Contributions of evidence-based developmental coaching to coaching psychology and practice

Abstract

In this article, some of the major contributions to coaching psychology made by evidence-based developmental coaching, a form of coaching based on research in adult development,are outlined. ‘Coaching Psychology’ is seen as a behavioural discipline (Stober & Grant, 2006). Therefore, the emphasis is put, not on the developmental paradigm per se, but on how it relates to working with behavioural data in coaching practice. This amounts to shedding light on the limits of a strictly behavioural coaching paradigm, however evidence-based it may be. Positively speaking, it entails pointing to the enrichment of coaching psychologyby way of acknowledging and integrating developmental research methods and findings about coaches as well as clients, and thus their interaction.There is a common thematic denominator of disciplines using a developmental paradigm in Piaget’s central notion of increasing loss of ego-centricity over the life span. This notion straightforwardly extends to behaviour, in the sense of Freud’s ‘whatId is shall Ego become,’ in that Freud’s Ego is exactly where ego-centricity imposed by Id is being lost. If, as happens in developmental coaching, behaviour is seen, as wellas measured, in terms of a person’s level of ego-centricity in its many forms, new perspectives on ‘helping’ and ‘consultation’ including coaching arisethat are unknown in a behavioural universe of discourse.