Aus Fehlern Iernen

Learning from blunders. Experiences of an executive coach with problems and solutionsNot too often, even rarely, we are in a situation to talk about blunders or shortcomings within our coaching community. That really is a pity, because a discussion like this combined with reflection and feed back is the best and only way for a coach to avoid professional mistakes in his future. So this article is “somehow another kind” of contribution. The author reports his own 18 years of “blunder-experience” as well as professional mistakes of other coaches which he observed in mentor coachings and supervisions, he suggests outcomes, consequences and solutions. Topics are: Anger, aggression and “struggles of power” within the coaching process; dependence versus (internal) independence of a coach; transference and counter-transference within the coaching process; peanut politics within a coaching process. Result: the coach himself, his core values, his boldness directed to social risks and to natural consequences — combined with appreciative conversation and respecting clients — makes out the core dissolving capacity. Without mentor coaching and professional supervision every coach would be trapped into his personal “trap of mistakes” — and even worse: without recognizing this dilemma.     

Selbstreflexivität – Annäherungen an eine zentrale Haltung in Coaching- und Beratungsprozessen

This article explores “self-reflexivity” as a key competence and general attitude in all contexts of coaching and supervision. Three main perspectives are used approaching self-reflexivity: the “where from”, “what for” and “how-to”. Thus starting from etymology the importance of the subject in the practice of coaches and counselors is explored. Based on two models it is shown what kind of interaction between client and coach is beneficial when wanting to activate self-reflexivity. The article is rounded up by a note on self-care—one important aspect of self-reflexivity.     

„Teamsupervision“ — ein Mythos? Ein kritischer Essay

?Team supervision“ — a myth? A critical essayThe author demonstrates, that team supervision often is highly charged with ideological traditions. She exemplifies this on the one hand by the concept and the significance of “team” and on the other hand by the traditions of team supervision. She recommends, that the involved persons should bring to mind the substantial significance and the function of “team” and of “team supervision”, and they should exactly reconsider the goals of this setting.     

Was heißt „systemisch“ in Supervision und Coaching?

The author discusses a book of Stefan Kühl about supervision and coaching, who presents a system theoretical background for the analysis of supervision and coaching. He defines them as “person oriented counselling” and he postulates that there hardly exist a difference between these counselling formats. The author relates to the writings of Niklas Luhmann about organisational phenomena. Following Kühl, the main concern of supervision and coaching are conflicts with different severity. He discusses different settings, the problems of evaluation and of charlatanism, the paradoxicality in the self presentation of counsellors and the specific effects of person oriented counselling.     

„Opportunity coaching“: Ein ermutigender Weg in die Coaching-Zukunft

?Opportunity coaching“ — a powerful way into coaching future This article stresses a powerful coaching approach: to work on a client’s resources, on a client’s potential improvement, oriented at a client’s future possibilities, chances and “opportunities”. Starting from a dialectic “as well as” paradigm: seeing strength and weaknesses, past and future, problems and possibilities not being mutual exclusions but parts of an holistic entity, the author elaborates core aspects and approaches of “opportunity coaching” and reports examples out of his coaching experience.     

Supervision von Coaching

To the extent that coaching establishes itself as a consulting format for professionals, professionalization and quality assurance of coaching become increasingly relevant. One instrument towards professionalization and quality assurance is coaching supervision. The author defines coaching supervision and describes its various functions. The “seven-eyed” model of supervision is explained. Next, the question to what degree coaches actually take part in supervision is addressed by summarizing extant empirical studies. The article ends by describing characteristics of the publication scene on coaching supervision and by providing an outlook for future research.     

„Coaching“ durch die Führungskraft — eine kritische Betrachtung

?Leadership Coaching“ — A critical discussion?Leadership Coaching“ comes into vogue again. It is possible that cutting down the expenses for HRM (and specially for counsultants) reinforces this trend. Therefore it is again time to discuss the question about the main differences between “leadership coaching” and coaching by professionals. Consultations by the superior can be helpful, however there are distinct differences to the professional coaching.     

Coaching zwischen Qualitätsproblemen und Professionalisierungsbemühung Thesen zur Entwicklung des Coachings

Coaching has a problem of charlatanism — a typical problem of new, mainly not structured fields of practices. Besides preventing charlatans from practising, an identification of them is not possible, because of missing standards in education, inconsistent quality criteria, and weak internal professional regulations. The uncontrolled problem of charlatanism — coaching is a special case here— causes an erosion of legislation. The results are multiple efforts of professionalization. This text presents an hypothesis of the problem of charlatanism in coaching, based on 25 interviews with personal development managers, representatives of professional organizations, and observers of the “coaching scene”.     

Die Supervision auf dem Weg zur Profession? Professionalisierung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Expansionsbestrebung und Selbstbescheidung

In contrast to the general trend of deprofessionalization, supervision has established some criteria for professions during the last twenty years: wide ranges of quality standards, standardized educational programs, professional ethics etc. This development toward this trend needs explanation. It is argued, that the approach of the development of profession could be successful, because supervision became a successful “parasite” of its “host” social work. The introduction of supervision in social work, however, was responsible for the introduction of coaching as a new profession in the area of organizational consulting. The question is which effects the expansion of supervision towards team and organizational development will have on the establishing of its further professionalization. There appears to be some tendencies toward the idea that supervision will become a part of the development of professionalization as the “perfect nanny of organizations”.     

Psychiatrisierung, Personifizierung und Personalisierung Zur personenzentrierten Beratung in Organisationen

Psychiatrization, personification and personalization. Individual-centred consulting in organizations The individual-centred consulting already achieved high popularity in supervision and coaching. Based on system theory this article aims to define the functions of individual-centred consulting approaches — such as supervision and consulting — for organizations. The function of person-centred consulting is less an obvious manifest function of human resources development and more an invisible one for isolating conflicts in special interactional contexts. The organization achieves protection of its structure through coaching and supervision, because it is able to isolate its conflicts interactionally and therefore these conflicts remain to a large extent without any consequences for the organization.     

Coaching im interkulturellen Kontext

The proceeding globalization of the professional world results in coaching being faced with increasing consultations where the cultural background of the client deviates from that of the referring company. The article describes possible distinctions between intercultural training and coaching in an intercultural context. Case studies are presented illustrating the commencing and progress of coaching with different combinations of national backgrounds, specific challenges are pointed out and approaches are developed. The author highlights the “intrinsic objectives of coaching” and the “consultant’s focus”.     

Narzissmus und Derailment – wenn Führungskräfte entgleisen

For a long time, leadership concepts were dominated by human resource development of successful managers. In recent years, management failure (“derailment”) came into focus of discussions. The causes of derailment are multifactorial involving personality traits, job-related challenges and the work environment. Considering personality traits, the correlation between narcissism and leadership is of late gaining attention. Dual concepts of narcissism have been developed in order to explain narcissists’ predisposition for leading positions, and on the other hand they reveal narcissism as a risk factor for management failure. Both sides of narcissism are relevant for organizational consulting, coaching, and supervision. They provide effective concepts for prevention of derailment.     

Berufungscoaching Systemisches Coaching in Phasen der (beruflichen) Neuorientierung

Vocation-coaching — Coaching in phases of personal reorientationA model for a coaching-method, the “Vocation-coaching” is presented, which was used successfully in the last two years. The main aspects of the model, namely discovering — strengthen — transfer, are described. The coaching-techniques which are used within the vocation-coaching are compared to the techniques of the conventional coaching. The target group of the vocation-coaching are individuals at turning points in their lives, especially at turning points in their professions. The needs of these persons are described and compared to the potential use of the method of the vocation-coaching.     

Qualitativ-diskursanalytische Erforschung von Coaching-Gesprächen

“What is happening in coaching?”—this question is given two readings in the current article: Coaching is understood as consulting business and as consulting interaction. With respect to the first reading, i.e. the coaching market, the trans- and interdisciplinary research group LOCCS (The Linguistics of Coaching, Consulting and Supervision) is introduced, dedicated to qualitative-linguistic analysis of coaching and other consulting interactions. With respect to the second reading, i.e. the coaching interaction itself, the special contribution of such qualitative-linguistic analysis will be outlined. With the help of concrete examples, we will illustrate this method and its benefits.     

Die Differenzen zwischen Supervision und Coaching

The difference between supervision and coachingThe difference between supervision and coaching This article discusses the difference between coaching and supervision. There are three relevant points: (1) Supervision and coaching deal with different groups in the organisations; (2) coaching is more personal development, supervision more for the self experience; (3) Supervision is change from the bottom and coaching change from the top.     

Die „4-Level-Evaluation“: Messen der Ergebnis- und Prozessqualität im Coaching

“4-Level-Evaluation”: Measuring coaching success. Introducing a general and valid evaluation methodology, the “4-level-evaluation”, which will secure measuring coaching success and coaching process –without any limitation in terms of special tools or methods – and which every client will understand and appreciate. How to create a realistic evaluation bottom line, how to manage expectations to avoid perhaps disappointments, how to define possible coaching goals and how to eventually evaluate grades of achievement are explained and applied to a practical coaching case.     

Erfolgsfaktoren beim Einzel-Coaching

Success factors of executive coaching. A screening of the coaching scenery from the client’s point of viewThis survey, based on questionnaires, examines the success factors of one-to-one coaching from the client point of view. Firstly, ten success factors in coaching were established by means of factor analysis. Secondly, more extensive analysis shows that, contrary to previous research in this field, the “professional system” is not necessarily a determining success factor in coaching. As an exclusive instrument of staff development, coaching seems to be effective even without support from the professional system. The analysis also indicates that the clients perceive their coach as an advisor and confidant as regards role expectations. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis discloses the predictive effects of the two success factors “the coach’s qualification” and “the coach’s involvement” for the overall success of coaching from the client’s point of view. The overall success of coaching itself is established through three items: the clients’ attitudes towards coaching, their attitude concerning further coaching, and the extent to which their objectives were met in coaching.     

Was heißt „dialogische Beziehung“ in berufsbezogener Beratung (Supervision und Coaching)?

What is the meaning of ?dialogical relationship“ in supervision and coaching? The model of the ?socratic dialogue“ The author presents the ?socratic dialogue“ as a model of the counseling settings supervision and coaching. In contrast to a dogmatized store of knowledge the recognition of the own notknowing concerning the other person and the problem to be solved is a crucial attitude. Instead of a secure professional knowledge and of a corresponding indoctrination or e.g. interpretations of ?resistance“, the central issues are the common questioning and scrutinizing as well as the courage to open oneself to the encounting unknown. A dialogue attitude means, to become aware of and to endure the contradiction of equality vs. unequality, knowing vs. not-knowing, self-interest vs. openness to the other.     

DRIVE AND TALENT

We analyze ways in which heterogeneity in responsiveness to incentives (“drive”) affects employees' incentives and firms' incentive systems in a career concerns model. On the one hand, because more driven agents work harder in response to existing incentives than less driven ones—and therefore pay is increasing in perceived drive—there is a motive to increase effort to signal high drive. These “drive‐signaling incentives” are strongest with intermediate levels of existing incentives. On the other hand, because past output of a more driven agent will seem to the principal to reflect lower ability, there is an incentive to decrease effort to signal low drive. The former effect dominates early in the career, and the latter effect dominates towards the end. To maximize incentives, the principal wants to observe a noisy measure of the agent's effort—such as the number of hours he works—early but not late in his career. (JEL: C70, D82, D23)     

Supervision und Coaching im Feld der klinischen Neuropsychologie

Supervision and coaching in the field of clinical neuropsychologyThe author discusses the special importance of supervision and coaching in the clinical neuropsychology. At first, she shows the origins of both consultation forms, then she discusses supervision and coaching as methods of quality management in hospitals as well as their importance for the patients as vocational rehabilitation, before they return into their jobs.