How do you build the coaching relationship?

Posted on: 23 Apr 2020

The coaching relationship is widely recognized as one of the cornerstones of effective coaching. “Co-Creating the Relationship” is one of four sections within ICF’s updated core competencies model and encompasses establishing and maintaining agreements, cultivating trust and safety and maintaining presence. Not surprisingly, the importance of the coaching relationship also features in the AC Coaching Competency Framework, the IAC Coaching Masteries and the EMCC coaching and mentoring competence framework.

This issue of Coaching Research in Practice reviews some recent research that explores the ways in which coaches foster the coaching relationship. It highlights some distinctions between client-led and process-led coaching and identifies four different viewpoints to explain the different approaches coaches use to foster the coaching relationship.

Written by Kerryn Griffiths, PhD, PCC and Global ReciproCoach Coordinator