Coaching that transcends modernity

Simon Western

H.L.M. Masséna ensemble — Tour Ravenna Arch Arch Jean Sebag Paris, 1975

Lorenzo Linthout ph

At the heart of coaching approaches lies a dominant 20th century narrative. Coaching, (and leadership) are infused by the ethic of modernity, focusing on individualism, functionalism, scientific reductionism, behaviourism and goal focused attainment. Coaches sell their wares promising a return on investment, aligning their coaching expertise to deliver improved individual performance, often dubiously claiming this success can be measured. All this sounds very plausible and it aligns well with Human Resource departments which too are dominated by this modernist ethic of instrumentalism to attain target-driven goals.

Yet what has become lost in this, is a critique of how the modernity ethic has done so much damage in terms of reducing value to growth, profit and increased productivity, rather than thinking in systemic terms of delivering shared-value to wider stakeholders, including those beyond the immediate business. That is a shift from machine closed-system logic, to the dynamism of ecosystem thinking.

This requires Eco-Leadership (Western 2019) which is quite the opposite to what most coaches focus on. We face an environmental crisis because of modernity’s ethic as it…