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This book comes at an important point in the evolution of business coaching. This is a time when business leaders are becoming increasingly interested in using business coaching as a way to improve their organisation's ability to deliver commercial results.
Coaches need to release any bias in favour of the individual over the organisation and adopt the notion of a ‘duality of client’ (individual and organisation as equal and simultaneous clients). Coaches need to balance their theoretical focus in individual psychology with organisational and cultural theory. Coaches need to shift from a health and well-being mind set into a relational mind set, focused on business performance.
Kahn begins his text by taking the reader through the historical and theoretical foundations of the coaching discipline, showing how psychotherapy and counselling have laid the foundations for its emergence. He explains how the underlying cultural assumptions of these disciplines are different from that of business, which is driven by market forces and the creation of wealth (Robbins,
In the first chapter, Kahn poses a fundamental question: Who is the client? The interrelatedness of the individual client and the organisation is presented, and the concept of a ‘duality of client’ is introduced. This chapter also explores the systemic nature of organisations and the necessity to think systemically when working with business.
The next chapter deals with organisational culture. The nature of culture and the relationship between leadership and culture is presented. It explores the cultural ideologies of business in contrast to coaching and the differences between the two. The chapter clearly exposes how underlying and unconscious beliefs associated with the coaching culture (emerging from its origins in counselling psychology) do not align with the values and norms of businesses, and the implications of this are explored. Kahn suggests the need for a more equitable and conscious integration of coaching and business culture.
Chapter three is entitled ‘The complexity of theory’. The chapter is dedicated to the balance between theory and practice for a business coach. The text covers a series of strategies related to the integration and assimilation of theory and the application thereof within a business and coaching context. In particular, it exposes the tension between the culture of science and the culture of business and the way in which this tension impacts on business-coaching practice.
The remaining chapters present the ‘Coaching on the axis’ approach, which acts as an overarching framework for coaches to manage the challenges previously outlined.
Chapter four introduces this framework, using the metaphor of a tree to illustrate it.
Chapter five deals with the environmental dimension of the ‘Coaching on the axis’ approach. The environment is presented as a complex relational system with a range of realities above and below the surface. This chapter specifically explains how coaches can access the environmental dimension during the coaching process. The sections on feedback and working with relationships are especially powerful and practical. It clearly shows how the environmental dimension can be accessed systemically but also subjectively through the eyes of the individual client.
Chapter six extensively covers the individual dimension. Several topics related to the inner and outer life of individuals are covered: from their life stories to the social and cultural realities of rank and power to the existential questions that confront people in their work contexts. Kahn further discusses methods and ideas about access to data when it comes to the individual and provides an overview of a range of pertinent theory.
Chapter seven presents the centre of the coaching axis – the relationship between the individual and the environment. Here the author brings the other dimensions into relationship with each other, and positions the work of the coach as mediator or broker of this relationship.
The last two chapters are dedicated to some techniques and a detailed case study which acts to integrate the ideas, concepts and framework proposed in this book.
The approach positions individuals within the context of market-place realities, organisational culture and business objectives. It marries theory and practice with an uncompromising commercial agenda. Kahn is honest and direct about the complexity of organisational life and the depth of human experiences at work. He draws on his own work experience to bring the approach to life through stories, case studies and real-life examples.
However, clearly, systems theory features as the most prominent theoretical influence on the work as it focuses on the interrelatedness of individuals, their role and the organisational context within which they are required to perform (Senge,
Marc Kahn is a chartered business coach with the World-Wide Association of Business Coaches (WABC), a clinical psychologist and an organisation-development consultant. He is currently head of human recourses and organisation development for Investec Ltd, a listed financial-services corporation. He has been consulting to organisations for 20 years, having worked across the coaching industry as provider, teacher, supervisor and corporate procurer of business and executive coaching services.