Who can a coach coach? What’s ethical? By Yvonne Thackray
Recently a peer, who has worked in leadership development for almost two decades and holds a doctorate, reached out and asked a question about a challenge involving another coach which they considered to be an ethical issue. It was clear in their mind that the situation shouldn’t be taking place, especially as they are also trained as a therapist and the type of dynamic involved would never be allowed. With their permission, I asked if I could summarise their question/observations and share here after writing my response to their important challenge.
Challenge
As part of a leadership training course, coaching was provided to the participants, and it was during one of these one-on-one sessions, they discovered through the conversation that their client was also being provided coaching by the same coach, and this coach was in addition also coaching their client’s direct manager. From their observations and experiences of the organisation they also considered that there was an alternative agenda for why this coaching was offered. It was very clear in their mind when they asked me, “Would you kindly enlighten me on the following: Is this not unethical in terms of conflict of interest? I checked the code of ethics and in my mind it is -Here is the link (number 10) https://coachingfederation.org/ethics/code-of-ethics In therapy it certainly would be…”
My response:
It’s lovely to hear from you and thank you for reaching out to ask about this - both honoured and surprised.
I can see that this is a very clear right and wrong answer here for you in the way you practice. However, from my perspective, it isn’t as black and white. And after re-reading the ICF Coaching code of Ethics no 10, “Am sensitive to the implications of having multiple contracts and relationships with the same Client(s) and Sponsor(s) at the same time in order to avoid conflict of interest situations” they also leave the responsibility of what should be done by the coach themselves. So, if someone is very clear that to avoid being in that situation, at one extreme, coaches will choose to make sure that a different coach is used in these situations. On the other hand, if someone can handle multiple contracts and properly manage the conflicts of interest, then that coach should have clear guidelines of how they will engage with transparency with all the involved stakeholders and goes beyond commercial interest.
To expand on what I mean, and if you're interested...
What I mean here is that a coach should have the capacity and competency to manage multiple contracts and relationships as long as they can preserve strong boundary management and confidentiality agreements which doesn’t impact the quality of coaching the coach will be providing independently to each of their clients, regardless of the relationship between the two and when they are with the sponsor behave as the representative of the overall coaching programme and not just as a coach. At the same time, the coach needs to stay alert and diligent and make sure they haven’t gone beyond their abilities and strayed out of their boundaries, and they keep their practice in check through regular peer coaching/supervision or supervision.
The ability to do all of that is shaped by a coach's intent of what they each define the purpose for coaching to be and the coaching knowledge base that supports their practice (which may not be fully rooted in psychology or solely psychology) - in how they enable their clients to find solutions to move forward to fulfil their potential (however, this is defined by the coach) which is different for therapy which has its own definition and intent. Furthermore, the knowledge base for each (coaching and therapy) rest on subtly different principles although there are more known similarities than differences.
Coming back to your situation, it's very clear that it would be unethical to coach a direct report for the reasons clear to you. However, as I’ve shared above, depending on the intent and professionalism of another coach and which ethical code they follow, they may believe they can do it as they have put in place the necessary mechanisms to manage any conflict of interest as well as business interest or perceived collusion. That is why it’s challenging to say whether the coach who will be coaching them in this particular case is unethical or not.
My apologies for not being able to give a clear-cut response of what is right or not because of the limited information about the situation.
I've written some additional thoughts on the case itself, which if you are open to further reading, please keep scrolling down. Otherwise, if you have already got the answer your looking for, then there is no need to continue reading, please ignore what I share next as I am consciously aware that I may be overstepping my boundaries of your invitation to 'enlighten me'.
For now, I hope the perspective I have shared has been useful.
warmly, Yvonne
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My final thoughts: I started imagining what situation you might have been in, and from the few points you shared with me, I wanted to openly share some of my assumptions as I read your email and offer some questions/feedforward based on them.
Firstly, it sounds as if this was mentioned in passing to you when you had a session with the individual in question; however, if it wasn’t their key concern and possibly not the main theme of your coaching conversation it may not be something that you could have directly raised otherwise it would be hijacking the agenda of your client. This can also make it challenging, particularly as you sense that the coaching might be used for alternative reasons. So, I'm curious to ask how did you maintain your coaching presence throughout your session?
Also, another thought arose - and this depends on how this individual perceives contracting for coaching, as there may be a subconscious link that's been made around being assigned a coach, versus being able to choose who their coach is. I mention this because from what I have gathered they're in a program where coaching is part of the course, and perhaps they might observe that this is the norm for coaching rather than an exception (just a hypothesis I’m raising here to consider).
Furthermore, it sounds like that from what they have shared with you in your conversation together, you have a strong feeling that the purpose of the coaching that has been set up by their manager in an inappropriate way for coaching to be applied. How might you check this to be true? And if this is the case, how can you check if this is true for the individual without creating an agenda if one might not exist? With this in mind, you might consider how you have ended your one-off session with them so that if what you suspect happens, they can reach out and speak with you as a result of their company's organized coaching. If that is what you are offering or something else?
Finally, if you do still feel strongly, after reflecting on what it is that you have ‘objectively’ observed as warning signs that will negatively impact them, then what do you want to do that will help them to be able to assess the situation for themselves of whether this coaching is what they need, and in what ways they can engage as well as disengage from the sessions properly. How might you have that conversation so they can be prepared and know their coaching client's rights when they have been put forth to have coaching? So for example, what questions can they ask to check the coach's integrity, and what’s in place for managing confidentiality, transparency, and renegotiating the contract with the manager, who may also be the sponsor?
Whatever you choose, your professionalism will guide you to do the right thing!
Yvonne -
P.s. And if you have any thoughts on what I've shared, please share them with me. And again, I apologise for writing such a long response to your question!
Reflected learning:
After I shared my response, they responded with, “Thank you so much for getting back and taking such care in your answer! I see your point. The wording indeed leaves things in grey areas. As you probably know I am a therapist, so very sensitive to boundaries, level of involvement, transference and countertransference.” And some further details referring to their case.
As for myself, I recognised that perhaps there aren’t as many spaces we can have these type of ethical conversations to actually consider what might be the right course of action that aligns with our personal, professional and business conscience and examines our feelings, assumptions and facts. I also wanted to check what other coaches might say on this topic, and with Google as my friend and as a rudimentary search around contracting and dealing with similar ethical issues, most of the pages that appeared focused on how to set up the business contract for coaching, and references were made to this in coach training programs for ‘Managers as coaches’. More likely, as in my case, having these types of detailed, contextual and situational conversations is more common with those coaches I have peer coaching/supervision with, and it is less readily available in a written format for others to consider.
I hope that this blog will be of use to other coaches, as one of the many resources available to you, who may be in a similar situation, and better enable them to consider what their right ethical action should be.
Read other blog-articles by Yvonne Thackray via tgc The Bloggers
