Coach Development: Why you can never stop doing work on yourself!

As an externally referenced individual, with a loud value driver around being ‘competent’ I have craved to attain badges of honour as recognition that I am good enough and doing a good job. At one point I stupidly thought that once I have these badges “I will be done” and “I will be good enough”. And despite having attained Master Coach Accreditation with the EMCC and achieved my PhD I have even flirted with applying for Master Certified Coach with the ICF, all in a naïve attempt that I may then start to believe and embody being “good enough”. The professional bodies promote a process of progression with their levels of accreditation, with “master coach” being the pinnacle. Whilst “mastery” undoubtedly signposts that one has accomplished and ‘mastered’ the art of the profession, it is rather binary and suggests that once we reach those dizzy heights, we are in some way complete. However, I believe as a result of my own experience and research that it is far more complex than this. Our development is not linear because with one client or in a moment in time we are more masterful as a coach and in others we lose our way, lack confidence and are de-railed, go backwards or plateau and we then need to do more work on self to develop. It is therefore far from a linear journey, but instead a more holistic, ongoing and dynamic one, hence why I’m not ever going to have finished my development and journey.

Hence, I have realised that I have spent a life gathering external validation from others, or as Brene Brown describes it ‘hustling for worthiness’. Instead, the development focus is best directed towards my very own self-awareness with the aim of accepting myself (if that is even achievable), becoming comfortable in my own skin in order that I can de-latch my self-worth from my clients and their results. I therefore see coach development as an ongoing, never-ending journey because the badge (whichever one you strive for) “is not really the goal or destination, but rather a process, a journey” (Leonard, 1991). This is more aligned with how as adults we are not unchanging, but continually learning, growing, and developing (Bachkirova & Cox, 2008). That is why coach development is an infinite game. The concept of a finite game is that there is a point where the game is over, won or lost (mastery is achieved, we are developed and development stops); but being a coach has no finite end. This infinite game is what I perceive as the on-going work on self and accepting there is no endpoint. Afterall, if a core purpose of coaching is to raise self-awareness in our clients (Bozer, Sarros & Santora, 2014), we must also pay attention to our own. In sum, the Pema Chodron quote “we work on ourselves in order to work with others; we work with others’ in order to work on ourselves”, underpins this concept because if we embody this it highlights that every client and every piece of work we do provides us with more material for our continuing self-work.