The Coaching Relationship - Putting People First

Stephen Palmer & Almuth McDowall (Eds.)

Routledge, Essential Coaching Skills and Knowledge Series
240 pages, paperback. ISBN: 978-0-415-45874-0. £16.99

Reviewed by Dr Jennifer Nash

This book is a comprehensive and accessible guide to the core components of the coaching psychology relationship - a topic that is arguably the most key element of effective coaching, yet one that is not often explicitly addressed within coaching psychology texts which focus on ‘technique’ rather than ‘process’. It was therefore very refreshing to have an entire guide dedicated to the important subject of the very ‘human’ aspects of coaching psychology.

After a broad introduction, discrete chapters on distinct themes of the various aspects of the coaching psychology relationship are presented in a logical layout. This enables the reader to dip in and out of this text and thus target their reading to their personal learning outcome.

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of the coaching psychology relationship and emphasises the importance of the subtitle to the book - ‘putting people first’. It sets the scene that relationships operate as the fundamental aspect of human functioning. Itdistinguishes amongst the various types of relationship that exist within our dynamic modern world. Interesting dialogue about recent advances in relationship building is presented - along with both the affordances and constraints of social networking which allows us to be both connected yet also potentially alienated.

Chapter 2 introduces an interpersonal perspective on the coaching psychology relationship using an illustrative case study to effectively demonstrate the coaching psychologist’s use of self in establishing an effective coaching psychology relationship in which both parties are engaged at both a meso and macro-level. There is a useful table comparing and contrasting the key elements of coaching psychology relationships with three other types of helping relationships - specifically counselling, sport psychology and friendship relationships. I found this to be illustrative, if somewhat elementary.

Chapter 3 builds upon the previous chapter and provides a much more sophisticated commentary on the interpersonal aspects of the coaching psychology relationship. Drawing on a wide psychological literature base, the authors apply concepts such as game theory, reciprocal causation and selfconcordance to coaching in an informative manner.

Chapter 4 covers what is often a staple ingredient of traditional coaching psychology texts - the process of goal setting. This chapter did however manage to distinguish itself from being just another chapter on goal setting, through the inclusion of valuable material regarding the processes of feeding back and feeding forward. A useful overview of the theories and frameworks relevant to feedback was presented.

Chapter 5 is concerned with assessment in coaching psychology and in particular, the various assessment tools that can be utilised to aid the coaching psychology process. Initially, the inclusion of a topic on assessment appeared to me to be incongruent to the topic of the book. However, the authors argue that assessment instruments can offer a route to external validation of what is going on within the coaching psychology relationship, which can often by overly reliant on the opinions or perceptions of those involved. Although I found the description of available assessment instruments useful - I was left feeling that this chapter did not fit well with the rest of the book, with it’s tight focus on coaching psychology relationships.

Chapter 6 addresses the practice of reflexive coaching and offers a ‘reflexive leadership model’ as a framework for understanding and linking meaning and action in the leadership system. The ideas in this chapter are based on systemic models of understanding, which are likely to be new to many coaches, however, a helpful case study was included to illustrate it’s application in practice.

Coaching across cultures is the theme of chapter seven and it is at this point that the book really moved into a more in-depth analysis of some of the more ‘gritty’ aspects of the coaching psychology relationship. The author dealt with the steps of recognising and accepting cultural differences, then adapting, integrating and leveraging these differences to bring a richness to the relationship and bridge real and perceived cultural disparities.

The issue of power in the coaching psychology relationship is dealt with in Chapter 8. This contained thoughtful reflection on the implicit and explicit experiences of power contained within the often complex relationships between coach, coachee and employing organisation. Power can appear to be a challenging subject and is easily overlooked in coaching texts in favour of more concrete and ‘knowable’ domains. In contrast, in this chapter the authors give a number of useful recommendations about how to operationalise power as a concept, emphasising transparency and self-awareness amongst other skills.

Chapter 9 is concerned with an oftenneglected topic of the ending of a coaching psychology relationship. Novice coaching psychologists may have a tendency to place greater emphasis on the initial sessions and how to start ‘right’, yet ending well is a key skill that can ensure continuity and longevity of the gains made throughout the coaching experience. The authors of this chapter provide both conceptual and pragmatic ideas about how to do this in practice.

Chapter 10 deals with ethical practice within the coaching psychology relationship. The author provides some interesting commentary about the apparent apathy in the coaching psychology field towards learning more about ethical practice. Whilst there is no evidence for a lack of ethical practice within the profession of coaching psychology, there does appear to be a misguided assumption that ethics is merely about doing what is ‘right’. In contrast, this chapter highlights the potential range of ethical dilemmas within coaching psychology practice and includes a thought provoking and challenging case study that addresses the ‘nuts and bolts’ of an ethical predicament, taking the discussion to a very practical, ‘real-world’ level.

Chapter 11 is an extensive analysis of the relational aspects of training and supervisory alliances. This was a valuable look at the supervision process, which I welcomed. In particular, the ‘Seven-Eyed Coaching Model’ is presented, describing sevens ‘modes’ of supervision that allow exploration of the various different influences on supervisory activity in the room. This will no doubt provide a useful and very user-friendly structure to the supervision process, allowing supervisees’ to feel supported and enabled to better develop their own coaching practice.

In summary, I found this book to be a valuable guide to the coaching relationship. Throughout the text, I appreciated the reflexive questions at the end of each chapter, which encouraged the reader to apply the theory of the text to their own coaching practice. I believe that there is much to be gained here for both novice and more experienced coaching psychologists alike.