Happy International Coaching Week!
It’s moving to watch how coaching has emerged as a recognized profession over the past 35 years.
When we first founded the International Coaching Federation, our goal was simple but ambitious: establish coaching as a credible, respected profession. Today, that vision has become reality. Coaching has achieved critical mass. Most people understand what it is, why it matters, and how it can change lives. That’s a success story worth celebrating.
I thought you might enjoy learning a little about my own personal journey with coaching in the hopes that it expresses what an honor it is to be part of a global community that is trusted to make a genuine, positive contribution in the lives of others.
1. Understanding What Coaching Could Be
When I started coaching in 1989, people would ask, “Oh, what sport?” Coaching for personal or business effectiveness was unheard of. For a while, I tried explaining it—usually to blank stares. Eventually, I began saying, “I help people get their act together.” That line worked. People would immediately reply, “Oh, I need that.” (Because—who doesn’t?)
Mary Schmich put it beautifully in her 1998 Chicago Tribune essay ”In the Olympics of Life, We Could All Use a Coach”:
“I want a coach, ... someone whose life’s work is to better me…
someone who’ll show me how to leap and stretch and play through pain…
someone who’ll water the fields of my possibilities with expectation, consolation, congratulation, faith.”
Once people truly understood what coaching could be, they wanted exactly that—a coach.
The Learning: Coaching, as a practice and skill set, is here to stay. It helps people navigate today’s speed, pressure, and complexity.
2. Bringing Out the Best In People
In 1994, it was a radical idea to create a program that taught managers how to use coaching skills to bring out the best in their people. But that’s exactly what I was trying to do. At the time, managers were agents of the organization. Their job was to drive productivity, often in a world where labor was cheap and plentiful. But as knowledge work became central, organizations needed something different: leaders who could make employees feel safe, supported, and empowered. Today, that is considered common wisdom.
The Learning: Coaching skills are no longer a nice-to-have for leaders. They’re essential to unlocking performance and navigating today’s global economy.
3. What Coaching Really Is
Three years later, while working to create a program to bring one-on-one coaching to over 2,300 IT professionals in a global investment bank, I found myself heavily involved in hiring the coaches we would need to work with such a large group of people. I quickly discovered how few people really knew what coaching was. Many had never experienced anything like it. Even seasoned consultants and PhDs often didn’t understand the difference between coaching and other forms of support. We needed consistent ways to train and certify coaches.
The Learning: Coaching had to define itself clearly and establish distinct competencies.
4. Remembering the Human Connection
In 2000, Scott Blanchard and I co-founded Coaching.com (now Blanchard Coaching), where we built the first coaching management system. Clients could identify development goals and access curated digital resources. We expected the content to be the game changer. But the real value, clients told us, was in the relationship with their coach. The platform was helpful, but the human connection made the difference.
The Learning: Tools, assessments, and AI can support growth—but most people still need a guide to help them focus and take action.
5. A Look Ahead
Now, 25 years later at our company, we continue using coaching to turn insight into action. We help individuals apply what they’re learning, shift behaviors, and move the needle on their leadership effectiveness. Teams, too, benefit when the coach approach is used to help them align, collaborate, and reach their full potential. We’ve yet to find the limits of the coach approach.
The Learning: Coaching continues to evolve and expand in application.
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Over the past 35 years, coaching has matured as a profession, gaining structure, credibility, and global reach. But one thing remains constant: Coaching is still about one trained person helping another (or a group) make sense of their thoughts, connect the most relevant dots, and turn those into meaningful insights.
Because when someone feels truly seen, heard, and understood, they can begin to shift—and perhaps make at least one very important change. For many, it can be the key that changes everything.
Coaching has earned its place as a catalyst for change. And we’re only beginning to understand how far it can take us.
About the Author
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