Katherine Tulpa, chair of the Association of Coaching, introduces our vox-pop of opinion on news that a coaching roundtable of organisations has agreed a statement of shared values. What does this mean for the coaching world and what is next on the roundtable agenda?
"Constructing and agreeing the Statement of Shared Values took approximately six months, or over two Coaching Roundtable meetings, which meet quarterly. Agreeing the wording of the statement was not as difficult as one might think. This is the result of the positive way the group is now working together, having been meeting now for over two years. We actually took a coach approach in putting it together – healthy dialogue and challenge, in a supportive way. We're proud of this achievement – the first of many things I hope we can do together, to serve the coaching profession and each of our members better. This is a newly formed group, and we are all very excited by the possibilities that lie ahead for this. Coaching supervision, and the definition of what good practice looks like, is an area that the market and our members are requesting. There is still a lot of confusion over what coaching and mentoring supervision looks like (including what it should be called) and we are hoping this group will provide more clarity around this, fed up from the special interest groups that are occurring at the local, professional body level, as is the case with the Association for Coaching."
Katherine Tulpa, chair, Association of Coaching
"I am greatly encouraged by the continued dialogue between the various coaching bodies. I hope this collaboration and convergence continues and I for one will be very pleased if it eventually leads to a merger between the key players. I have one major concern, however, and that is the role and status of mentoring, which is in danger of becoming a poor sister in the overall coaching and mentoring movement. But that's something for those of us, who recognise how complementary coaching and mentoring can be, to continue to champion."David Clutterbuck, visiting professor of coaching and mentoring at Sheffield Hallam and Oxford Brookes Universities and senior partner at Clutterbuck Associates
"We simply welcome the attempts to developed shared values and standards. CIPD has long been involved in promoting and developing coaching as a key aspect of management. We support the roundtable initiative which is giving new impetus to developing professional standards. CIPD, by publishing Coaching at Work magazine, developing key courses accredited to the highest level, developing research and running key conferences is at the heart of coaching. By giving practical advice to HR and training leaders we provide a practical focus, key in the development of coaching. We welcome any initiative which builds the good name of coaching and sustains good practice."Dr John McGurk, adviser for learning, training and development at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
"Introducing a 'statement of shared professional values' is a fantastic step towards making coaching into a fully 'recognised' profession. What effect will it have on currently practicing coaches on a day-to-day basis? Hopefully none – as any self-respecting coach will already be working within the proposed guidelines."Olivia Stefanino, coach and author of Be Your Own Guru
"It is a pity the three disparate institutions couldn't find enough common ground for them to merge into one single voice (but as we are still in the storming stage if they did we'd probably see a new one emerge in under a year). Sad, but not surprising, that for some reason diversity had to be singled out as somehow 'more equal' than any other aspect of the law but good to see that in an emerging market there is common ground and agreement rather than each institution fighting the others for supremacy."Rus Slater, coach, P3I-People and Process Performance Improvement
See how we reported the news of the coaching roundtable statement
