability to communicate with far larger
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
groups than before. i’ve become far most demanding of circumstances.”
more disciplined about meditating Perhaps we’re even contributing to
and happy that i embody all that lovely much-needed wider systemic changes.
‘good leadership practice’. the king’s Fund report calls for
i’m even more comfortable speaking “longer term cultural change…to
about uncertainty.” ensure collaborative, compassionate
and inclusive working environments,
Legacy with leaders at all levels tackling
it’s unclear what CtC’s future holds workload issues and leading cultural
although it has no plans to stop change… .” at CtC, it feels we’re role
providing its service at present. modelling an approach enabling this.
Demand for coaching continues and turner highlights how at CtC, we’ve
the road to recovery provided “a truly generative, more
is long. living system type of ‘leadership’ and
recent research from Uk health listening and really hearing, being
charity, the king’s Fund (February, open at all times to learning at all
2020) highlighted that those in health levels. (it’s) brilliant role modelling.”
and care are “at an increased risk of it feels we’re part of a movement
developing mental health problems towards more compassionate
following disasters, such as post- workplaces. Perhaps we’re even among
traumatic stress disorder, depression, those leading the way.
anxiety and compassion fatigue”. the in these disruptive times, which show
report underlines the importance to no sign of easing, agile compassionate
recovery of access to psychological leadership is the only approach that
support. makes sense. We’re testing and learning
is it possible that CtC has helped to how to bring such an approach alive –
avert severe mental health problems on a small scale at least.
further down the line in some of our Whether or not our legacy proves to
coachees, perhaps even in ourselves? be long-lasting, there’s comfort to be
time will tell. had, as osterweil says, from “knowing
Certainly, as Wittenberg says, “nearly that when the need arose, the coaching
500 individuals, their families and their profession was able to respond by
colleagues, may now know much better modeling everything it stands for”.
how to resource themselves and
maintain their wellbeing and balance, l Liz Hall is a co-founder of
Coaching
their health (physical and mental), through Covid and a coach on the
resilience and their perspective, programme. She’s the editor of
motivation and sense of purpose, in the Coaching at Work.
references and further information
l C Donohue, Coaching through Covid-19: psychological safety and compassion, in
Bulletin, 123, September 2020 https://rcoa.ac.uk/sites/default/files/
documents/2020-08/Bulletin123.pdf
l ‘Covid-19 recovery and resilience: what can health and care learn from other
disasters?’ The King’s Fund, 4 February, 2020
l C Osterweil, ‘Walking in Fog – how accepting unorder can unlock project
leadership’, in Project, May 2019
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332844613_Walking_in_Fog_-_how_
accepting_unorder_can_unlock_project_leadership
CoaChing at Work 31
 rESEArCh
nature’s
invitation
Rather than viewing coaching clients outdoors as
coaching plus outdoors, we should work in alliance with
nature, says Catherine Gorham
A
s the last waves of the
ebbing tide lapped
across the causeway in
the morning sun, and
Nature (which I
capitalise intentionally when
personifying) opened her arms to
invite me and my participants on to
St Mary’s Island on the North East
coast, I was moved by the sheer
beauty and magic of the location.
Since training in ecotherapy six years
ago, i’ve been integrating this
approach into my own coaching and
supervision practice, whenever it’s
appropriate. along the way, i identified
“The dynamic quality of working outdoors
means we’re forced to confront our
edges much more frequently than if we were
working indoors, both as practitioner and
client, partly because the environment is less
easy to control”
32 CoaChing at Work
a myth among fellow practitioners that
coaching clients outdoors is simply
coaching + outdoors. My passion now
is to dispel that myth, inviting others to
experience first-hand the complexity
and huge benefits of integrating
nature in a tripartite alliance – client,
coach and nature (Berger & McLeod,
2006) while being aware of the
important risks to be managed in order
to maintain psychological safety.
When a fellow coach suggested her
local lighthouse at Whitley Bay, i
immediately knew this was the perfect
spot for my next experiential
masterclass on Nature as Dynamic
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Co-Partner. While considering the gift
that a tidal causeway offers
practitioners as a transition tool,
symbolising a threshold between one
experience and another, i was drawn to
the concept of ‘liminal space’.
ironically, my google search produced
an example of a physical liminal space
as a non-functioning lighthouse –
‘Without a light, a lighthouse provides
no function’ (http://bit.ly/3auvZCM).
in the case of our workshop, the
lighthouse provided the perfect oasis
away from the buffeting wind to create
a safe container for our work together –
the circular space inviting us to hold
each other energetically. the eight
participants represented a mix of
modalities, including a leadership
coach, an art therapist and a holistic
health coach. this mix enabled rich
experiences in the pair work.
ThE workShop
i started by setting the context,
explaining that the workshop
represents the acceptance of an
invitation from nature, not us using
 ReseaRch
nature, thereby softening our entry
into the natural landscape. the
experiential day was designed around
the 3 Cs, my core principles for
integrating with nature: contracting,
connecting and containing.
contracting: it was important to
contract for the unpredictability of
the dynamic environment, whether
human or ‘more than human’ (in
ecotherapy terms).
connecting: Participants were invited
to connect with layers of self – like the
layers of the rocks – enquiring into their
personal historical and current
relationship with nature, staying
curious as to which parts of themselves
as practitioner would be more easily
accessible outdoors (eg, Free Child ego
state) and what that might mean for
other parts, and their clients.
Participants reported this had been a
profound experience, highlighting
how working in alliance with nature
can quickly enable us to touch on some
very precious aspects of our identity,
whether as practitioner or client.
containing: this includes
consideration of the most appropriate
holding environment with a particular
client in a given moment. Participants
coached each other in pairs,
experimenting with different options
offered by the landscape, while
attuning to the corresponding
variation in somatic impact of locality
and proximity.
For example, sitting together in an
exposed area of the rocks looking out to
sea versus focusing in on a small rock
pool, standing on the promenade above
the causeway and viewing the whole
landscape, and using existing structures
such as the lighthouse wall, to
symbolise a frame for the work with the
participant being coached, feeling their
back literally supported or protected.
Participants recognised their own
preferences as practitioner and how
34 CoaChing at Work
What participants said
l It has been a wonderful day. The theoretical framework, together with the
phenomenological experience, has helped in my understanding and feeling of
the power of this work.
Jane Kennington
l A wonderful introduction to appreciating nature and her role in exploring
whatever we need to move forward together.
Duncan O’Brien
l The workshop was beautifully facilitated. Catherine sharing her knowledge
and experience of working with nature as a partner in coaching. Real experience
and learning of practice with attendance to ethical practice and psychological
safety of the client.
Ruth Leggett
l The session enabled a profound enlightenment as to the power of nature within
the coaching context. Where it had previously provided a pleasant but passive
backdrop for me to work and be with clients, I now have techniques which will
facilitate my coachees to relate to their area of enquiry using the dynamic force of
nature and ensure they feel safely contained within the chosen outdoor space.
Diane Johnson
these would need to be held with confront our edges much more
awareness to enable a focus on the frequently than if we were working
service of the client, for example, the indoors, both as practitioner and
vastness of the horizon may invite client, partly because the environment
infinite possibilities, representing the is less easy to control. in this particular
perfect support for a creative thinking setting, there was a risk of slipping on
style, but a client may need to start with the seaweed, or one person being
a more contained space to make sense colder than the other, and the evidence
of the enquiry first. of our own heightened vulnerability in
there was fascination in the shared the moment offers an experience of
experience of the hide behind the mutual authenticity, and therefore,
lighthouse (positioned to watch the intimacy, beyond that apparent or
seals, so only whispering was accessible in most coaching and
allowed!): the intimacy of sitting therapy conducted indoors.
together in the dark and watching a
framed view with the external stillness Psychological safety
having the effect of simultaneously Whatever our niche as coaches,
inviting an inner stillness. this psychological safety is part of our
intimacy might be broken at any point business. Emotions can come to the
of course by the arrival of other surface more quickly when we’re
visitors and such risks must be outdoors. Without physical structures
included in the contracting. or solid boundaries to contain these,
the hide also offered a felt sense of it’s vital to assess in an introductory
separation from the enquiry as the session whether a client has sufficient
practitioner in the exercise witnessed capacity to self-regulate around their
their ‘client’ projecting their story and own emotional processing before
emotional attachment onto the expanse taking them outdoors.
of rocks and the seals basking in the sun. Even so, any client can be taken aback
the dynamic quality of working by the power of sudden emotions
outdoors means we’re forced to arising and, in instances of emotional
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

dysregulation, sensory connecting can
be helpful for grounding, such as
touching the pebbles, walking on the
sand, noticing the intricate texture of
the seaweed, hearing the seagulls. Some
participants were reminded of their
tendency to focus on the visual and the
advantages of broadening to include
the other senses in their work with
clients, becoming more mindful of
individual preferences.
Gifts of nature
Planning the workshop on the north
east coast, i was inevitably asked by
colleagues, “What will you do if the
weather’s bad?” While my glib answer
was, “that’s part of the work”, of course
i was relieved when i saw sunshine,
and several participants shared
my relief.
however, none of us had prepared
for the cold wind and yet that too
became a tool, helping us notice our
personal points of physical contact
with the natural world and reminding
us to soften the boundaries between
the inner and the outer. in one exercise,
a participant taking the role of client
felt “cleansed by the wind”, blowing
her emotions away up the coast.
My pre-workshop briefing had
advised everyone to come prepared for
all weathers and if it had been raining
we would have noticed the impact –
maybe in terms of our internal physical
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
contracting – and spent more time in
the lighthouse with the contrasting
sense of ease, modelling how a
connection to nature can be
established indoors with a client,
working with the views.
the natural world offers us infinite
gifts in the moment as practitioners,
whether that be metaphors and their
relationships to each other in the
system, close and distant perspectives,
sensory experiences – the yacht
suddenly coming into view, the
ripples of the wind on the water, the
oyster catchers landing,
During the workshop, at 14:32 to
be precise, the tide turned and i
invited participants to feel the change
in energetic force from pulling
away to being drawn towards. What
might those forces represent in a
client’s system?
one of the learnings shared at the end
of the day was not to feel overwhelmed
by what’s available – less is more – thus
retaining the sense of spaciousness that
can be more immediately accessible by
working this way.
transition
after an outdoor session, clients must
manage their transition back indoors.
they are usually keen to retain their felt
sense of attachment to an object on to
which they have projected a
relationship or issue. So they sometimes
take a symbolic pebble or a photo as a
useful anchor between sessions.
Participants had experienced the
lighthouse as a safe space to return to
and so when we were in our closing
circle among the rocks, i asked them
what wisdom the lighthouse with a 360
degree view of the landscape might
offer them as supervisor for their own
practice with nature going forward.
one coach expressed gratitude for the
fortitude of the lighthouse and how that
would anchor her in her practice.
as the lapping waves approached
the causeway, we took leave of our
holding container on the island and
let nature take her expansive space
once again. the participants left with
a personal intention to deepen their
connection with nature, including
incorporating her as a co-partner in
their own supervision. i left with
appreciation in my heart for the
privilege of this work and the special
place we’d shared.
l Catherine Gorham is accredited as
senior practitioner coach and supervisor,
EMCC and fellow, CIPD. The core principle
of her private practice is psychological
safety for individuals, groups and teams.
Her training in ecotherapy was a spiritual
experience as Nature’s offer to be her
co-partner felt profound; she now shares
her passion with other practitioners
through masterclasses and specialist
individual and supervision.
l catherinegorham.co.uk
l catherine@catherinegorham.co.uk
references
l R Berger and J McLeod,
‘Incorporating Nature into
Therapy: A Framework for Practice’,
in Journal of Systemic Therapies,
25(2), June, pp80-94, 2006
l See also: https://www.coaching-
at-work.com/2015/04/11/lets-get-
outside/
CoaChing at Work 35
 In the first of this series of articles about race equity in coaching
by Tammy Tawadros, she argues that a confluence of global
forces amounts to a call for a ‘conscientisation’ of the coaching
profession, and for the need for (executive) coaches to develop a
coherent and critical perspective on race and race equity.
Part 1: Race equity and coaching – a call to conscientisation?

race
consciousness
36 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

O
ver the past year,
major world events
have brought crisis
and bewildering
uncertainty to our
lives. They’ve offered many of us
glimpses of the possibility that
longed for and hitherto elusive
change might happen; and
hope that new solidarities
would be kindled in our shared
vulnerability to the virus and its
impacts.
Social media made us witness to
the brutal, blunt, murderous
manifestations of racism. We saw the
Black Lives Matter movement re-assert
itself and throw the unpalatable
history and present-day realities of
racial injustice and inequity into
sharp focus, drawing our attention
to the enduring and pervasive
nature of racism in the fabric
and structure of our societies.
the huge shift in consciousness that
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
followed saw numerous corporations
and institutions take serious, concerted
and corrective action to address racism
and social inequity.
A wAke-uP cAll
this confluence of global forces has
been a catalyst for real change and
amounts to a further wake-up call for
many professions, including coaching,
to move towards critical consciousness
and a truly relevant, engaged practice
that centres on race equity and
addresses race inequity.
a race inequity framing regards
racial injustice as arising from
structural and institutional systems
that disadvantage members of
minoritised groups and privileges the
rights of those who belong to the
(white) dominant social group.
race cannot be ignored because it is
a significant dimension of experience
and of our socio-political condition.
in the context of equity-mindedness,
OPINION
to be ‘race conscious’, is to be aware of
the historic roots and the pervasive,
systemic nature of oppression, in
touch with social reality, and open to
the importance of race, (albeit that it
is an artificial construct closely
associated with the transatlantic
slave trade).
race equity is not achieved through
a focus on diversity (representation
and demographic difference) or
inclusion (individual behaviour).
these are important but they do not
lead to equitable outcomes because
they do not address the central issue
of racial injustice.
the discourse of social justice and
human rights resonates powerfully
and inescapably with countless
numbers of Black People, People of
Colour and white allies to the
movement and cause, in the world of
coaching, as it does with many others
in the helping professions.
Yet to date, activist, scholar and
CoaChing at Work 37

“At a time of acute disruption and extreme
anxiety, it can be hard to pause, to think
without defensiveness, about what we
might gain from paying greater attention
to race equity in coaching, whether in our
own practice, or in the profession as a whole”
practitioner coaches appear to have
been largely silent on the specific topic
of race, and very little has emerged by
way of an articulated perspective on
anti-racism and race equity.
Several coaching traditions place
particular emphasis on the interplay
between the individual and their
organisational and wider context,
and underscore the importance
of an intrinsic connection
between the experience of coaches,
38 COACHING AT WORK
coachees and the wider context.
Such a contextualising approach
offers rich possibilities for anti-racist,
and race equitable coaching practice
to emerge, and for experience,
relationships, organisations and
systems to be understood within a
critical socio-political frame.
There are doubtless many brilliant,
courageous and inspired coaching
conversations that take place within
such a perspective. What is hard to
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
imagine, however, is how such
conversations can be rendered
capable of producing change in
service of race equity, in the absence of
an explicit stance on how racism and
anti-racism operate.
A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE
To invite the need for such a stance, is
not to invoke a simplistic recipe or the
tyranny of moralism and dogma.
Rather, it is to underline the need for a
coherent and critical perspective that
informs coaching practice and forms a
cogent basis for taking action.
Such a perspective would go some
way towards the following:
1. Conceptualising the multiple
ways in which racism is manifested,
enacted and reproduced within the
profession as a whole, and the ways
these are expressed, elaborated and
understood within coaching
relationships.

regardless of the form –
institutional or interpersonal – the
outcomes of injustice are the same.
they damage the individuals involved
and threaten the future of the
profession’s viability by denting its
credibility and limiting its
contribution to social change.
2. Challenging the business-as-
usual, ingrained Eurocentric
assumptions, belief systems and
dominant models that inform and
bias coaching practice.
these privilege an individualistic and
narrow view of what constitutes success
and effectiveness in coaching. Moreover,
they perpetuate asymmetrical power
and maintain non-conscious, taken-for-
granted oppressions intact. the
psychological and relational wounds
that result, and often go unrecognised,
have enduring negative consequences
for the health and well-being of Black
People and People of Colour.
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
3. Legitimising and foregrounding
the experiences, narratives and
voices of Black People and People of
Colour as a source of knowledge and
ensuring that these reflect not only
the difficult histories and troubling
realities of social injustice but also
the positive lived experience of
pride, strength and triumph.
at a time of acute disruption and
extreme anxiety, it can be hard to
pause, to think without defensiveness,
about what we might gain from
paying greater attention to race equity
in coaching, whether in our own
practice, or in the profession as
a whole.
as the Covid-19 pandemic enters its
second year, it looks set to cause
lasting upheaval and uncertainty. this
may deepen our empathy and sharpen
our appetite to engage with the
liberating potential of race equity,
close to home, as a key pillar of our
practice and our endeavours as a
OPINION
profession, or it may see us turn away
and perhaps later “look in vain for
progress in the larger world” (Eleanor
Roosevelt, 1958).
What’s NExt?
in subsequent articles in the series,
tawadros will explore a range of topics
relating to race equity in coaching.
these will include an exploration of
ethics and the psychology of guilt,
reparation and responsibility;
empowerment and ‘critical humility’:
balancing empathy and confrontation,
clarity and reflexivity; how to recognise
and work with micro-aggressions in
the coaching relationship; and living in
the shadow of denial – a personal
reflection on the role of trauma in
working with race inequity.
l Tammy Tawadros is a coach, coach
supervisor, OD consultant and work
psychologist. She is a member of faculty
for the AMEC programme at Ashridge.
CoaChing at Work 39
Charging point
How do you calculate a ‘fair exchange’ ask Clare Norman
and Michelle Lucas, in this series on fees in coaching and
coaching supervision. Part 1: supervision
40 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

G
etting practitioners to
talk transparently
about rates is not
without discomfort.
We started to explore
this delicate issue because we noticed
that there was an apparent discrepancy
between the charges for coaching and
those for coaching supervision. We were
personally able to charge more for
coaching than we were able to negotiate
for supervision and that appeared to be
similar for other people who offered
both coaching and supervision.
So how did this come about?
We decided to get curious.
in an unregulated market where
much of the work of independent
practitioners is won through
relationship, how do we know what to
charge? neither coaches nor
supervisors have a benchmark against
which to guide their fee structure.
additionally, fees are rarely
transparent, whether in the coaching
arena, supervision or team coaching.
While more research-orientated
coaches might ask their network
contacts, our typical British reserve
stops many practitioners asking the
question – indeed, not everyone is
willing to provide answers. the result?
the practitioner ends up doing a bit of
guesswork about what fee is
appropriate for their client base.
So how do we take the guesswork out
of determining our fees?
in this series, we’ll be looking at the
current fee structures for supervision,
coaching and team coaching and we
will explore what factors are
influencing pricing strategy. We start
with supervision fees (in the Uk.)
having done some desk research
(scouring supervisor directories and
Istockphoto.com/aurielaki
websites to find practitioners willing to
go public about their rates), this is
what we found (see box above). When
considering fees that independents are
charged for supervision, the issue is
complicated by the vagaries of the
coach’s hourly rate, which itself can
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Individual supervision
Independent coaches Between £85 and the
Lowest to highest rates coach’s standard hourly fee
plus 10%
Internal coaches Lowest Consultancy day rates: £800 - £2,300
to highest rates (depending on sector)
range from £25 to £500 per hour.
Similarly, fees charged to organisations
for supervision of internal coaches vary
depending on its industry sector.
interestingly, in our research and
network discussions it was very rare to
find individuals paying a high-end rate
for supervision. one established
practitioner commented, “only one of
my individual supervisees pays me a
rate which is equivalent to what i could
earn as an executive coach for the same
session time.”
a supervisor’s earning power was
only maximised in the domain of
corporate-facing work, charging day
rates in high margin sectors for group
supervision.
You might imagine that less-
experienced supervisors charge at the
lower end of the spectrum, following
the similar pattern that new coaches
tend to charge rates also at the lower
end, but we found little evidence for
this among supervisors, with even very
experienced supervisors charging at
the lower end of the spectrum.
Let’s look at the case for the different
cost models.
charGinG less fOr
suPervisiOn than
cOachinG
l Maturity of the coaching
supervision market
When coaching supervision emerged
as an offering, it was usual for the
supervisor to have a therapeutic
background. therapeutic professions
have historically commanded lower
fees for their client services than
coaches, partly because of the
perceived ‘wellness’ of their clients and
OPiniOn
Group supervision
Between £45 and £125 per
hour per person
because, typically it was delivered
weekly. Coaches now have more
supervision choice than ever, and while
that choice includes more
therapeutically orientated supervisors,
the price that coaching supervisors can
charge will be suppressed.
While coaches who invest in
supervision would not be without it,
there isn’t that much data about its
benefits. the professional bodies differ
in their position on its importance.
Some see it as fundamental and
incorporate it into their accreditation
processes (aC, EMCC and aPECS). the
iCF values mentor coaching (observed
coaching with feedback benchmarked
against iCF core competencies) as
formative for iCF credentialing and
recommends supervision as part of a
coach’s CPD.
in some regions, an absence of
trained professional supervisors has led
to an increase in peer supervision –
generally reciprocal and unpaid. Some
will conclude it’s not worth paying for
something you can get for free.
l encouraging early adoption
ideally, for the reputation of the
profession, the safety of the client and
the benefit of the practitioner, we want
to encourage more coaches to “stay
sharp and stay safe” (Norman, 2016)
from the moment their practice
breathes. if we want coaches to have
supervision as soon as they get their first
clients, it needs to be accessible when
they’re not bringing in much income
themselves. So, keeping the cost down
may encourage them to buy it sooner,
with sooner-seen benefits. What we do
know is that once the benefits are
CoaChing at Work 41
 OPiniOn

l The supervisor’s motivation

Coaches, as a rule, engage deeply with

issues to consider their professional and personal
l Does it matter that the range of supervision fees is so extensive? development. there’s always another
l What are the implications for the wider profession to have some slant to take, a theory to delve into, a
supervisors ‘undercutting’ (consciously or unconsciously)? psychological perspective or tool to
l How much is cost a determining factor in who we choose to be our supervisors? learn. however, ‘selling to our own’ can
l How do we encourage coaches to engage in supervision and get more savvy prompt an interesting psychological
about the value that it brings versus the amount that it costs? response. With supervision’s more
l If the costs of individual and group supervision were equalised, what would collaborative and collegiate stance,
coaches prefer? some supervisors might feel awkward
l What difference does the rate we charge for supervision have on the whole if their work feels like pyramid selling;
system of coaching? perhaps making money from other
coaches feels dishonourable in a way.
in reality, it’s no different to a
known and felt, they’re likely to this would make the case for lower- wholesale/retail business model.
continue engaging with supervision. priced supervision because there are Coaching is retail – we sell to others;
this might take us to a situation lower marketing costs and less effort in supervision could be seen as wholesale
where supervisors offer a sliding scale winning supervision clients in – we sell to our own…. and wholesale
of charges whereby the coach who is comparison to coaching. this depends carries a lower price-point.
just building up his or her business on how a coach wins their business, as also, many supervisors are at a life
pays less for supervision than the coach the effort is similarly low for associate stage where their work is more about
who has been in the market for some coaches and for the preferred supplier intellectual stimulation and
time. Consider how other professional for large corporates with large volumes professional connection than necessity.
services actively encourage start-ups of coaching assignments.
and entrepreneurs. Banks offer Charging mOre fOr
discounted banking fees, for example. l Cost to serve suPervisiOn Than
What might be the checkpoints that group supervision is a popular choice. fOr COaChing
cause the price to rise – experience… the hourly fee of the supervisor is l additional expertise

accreditation or credential level? time
since training? income? hours of
coaching completed? While the new
coach might jump at this opportunity
at the beginning of the supervision
relationship, as the coach’s rates
increase with confidence and
experience, why would they then offer
to pay more for the same service?
l Cost of sale
When we compare the lifespan of the
supervision relationship, it can often
continue over a much longer duration
than a coaching one. typically, a
coaching assignment might involve six
to ten sessions over a year. in
comparison, once a supervision
relationship is established, it’s not
unusual for a supervisee to remain with
spread among multiple supervisees
and satisfies a need for connection.
ideally, this makes it more cost-
effective for the supervisee and offers a
more lucrative proposition for the
supervisor. this will appeal to coaches
with a small budget for supervision
and indeed enables more coaches to
access supervision than if only
individual supervision were available.
this ignores the added complexity of
supervising a group though. the
supervisor must take account of the
extra effort in group contracting and
managing group dynamics. there’s an
argument that while group work is
more efficient, it’s harder work for the
supervisor. to do it well the supervisor
may need even more training or
experience in facilitation and/or group
Professional coaching supervisors will
have spent additional time and money
becoming trained and qualified or
accredited as supervisors. Coaching
supervisors are often seasoned
practitioners with more experience to
draw on. Many supervisors journeyed
into supervision training to extend
their practice beyond being a master
coach. in any other business model,
these costs would be accounted for in
the charging-out of services. the
concept of paying more for someone
with more experience is familiar to
most of us. So, as a coach, isn’t it
reasonable to expect your supervisor to
have higher fee structures that will
account for their additional expertise?
l ratio of coaching hours to

that same supervisor for the rest of dynamics. there are also the additional supervision hours
their coaching (or more often their marketing and administration costs in We should also consider the ratio of
supervisor’s) career. bringing a group of people together. how much supervision is

42 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

recommended in relation to the
number of hours of coaching. the
professional coaching bodies have
recommendations of good practice –
often with a higher ratio of hours for
new coaches (say 1:20) and a lower
ratio for experienced coaches (say
1:40). it is a little counter-intuitive from
an affordability perspective, as new
coaches are likely to have fewer funds
to pay for more intensive supervision.
nonetheless, multiple hours of
coaching fees will contribute to the
cost of one hour’s supervision.
l The client’s perspective
how would clients feel if coaches in
supervision charged an explicit levy, a
supplement, with the cost of
supervision being passed to the client?
Ultimately, the client benefits from a
coach who is in supervision whether or
not their work is discussed in
supervision. this might also help clients
understand the value in working with
an accredited coach (where supervision
is mandatory to maintain status)
compared to one who is not.
a m0re robusT
pricing sTraTegy
this illustrates the complexity of what
appears at first to be a simple question
– and we’re wondering why as
practitioners we’re facing this ‘alone’?
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
What’s the role of the professional
bodies to support members to
establish a fair price for our services?
We know that relatively speaking
coaching and coaching supervision are
still maturing markets but if we want
to appear professional to our clients,
wouldn’t some kind of pricing
structure illustrate our maturity?
it would also mean that consumers
would be choosing suppliers based on
‘best fit’ rather than price. Can you
imagine how much easier responding
to tenders would be if the market rate
for the work was already established?
in many organisations, there’s a
yearly exercise where the
compensation and benefits team
benchmark employee’s roles against
roles in other companies in similar and
different industries and come up with
salary ranges. if we were to take an
approach similar to the ‘salary survey’
benchmarking of organisations, we
would need the following:
l a research organisation skilled at
developing salary surveys
l a means of funding the research
l Support from professional bodies
and key stakeholders in the market to
promote participation
l Engagement of practitioners to share
their data knowing that it will be
treated confidentially
We recognise that establishing a single
recommended rate would be
inappropriate. We would need to
consider the underpinning expertise of
both coach and supervisor, the sectors
they worked in as well as more esoteric
factors such as the practitioner’s belief
system. Clearly making this happen
might take some time, so what do we
do in the meantime?
our argument is for a ‘fair exchange’.
Where coaches are charging for their
services, as a minimum they should be
willing to pay their supervisor at least as
much as they receive themselves.
Ultimately, an hour of your time equals
an hour of mine. ideally, we think that
supervisors should value the investment
they’ve made in their further training
and ask for a supplement on the
coaches’ earning power.
here’s an example of how might this
work in practice:
l Let’s say supervisors charge
the coach’s coaching rate + 10%
l if we say the coach’s corporate rate is
£400 per session (to make the maths
easy)
l then the coach’s coaching rate +
10% for supervision = £440
For argument’s sake, let’s say the coach
has 10 clients a month, so £4,000 per
month coaching income.
if we suggest one supervision session
every other month, that is one session
for 20 sessions of coaching, which
would be £440 out of £8,000 income.
that’s roughly 5.5% of the coach’s
income being spent on supervision.
is 5.5% fair? how might we compare
this investment to what we’re willing to
pay for other CPD?
as coaches and as supervisors, we’d
love to hear what you think is fair. Put a
figure on it.
conTacT us
l Michelle Lucas: michelle@
greenfieldsconsultancy.co.uk
l Clare norman: clare@
clarenormancoachingassociates.com
l Next issue: coaching fees
references
l C Norman, ‘Stay Sharp, Stay
Safe’, Coaching at Work, 2016
l G Olivero, K D Bane and R E
Kopelman, ‘Executive coaching as
a transfer of training tool: Effects
on productivity in a public
agency’, in Public Personnel
Management, 1997
CoaChing at Work 43
 opinion

Building
wellness
Coaching cancer patients has informed a framework for empowering
clients to be more resourceful and to adapt to change. Andrew Parsons,
Sue Jackson and Jackie Arnold share what they’ve learnt, drawing on
the book they’ve edited, published last month to mark World Cancer Day
on 4 February 2021

W
e’re
professional
coaches who
volunteer our
services to the
Fountain Centre, a charity that
supports cancer patients, carers
and other family members in
the nHS. The coaching service
was developed to support
clients to play a fully active role
in their lives and to live well,
both with and beyond cancer.
the diagnosis of cancer creates a
whole new perspective in a moment.
Many people say they can remember
exactly where, when and how they
were told. nothing is ever quite the
same again as they enter a complex,
ambiguous, uncertain world where
they feel a loss of control.
Significant changes in their physical
abilities, and social relationships at
home and at work can impact the
emotional, cognitive and spiritual
aspects of their lives. this can result in a
life of high complexity and uncertainty
for those individuals we support.
parallelS in THe
Wider SySTem
the current pandemic has brought
significant uncertainty to many across
the globe. With the challenges of
remote working, isolation and lack of
social interaction, many feel in survivor
mode. in this situation, as we see in our
work with cancer patients, the ability to
cope and adapt is even more important.
Some 78% of business leaders have
reported an increase in negative health
behaviours, including self-medication
with alcohol and drugs as a
maladaptive coping response (HR
magazine, 2020).
in 2018-19, stress, depression or
anxiety were responsible for 44% of all
cases of work-related ill health and 54%
of all working days lost due to health
issues in the Uk, according to Mental
health First aid. as we’ve read in the
press, mental health issues are even
more commonplace in the pandemic.
in our experience, coaching builds
the skills of resilience and
resourcefulness so individuals become
empowered in their lives and adapt
(healthily) to their situation. in positive
psychology, this state is often spoken of
as one in which people flourish or
thrive. in our work, this feels a
misnomer. no-one has chosen their
cancer diagnosis or to live through a
pandemic. Certain aspects of our lives
will change forever and are beyond our
control. however, by developing
awareness, knowledge and resources we
can build ‘wellness’ in these situations.
in 2020-21, living in volatile,
uncertain, complex and ambiguous
(VUCa) environments has become the
norm for many more people globally.
the initial concept of VUCa was
introduced more than 40 years ago to
prompt strategic leadership in the
military. recently, new perspectives of
Vision, Understanding, Courage/
Clarity and adaptability/agility
(VUCa 2.0) were introduced.
THe CyCle oF
empoWermenT
these perspectives are built from the
Cycle of Empowerment (see Figure 1,
page 46), first presented by

44 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

 opinion
andrew Parsons at the international
Coach Federation conference in
Florence, italy, in 2019. the Cycle
provides a learning framework for
coaches and mentors to support
clients to boost health and wellness,
helping people and systems to be
more resourceful, resilient and move
towards the new VUCa in our gVD
(global, Virtual, Diverse) world.
the first step is to use holistic
coaching skills to support clients to
gain a deeper awareness of their
situation. this can result in a broader
understanding of their physical
situation and the way they’re thinking
and processing information. these
insights promote the development of
new perspectives and opportunities.
Motivation can then be explored and
aligned with their external
stakeholders, such as family or
workplace. Such an exploration and
alignment enables choice. this choice
enables implementation.
these coaching processes facilitate
awareness, accelerate learning and
enable individuals to develop a clear
personal Vision, which supports their
understanding of purpose (Clarity) and
options (Adaptability/Agility).
Three empowermenT
pillars
We’ve identified three pillars involved
in empowerment: Awareness,
Information, Learning.
awareness is our mindfulness,
presence and heart connection with
ourselves and others, which establishes
clarity in the six realms of wellness to
define or redefine the important
elements that bring meaning to our
lives (our purpose).
as defined by the national Wellness
institute (www.nationalwellness.org),
the key domains are physical,
intellectual, emotional, social,
spiritual and occupational. the
coaching process enables clients to
make decisions more congruently, act
46 CoaChing at Work
Figure 1: The Cycle of Empowerment © Andrew A Parsons 2019
with intention and to pause and
notice when changes are needed. For
example, it’s useful to be aware of the
significant environmental,
technological, social and personal
challenges we face.
to survive in this changing global
environment, leaders, coaches, hr
and health professionals need to
support staff, clients and patients to
be resilient and self-motivated, to
exert greater influence on the
determinants of health and wellness.
all professionals need to feel
resourced and supported as they delve
into the spaces of ‘not knowing’ by
ensuring they have access to robust
support such as supervision.
information, facts and knowledge
help people weigh up options and
make decisions. For example, in the
current pandemic, information is
important to make assessments about
our safety and wellbeing. Feedback is
also a form of information that creates
awareness. as coaches, ‘holding the
mirror’ can provide deep insights that
weren’t previously known.
Coaching offers a place in which to
become aware of and discover ways to
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
manage anxiety by adopting cognitive
flexibility, staying present and
developing focus both in work and
personal life.
as professionals in both business and
health we need access to research and
up-to-date information from a variety
of sources. We need to keep abreast of
the considerable changes brought
about by Covid-19, climate change and
the geo-political environment. it’ll be
necessary to support individuals to
anticipate risk, build core
empowerment skills and behaviours.
it’ll be even more vital for our clients to
motivate and engage their employees,
team members and patients.
We’re aware of the urgent need for
individuals and teams to attend to
their physical, spiritual and mental
health. Particularly to take time out
from their screens, walk and be in
nature, reflect wisely before making
key decisions and take regular
recovery breaks; a challenge in such
times of unprecedented change, social
isolation and uncertainty.
learning and insight can be
developed from expanding awareness,
deep reflection, seeking information,
aligning motivation and taking
appropriate action. the safe,
trustworthy and non-judgmental
environment created in coaching
conversations provides an
opportunity to establish sustainable,
values-led and personally congruent
development. it’ll be important to
consider the inevitable denial and
about the authors
l Andrew A Parsons is an EMCC-
accredited Master coach/mentor and
certified professional medical coach with
postgraduate degrees in Physiological
Sciences (MSc, PhD) and Psychology (MSc).
He’s a volunteer coach at the Fountain
Centre working with cancer patients and
their families at the Royal Surrey NHS
in organisations to develop empowered
leaders, managers and team members, to
facilitate vocational rehabilitation and
improve mental health. She has specialist
experience coaching individuals with long-
term and life shortening medical conditions
including cancer and pain management.
l Jackie Arnold is a founding board

resistance to change and any fears
and emotions that arise as a result,
given how comfortable we are with
the familiar.
it’s vital to learn how to explore
uncertainty and to ‘be with’ the
unknown. to act compassionately and
with curiosity embracing different
cultures and styles will enable us to
develop collaborative and sustainable
relationships. in times such as these we
need to be reflective and mindful
partners alongside the individuals and
teams we support.
Foundation Trust. He runs Reciprocal
Minds Limited with his partner and won an
award for Best Corporate Wellness
Coaching Company 2020. He is co-author
of Leading With Presence: What it is,
why it matters and how to get it.
l Sue Jackson is the principal of
Whitespace Coaching. She’s an accredited
master executive coach, coach trainer and
supervisor, and is trained in mindfulness-
based approaches. Sue coaches at all levels
member of the UK ICF and of the
Association of Coaching Supervisors, an
accredited coach and coach supervisor. She
holds a Cancer Certificate for Primary Care
Practitioners from Melbourne University.
She’s trained in methodologies such as
Clean Language, EI and CBT and is an NLP
practitioner. She works as a coach and
supervisor at the NHS Fountain Centre. She
is co-author of tomorrow’s global
Leaders today: Working Wisely in
turbulent times with Elaine Patterson.

IntegratIon
references and further info
l B George, ‘VUCA 2.0: A Strategy For Steady Leadership In An Unsteady World’, in
We believe the ultimate goal of
Forbes, 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2017/02/17/vuca-
coaching for resilience is one that
2-0-a-strategy-for-steady-leadership-in-an-unsteady-world/#725a041613d8
develops empowerment in health and
l B Jackson, ‘Business leaders self-medicating with drugs and alcohol to cope with
wellness – the title of our recently
mental health problems’, in HR Magazine, 9 December 2020
published book – by bringing
https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/hr-knowledge-bank/editorial/business-leaders-self-
together all three pillars of awareness,
medicating-with-drugs-and-alcohol-to-cope-with-mental-health-problems,
information and learning. as
l V Merk, Creating the new normal with the new VUCA in Corona-times, 2020.
individuals become empowered, they
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/creating-new-normal-vuca-corona-times-vincent-
utilise their Vision, Understanding,
merk/
Clarity and agility to:
l A A Parsons, S Jackson and J Arnold (Eds), Empowerment in Health and Wellness,
l Withstand the turbulence and
Panoma Press, 2021
overwhelm of rapid change
l A A Parsons, Translating empowerment. XVI CONFERENZA ICF Italia, Firenze,
l Enhance resilience and regain balance
2019
for wise decision-making
l A L Stanton, J H Rowland and P A Ganz ‘Life after diagnosis and treatment of
l Feel more motivated to survive in our
cancer in adulthood: Contributions from psychosocial oncology research’ in
increasingly GVD environment
American Psychologist, 70(2), 159, 2015
l R Stelter and V Andersen, ‘Coaching for health and lifestyle change: Theory and
Post-Covid, there’s likely to be an even
guidelines for interacting and reflecting with women about their challenges and
greater key role for coaches, mentors,
aspirations’, in International Coaching Psychology Review, 13(1), 61-71, 2018
hr professionals and leaders/
l The Fountain Centre https://www.fountaincentre.org
managers using coaching approaches
l The Parliamentary Review, Reciprocal Minds Limited. Education Services, 27-29,
to build resilience and empower both
2019 https://www.theparliamentaryreview.co.uk/organisations/reciprocal-minds-ltd
individuals and teams. the resulting
l WE Whiteman, Training and educating army officers for the 21st century:
benefits in health and wellness from
Implications for the United States. Military Academy. Fort Belvoir, VA: Defense
the development of this new VUCa
Technical Information Center, 1998
perspective will be important in, and
for, all our communities.

March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com CoaChing at Work 47

 OpiniOn:
teaMs
ERIK DE HAAN AND DOROTHEE STOFFELS
Upwards communication
The pandemic has brought challenges to teamworking, including a shift to
the virtual space. What are the do’s and don’ts of teamwork magic?
A
s a result of the pandemic, teams
and how they work together
were in the spotlight after
teamworking went online pretty
much overnight.
We’ve seen so many inspirational and
hopeful messages about teams in this
challenging time that we felt moved to share
our thoughts and experiences based on our
work, both as team coaches, but also as
members of faculty for the Team Coaching
programme at Ashridge Business School.
Some of these might feel quite radical and
our intent is to provoke you to stop and think,
re-evaluate and decide how you and your
clients want to show up in teams.
the dO’s
1. Realise the survival value of teams for us all:
we were formed over millions of years to live
and work in small groups, to be part of
something, to belong!
2. Nurture the team back – the team is
nurturing you biologically, so take some time
to celebrate what is good about your team,
and give as much explicit support and praise
to others on the team as you can.
3. Provide and ‘be’ the stability your
team needs – with stability and
containment, the best work of individuals
can emerge. As you feel how teams have the
potential to nurture you and others, you
realise how much you need them to be
stable and there for you. Be available for
others: allowing open conversations;
providing and receiving challenge to and
from the team.
4. Look upon your team members with
forgiveness and benevolence: as Aristotle
noticed, our intentions are ‘towards the good’
even if they don’t always work out that way.
5. Look after ‘us’ and ‘them’: teams benefit
48 CoaChing at Work
from clear boundaries but also from good
relationships with other teams.
the dOn’ts
1. Don’t work in ‘yet another team’ unless you
absolutely have to: Research has shown that
everyone in a team is at least 25% less
productive than working by themselves,
through communication losses, social loafing, “The best use
and other challenges.* If you don’t need a of team time is
team, or don’t need to meet, then don’t. for the leader to
2. Don’t let the leader speak. If the leader listen, and be
speaks it’ll be mostly to share what she or he swayed”
already knows – and most of it the rest of the
team will know already too. We’re biologically
wired to be very attentive to our leaders. The
best use of team time is for the leader to listen,
and be swayed. Upwards communication is
the sole added value of a team.
3. If you carry on working in the team, don’t
use a facilitator or team builder. Again, they’ll
only take up time, complicate communication
further, and, like the leader, might say what
everyone already knows. Engaging a team
coach, whose aim it is to help the team reflect,
learn and raise awareness of patterns and
ultimately become redundant, is a much
better use of limited time and resources.
4. If you, or a client, are still working in your
team and it’s not going well, don’t worry; try to Reference
* E de Haan, Team Coaching
reflect. Reflection is the single known improver Pocketbook. Alresford:
of teams. It makes a team make better Management Pocketbooks, 2017
decisions (building on upwards
communication) and demonstrably makes the l Erik de Haan and
Dorothee Stoffels are both
team more innovative, resilient and productive. members of faculty and
5. If you’re still working in a team, you’ve done programme directors of
very hard work and you need to be rewarded Ashridge’s Team Coaching
Programme for Organisational
for it. Regular breaks, informal moments, Consultants. For further
celebrations, appreciations for all the team. information, see
https://www.hult.edu/en/
They deserve it: they’ve overcome natural executive-education/
selfish-gene tendencies to do something for programs/organizational-
development/team-
the whole. And it sure hasn’t been easy. coaching-consultants/
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
nothing in
isolation
by Allard de Jong and Georgina Woudstra
W ith this competency,
Relationship Systems, the team
coach demonstrates an ability to
serve the team collectively, in a system, while
acknowledging the interests, strengths,
values and needs of the individual.
indeed the team is a system and – as a system –
is part of one or more larger systems. the word
‘system’ is often described as a set of things
working together as parts of a mechanism or an
interconnecting network; a certain ‘sum-of-the-
things’ complex whole. a little simplistic
perhaps when you consider that a ‘thing’ is
merely a linguistic element. a noun, to be exact.
now, as the late philosopher alan Watts
reminded us1, a noun isn’t a part of nature, it’s a
part of speech. there are no nouns in the physical
world. there are no separate things in the
physical world either. the sugar molecule is
comprised of 12 atoms of carbon, 22 atoms of
hydrogen and 11 atoms of oxygen (C12h22o11).
Can you tell me which one of these is sweet?
and from ‘thing’ to ‘think’ is only a small step.
and thus the late multifaceted anthropologist
gregory Bateson was fond of pointing out that
the major problems in the world today are the
result of the difference between how nature
works and the way people think2.
nature works as a system of relationships. our
world is only made of relationships. Everything
in the universe only exists because it is in
relationship to everything else. nothing exists in
isolation, as management consultant,
Margaret Wheatley3says. the table you bang
your fist on is only ‘hard’ in relationship to your
relatively ‘soft’ hand. the grass needs the grazing
horse as much as the horse needs the grass.
right now, we are only ‘writers’ because of you,
‘the reader’, and vice versa. a role is never
anything more than one end of a relationship.
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
team coaches must coach the team and the
individuals within it, while recognising that
they are all part of an interconnected system
– within a web of systems
ignoring the interlocked relationships of a
system and dividing the world into parts is an
illusion. as soon as we consider the teams we work
with as a ‘system within a web of systems’, we
realise there is absolutely nothing we, or they, can
do to negate this interconnectedness but that
there’s so much we can do to enhance it.
and it’s precisely this type of corrected thinking
(or right view) that the team coach needs when
engaged in working with systems.
Such a view will allow us to:
l notice disconnections in the system and seek
reconnection
l Support the team to identify interdependencies
and opportunities for collaboration,
understanding that change emerges from
diverse dialogue
l recognise the invitation to engage in the team’s
dynamics and understand these dynamics
through their own here and now experience
l avoid triangulation and encourage the team to
connect with each other
l Leverage individual strengths in service of the
team’s effectiveness References
l Surface barriers to collaboration and move 1 www.alanwatts.org/3-4-6-
nature-of-consciousness-
towards alignment part-1/
2 www.anecologyofmind.
com/thefilm.html
So, may you coach with ubuntu4: the profound 3 www.margaretwheatley.
understanding that everyone is inherently com/articles/relationships.
html
connected and interdependent, all already tied to 4 https://en.wikipedia.org/
one another: “If I am I because you are you and you wiki/Ubuntu_theology
are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not
you.” rabbi Menachem Mendel Morgensztern of l Georgina Woudstra is
an executive coach
kotzk (1787-1859) specialising in coaching chief
executives and senior
leadership teams. She is
l Allard de Jong and Georgina Woudstra are founder and principal of the
directors at the Team Coaching Studio. Join them for a Executive Coach Studio (now
Team Coaching Studio)
team coaching masterclass on 14 May, 2-5pm Uk
time, online. Book here: http://bit.ly/37NN1uX l www.georginawoudstra.com
l https://teamcoachingstudio.
l Next issue: 9: Wider context and stakeholders com
CoaChing at Work 49
think with
your hands
WHAT IT IS
The LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP)
method is at once a serious and
By Tim Dench
playful method for facilitating
thinking, communication and
problem-solving using LEGO® pieces.
it can be used with individuals,
teams and organisations and is a
versatile way to work on a number of
different levels, from relatively
straightforward topics with individuals
to complex team issues.
originally conceived for the LEgo®
organisation with two business school
professors, it developed incrementally
to the methodology which has been
taught to facilitators by the association
of Master trainers (aMt) for more than
10 years. the aMt’s training culminates
with teaching real time Strategy
(a workshop supporting continuous
strategy-forming in an uncertain
world), which supports team and
organisational change and strategy
development.
other LSP training providers have
since emerged and there are global
networks of facilitators. LSP is an
established facilitation and coaching
tool, though still relatively new in the Uk.
HOW IT WORKS
Participants are encouraged to ‘think
with their hands’, intuitively
constructing metaphorical models
which represent their ideas or
experiences. the models are then used
as the basis for knowledge or
perspective sharing, problem solving
and decision-making.
team workshops are bespoke and
designed to help participants arrive at
collective answers to one or more
questions, for example, what is a team’s
50 CoaChing at Work
Stephanie Wheeler road tests
Lego®Serious Play®, a coaching
tool to aid problem solving using
Lego pieces
shared identity or what should the
guiding principles for strategic
decision-making be?
the workshop starts with light-
hearted exercises to build confidence
and understand the core principles of
LSP. these include that all voices are
given equal attention and team and
ultimately organisational success is in
part dependent on recognising people’s
wish to contribute, be part of something
bigger and take ownership. LSP exercises
are designed to draw these out.
During LSP, participants are asked a
series of open questions which probe
increasingly deeply into the topic of the
session and they answer them by
building LEgo® models using specially
provided pieces. the building exercises
then progress throughout the session,
with participants working individually,
in small groups and as a team to build
representations of, for example,
themselves, team vision and challenges.
in the real time Strategy workshop,
the participants can construct
representations of the organisational
and stakeholder systems and play out
various scenarios (aided by questions
of the facilitator) with, for example, the
purpose of arriving at shared
principles and values underpinning
future decision-making. the
facilitator’s interventions use a
coaching style, encouraging greater
self-awareness and discovery and
sense-making.
THE VERDICT
LSP is as simple or as complex as you
choose to make it, depending on the
brief. it can give you the freedom to
explore more creative, less cognitive
and word-based coaching approaches,
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
“By looking at
the model
from different
angles and
distances, new
perspectives
can be enabled,
helping
creative and
collaborative
thinking”
allowing clients to understand
themselves better as well as to
communicate abstract or
complicated ideas.
Using the LEgo® pieces to build
metaphorical models means that the
other members of the group need to
really listen to participants explaining
their model, and everybody’s perspective
is given equal air time in the group. By
looking at the model from different
angles and distances, new perspectives
can be enabled, helping creative and
collaborative thinking.
there’s a growing body of research
supporting LSP as an effective coaching
and facilitation tool, including a recent
peer reviewed research article which i
co-authored (Wheeler, Passmore and
Gold, 2020) on LSP real time Strategy
and its effect on team collaboration,
cohesion and psychological safety.
the results were very encouraging,
with participants reflecting that they
formed a better understanding of each
other and the challenges facing the
team. there was also a tangible change
in the way they were collaborating and
engaging with each other during and
after the workshop and, crucially, the
impact on group norms lasted beyond
the workshop.
THE USER’S EXPERIENCE
i enjoy the flexibility LSP offers, both in
terms of my own thinking and
reflection and in its use with clients.
in one-to-one coaching, i use a
person-centred approach, so knowing
that i have LSP as an available method
has widened my offering.
in terms of team facilitation, LSP as
taught by the aMt has specific
structural building blocks (excuse the
pun), so while there is freedom for the
coach/facilitator to tailor offerings to
individual clients, i value knowing that
the core of my workshops is built
around tried and tested methodology.
in team contexts, some participants can
initially be hesitant to engage with LSP,
though once the ice-breaker exercises
begin, they start to see the potential.
Sometimes, too, a refusal to engage can
be valuable information for me as coach
or the client in terms of team dynamics.
i really enjoy the mixture of fun,
empathy, challenge and aha! moments
which LSP enables, and knowing that it
is a memorable experience which
clients can reconnect to afterwards by
seeing their models.
Personally, while i’ll continue to offer
LSP one-to-one or short workshops for
smaller groups online during the Covid-
19 pandemic, i’ll bide my time with the
more in-depth workshops until we can
work in person again.
l Stephanie Wheeler is an accredited
coach and trained LEGO® Serious Play®
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
facilitator, working primarily in the
context of leadership. Formerly a lawyer,
she has an MSc in Coaching & Behavioural
Change and, together with Teresa Leyman,
has been commissioned to write a book
about playful and creative coaching
conversations.
CLIENTS’ EXPERIENCES
in the context of LSP team workshops, a
number of themes emerged among the
participants’ experience of LSP in our
recent research referred to above,
including the benefits of positive
emotions both during the workshop
and as a collective memory:
“I came away feeling positive with it
and I also picked up on the vibe it was a
very positive session for the rest of my
team. So, there’s nothing to not like about,
you know, going off on the vibe of
positivity in the team, and it’s helped.”
(p. 146)
also, the effect of the quality of
concentration, stepping back from
difficult emotions and being able to
communicate better about them was
seen as important:
“I mean, it’s hard to be agitated or to be
distracted or to be unfocused when there’s
something so specific to put your mind to.
There’s an ease and a restfulness about
that, that really unlocks a lot of anxiety
around what you might want to say or
express. So, that’s welcome and I think
unusual in one’s working life where you’re
always second guessing, you’re always
trying to anticipate the implications of
everything you say or do.”
(p. 149)
a key feature of LSP is that everyone is
involved and is treated equally with
empathy, connection and psychological
safety being fostered:
“We grew, this is my own opinion, that
we grew throughout the day and we grew
through the experience and it was a shared
experience that we all had together, and
everyone was engaged with the process.”
(p. 150)
Reference
lS Wheeler, J Passmore and R Gold, ‘All to
play for: LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® and its
impact on team cohesion, collaboration
and psychological safety in organisational
settings using a coaching approach’, in
Journal of Work-Applied Management,
12(2), 2020.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/
content/doi/10.1108/JWAM-03-2020-
0011/full/html
Upside
l Flexible, creative
l Goes beyond analytical thinking
l Supports work on many levels
l Embodies psychological safety
and empathy
l Promising research results on
effectiveness
l Injects fun and novelty
Downside
l Training can be time-intensive
l Stillrelatively new in the UK,
so can be difficult to make a
business case
l In-depth workshops can require
relatively small facilitator
participant ratio (1:6-12)
l Time required for in-depth
workshops
CoaChing at Work 51
gratitude, a year after the pandemic first
took hold, Sarah Gornall and

grief or guilt
Jenny Bird share their 3g model
for exploring responses to
Covid and related constraints,
including lockdown

W
hen we first entered the
strange new world of
distancing, face masks,
hand sanitising… and fear, which
marked spring 2020, we began to
notice a pattern of responses from
many of our coaching clients,
supervisees, friends, relatives and
others around us.
Conversations often started with
expressions of gratitude, the feeling
that we’re lucky because, for example:
we aren’t ill, we feel safe (ish), we have a
garden, the school is still open, we can
get the food we need. and then these
expressions of gratitude were rapidly
undercut with less upbeat feelings.
there would follow some truth and
then some shouldn’ts:
“i’m feeling so constrained but i
shouldn’t because i’m lucky!”
“i shouldn’t say it because i’m lucky
really but i’m so pissed off at missing the
gig/ the party/ the show/ the holiday”
and some shoulds:
“i should be grateful, but i just feel
low all the time.”
“i should be thankful but i miss my
friends so much.”
What began to emerge were feelings of
grief and loss, of deprivation and
curtailment, of impotence and
uncertainty, of a sort of survivor guilt at
being untouched by the virus, yet
miserable and self-castigating about
these deep and heartfelt responses
because “i should be grateful”.
We began to recognise the pattern of
people revolving and ricocheting from
one of these responses to another,
churning in a paralysing cycle of
distress and recrimination. reports
began to emerge about irritation and
snappiness, reduced motivation and
productivity, pressure on relationship,
mental health problems. as we heard
more and more of the pattern of loss
and luck, grief and gratitude, we made
a Venn diagram, Grateful, Grieving and
Guilty, animated by shoulds and
shouldn’ts, to illustrate to our clients
the apparently conflicting feelings we
heard in them.
having a visual representation
stimulated awareness and helped
untangle cycles of emotion. We shared
and tested out the original version of
this model both in a CiPD webinar on
resilience in april 2020 and with
colleagues and clients.
recently a coach colleague, Claire
norman, pointed out that there are in
fact 3 gs here: Gratitude, Grief and Guilt.
We’re indebted to her for prompting us
to name this: the 3G model.
Grateful, Guilty, Grieving –
the 3 Gs of pandemic-related
constraints
the model aims to show that the three
states co-exist and overlap in various
combinations and to various extents. it
also allows us to recognise and explore
cycles or patterns.
and it’s debatable whether people
actually feel grateful a lot of the time.
it seems more likely that sometimes
they just feel that they should feel
grateful. they feel huge pressure to
remind themselves and others of the
bad things which haven’t happened to
them. they list the good things that
they have.
this may be a kind of whistling in the
dark or a signalling to others that they’re
aware of their benefits and blessings.
almost a superstitious warding off bad
karmic effect, an avoidance of
complacency or entitlement, an
acknowledgement of their privilege.
of course, this stretch between
awareness of privilege and personal
sadness or stress happens in many
contexts, and many of us are used to
hearing it from clients or of navigating
it ourselves.
Using the model
First, we note that for many people, just
being offered the idea of the three
emotions co-existing is a relief. it
acknowledges the emotional
gymnastics which many of us are going
through, at some expense to our
wellbeing and mental energy. it
normalises our inner turmoil and gives
us permission to feel bad, grumpy or
deprived. it says it’s ok to mourn your
losses, even when they’re fewer or less
intense than the ones we see daily in the
Covid statistics and news reports. My
grief at not seeing my friend is real even
though it’s not life threatening.
We know from other coaching
approaches that just naming something
makes it more manageable. Seeing an
illustrated model stimulates us to use
other parts of the brain to assimilate the
idea and so we’re more flexible in
exploring what it means and how to
manage ourselves in the situation.
this acknowledgment allows us to
stay with our real experience rather
than constantly putting energy info
denying and debasing it.

52 CoaChing at Work March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

 We’re alert for hints of this pattern and
are comfortable in asking, “how are you
really feeling?” this may be a time when
we’re not immediately client-led, when
the client brushes away their feelings and
wants to focus on practicalities. So we
may tentatively mention the 3 gs or
share the model without too much
prompting. they sometimes choose to
go straight back to practicalities, though
we find they rarely do!
then when someone has given that
sign of recognition in response to the
visual model or just the naming of the
3gs – Gratitude, Grief and Guilt – we may
support them to explore their feelings
of loss and to mourn the things which
haven’t happened, the unfulfilled
expectations, the lack of opportunities
or comforts. From that place of self-
acceptance, it’s easier to be resilient and
to plan for what’s possible because we
have honoured the value of what is not.
this is often the beginning of more
developmental coaching work because
we have sat with what is. We have
checked in with honesty and sadness.
So the next stage of this work may be to
encourage clients to look at the nature
of their gratitude and check out
whether they’re really experiencing it
in the whole-hearted way we know to
be restorative. in this, we may use
in-the-moment sensing, visualisation,
storytelling or kinaesthetic approaches
with them. they may choose outside
their coaching to use meditation,
journaling, walking and other
activities to get into real connection
with their gratitude.
Giving
Some of the guilt some people
experience may be associated with a
loss of purpose and place in society at a
time when professionals in the health
service are working punishing hours in
stressful conditions while others of us
are not. From our own experience, and
that of our clients, we recognise that a
fourth g, giving, can help us to resolve
some of the emotional conflicts. giving
through pro-bono coaching,
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Figure 1: The 3G model ©Bird and Gornall
volunteering in the local food bank,
collecting shopping for neighbours,
phone calls to those in isolation, can
help us find a sense of purpose in
uncertain and anxious times.
there’s also considerable evidence
from well-being research that
being of service to others is restorative
to the giver as well as potentially the
receiver. So, we’re alert to clients
seeking opportunities to manifest
their sense of their own luck or
gratitude by supporting others or by
volunteer activity.
of course, it’s not just in the nhS that
long hours and an expectation of going
beyond the call of duty are the norm. a
significant group of clients are working
longer than normal hours, in less than
ideal working conditions, to educate
young people, maintain council
services, keep charities alive, provide
for the vulnerable. they’re under
pressure to give too much of
themselves and arrive in the coaching
space exhausted, at risk of burn out,
and suffering from the same personal
insecurity and state of heightened
alertness that everyone is subject to
when the virus may lurk at every turn.
they need strengthened boundaries
and permission to treat themselves as a
valuable resource.
Supporting the coach
We note also, that in this time of
uncertainty and fear, both coaches
and supervisors are experiencing
many of the same issues or pressures
as the clients they’re working with. in
normal (well, previous) times, we may
have been careful not to work with a
client whose quandary or concerns
too closely mirrored our own. that’s
much harder now as we are all in the
same storm, if not in the same boat.
So, coaches and supervisors can
benefit too, when they share this
model and acknowledge it as part of
their own personal experience. Such
vulnerability and self-disclosure will
usually serve the coaching
relationship well.
and the coach also needs their own
dedicated space to acknowledge this, a
space where they’re not also holding
the client. it’s called supervision. Just
don’t ask who is holding the
supervisor’s supervisor’s supervisor!
About the authors
l Jenny Bird and Sarah Gornall are
experienced coaches and supervisors and
co-authors of the art of Coaching: a
handbook of tips and tools (Routledge,
2015) and how to Work with People …
and Enjoy it! (Routledge, 2019)
CoaChing at Work 53
Coach your clients
to delegate
By Catherine Stothart
O
ne of the most common
issues that arise for leaders
I coach is how to become
more comfortable with delegating.
typically, they’re promoted because
they’re good at getting things done and
they achieve results. But often the
results are achieved by working long
hours and doing a lot themselves. as
they become more senior, this isn’t
sustainable – they need to develop
different skills to succeed at higher
levels, including delegating effectively.
this article outlines some of the
approaches i take when i coach leaders
to delegate. they may lack skills – not
quite knowing how to ask someone to
take responsibility, or not being able to
flex depending on the person’s situation
– but skills can be taught and developed
through practice. More often, what
stops them delegating is either their
beliefs about leadership or their fear of
trusting others.
So how do i help the client uncover
their underlying beliefs and fears and
change their behaviour?
Make it work
as with any change, there are three
prerequisites (Beckhard & Harris, 1987).
For the client to be motivated to change,
they must:
l feel dissatisfied with the current
situation
l have a vision of how it could be better
l identify some actionable first steps
54 CoaChing at Work
Leaders are often promoted
to management because they
are good at getting things
done. But once there, they
must learn to delegate that
responsibility
the rapid impact Coaching
(Landsberg, 2003) technique enables the “Leaders may
client to make these psychological lack skills –
shifts. Figure 1 illustrates the steps the
not quite
coach works through with the client.
it’s important to do them in the
knowing how
numbered order. to ask someone
the method starts on the left with the to take
client outlining the issue that is causing responsibility,
dissatisfaction. You then move to step 2 or not being
on the right with your client and help
able to
them express their vision of what they
would like it to be. this movement to the
flex depending
right picks up the technique from neuro- on the
Linguistic Programming of putting the person’s
past on the left and the desired future on situation”
the right – as most people in Western
culture seem to think of it in this way
(McDermott & O’Connor, 1996).
in step 3, you come back to the middle
to explore the barriers that are stopping STAGE 1:
the client moving towards their vision. What is the issue?
it’s important to articulate these fully i ask the client to describe the problem
before moving on to step 4, and this is where they articulate, often
brainstorming options, and finally to for the first time, their dissatisfaction
Step 5, deciding on actions. with the current situation.
i usually stand at a flipchart alongside Prompts might include:
the client as we work through the stages, l How do you know this is a problem?
but during lockdown i’ve successfully l What impact does it have on you?
used this technique remotely, using a l What impact does it have on others?
virtual whiteboard. l What are the consequences of not
as with any coaching technique, the delegating?
biggest insights come from asking
powerful questions at each stage. What Fatal flaw
follows is an example of the questions i Assuming you and the client both know
ask at each stage of a client who says they what the problem is and rushing on to the
find it difficult to delegate. next stage.
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

Figure 1: Coaching to delegate in 5 steps
it’s really important for the client to
feel their own dissatisfaction with the
situation, rather than merely thinking
that they “should” delegate, so stay with
this until you can see they are
experiencing the dissatisfaction.
STAGE 2:
What do you want?
this stage is about creating a vision of
what it could be like and making the
vision tangible.
Questions might include:
l What do you want to be different?
l What would that feel like?
l If you were able to delegate, what would
that give you?
l How would you know you
were delegating effectively?
l What would you or others be doing,
saying, thinking, feeling?
Fatal flaw
Taking the first thing your client says as
their final answer.
Yes, write it down, but continue to ask
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
questions to enable them to articulate
their vision of how much better it could
be. this enables them to surface their
deeper desired outcomes.
STAGE 3:
What are the barriers to
getting what you want –
in you, in others, in the
organisation?
i take these sub-headings one at a time
and the first one – what are the barriers
in you – is the one that usually generates
some real ‘aha’ moments and exposes
some of their underlying beliefs.
typically, the client says things such as:
l It’s quicker to do it myself
l I’m the boss, so I should be able to do
it all
l They are all busy; it’s not fair to give
them more tasks
l I’m more competent to do it than
they are
l I need to be seen to be leading this project
l I can’t trust them to get it done on time
and to the right standard
Fatal flaw
Letting the client get away with
self-justification.
the client often wants to explain ‘why’
it’s ok to do what they do, but this self-
justification undermines their
willingness to change, so the coach may
need to steer the client away from
explaining and focus on simply
describing what they think and feel.
Make it work
an effective way to challenge these
beliefs is to ask the client about each one:
l How does this belief help you?
l How does this belief hinder you?
they usually realise that many of these
beliefs are not only self-defeating but
also unhelpful to their colleagues.
For some clients, i suspect the
reluctance to delegate is their fear of loss
of status (Rock, 2008) – as if delegating is
a sign of weakness. it can be difficult for
this to surface to their conscious
awareness, so sometimes i ask them
questions about their role as a leader and
this can lead them to recognise how they
can gain status in other ways e.g. by
having a reputation for developing their
team.
Barriers that they identify in others
and in the organisation often include:
l They think they already have too much
to do
l My boss expects me to do it, not for me to
dump it on someone else
l I’m expected to know everything that’s
going on
here the skill of the coach lies in
asking questions about how realistic
these beliefs are and what would
happen if the client didn’t tacitly go
along with them. Questions might
include:
l How can you help them manage their time
or priorities better?
l What’s the impact on your team
CoaChing at Work 55

“For some
clients, I
suspect the
reluctance to
delegate is
their fear of
loss of status –
as if delegating
is a sign of
weakness. It
can be difficult
for this to
surface”
members of not delegating to them?
l If you don’t know something, what’s the
worst that could happen?
l How could you deal with criticism from
your boss?
if one of the barriers to delegating is a
lack of trust in others, i sometimes do
the ‘trust’ with them – an exercise
developed by my coaching supervisor,
georgia Parker – as this helps build their
vision of how much better it would be
for them if they did trust their team
members.
THE TRUST LINE EXERCISE
Stick a line of masking tape on the floor,
with one end marked, “i trust
everybody” and the other end “i trust
nobody”. ask them to imagine this is a
scale of 1 –10 and stand at the point
that represents how much they trust
their team.
ask them to describe what that feels
like. then ask them to move up the line
two or three points and describe how
this greater level of trust feels – they
usually describe more positive feelings.
this activity builds an emotional
connection to their vision which makes
them more likely to be committed to
actions for change.
56 CoaChing at Work
STAGE 4:
Brainstorm solutions
take each group of the barriers (in
yourself, others and the organisation)
one at a time and encourage the client
to brainstorm possible solutions
without evaluating them.
Specific questions depend on which
barriers have been identified, but generic
questions include:
l What could you do differently to change
this situation?
l How could you overcome that?
l What is another way to think about this?
l Who do you see as a role model for
delegating – what do they do?
at this stage, clients usually recognise
that many of the solutions are in their
own hands and that by changing their
behaviour, they can change the situation
and influence how others behave.
Fatal flaw
Not being open to ideas.
as always with brainstorming, it’s
important to come up with ideas without
evaluating them. the client may believe
that some of the potential solutions are
not under their control, but encourage
them to be open-minded for now –
evaluation can be done at the next stage.
STAGE 5:
Action planning
having brainstormed lots of possible
solutions, i ask the client to focus on two
or three actionable first steps. here i
focus my questions on what they’ll do,
how they’ll do it and when they’ll do it.
i might also ask:
l What will happen if you do nothing?
l On a scale of 1–10, how committed do you
feel to implementing these actions?
in an ongoing coaching relationship, i
ask the client to log what they do, note
down the response they get from others
and any other results of their actions.
We review this at the next session and
continue to work on strategies for
effective delegation.
March/april | Vol 16 issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Fatal flaw
Going for the easy options.
Sometimes the client may choose
easy-to-implement actions rather than
ones that will move them forwards
towards their vision. So it can be
helpful to do a reality check of the
proposed action against the vision – to
ensure they are directing their efforts
to what will help them achieve what
they want. and of course follow-up
and review of progress at future
coaching sessions helps to maintain
momentum.
References
l R Beckhard and R T Harris,
Organizational Transitions: Managing
Complex Change, Addison-Wesley, 1987
l M Landsberg, The Tao of Coaching, Profile
Books, 2003
l I McDermott and J O’Connor, Practical
NLP for Managers, Gower Publishing, 1996
l D Rock, ‘SCARF: a brain-based model for
collaborating with and influencing others’,
in NeuroLeadership Journal, 1, 2008
About the author
l Catherine Stothart is a leadership coach
with Airbus and a Mastery Faculty Partner
at Google. Previous clients include Audi,
Make UK, AstraZeneca, KCOM and
United Utilities. She also held posts in
Ford Motor Company, Mercury
Communications and ICL.
She’s the author of how to get on with
anyone: gain the Confidence and
Charisma to Communicate with any
Personality type (Pearson Business,
2018), the result of 25 years’ experience
working with individuals and teams in
business and education. A practical guide
to building better relationships, at work or
at home, it contains coaching tools she
uses with her clients and is based on
personality type.
l catherine@essenwood.co.uk
l www.essenwood.co.uk
l www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-stothart-
19972bb
l@CatherineStoth1
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opinion:
the reAl
busIness
of CoAChIng
generically yours
How can we hope our audience remains safe and well through the pandemic,
while also avoiding Covid clichés that lessen the impact of the message?
A
year after we boarded this
nauseating coronacoaster, I didn’t
think I’d still receive emails from
anonymous CEOs, to reassure me
they were there for me ‘in these
unprecedented times’.
Or that I’d still get thinly disguised sales
messages ‘reaching out’ to see if their emails
find me ‘safe and well’ in ‘these very strange/
strange and difficult/unusual times’.
As Eva Wiseman wittily noted in her column
for the Guardian: “The email sender often
hopes, too, that ‘you are keeping safe’, a phrase
which, were these not ‘strange and difficult
times’ would have caused cold shivers and a
doublelocking of the door.”
I’d hoped these Covid email clichés would
be redundant by now. That we could lock them
safely up in the 2020 shop of horrors and sink
them to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean’s
Mariana Trench.
And yet, here we are. The New Normal is
hanging around like a commuter with week-
old armpits. And the old one isn’t coming back
any time soon.
But what if you really do hope your audience
is safe and well? Are clichés really so bad after
all? Well…yes.
The problem with clichés is (obviously) that
we’ve heard them too many times before. And
when we feel we’ve heard something over and
over, it no longer feels personal to us; it
becomes white noise. We block it out; it
doesn’t connect.
And we don’t just have Covid-19 to blame
for cliché overload. Pre-pandemic, we were
firing out, “I hope this email finds you well”,
15 times a day, with all the carefree abandon
of a debutante in Regency era Bridgerton.
Clichéd communications are like ‘one-size-
fits-all’ jumpers – they’re so generic they don’t
work on anyone.
58 CoAChIng At Work
KIM ARNOLD
But what are you supposed to write instead?
How do you avoid getting stuck in the cliché
quicksand when you’re trying to be genuine?
The trick to writing any powerful letter,
email or piece of communication is to make it
feel personal, even if you’re writing to
hundreds or thousands of people. Here’s how.
1. Write to one, not mAny “We don’t just
If you’re writing to a group, think of just one have Covid-19 to
person to write to. Put their name at the top of blame for cliché
the page with ‘Dear x’ and write as if it’s a overload. Pre-
letter to them. (Delete their name once you’ve
pandemic, we
finished writing.) It will create a feeling of
intimacy and a personal connection.
were firing out,
‘I hope this
2. SAy it out loud email finds you
Ask yourself: what would I say to this person/ well’, 15 times
people if I were in the room with them? Write a day”
it down. It’ll be warmer and more natural.
I don’t know about you, but ‘unprecedented’
doesn’t normally trip off my tongue. I don’t
normally ‘reach out’ either, unless it’s across
my husband to get to the Pringles. So watch
out for the buzzwords.
3. mAke it perSonAl
(in A good WAy)
If you’re writing to one person, what can you
say that’s personal to them only? Can you ask
l Kim Arnold helps
about their dog/kids/partner/hobbies? individuals and companies
If you’re writing to a large number, what do stand out, connect with their
audience and make their
they have in common that’s unique to them as messages stick. She works
a group? Could you refer to the overload of with coaches, entrepreneurs
and scale ups, as well as global
customer enquiries they’ve been getting? Or organisations including
celebrate the fact they’ve got a new IT system Accenture, UBS Asset
Management and JP Morgan.
in place? Or acknowledge their worries about She is author of a new book,
the impact of the coming year on their work? Email Attraction – Get What
You Want Every Time You Hit
Harness these tips to ditch the clichés, Send (2021).
communicate with heart and connect with
l Sign up for free
your audience. And promise me you’ll never weekly tips at:
say ‘unprecedented’ ever again... . www.kimarnold.co.uk
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com

Coaching and mental
health: an ethical dilemma
Can coaches work ethically and helpfully with clients who are presenting with
‘burn-out’? Tony Geraghty and Adrian Myers report
H
ave you felt
outside of your
comfort zone
when a client
presents with what
appears to be ‘burn-out’?
the International Classification of
Diseases (ICD; World health
Organization: WHO, 2021) describes
burn-out as an “occupational
phenomenon”. It’s characterised by
feelings of exhaustion, job-related
negativity and reduced professional
efficacy; it’s not classified as a medical
condition (WHO, 2019). the challenge
in a coaching context is whether a
client’s issues as presented, are
outside the professional boundaries
of the coach.
Many stress-related disorders are
classified as medical conditions (ICD,
WHO, 2021) and wouldn’t be the
legitimate territory of coaching. the
nhs (2021) provides advice about
how to manage the symptoms and
causes of stress ranging from practical
advice to the specialist support of
health professionals and counsellors.
A recent study has reported that
almost half of intensive care unit (ICU)
and anaesthetic staff surveyed
reported symptoms consistent with a
probable diagnosis of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PtsD), severe
depression, anxiety, or problem
drinking (Mahese, 2021). these are
very challenging mental health
problems requiring specialist support.
In a context of ambiguity, deciding
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
whether to provide coaching or to
encourage a client to seek specialist
advice and support poses a real
dilemma.
the challenge of knowing when to
provide coaching is even more
challenging given the prevalence of
mental health difficulties. MInD (2021)
cites evidence of one in four people
experiencing some sort of mental
health difficulty each year in england,
and which one might suppose is likely
to be common across the United
kingdom. the British health and safety
executive report states that 828,000
workers suffered from work-related
stress, depression or anxiety for the year
ending March 2020. Furthermore,
17.9 million working days were lost for
these reasons (HSE, 2020).
the first author of this article,
supervised by the second author, carried
out a study to explore how coaches
decide whether they can work with
someone seemingly presenting with
burn-out and if and how they should
work with them.
the researcher used a qualitative
methodology using constructivist
grounded theory method (Charmaz,
2014). this involved in-depth
interviews with six coaches, all of whom
had worked with clients they had
considered to be showing signs of what
they would understand as burn-out.
All coaches noticed that their clients
showed low energy, work-related
negativity (attitude), and lacked
capacity to move forward with coaching
reseArCh MAtters
goals. the coaches usually identified
these symptoms in an initial chemistry
meeting. these were taken as possible
indicators of burn-out and were
discussed in supervision.
All participants strongly emphasised
the importance of supervision.
supervision ensured the ongoing
assessment of the likelihood of the
client’s mental health being more severe
than was apparent, or of needing
specialist intervention. supervision
ensured that contractual commitments
were clearly agreed between coach and
client and that they were modified as
necessary in order to clarify and
formalise how the coach and client
would work together to address the
client’s experience of burn-out. this
enabled the provision of a supportive
“Supervision
ensured the
ongoing
assessment
of the
likelihood of
the client’s
mental health
being more
severe than
was apparent”
CoAChIng At Work 59
 ReseaRch MaTTeRs
Figure 1: How coaches work with clients with burn-out. (Authors’ own diagram derived from research)
context while ensuring the coaches
didn’t work beyond their skill-set.
ongoing supervision ensured that
supervisor and client gave careful
consideration as to whether specialist
help was required. supervision also
helped the coaches to attend to self-
care given that working with a client
whose energy levels were low and
whose attitude was often very negative
could affect them as coaches.
a coach is expected to be energised,
in a positive state of mind and focused
on their client for effective coaching
(Bachkirova, 2016). It follows that the
restorative role of supervision seems
important, not only as an end in itself
for the coach but it is also in the
interests of the client for the coach to
be in a positive state of mind.
supervision therefore played an
important role in safeguarding the
client as well as the coach.
60 coachIng aT WoRk
as part of the research, the coaches
were asked if Who’s description of
burn-out would be helpful in
recognising the symptoms of burn-
out. The description was considered
to be of considerable help, not only
for their own client assessment but
also as a framework for discussion
in supervision.
Diagnosing mental health difficulties
is notoriously difficult, even for trained
mental health practitioners (Bachkirova
and Baker, 2019). nevertheless, an
opportunity for a sensitising framework
to alert a coach to a possible mental
health difficulty, seemed to be very
important as a basis for personal
reflection and an essential topic for
discussion in supervision.
The coaches reported that
supervision could also help them to
reflect on their own capabilities to
work with clients and to reflect on tools
March/april | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
or approaches they may use. They
could discuss what balance might best
be established between levels of
support and challenge. Finally, they
could also discuss with their supervisor
how they might broach the issue of
a possible referral and how to do
this sensitively.
When the coach and client agreed
that they were working within the
coach’s boundaries, a supportive
person-centred style of working with
the client often seemed very helpful,
including listening attentively to the
client and providing a holding
environment.
The coaches often asked their clients
to rate their progress verbally using a
simple scale (1-10) to check in on
whether the client was making
progress from one session to the next
as an indicator of coaching being
helpful. This approach seemed to
 “A supportive
person-centred Bibliography and further info
style of l T Bachkirova and S Baker, ‘Revisiting the issue of boundaries between coaching
and counselling’, in S Palmer and A Whybrow (eds), Handbook of Coaching
working with
Psychology (2nd ed). London: Routledge, 487-499, 2019
the client often l T Bachkirova, ‘The self of the coach: Conceptualization, issues, and opportunities
seemed very for practitioner development’, in Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and
helpful, Research, 68(2), 143-156, 2016
including l D Brennan and L Wildflower, ‘Ethics and coaching’, in E Cox, T Bachkirova and D

listening Clutterbuck (eds), The Complete Handbook of Coaching (3rd ed). London: Sage,
pp500-517, 2018
attentively to
l K Charmaz, Constructing Grounded Theory (2nd ed.) London: Sage, 2014
the client” l R Hawley, ‘Coaching patients’, in C Van Nieuwerburgh (ed), Coaching in
Professional Contexts. London: Sage, pp115-129, 2016
l International Classification of Diseases, WHO (2021). International Statistical
Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) Version
for 2010. Available from: https://icd.who.int/browse10/2010/en#!F43.0
l I Iordanou, R Hawley and C Iordanou, Values and Ethics in Coaching.
prompt the client to reflect and
London: Sage, 2017
become aware of his or her own energy
l P Jackson and E Cox, ‘Developmental coaching’, in E Cox, T Bachkirova and
levels, attitude towards coaching and
D Clutterbuck (eds), The Complete Handbook of Coaching (3rd ed). London: Sage,
ability to move forward.
pp215-230, 2018
the main findings are summarised in
l M P Leiter and C Maslach, ‘Latent burnout profiles: A new approach to
Figure 1.
understanding the burnout experience’, in Burnout Research, 3(4), 89-100, 2016
overall, the research raised very
l E Mahese, ‘Covid-19: Many ICU staff in England report symptoms of PTSD, severe
interesting questions about the role of
depression, or anxiety, study reports’, in BMJ 2021;372:n108. Available from:
a coach, whether a coach can provide a
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n108
supportive context, and help clients
l C Maslach, W B Schaufeli and M P Leiter, ‘Job burnout’, in Annual Review of
address burn-out while safeguarding
Psychology, 52(1), pp.397–422, 2021
both the client and the coach.
l Mind, Mental health facts and statistics, 2021. Available from:
the answer seemed to be ‘yes’,
https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/
provided the coaches discuss the
statistics-and-facts-about-mental-health/how-common-are-mental-health-problems/
challenges of the clients in ongoing
l NHS, Stress, 2021. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-
supervision and work within their
depression/understanding-stress/
boundaries and capabilities with
l World Health Organization, Mental Health, Evidence and Research, 2019.
clear contracting while ensuring that
Available from: https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/
the clients’ challenges are not so
l World Health Organization, International Statistical Classification of Diseases and
severe as to need specialist
Related Health Problems (ICD), 2019. Available from: https://www.who.int/standards/
intervention.
classifications/classification-of-diseases

About the Authors

l NHS (2021). How to access mental health resources. Available at:
l Anthony Geraghty is a graduate of the
https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/mental-health-services/how-to-
MA in Coaching and Mentoring Practice
access-mental-health-services/
at Oxford Brookes University.
l NHS (2021). Get support from a mental health charity. Available at:
Email: info@reswellcoaching.co.uk
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mental-health-helplines/
l NHS (2021). Every mind matters. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-
l Dr Adrian Myers is the subject lead for
mind-matters/
the MA in Coaching and Mentoring
Practice at Oxford Brookes University.

March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com CoAChIng At Work 61


It’s a funny old world
In this column, we provoke fresh thinking and round up some of the weird,
wonderful, quirky, surprising – and shocking – stories out there
Painting a picture of
conflict on social media
A judge has awarded a paint sprayer £28,560
for unfair dismissal after a ruling that his
employer’s investigation into whether he had
breached social media policy was inadequate.
The judge ruled that the managing director
of A1M Retro Classics “unreasonably confused
what was required of an employee by the
[company’s] social media policy” after a worker
for the firm posted a Facebook status
mentioning an argument between the pair.
On 13 February 2020, Michael Austin, who
worked for the Darlington, UK, company for
five years before his dismissal, was involved in
what the tribunal heard was an “extremely
heated discussion” with managing director
Matthew Robinson about alleged poor work
being carried out by the company.
l Read more: http://bit.ly/2Ldupwn
Introverts and younger
workers need tailored support
Introverts and younger workers are in need of
more tailored support from employers.
Introverts are most concerned about job
security, with 44% of them missing face-to-face
contact with colleagues, compared with 25% of
extroverts, according to a report from Aviva.
Introverts (40%) are also more worried about
their ability to juggle family commitments than
their more extroverted colleagues.
Younger workers are particularly in need of
tailored support, with those aged under 25
most likely to feel some degree of anxiety and
rate their mental health as poor. Some 53% of
young people report feeling anxious, compared
62 CoAChIng At Work
lAst post
to the national average of 34%.
According to Aviva’s report, only one in six
employees (15%) agreed their employer is
trying hard to understand what motivates
them and just a quarter agreed their
employer is genuinely concerned about their
wellbeing (26%).
Workers look to move, but
opportunities aren’t knocking
Many are seeking to change job this year,
but jobseekers’ confidence levels are taking a
knock as they repeatedly fail to get jobs they’ve
applied for.
The average jobseeker unsuccessfully
applied for 16 different roles over the past 12
months, according to a survey from BT. It found
an overwhelming majority of jobseekers have
been negatively affected by their search for
work over the past year, with 81% of those
looking for a job attributing a downturn in their
mental wellbeing to their job search.
Nine in 10 workers are looking or thinking
about looking for a new job this year, another
survey has found. Totaljobs’ survey of 5,000
UK workers found that 89% were thinking
about changing jobs this year, with more than
three-quarters (77%) already actively searching.
The poll found that job insecurity caused by
the coronavirus outbreak was one of the
leading factors driving people to look for a new
role. Some 66% of those polled said they were
worried about their career security, and a
quarter (26%) believed it was likely they would
become unemployed this year.
As a result, one in five (18%) are looking for
work in a more secure industry, while 45% said
they didn’t think they would get a new role in
the same sector they work in now.
March/April | Vol 16 Issue 2 © 2021 | www.coaching-at-work.com
Another reason employees were looking for
new roles was a lack of professional
development caused by the pandemic.
Only 10% received training from their employer
during 2020, the survey found.
Commenting on the findings, Claire
McCartney, senior resourcing and inclusion
adviser at the CIPD, said training and
development opportunities were one of the key
ways organisations could retain talent and
develop the skills needed to thrive.
“Organisations must have a long-term and
strategic approach, and ensure the needs of the
business and external landscape are
considered,” she said, adding that this will help
ensure training and development don’t become
“an easy target for cost-cutting measures.”
Totaljobs’ research found that aside from job
insecurity, 36% of respondents said having a
fresh start was motivation to look for a new role
while 10% were looking for a new location.
However, it can be hard to keep motivated.
According to BT’s survey, when asked how
rejections and the job search had affected
them specifically, 45% of jobseekers responded
that they had experienced decreased
motivation, while 38% highlighted lower self-
esteem and morale and a further 44% reduced
self-confidence. BT’s research also highlighted
how this lack of confidence persists throughout
the various stages of the job search.
Just 22% said they’re confident that their CV
and covering letter will stand out when
compared with fellow candidates. Only 21%
believe in their ability to impress and leave a
lasting impression in an interview.
Hannah Cornick, head of digital impact and
sustainability (consumer) BT, said: “The global
pandemic has had far-reaching consequences
for the job market, and it’s only natural that
jobseekers’ confidence will have been affected.”
The research also found that almost half
(48%) admitted to struggling to find resources
which could help them in their job search,
including how to improve their CV and job
interview technique.
The survey was conducted between
18 December 2020 and 5 January 2021. The
sample comprised 2,000 UK jobseekers aged 18
and over, both employed and unemployed.
l Contributions to this slot are welcome.
Email: liz@coaching-at-work.com
 Coaching at Work Series of Masterclasses 2021
Team Coaching:
What The Literature Doesn’t Tell You
Allard de Jong, PCC & Georgina Woudstra, MCC
Date: Friday 14th May 2021 (Half Day)
Venue: Online Zoom Platform
Timings: 2.00pm to 5.00pm
MASTERCLASS OUTLINE
​The​big​problems​of​the​world​can​only​be​solved​through​
brilliant​collaboration.​We​know​there’s​a​huge​role​for​team​
coaching​in​enabling​this.​Hence​our​profession​is​exploding,​
thought​leaders​abound​and​it​seems​like​new​insights​are​
published​every​month.​But​as​practitioners​we​have​found​that​
these​do​not​always​reflect​the​messy​reality​of​team​coaching​-​
even​less​so​in​a​virtual​world​of​distributed​teams.​In​this​
interactive​and​experiential​session​we’ll​explore​several​of​these​
discoveries.​We​will​delve​into​coaching​with​courage​and​“sitting​
in​the​fire.”​And​we’ll​get​into​the​arena​to​practice,​so​put​your​
coaching​pants​on.
MASTERCLASS AIMS
Z Unpack​the​notion​of​Real​Team​Coaching.
Z BE​a​team​coach,​versus​DOING​team​coaching.
Z Work​flexibly​and​deeply​and​in​the​here-and-now​with​teams.
Z ​H
​ old​the​space​and​contain​discomfort​within​yourself​​
and​the​team.
Z ​Keep​building​confidence​and​competence​as​a​team​coach.
Z ​Experience​creating​a​virtual​container.
MASTERCLASS CONTENT
Z Resolving​the​tensions​you​experience​as​a​team​coach.
Z Exploring​fear​&​vulnerability​as​a​team​coaching.
Z Developing​your​presence​and​capacity​to​stay​in​the​moment.​
Z Courageously​diving​into​the​unknown​of​emergent​​
team​coaching.
Z ​Practice,​practice,​practice.
Z And​doing​so​while​coaching​virtually!
AllArd de Jong, PCC is an ICF certified coach (PCC) and certified mentor
coach, trainer and facilitator. His basic training was with CTI and he holds a
master’s degree in communication studies from the university of California.
He has been working with leaders and their teams since 2001 on all 5
continents. lately he has focused his efforts on bringing people together
online one-on-one and in teams and engaging them in effective virtual
conversations, in both facilitation and coaching settings.
georgInA WoudsTrA MCC is the Founder and Principal of the Team
Coaching studio, an organisation dedicated to the professionalising team
coaching and to the developing of excellent real Team Coaches worldwide.
The Team Coaching studio developed the TCs Team Coaching
Competencies, which sits at the heart of their approach, once which
advocates the power of a coaching mindset and presence in team coaching.
Her first degree was in fashion design and it revealed her innate ability to
notice patterns and foresee trends. An entrepreneurial streak combined
with this pioneering nature, led her to create and build several cutting-edge
businesses over the course of her career.
she discovered coaching in the early 1990’s when conducting her
research for a Masters in Change Management. The very nature of coaching
spoke deeply to her love of learning, her desire for personal growth and self-
actualisation, and her appetite for business. she began her coaching
practice in 1993, and she has since become of one the uK’s leading Ceo &
Top Team Coaches.
LOGISTICS
FEES​​ BOOKING PROCEDURE
Half-day price: ​ Please​fill​in​an​application​
£34.99​(subscriber),​​​ form​on-line​at:​​
£49.99​(non-subscriber)​ www.coaching-at-work.com/
All​prices​include​VAT masterclasses​​
​Groups of 3+​:​​
A​further​5%​discount​​
is​available
Centre for
Stress Management
promoting the cognitive behavioural approach for over 30 years

The Centre has been providing training based on the cognitive behavioural approach to stress manage-
ment and therapy since 1987.Our training programmes are BPS Learning Centre Approved for the
purposes of CPD. The Centre’s Director is Prof Stephen Palmer PhD.
Courses delivered using Zoom virtual training platform
Certificated Courses
Stress Management* 18-19 Mar; 24-25 May; 5-6 Jul
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy & Training 9-10 Aug
Advanced CBT Skills 27-28 Sep
Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy 3-4 Jun
Problem Focused Counselling, Coaching & Training 12-13 Apr; 16-17 Aug
Health and Wellbeing Coaching 15-16 Apr; 15-16 Jul
Assertion and Communication Skills Training 14-15 Jun
Psychological Resilience – a coaching perspective 22-23 Mar; 9-10 Sep
Developmental and Transitions Coaching 20-21 Jul
Positive Psychology Coaching 29-30 Mar
* this course fulfils the training component for Professional Level Membership of the International Stress
Management Association (ISMA)

Our Trainers are Chartered Psychologists and Accredited CBT and REBT therapists

Other Courses
Foundation Certificate in CBT and REBT (4 days) Modular
Foundation Certificate in Cognitive Behavioural Therapies (4 days) Modular
Certificate in Coaching (5 days) 22-23 & 26-28 Apr; 16-17 & 20-22 Sept

156 Westcombe Hill, London SE3 7DH Tel: +44 (0) 208 853 4171
Email: admin@iafpd.com www.managingstress.com
Part of the International Academy for Professional Development Ltd. www.iafpd.com