Coaching has been described as the ‘Wild West of executive development’ (Sherman and Freas 2004). This is why codes of practice in coaching are important and why they were developed by the various coaching bodies; clients need to trust their coaches and mentors.
Garvey, Stokes and Megginson (2014) described coaching as ‘depicted as being populated by quacks and charlatans making unlikely claims based on dubious research methods, inadequately researched.’ They also found in the early 1990s that ‘corporate purchasers of coaching were crying out for something to show them who were the sound coaches and who the fly-by-nights, among the dozens who were approaching each organisation every week, offering their wares.’
In 2008, the importance of robust codes of ethics were reinforced at the Global Convention on Coaching. The GCC covered ethics as one of the key subjects in its conference dialogue. This resulted in a summary document (GCC 2008) that confirmed:
- After twelve months of open discussions worldwide, it has become evident that a strong code of ethics is of paramount importance.
- The code underpins the emergence of coaching as a profession, its status, education and development and core competencies.
- A strong code will help sustain the profession. It is also evident that such a strong code needs accountability mechanisms.
On a micro level, codes of practice are vitally important as a tool to assist in the specific issues and challenges sometimes faced within the coaching and mentoring discipline. At the ICF international conference in 2006 those issues and challenges generating the most frequent enquiries were summarised. Four categories were identified: confidentiality, misrepresentation, conflict of interest and contracting.
Brock (2006) states that the expectation of confidentiality in coaching is to ‘Respect confidentiality of all client information (including company and/or client name) except as authorised by client or required by law.’ This addresses the risk that coaches may reveal confidential information about a client, without their permission, when discussing clients with other clients or coaches.
There is also a confidentiality risk within a client organisation, particularly where the executives and/or sponsors in the organisation require regular progress updates on the coaching programme or individuals within it. There is also the possibility that coaches and clients may become friends, in which case boundaries need to have been set and confidentiality guaranteed so that the coach is mindful of their responsibilities. Confidentiality clauses in codes of practice are therefore important to ensure the coach has a formal ethics framework to work within; one that can be shared with the client if necessary.
Similarly, misrepresentation headings are also vitally important in codes of practice as the desire to gain competitive advantage in the marketplace, perhaps by embellishing their credentials in the ‘About me’ page of their website, might be difficult for a coach to resist.
Coaches may also be tempted to extend their professional proposition by presenting themselves as trainers or business consultants, despite not having the appropriate training, skills, experience or credentials.
Another valuable application of the codes of practice in coaching is in the event of a possible conflict of interest. Brock (2006) describes the responsibility of the coach as follows: ‘Seek to avoid conflicts between my interests and the interests of my clients; whenever any actual conflict of interest or the potential for conflict of interest arises, I will openly disclose it and fully discuss with my client how to deal with it in whatever way best serves my client.’
An example of conflict of interest within my own experience as an IPG mentor is when I have been asked my mentees for advice on the best approach to selling their books to retailers, e.g. Waterstones. I have been conflicted here because of my previous role as Interim Director at a publishers’ sales agency, which could offer exactly the kind of solution the mentee requires. Accordingly, I have to be careful to dispassionately lay out all the sales solutions available to my mentee, not just ‘my’ agency’s, as well as clearly declaring my own connection to that agency.
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