The Coaching Relationship - and beyond

Abstract

In the coaching context of an ongoing search for evidence-based research, and increasing interest in the ‘active ingredients’ of coaching the impetus for ‘the coaching relationship – and beyond’ was the quest for deeper understanding of the coaching relationship as well as its infuence on the outcomes of coaching. It is a presentation, on factors specifically related to engagement of the coachee and building effective coaching relationships: (a) a study examining the power relations between employee coachee and coach from the middle manager coach perspective, highlighting coaching relationship quality as a necessity for moments of symmetry and equality in fruitful coaching; (b) a study on the diversity factor of coach age, finding that age was not significant in executive coachées coach selection, however age signified credibility and experience, with possible implications for young executive coaches in organisations. Broader topics include (c) discussion of a Systematic Review study investigating those coaching psychologists’ attributes effective in productive coaching relationships, and how to facilitate desired coaching outcomes, suggesting desirability of expansion of concrete outcome measures from the existing coachées’ satisfaction evaluation metrics; and finally (d) an overview of coaching relationship research in the context of prevailing assumptions and issues in coaching, offering implications for future coaching research and coaching practice.