This is the eighth in a series of 12 posts about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore the use of imagination in coaching, show why balancing creativity with purpose is so important for effective coaching, and how to cultivate it for yourself.

This is the seventh in a series of 12 posts about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore ethics in coaching, show why balancing coaching theory and practice is so important for effective coaching, and how to cultivate it for yourself.

This is the sixth post in a series of 12 about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore coaching with ease, show why balancing being in flow with focused attention is so important for effective coaching, and how to cultivate it for yourself.

This is the fifth in a series of 12 posts about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore trust and show why trust isn’t blind; it’s intentionally built. I’ll set out why striking the balance between the naivety of blind trust and the cynicism that arises when a coachee has no accountability for change is so important for effective coaching, and how to achieve this balance for yourself.

This is the fourth in a series of 12 posts about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore awareness and action. passion for coaching, show why coaching between dispassion and dazzle is so important for effective coaching, and how to cultivate it for yourself.

This is the third in a series of 12 posts about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore passion for coaching, show why coaching between dispassion and dazzle is so important for effective coaching, and how to cultivate it for yourself.

This is the second in a series of 12 posts about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore presence and show why attuning your presence is critical to connect with your coachee, and how to cultivate it for yourself.

Over the next 12 weeks, I’ll be posting a little more about why coaches fail. Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect. Coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Today, I’ll explore self-belief, or ‘confident humility’, and show why getting the confidence balancing act is so important for effective coaching, and how to cultivate it for yourself.

Pete Shotton’s We All Count (2016) (see diagram) was written about education; however, it offers a compelling lens for examining power dynamics in coaching, particularly the relationship between professional bodies and individual coaches. His reframing of Transactional Analysis life positions - especially the ‘I count / I don’t count’ and ‘You count / You don’t count’ axes - helps illuminate how authority and compliance are maintained (see status quo line), and how dialogue can become a tool for emancipation (‘I count/you count’).

A recent study put an AI coaching agent to the test, using ICF-trained assessors and the Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) to evaluate a real coaching session with a human client. Out of 43 manager-led coaching sessions, the AI demonstrated behaviours consistent with ACC and PCC-level competencies. While it showed promising competence in foundational skills, it struggled with relational depth and regulation - areas where human coaches still hold the edge.

In today’s fast-paced world, neurodivergent individuals are often navigating professional and personal spaces not designed with their minds in mind. Conventional coaching models can unintentionally exclude the very strengths and nuances that make your ND client’s perspective powerful.

Your goal is to create a coaching space that doesn’t just accommodate neurodivergence but celebrates it. A space where masking isn’t necessary, communication styles are honoured, and authentic growth is the priority.

I am very proud to announce I have just received my certificate for neurodivergent inclusive coaching from triple-accredited coach training organisation In Good Company. Wow, what a fabulous course that was!

I’ve been offering coaching supervision for over five years now. The business has grown steadily since launch. By the end of 2024, I had built up a roster of 23 individual supervisees and six supervision groups, whom I see regularly (between four and eight times per year). My clients are a mix of solo coaching practitioners, partnerships, training organisations, and corporates. It’s not huge, but it keeps me usefully occupied.

There is no agreed-upon framework for coaching capability. Competency frameworks developed by professional bodies go some way to address this; however, these have been repeatedly criticised by industry commentators.

Bachkirova and Lawton Smith (2015) set out four arguments that capture these criticisms some ten years ago:

I just reviewed my notes from around 500 individual and group supervision sessions I have had with my supervisees over the past five years. ‘Contracting’ has come up 90 times. I believe competence in contracting and re-contracting creates the foundation for successful coaching outcomes. I have seen research that claims 50-80% of coaching problems stem from poor contracting.

I am talking here about the verbal contracting we do with our clients, although it is best practice to follow that up in writing. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.

I use a simple model for contracting, covering Outcomes, Process and Relationship.

Imagine you have a choice of four coaching supervisors: The Master Coach, The Coaching Professor, The Critic, and The Coach’s Coach. Find out about these four very different discourses of coaching supervision. Which one(s) would you choose? Which do you reject?

Being a great coach is about getting the balance just right between not enough and too much, the so-called Goldilocks Effect.

Here’s an at-a-glance description of how coaches might underplay or overplay certain behaviours and derail the chances of successfully helping their clients reach their goals. Great coaches manage to strike a balance between these extremes and get it just right.

Not all coaches have a philosophy. Some are at the techniques stage, some at the process stage, and some claim to be a bit of a magpie, collecting shiny techniques and processes to integrate into their process. But there’s a stage missing. David Clutterbuck describes 4 stages of coach maturity: 1. Learning techniques; 2. Adopting a process; 3. Adopting a philosophy; 4. The ‘managed eclectic’, aka the magpie coach. In reality, a coach’s development is not a straight line through these stages, however, they provide a useful reference, and I believe the philosophy 'stage' is important.

Let’s look briefly at why you want to do this, what you will need to do and how you might approach doing it.

It is 2010. The room is filled with novice coaches. There is chatter, brief laughter, the sound of coffee cups being lifted, sipped and replaced on the shiny boardroom table, and chairs scrape as people shuffle themselves into place. The coaching supervisor enters the room and quietly takes a seat. The hubbub continues for a short while. The supervisor stays silent, head and eyes slightly lowered. Slowly, the noise subsides over what seems like an age. A cough. The nervous rattle of a pen. A sniff. Then silence. The clock on the wall ticks loudly. A minute passes. The supervisor is unmoved. Attendees nervously eye each other but say nothing for another minute. It has been seven full minutes since the supervisor entered the room.

‘Erm,’ begins one of the coaches, ‘I’m just wondering when we are going to make a start.’ The supervisor looks up, ‘What makes you think we haven’t started?’

Since 2014, I have had what I consider to be a successful independent career.  It has been a rollercoaster and I wouldn’t change it for any alternative. I’m currently a self-employed practitioner-researcher in executive coaching and coaching supervision. Just now, I’m also writing a book on coaching supervision.

Setting up your business and all that goes with it can be daunting. I first did it 11 years ago and again six years ago when I launched my supervision practice, Grow the Coach.  Here are the 10 things I wish someone had told me as I look back over my journey so far…