As coaches we are having conversations that matter, and discussing topics that are important to our coachees. With any conversations of importance, thought is required around how we hold that space for our coachees and how we show up as coaches.
Coaching is an unregulated industry and it therefore falls to coaching bodies to try to ensure that its members act with professionalism, integrity and an ethical approach.
In this episode we explore the subject of ethics and what an ethical approach might look like to coaches within their own practice. We will explore:
- What to do if you have an ethical dilemma in the coaching room
- Some key elements of the Global Code of Ethics For Coaches including:
- Contracting
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Inappropriate Interactions
- Ending relationships and ongoing responsibilities
- Ability to perform
- Recognising equality and diversity
- Ongoing Supervision and CPD
What Should You Do If You Have An Ethical Dilemma in The Coaching Room?
We recently recorded a podcast and wrote a blog article on supervision, and it’s worth commenting here that for any ethical dilemma that a coach has, supervision is the first port of call. You may know other coaches who you could have a conversation with, but supervision will allow you to talk it through with a more experienced coach who may well have come across something similar before.
Other Helpful Practices:
Most of the coaching bodies sign up to some form of code of ethics, whether their own, as is the case with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), or the Global Code of Ethics for Coaches Mentors and Supervisors, as in the case of the Association for Coaching and the EMCC. Referring to this code of ethics can provide some guidance as to how you could deal with any issues that come up for you.
As a coach, it’s a good idea to undertake a regular reflective practise, this will help you to think about the coaching you’re doing and what’s coming up for you, whether it’s an ethical dilemma, or something else about your coaching, or the relationship you have with your coachees. The code of ethics may also act as a guide for your reflections if something isn’t sitting quite right for you.
Hopefully, your supervisor will have a good understanding of the code of ethics too and be able to hold that space for you whilst you explore whatever the dilemma is for you. And if it’s not quite an ethical dilemma, but something that is coming up for you that you’re uncertain about, they should also be able to hold that space and help you to explore it further.
Let’s explore some elements from the Global Code of Ethics:
Contracting
When working with clients, obviously, we’re going to be contracting, and it might be useful for people when they are contracting to signpost your client to the code of ethics so that both parties know what you’re working to. In fact, If you’re a member of an organisation that is signed up to the Global Code of Ethics, it is also a requirement that you make the Global Code of Ethics available to your clients.
Before any work starts, you have to do some contracting and make sure that everyone’s aware of the details of the contract, and that includes any third parties. If you’re coaching within an organisation and the organisation is sponsoring the coaching, then you need to make sure that they understand what’s going on in terms of contracting, who the client is, whose agenda you’re working to, and be very clear on issues of confidentiality.
Within the global code of ethics, it refers to all the things that we mentioned in our podcast and blog on contracting, so it might be good to review that. In summary, it will cover things like:
- how long the sessions are going to be,
- how long the relationship will last,
- how many sessions you will have, how frequently and where you will meet,
- time keeping,
- cancellations policy
- what happens if they miss a session,
- who’s paying for the coaching,
- what happens if they don’t pay
- confidentiality
You can find out more about contracting here: Podcast / Blog
Confidentiality
Confidentiality is part of any code of ethics, and one of the most important elements of coaching.
It’s important that when we’re holding confidential space for someone, we, and they, know what the boundaries around that confidentiality are. Here are some things to consider:
If we are working within organisations, we have to be clear about what’s going to be fed back to line managers, to the organisation. That can be really tricky. If there are themes coming up from multiple coachees, you might feel it would be good for the organisation to know. But if it’s not part of the contract to provide that feedback, and if that’s not made clear to the client that any of that will be done, you can’t do it. That has to be done at that contracting stage:
“if there are themes coming up across five or six different coaches, is it okay if we record that and feed that back?” And we need to make that clear to the coachees that that’s going to happen.
If a coachee is doing anything illegal, we reserve the right to break the confidentiality to report that. We need to cover that off in our contracting so that people know. Also, if there’s any risk of harm to them or to someone else, then again, we need to be able to break confidentiality. For some people, there may be an issue around professional standards as well, certainly within the medical world. If someone is breaching those professional standards, it might not be deemed illegal, but it could have serious consequences. That might be something that people want to cover off within their contracting, and have given some consideration to before they begin coaching,
Integrity
Coaching organisations like the Association for Coaching are expecting their members to act with integrity and in accordance with their professional qualifications and their experience, and to be honest about both. They would not want coaches presenting themselves as anything that they’re not, hyping their credentials, exaggerating their experience or working beyond their boundaries or the remit of their training.
If there is something that comes into the coaching room that you are not sure you can handle because you don’t have the experience, be ready to say that it is beyond the scope of your experience and competence. Understanding the boundaries between the various talking professions, e.g. coaching vs. therapy, is essential, and, if there is a need to refer your client on to somebody else then it’s important to have that conversation.
We take the view that as a trained transformational coach, whatever comes into the coaching room, to a certain extent, you can handle. You’re not involved in the content so there should be plenty of scope for what your client can bring to the coaching space. You could, of course, have a coaching conversation, and it might be on the back of that you and possibly your client realise that they’re looking for a different type of support, or coach. If someone is looking for someone to explore leadership strategy with, and you have no experience of that, it’s going to be very difficult for you to hold that space to coach them and to give them what they want and need. You may then have to discuss them working with a leadership coach who would be better placed to help them.
Other Elements of Integrity:
As coaches, we shouldn’t be colluding with our client in any illegal activity, or anything that they’re trying to cover up, perhaps around their professional standards. We’re holding a space for them, but we’re not going to be encouraging them to do anything untoward. We may be walking alongside them through the coaching conversation, but there still has to be a level of disassociation and objectivity in order to help bring new perspective to their situation.
Inappropriate Interactions
In the Global Code of Ethics, ‘members are responsible for setting and maintaining clear, appropriate, and culturally sensitive boundaries that govern all physical and virtual interaction interactions with clients or sponsors’. It also states that ‘members will strictly avoid pursuing and refrain from engaging in any romantic or sexual relationships with current clients or sponsors.’
Which sounds fair enough.
What’s important there is boundaries. It’s quite easy, as you get to know people more and that you may feel that there are friendships forming. It’s a very intimate space coaching. We’re having very deep conversations with people about things that matter to them, and they might not have anyone else in their life that they can have that conversation with. So there is quite often going to be some projection of some feeling onto the coach, and it might be interpreted as something beyond just a professional relationship. We can’t stop that going on for our coachee, but I think we make it clear that it is a professional relationship. We, as coaches, need to be aware of this.
We often get new coaches that are coming through our training asking who they could practice their coaching with. Is it okay to coach friends and family? If we’re having a professional relationship, that’s probably not okay because how do you draw the boundaries?
It’s also difficult because if you have a friend who tells you something that you really didn’t want to know, you can’t unhear it, and it might impact on the friendship. But more importantly, it stops it being a professional relationship if you have the friendship as well. It’s very difficult to hold that objective space and have boundaries if you have a friendship with someone.
That’s something to be aware of, and again, something to take supervision if you feel uncomfortable with managing that.
If you are currently on a coaching course, about to start, or thinking about joining us and thinking that you were going to ask a friend to be a practice client, and now they’re thinking twice, don’t panic! We always say to our students, if you’ve got a friend that wants coaching and someone in your group has got a friend who wants coaching, do a swap.
Conflicts of interest is something that might come up for coaches. They might have coaching relationships in an organisation and be asked to coach someone that is too close to an existing coachee. It’s very difficult for you to coach a line manager and also coach one of their team because the line manager will have an interest in the outcome of the coaching of the team member. The team member may be concerned about what’s being reported back to the line manager. It’s just really difficult to hold that space. That is definitely a conflict of interest.
There may be other conflicts of interest: It may be that you’re doing other work within an organisation, perhaps training alongside coaching. If you’ve got someone in a training situation that is also being coached, it might be difficult to hold those boundaries around confidentiality. Where did they say that? Did they say that in the coaching room or the training room? I think, again, it’s possible that you could do both bits of work, but I think it’s something to give some thought to as to whether there is any conflict of interest in the work that you’re doing.
Ending relationships and ongoing responsibilities.
We both have clients that we have coached for many years. We are both aware that there is a risk of dependency and that has to be managed. This is something to reflect on, and to discuss at Supervision. Are the boundaries still in place? Is it just a cosy chat? Are we serving the client by continuing to work with them? That’s quite an interesting area to explore.
If you are a new coach just starting out and you wanted the work and the income, if someone stops working with you after three sessions, it might hurt a little bit because there’s a loss of income. But it’s important to be aware that, despite their being a financial reason to maintain the coaching relationship, we must be serving our client’s best interests. That does come down to ethics. If a client still values that thinking space in a busy schedule, and they are still getting something from it, a longer, or even long-term relationship is fine. A review from time to time, and maybe re-contracting can be useful.
Ability to Perform
It’s important that we maintain the reputation of the profession of coaching and act responsibly, A part of the Global Code of Ethics is about our ability to perform.and this is really important, because if you are not well, if you are struggling with your own things, then it’s really hard to hold that space for a client. That’s built into the code of ethics as well, to just ensure that you’re in a good place when you’re offering coaching and that you’re looking after yourself.
It’s very important that you manage your wellbeing and manage your energy when you’re actually coaching as well. Can you really do hour long sessions back-to-back all day? Are you bringing your best to that session at the end of the day? This is important to consider, and maybe something to reflect on and have coaching or supervision around.
Recognising equality and diversity.
Whilst we hope that coaches will not be knowingly discriminating on any grounds at all, we also have to be aware of unconscious biases that might creep in. Giving some thought to how you show up and what’s going on for you in the coaching room is essential. If you’re aware of something coming up for you, it’s important that you take that to supervision. This is something we will be discussing in more details in future a podcast/article.
Supervision & CPD
One of the pillars of the global code of ethics, is having sufficient supervision. It is important that you have that space to be able to take your concerns to someone, and to have a conversation about them with an experienced coach. You can find out more about supervision here.
Continuing professional development is also a requirement. Continuing to ensure that you stay current and keep developing your skills is important in your coaching practice.
In Summary
Whatever member organisation you belong to, it’s important to be aware of and to think about how you’re showing up and whether you’re abiding by your memberships’ code of ethics. If you don’t act in accordance with the global code of ethics, there’s a greater chance of you having a complaint against you. And obviously, the Association for Coaching take their complaints very seriously, and they would investigate it. The code of ethics is there for a reason. If you’re choosing to step outside of that and act differently, there may be consequences for you.
Ongoing reflection, supervision, thinking about what’s going on for you in the coaching room, good contracting, and being really familiar with the global code of ethics will all help to set the scene in your own mind, if you like, as to how to approach anything that might come up, any ethical dilemmas that you might have.
All of this will encourage a professional coaching practice and happy coaching clients.
The Global Code of Ethics for Coaches, Mentors, and Supervisors can be found here: https://www.globalcodeofethics.org/
For those going through our Transformational Coaching Diploma Programmes, we provide ongoing supervision throughout your training. We are also able to offer supervision to any coaches, whether you have trained with us or somewhere else. If you would like to know more, do get in touch.
To find out more about our Doctors’ Transformational Coaching Diploma click through here
