What makes a good coach? 80% listening, 20% talking? This sentiment is, after all, central to the name of our coaching and mentoring business at KCM 80-20. Some coaches might advocate a listening-talking ratio of 70-30 or 90-10? The optimum approach is perennially debated within the coaching community; however, what is undebatable is that a good coach will be 100% ethically minded in his or her approach.
I was reminded of this during the past week with the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) investigation into Lighthouse International Group, now Lighthouse Global, which has culminated in the BBC’s documentary A Very British Cult (Nye, 2023). I was aghast, as I am sure the entire coaching community was, when the BBC described Lighthouse’s business as life coaching, as well as the alleged details of clients being drawn into the organisation, persuaded to give over their life savings, deliberately influenced to estrange themselves from their families to view Lighthouse as their ‘family’, and subjected to verbal attacks if they dared question the organisation’s motives and ethics (Bartlett, Nye, & Truswell, 2023).
Rest assured, the alleged activities of Lighthouse International Group, which was wound up at the British High Court on 4th April 2023 for insolvency, do not constitute coaching in theory nor practice (United Kingdom Government Insolvency Service, 2023). Nevertheless, for those that have little or no understanding of what coaching is, I am concerned that our nascent industry will become tarnished by association with this news story, and people will shy away from the exponential benefits that experienced, qualified and supervised coaches can bring to people’s lives.
So, let me set your mind at ease and allow you to dismiss the BBC’s labelling of Lighthouse’s practice as coaching. Hopefully, you might book a session or two at KCM 80-20, so that we can help you realise your potential....without losing the home, the family and being brainwashed into a cult.......
Coaching can be experienced in various forms: life, organisational, executive, and team among them. Life, as you can imagine, is about challenges in that domain, while the others are more focused on the work domain. The skillset the coach employs is as extensive as the training and experience they have. I do not have the time to examine such differences here; however, the approach is broadly similar for all. At its most basic level the coach should listen attentively, ask perspective changing questions, facilitate the client’s self-specification of goals and their actions to attain them in the future. Often, the best results are achieved because the coach has helped the client to address inhibiting beliefs, values and attitudes to produce positive behaviours that lead to improved outcomes.
Good coaches, however, are not delusional. We are not trained to be therapists or psychiatrists. We are aware when a client may reveal thoughts or behaviours that require professional treatment and advise as such. A good coach would not continue the conversation and exploit the situation for their own ends. They will contract and recontract throughout the conversation to ensure that the client is comfortable taking the conversation in the direction it is moving, especially if it is entering challenging and sensitive territory. You will see the contrast when Jeff Leigh-Jones, at the centre of the BBC’s allegations against Lighthouse, and several others allege that Lighthouse representatives continued to exploit clients’ deep-rooted psychological issues by encouraging them to view their own families as toxic and acting against them. Their agenda, according to the BBC article 'Inside the Life Coaching Cult that Takes Over Lives’, was to secure loyalty to the Lighthouse ‘family’ at the expense of filial relationships (Bartlett, Nye, & Truswell, 2023).
Lighthouse’s words and actions, evident on its website and YouTube video refuting the BBC’s claims and attacking the corporation itself, differ to traditional coaching organisations (Lighthouse Global Media, 2023). Lighthouse espouses a Christian values framework, which appears to infuse the relationship with the client. The YouTube video contains quotations from the Bible to rationalise current events involving the BBC and the High Court (Lighthouse Global Media, 2023). We all have bias and prejudice that we bring to our interactions with others and society in general; however, a good coach works on their self-awareness and takes steps to restrict entry of their ‘own baggage’ into the conversation with the client. Group supervision is one practice that coaches pay for themselves in order to share experiences, seek support, offer counsel and ‘de-baggage’ with other experienced coaches. A good coach will also attempt to use ‘clean language’ as much as possible throughout the coaching conversation, meaning that the spoken words of the client are used to drive its direction, not the coach’s. Ultimately, a good coach is striving to eliminate a pre-determined values framework, the constraints inherent in the conventions and rules within ‘official’ discourse, and any agenda that they may bring to their conversation with the client.
It takes a lot of experience and training to get to this point. I am not aware of any training given to Lighthouse representatives and, legally, they did not need any to practice life coaching. As the BBC rightly points out it is an unregulated industry, but one in growth with an estimated “80,000 to 100,000 working in the field” in the UK (Bartlett, Nye, & Truswell, 2023). At KCM 80-20, we have spent approximately $50,000 between us in terms of coaching and mentoring training and qualifications, earned in specialist programs from the most reputable globally-recognised providers. Notwithstanding the shared decades of leadership and management experience where we have brought these skills to bear. This is hard earned and hard won. It is extremely frustrating and concerning when people practice as coaches without any qualifications and stories emerge of unethical behaviour and damaged reputations.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) and the European Mentoring & Coaching Council (EMCC) are two of several coaching accreditation organisations that work to impose standards and codes of conduct upon the practices of coaches. Accreditation from these organisations is highly sought after by coaches desiring to legitimise their practice. At KCM 80-20 we are alumni of ICF and EMCC accredited courses. At the core of their courses are the ethical codes that coaches solemnly agree to uphold. For example, ICF has a four section, twenty-eight clause code of ethics focused on Responsibility to Clients, Responsibility to Practice and Performance, Responsibility to Professionalism, and Responsibility to Society. The last clause broadly encapsulates everything akin to a Hippocratic oath “I adhere to the philosophy of ‘doing good’ versus ‘doing bad’” (ICF Code of Ethics, n.d.). Without detailed knowledge and strict adherence to ethical considerations a coach will struggle to attract and retain clients, as well as likely bring down the ire of other coaches for tarnishing the respectability of the industry.
Rest assured then; good coaches do exist out there and are well worth the investment to help you realise your potential. Just make sure you do your due diligence when deliberating who to use. Your mental checklist for a 100% ethically minded coach should include:
Are they ICF or EMCC accredited?
What experience do they have?
Do their testimonials/referrals check out?
Are they participating in supervision?
Do they offer a free initial session to allow you to assess whether the coaching relationship will work?
In the initial session, do they make clear what coaching is and isn’t? Do they work to build trust and stress confidentiality?
Is the company’s paperwork on point (ie proposal, contract, ethical standards, insurance and so on)?
If you have any further questions and want to meet coaches “doing good” for society, please contact us at KCM 80-20. We are looking forward to working with you. Subscribe to the blog for future articles on similar themes. https://www.kcm80-20.com.au/
REFERENCES
Bartlett, J. Nye, C. & Truswell, N. Inside the Life Coaching Cult that Takes Over Lives. British Broadcasting Corporation. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65175712
International Coaching Federation. (n.d.). ICF Code of Ethics. https://coachingfederation.org/ethics/code-of-ethics
Lighthouse Global Media (2023, April). BBC Malicious Myths – A Very British Broadcasting Cult (Video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhUmc-17H-w
Lighthouse International Group (n.d.) https://lighthouseinternationalgroup.com/mission-vision/
Nye, C (2023). A Very British Cult (Audio podcast). https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001kvf8
United Kingdom Government Insolvency Service. (2023, April 6). Mentoring and coaching company shut down for financial irregularities (Press release). https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mentoring-and-coaching-company-shut-down-for-financial-irregularities
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