Boundaries on Coaching with Colleagues

Abstract

Coaching with colleagues is a broad concept. As discussed earlier in this book, both colleagues from outside the organisation (external coaches) and colleagues from within the coachee’s organisation (internal coaches) can play a helping role. There are also managers who use a coaching style of management but at the same time remain hierarchically responsible for their staff, with inevitable consequences in terms of what can and cannot be discussed during a coaching session. This book is not concerned with coaching leadership, though we find that leaders are able to use most coaching styles very effectively. In the relationship between manager and ‘coachee’, the coachee cannot really be at the centre: the manager’s task is to represent the interests of the organisation and the department, and those interests do not always coincide with the interests of the coachee.