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The Coaching News (December 29, 2004)
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Back in the old days it was fairly easy to distinguish what was a profession. Medicine, the Law, and the Clergy pretty much filled the entire list. Today the word "professional" can be applied to many roles and often can mean simply someone who is really good at (and really dedicated to) what they do. Unfortunately, no consensus exists as to what constitutes a profession and even dictionaries vary somewhat in their definitions. Many articles about coaching, including several that appear on the Peer Resources' website, use terms such as "emerging discipline" (or "discipline"), "industry," "movement," "specialty," or "practice" and sidestep applying the term "profession" in connection to coaching. This caution or avoidance, however, contradicts the fact that many coaches refer to themselves as "professionals" and many coach credentials include the term "professional" in the designation. A Google search on the term "professional coach," for example, yields more than 82,000 entries. Coaching associations are also not hesitant to refer to themselves as "professional" associations. They often use this phrasing to both attract members and distinguish themselves from other coaching associations. (For a complete list and description of associations for coaches, go to: http://www.peer.ca/coaching.html.) But can coaching associations accurately be called "professional associations" and has coaching progressed to the point where coaches can legitimately call themselves professionals? Or has the unregulated status of coaching fostered the free use of the term as a way to achieve status, market services, and persuade the public as to the place of coaching in the continuum of helping interventions? To initiate an answer to these questions, Rey Carr of Peer Resources reviewed contemporary literature about the use of the terms profession and professional, examined the policies of twelve organizations with long histories as professional associations, and surveyed the leaders of eight national or international coaching associations. PART I: Determination of Criteria for a Profession As a result of Rey Carr's review of the contemporary literature on professions and his synthesis of professional association policies and practices, he identified nine criteria that associations long-considered to have "professional" status have in common. Here are the nine criteria: Membership standards must be demonstrated in order to join. This can take the form of previously passed examinations, certifications achieved, graduation from specified schools or training institutions, and other types of activities that must be completed prior to membership. Membership standards typically imply that a potential member has a special knowledge base, backed by research and theory understanding; a skills base, backed by a standard or minimum number of hours of hands-on instruction; and a competency base, backed by review under qualified supervisors. Organizations differ as to the degree they require documentation of such foundations and may have membership categories to reflect progress on achieving various competencies. Standards for professional practice are clearly stated and prominently displayed. Written acceptance of such standards is required for membership. Standards are most often expressed through a Code of Conduct or a Code of Ethics. Standards are typically emphasized as being "high" and serve to guide members with respect to dealing with the public and each other. Organizations differ as to the degree they provide monitoring, review or discipline of members with regard to adherence to or violation of such codes and standards. In most cases such codes and standards are developed by peers within the organization and may be updated from time to time as practice issues emerge. Such codes or standards typically go beyond the personal moral obligations of individual members. Professional development of members is considered a high priority. The organization provides publications, seminars, conferences or other materials or events exclusively to or for the use of members. Organizations differ as to the degree they admit non-members to such events or provide them with access to their publications. Advocacy is a major activity of most professional organizations. A typical professional organization takes a proactive stance and seeks out ways to educate the non-member public prior to problems occurring. This may take the form of public comment on issues related to the expertise of the membership. Financial solvency is essential for every professional organization. Whether the organization is for-profit or not-for-profit appears less important than whether the accounting practices, management of funds received from members, and disbursements for the organization are made in a way that is responsible, accountable, and relevant to the publicly-stated purposes of the organization. Transparency and reporting to members will differ based on the degree to which the organization is a profit or non-profit group. Professional organizations typically employ staff members or subcontract with specialists who provide various support and business services. Social responsibility plays a significant role in professional organizations. Typical ways that professional organizations demonstrate this factor is through volunteer work, creation of no to low cost services for certain segments of the population, providing personnel to comment on or respond to a variety of social issues and concerns, and attending to the non-professional aspects of member welfare through health benefits, group insurance, retirement programs, career development support and other activities. In addition a profession emphasizes a duty to serve others over the self-interest of individual members. Common goals and vision are typical of the members. While considerable debate, questioning and conflicts can occur amongst members regarding policies or structure, members typically agree as to the basic purpose or goals of the work focus of the individuals within the organization. Governance is typically driven or controlled by members. Election of officers, annual general meetings, and chairing of committees are common to professional organizations. Depending on the size of the organization, paid staff may be involved in assisting the organization to achieve or maintain its goals. In some cases professional organizations involve members in a number of activities, but do not have officials elected from the membership. Instead they typically have advisory boards consisting of well-known or highly respected members of the organization. Relationships with the public and other organizations. Professional organizations engage in on-going connections with other organizations such as relevant government bodies, competing or related organizations, and training institutions. In some cases the professional organization will create standards that will be used to accredit schools or will advise government agencies on licensing and certification. Often a professional organization will govern itself in a way to minimize involvement of outside agencies in setting guidelines, standards or laws specifically pertaining to member activities. The public typically expect that the organization represents the highest standards associated with the practice of the profession and protects members of the public from exploitation or abuse by members. The organizations examined for assembling the above list of criteria included the Canadian Counselling Association, the Canadian Psychological Association, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the Canadian Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the British Medical Association, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, the Australian Psychological Society, the British Psychological Society, the Hong Kong Psychological Society, and the American Educational Research Association. Part II: Survey of Coaching Associaton Leaders The leaders of eight national or international organizations associated with coaching were contacted and sent a list of the above nine criteria. Leaders were asked to review the criteria and comment on the degree of relevance of each of the criteria to their association and also indicate the degree to which their association met each of the criteria. Three of the eight associations completed and returned the survey; one association promised to reply by a certain date but did not provide responses; and four associations did not respond to the initial request for participation. Each of the responding three association leaders indicated that all nine criteria were highly relevant and that for the most part their association practices and policies met all nine criteria. A further analysis was conducted for the three returned surveys. An examination of each association's website was undertaken to determine the degree to which the statements made by the association leaders with regard to their achievement of the nine criteria was demonstrated by statements or other documents that appeared on their website. While not a completely accurate statement of all the policies and practices of an association, the information available on the websites for two of the associations that responded to the survey closely matched their responses to the survey. For the third association, their website statements only matched four of their nine response statements. For comparison purposes, the websites of the five associations that did not respond were also reviewed to determine how closely their website information matched the nine criteria. Only one of the associations in this group appeared to meet the majority of the criteria. Common to all but one of the eight coaching associations was a lack of standards for membership. Seven out of the eight associations will accept members without regard to pre-determined qualifications. Also common to four of the five that did not respond to the survey and one of the associations that did respond was the ambiguity of the information available to website visitors with regards to the nine criteria. In most cases searching for data relevant to each of the nine criteria was exceptionally time-consuming and often led to dead ends. Part III: Conclusions Since the primary purpose of this survey was to determine how coaching associations perceived the relevance of the nine criteria as well as the degree to which they believed they have demonstrated each criteria, the specific associations and their particular responses are not identified, reported, or compared. Such comparisons were deemed inappropriate and unnecessary. In addition the method used to determine the degree to which the coaching association met the nine criteria (examining the website of the association) was itself less than an ideal way to make such a determination. Nevertheless, one of the conclusions of this study is that there are significant differences in the ways various coaching associations provide evidence to the public that they are professional associations. A fancy or complex website with a considerable number of buttons to click or liberal sprinkling of the term professional throughout the site does not make an association a professional organization. Most of the coaching association websites surveyed provide little indication of why they might be considered "professional," or how their mission, goals, objectives, services, and practices match any accepted standards as practiced by acknowledged professions. Surprisingly, given that they may be competing for members, the use of the term "profession" or "professional" on some of the coaching association sites does little to educate the public or their members as to their right to use these terms. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Should striving to legitimately be called a profession or a professional be a priority for coaching and coaches? In his essay, "The Amateur Revolution," Charles Leadbeater in the October, 2004 issue of Fast Company, argues that all contemporary professions such as medicine, science, education, and politics rose from committed, networked amateurs working to professional standards. "In one field after another," he notes, "amateurs and their ramshackle organizations were driven out by people who knew what they were doing and had certificates to prove it." However, now the landscape is changing. Charles Leadbeater cites many examples where "passionate amateurs, empowered by technology and linked to one another, are reshaping business, politics, science, and culture." He calls these groups "Pro-Ams" or organizations that thrive on bottom-up self-organization. Pro-Ams blur the previous distinctions between amateurs and professionals and virtually disregard the nine criteria cited above. Mr. Leadbeater predicts the rise of many more Pro-Am groups over the next few years, reversing the trend towards professionalization. In response, professionals, according to Mr. Leadbeater, find this changing pattern so unsettling that they will seek to defend their monopolies by infiltrating and taking over such up-starts. Almost all coaching organizations and quite likely the majority of coaches fit the "passionate amateur" description when they first started. They (both coaches and organizations) mostly consisted of practitioners maximizing their networking with others to share what they had learned and discovered. Many coaches, for example, recognize that their ability to help others began at an early age and has now evolved into an all-consuming passion. So, is professionalization of coaching a good thing? Are we being influenced by professionals from other areas (academia, psychology, management consulting, for example) and possibly in jeopardy of losing the peer-to-peer connection that allows us greater self-determination and growth? Have we outgrown the need to distinguish a professional from an amateur? Please feel free to reply to this newsletter by sending your comments to Rey Carr at rcarr@peer.ca. (The full article by Charles Leadbeater and Paul Miller, "The Pro-Am Revolution," is available at http://www.demos.co.uk.) "While scholars are comparing and contrasting theories, debating intellectual questions, and dividing humankind into categories, the world is changed by persons with faith, spirit, emotion, compassion, intuition, and irrational thinking." ~ Grey Owl ~ PINPOINTING THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MENTORING AND COACHING One of the most frequently asked questions on the Peer Resources' Ask a Mentor service concerns the differences between coaching and mentoring. There are several sources that have taken a stab at trying to differentiate the two. The earliest and still the most comprehensive is the chart created by Rey Carr that appears in the Winter, 1999 issue of Compass: A Magazine for Peer Assistance, Mentoring, and Coaching (pages 5-7), available online to Peer Resources Network members, members of the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, and other who complete a simple online survey. This comparison includes the roles of "coach," "mentor," and "therapist," and describes each role based on 10 criteria. Dr. Carr points out that role clarification "decreases boundary problems, sharpens focus, pinpoints expectations, strengthens strategic planning, and improves the selection of appropriate practitioners." However, unlike other comparison attempts, Dr. Carr also pinpoints the commonalities between the three roles and suggests to much emphasis is placed on differences and not enough on how they are the same. Another attempt to point out the differences can be found in the Coachville Resource Center under the title: "The Top Ten Distinctions Between Mentoring and Coaching." Written by corporate coach Anne Lippitt Rarich, M.Ed., this list recognizes that it is not always easy to make absolute distinctions between the two roles. This list manages the distinctions by using the phrase "a mentor may provide..." or "a coach may provide..." in almost all of the ten categories. Finally, one of the most attractive charts pinpointing the differences in roles appears on the website of the Coach Mentoring Group. Their analysis depicts the differences between coach, mentor, trainer, consultant, and therapist on six criteria. There are some differences between the three charts. Only the Compass chart mentions fee differences: "coaches typically charge a fee and mentors are typically volunteers." The other two charts make no mention of fees. It's likely this is because of the current trend within the coaching discipline to create a role of "mentor coach," which is a coach that coaches other coaches. This practice is essential for the development of coaches, but it's probably a bit of a tongue-twister to say "I'm a coach who coaches other coaches," so "mentor-coach" is simpler and more prestigious. However, the use of term can be misleading since mentoring is a fee-free, voluntary activity and has only been associated with fees in the last couple of years as more and more coaches are using the term "mentor-coach." (For more information about how this trend is affecting coaching, read "A Guide to Credentials in Coaching" by Rey Carr located in the Peer Resources' Coaching Directory.) "Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in her moccasins. Then when you do criticize that person, you'll be a mile away and have her moccasins." ~ Grey Owl ~ ATTEND A TOP LEVEL COACHING CONFERENCE or EVENT Fourth Annual Coachville Conference ICF European Coaching Conference International Coach Federation Annual Conference
~ Grey Owl ~ FOUR STUDIES TO GUIDE PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Association for Coaching. (November, 2004). Summary report: UK coaching rates. London: Author.
Fitzwilliams, M. and Goodchild, S. (October 11, 2004). Britain on the couch: How we are flocking to therapists to improve our lives. Independent.co.uk. (Retrieved online from http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=570534 on October 12, 2004.)
"Whenever you are having a difficult day, remember that Reggie Jackson struck out more than any other player in history (2,597 times)." ~ Grey Owl ~ WHAT'S NEW IN COACHING SCHOOLS The Coaching News is a free copyrighted publication of Peer Resources, 1052 Davie Street, Victoria, British Columbia V8S 4E3 Canada. All articles are written by Rey Carr unless otherwise indicated. Back issues are available online at http://www.mentors.ca/thecoachingnews.html. To subscribe or unsubscribe send an email to info@peer.ca. |
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