The Hard Truth About Coaching, Competence, and the Power of Tools
The first-rate coach, Katrin Charlton, made a post earlier this year which inspired me to think about quality in coaching. As with so many things in life and business, caveat emptor—buyer beware—applies with striking force to the world of coaching. While coaching has rightly gained prominence as a method of personal and organisational development, the uncomfortable truth is that not all coaching is equal. In fact, very little of it is excellent.
The Pareto Principle offers a sobering perspective: only around 20% of coaches are genuinely good. Of those, only 4% rise to the level of excellence, and a mere 0.8% reach the status of outstanding. These figures are not claimed as mathematically precise, but they do reflect three decades of lived experience, observation, and reflection in the...read more