Historically, most coaching schools took a humanistic approach to coaching, greatly influenced by motivational theories. Guided by this humanistic approach, the belief is that the answers are within, and coachees have the power to meet their full potential when they align their narratives and actions to what matters to them the most. Therefore, coaching becomes a thinking intervention where the coach helps the coachee explore this.
Although the profession of coaching has started to evolve more recently, with coaching becoming more accessible to those working in all levels of leadership. We have also seen a growth in the number of coaches and coachees from minoritised groups. Despite this, traditionally coaching has been a very privileged system. Where privileged coaches, support privileged coachees, who belong to systems designed for people like them to thrive if they apply their inner resources. So, there has been little need to pay attention to prejudice and barriers to enable these coachees to realise their full potential.
Therefore, from an ED&I perspective, the humanistic approach alone can only go so far. We all belong to several systems that, in many cases, are designed to marginalise, oppress, or even exploit minoritised groups. So, when we don’t recognise this as coaches, we contribute to minoritised coachees feeling inadequate, increasing self-doubt, and experiencing exhaustion after continually drawing on personal resources that simply won’t enable them to compete fairly in a system not build for them.
This means as coaches, we must be aware that we may need to question some of the foundational principles of coaching when working with minoritised coaches or coaching for inclusion. Here are four key lessons learned from our research and experience to support coaches working with coaching minoritised coachees.
1: Recognise how you, as a coach, benefit from various systems across society, including work systems, and how this might limit your ability to coach minoritised coachees.
This is not to say that you should not coach minoritised coachees. In addition, it is also important to consider layers of intersectionality and how this may or may not influence our ability to understand the lived experience of others. For example, consider a coach from a minority ethnic group who is heterosexual, coaching a homosexual coachee.
The critical point here is to recognise your power and privileges and how they might show-up in coaching. It is also about mitigating these limitations, for example, choosing a coaching supervisor who is different to you in relation to their power and privileges, learning about the challenges the communities you are serving are facing, practising reflection extensively, ensuring you surface your power, privilege, prejudice, stereotypes, and fragilities, and consciously integrate and monitor them. Denying them will only lead to implicit biases.
2: Adopt systemic coaching questions as an integral part of your practice to understand the system around the coaching topic.
Power, privilege and prejudice are deeply ‘baked in’ to the systems in which we exist. This means that often, they go unnoticed. Coaching can help us raise awareness of these systems to create a shift in how the coachee thinks about the challenges they are facing. Contract with your coachee to have the right balance between coachee and systems-led coaching questions. Systemic coaching questions are focused on understanding the system; they might include questions like:
- What system does this issue belong to?
- How would you describe this system?
- What is the purpose of this system?
- Who is this system serving?
- What do you need to notice about the system?
- What are the power dynamics influencing this system?
- What changes need to happen in the system for things to improve for you?
- What resources are needed for these changes to happen?
3: You can’t fix a broken system without reform; remedies don’t work. Explore opportunities with sub-systems.
Most systems have been designed to benefit their creators. Therefore, if the representation of these creators was not balanced, power will be poorly distributed, resulting in an unfair system and unlevel playing field. However, for some systems, power and privileges have weakened due to social movements. So, the answer to working in a broken system is to identify sub-systems that can start to reform the system within. Sub-systems might include employee resource groups (ERGs) and groups of sponsors and allies. Coaching questions can then explore ways of identifying allyships, catalysts of change, minoritised networks, or finding people within the broader system with similar lived experiences who can come together to strengthen their voices to reclaim their power and needs.
4: If reform of the system is not possible, the strategy is to explore exit.
The ugly truth is that if the design of their systems has been deeply rooted to serve only certain groups, there will never be a fair exchange. Resources and energy allocated to change will be wasted, and progress will only be a performative, tick box exercise. This is because the dominant groups will struggle to let go of their privileges, and they remain the ones making the decisions about changes. We often tell our clients that if you want to know if your work systems are fair and equitable, you should start by analysing who designed and approved them, and you will have your answer. In cases such as this, the coaching assignment will lead to an exit plan. Otherwise, the coachee might start internalising the prejudice surrounding them, which will have a negative impact on self-belief, confidence and agency. Here, you can explore with the coachee other systems that are designed in a more balanced way, where power and privilege are better distributed. Therefore, the coaching might then be refocused on career transition or career move if the work system is the one in question.
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To explore how we utilise a coaching philosophy in our work with leaders and organisations to enhance inclusive leadership, contact us at enquiries@inclusiveleadershipcompany.com
