Cross-cultural coaching – much ado about nothing?

This article is a reprint of a Coaching Research in Practice  (Jul, 2017).

 

In today’s international world, where communicating across continents is easier than communicating with your neighbours, it is likely that most coaches will coach someone from another culture.

 

The field of cross-cultural coaching suggests special knowledge is necessary to effectively coach someone from a different culture, but the research discussed in this issue of Coaching Research in Practice throws a different light on the topic.

 

COACHING RESEARCH:

 

Andrea Roth’s study (2017) of 11 executive coaches’ experiences of coaching a client from a distinctively different cultural background set out to explore how relevant national culture might be for coaching.

 

When talking about cross-cultural coaching, there are two different approaches (p. 32):

 

1. Looking at cultural issues in the client’s world
2. Focusing on potential cultural impacts on the relationship between coach and client

 

The study highlighted that both cultural and non-cultural influences affect the coaching context and that this in turn is moderated by coaches’ individual cultural lenses, and their use of a cultural lens in the coaching engagement.

 

Cultural influences included subcultures (region, family), multicultural experiences and organisational culture. Non-cultural influences included client personality, historical context, geography, religion and education. Thus, there are many factors shaping the client identity, of which culture is just one of the influences.

 

Importantly, Roth highlighted that “knowledge, assumptions and beliefs about culture provide one lens through which the coach might make meaning of experiences in coaching and interpret a client’s behaviour … Some coaches seem to perceive their clients more from a generalising cultural perspective, whereas others focus on the individual” (p. 35). She also points out the risk that a coach’s “cultural lens might get in the way of effective coaching” (p. 35), if they expect their clients to fit their cultural stereotype, rather than seeing the client as an individual independent of their culture.

 

However, coaches can use their cultural lenses in different ways (p. 36):

 

1. Understanding how culture might play a role when a client chooses a coach, e.g. cultural closeness and expectations that the coach will understand the client’s culture leads to the way the coach positions him/herself
2. Using one’s cultural understanding to assess the client, e.g. beliefs, assumptions and internalized cultural values
3. Interpreting clients’ behaviours and their expectations of coaching and the coach as culturally induced, e.g. expectations about role of coach, quality of engagement, building trust, self-disclosure and communication style
4. Perceiving a need to adapt one’s coaching style and practices in the cross-cultural coaching dyad

 

Various findings in the study indicated that “a cultural pattern in itself might not matter that much but that it is the coach’s reaction to it that matters” (p. 38). In fact, the study held “no straightforward answer to the question whether culture matters in a cross-cultural coaching encounter [because] coaching situations are complex and many contextual factors impinge upon the coaching relationship” (p. 38).

 

However, “Theories on culture … might impact how coaches think about culture, and thus shape their cultural lenses [but] … when coaches assess how national cultures might have influence over their client’s profile, they address the cultural orientation of individuals” (p. 39). Finally, what is important to note is that culture is not objective, “but a subjective perception and interpretation … based on the coach’s individual cultural frames of reference” (p. 39).

 

 

IN PRACTICE:

 

More than once, Roth’s paper highlighted the risk of stereotyping individuals based on culture and this is perhaps the most important point for practice. To counteract this risk, coaches should be aware of their culturally filtered perceptions and that “the relevance of cultural norms might change according to situation and context” (p. 40).

 

The study also suggested that “coaching practice is already culturally sensitive to a certain extent and that adaption might not be that necessary” (p. 40). This suggests that when coaching someone from a different culture, your regular coaching process, in which you are fully present with and respond to the individual, should support you in working with your cross-cultural clients effectively.

 

In conclusion, I’ll leave you with Roth’s final comments as you consider the relevance of this research to your practice:

 

Even if coaches identify culturally rooted behaviours or expectations among their clients, they should be aware that they are not referring to culture as a set, real, objective ‘thing’ in the coaching room, but that it is their own perception and interpretation that defines something as cultural. I suggest that coaches should reflect on how their assumptions about specific cultures, and the use of culture as a frame for understanding the client’s behaviour, might impinge on their coaching practice in order to avoid the pitfall of cultural stereotyping. (pp. 40-41)

 

Reference:

Roth, A. (2017). Coaching a client with a different cultural background – does it matter? International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, Special Issue No. 11(June), 30-43. Retrieved July 21, 2017, from http://ijebcm.brookes.ac.uk/documents/special11-paper-03.pdf

 

Translating coaching research into coaching practice,

Kerryn Griffiths (PhD – The Process of Learning in Coaching)
Global ReciproCoach Coordinator

 

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