Relational coaching: taking the coaching high road

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to articulate and elaborate on the practice of "relational"rncoaching, and to suggest that there are significant implications for coaching practice, in particular thernneed for coaches to risk themselves by engaging their whole person in what is an unpredictable andrnintimate process.rnDesign/methodology/approach - The approach is to draw on perspectives from psychology,rnneuroscience, sociology, complexity science and philosophy, which all imply or suggest the centralityrnof relational dynamics in human interaction, and in particular an interaction in which the coachrninevitably becomes a "significant other" for his or her client.rnFindings - The main conclusion of the paper is that the dynamic of the relationship between coachrnand client needs to be explicitly attended to, as it is the main means through which change takes placernin two key respects; first, because it serves as an analogue of the dynamical patterns which tend tornconfigure a client's relationships in their work context and, second, because the quality of embodiedrnresonance between the coach and client has been shown to be the main factor in effective coachingrnoutcomes.rnOriginality/value - These findings are generally understood in the field of psychotherapy inrnparticular, but much less so in the field of coaching. The findings arising from the particular synthesisrnof these perspectives in the context of coaching is original, and their potential implications forrncoaching are believed to have considerable potential value.