 You may have heard of coaching, already have a coach, be using a coaching methodology in your business or practice, be a coach yourself -- or even think it’s another ‘flavour of the day’ that will come and go. Whatever category you fall in, this volume has something for you.
Coaching is one of the most dynamic and fastest-growing disciplines in the world. Initially best known in the sports arena, it has extended its reach into many other areas of society, including business. Some of the most stimulating intellectual work in the world is being done in this burgeoning new field. However, while interest in coaching has grown steadily in several firstworld countries over the past two decades, South Africa and Africa have lagged. While some world-class coaches and mentors are active in this country, the professional matrix is still developing and being clarified. And, as far as popular perceptions of coaching is concerned, most South Africans still think coaching is something that happens only on the sports field, and deals only with
players’ physical performance.
This volume is aimed at filling both these gaps. It is designed to give the lay reader a taste of what coaching is, its background and history, and how it is being used in South Africa today. At the same time, it contains enough to interest the expert. Tellingly, it is being published in the same year as the formal launch of Coaches and Mentors of South Africa (COMENSA). It comprises contributions by five leading South African coaches – and a sixth person who does not consider himself to be a coach at all, yet is doing work that falls within the definitions of coaching given earlier. Together, they offer unique insights into what they do – and the passion they bring to their work – to other coaches, aspirant coaches, and lay people.
There is ongoing debate in coaching circles about the differences between therapy, training, mentoring, and coaching. Some people want clear lines drawn in the methodological sand; others advocate an eclectic approach that says, ‘we have certain skills – let’s use them for the benefit of our clients, to help them get the results they want’. Some people say coaching must take place over an extended time frame; others hold that change takes place in biological time and not chronological time. Others say that, in order to call yourself a coach, you have to have practised ‘pure’ coaching for years; others say that what they’ve been doing all the time is in fact coaching, athough they’ve been calling it something else. Yet there is a common undercurrent running through all these debates – about what coaching is, how it works, and the importance of a professional approach and methodology.
The contributors to this volume are all highly successful in their chosen fields. They do not all say the same thing, agree with each other, or present a single, tidy picture of what coaching is and how it operates. Therefore, while this book is essentially about coaching, it is also about diversity and uniqueness - just as the range of coaching is diverse in application and unique in structure, depending on the context. However, the reader also has a chance to discover how much the contributors have in common, and how and where their methods mesh. So become a pattern detective: look for what holds true across all the contributions, and then become aware of the differences that distinguish particular approaches and styles of operating.
There are many types and methods of coaching, and there is much to read – as you will see from the works referenced by the various authors. There are also many organisations now teaching the profession of coaching. This book is not an academic treatise, nor is it a manual on how to coach. Plenty of those exist already.
But it does give the reader an opportunity to experience at first hand what lights up a handful of South Africa’s best coaches, to hear in their own words what coaching means to them, to get an idea of the areas in which coaching is being successfully used, and to get you thinking about how coaching could help you and those you care for to become and express everything that makes the most of every aspect of your and their being.
Dip into it at your leisure, start with what particularly interests you, read it from cover to cover, approach it in whatever manner best suits you – but most of all, ENJOY!
Min McLoughlin
Cape Town
March 2006
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