“Do you ever wonder how coaching as a profession was established?”

The word “coach” is thought to have originated from the name of a town in Hungary (Koc, pronounced “kotch”) that used to build carriages in the fifteenth century. The light, fast carriage they built became popular across Europe. The English word “coach” is thought to be derived from the Hungarian word “kocsi” which means “from the town of Koc”. It is believed that the word “coach” came into use in England in the sixteenth century.

The first usage of the word “coach” to refer to a person seems to be in an academic context, at the University of Oxford in the 1830s (Online Etymology Dictionary). In this case, the word “coach” was used to refer to a tutor who supported a student with his or her academic work. It is believed that it was initially used informally, implying that a tutor would take a student from point A (not knowing what he or she needed to know in order to pass an examination) to point B (having good knowledge of the material in order to pass an examination)—much like a coach which would also take people from point A to point B.

The business world has always been interested in the possibility of improving human performance. Between the 1940s and 1960s, some organizations provided their senior executives with counseling, delivered by occupational or organizational psychologists. These interventions were designed to support the executives to overcome barriers and excel at their work.

The modern incarnation of coaching has its roots from the Human Potential Movement of the 1960s, a decade of exploration in human growth and development. Two eminent psychologists, Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers, were champions of human potential and leading figures in the field of humanistic psychology. This movement promoted an optimistic view of human nature, arguing that people had an urge to achieve their full potential. As a result, the movement advised employers of the importance of treating their people well, rather than focusing entirely on performance improvements.

History of Coaching

460 BC provides evidence of “coaching method” in the Socratic Method. The Socratic Method is a form of inquiry based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas.

20th Century Developments: 1930s onward the explosion of theories about personality, behavior, the unconscious and conscious, child development, motivation and cognition.

Society became interested in “what makes people tick,” and how each person could reach their personal best or overcome their personal limitations. An example is Peter Drucker. Drucker didn’t hold forth when he was on an engagement. Instead, he would ask his clients questions and then listen for the answers

The Emergence of the Profession of Coaching: Thomas Leonard is widely acknowledged as the person who really launched coaching as we know it today. Thomas Leonard set up the first coaching school, Coach University, in 1991 and established the first worldwide professional association for coaches, the International Coach Federation (ICF), in 1995.

Humanistic psychology (1960)

Humanistic psychology, a movement in psychology supporting the belief that humans, as individuals, are unique beings and should be recognized as feeling, thinking individuals.  This theory gained ground in the 1960’s.

Mentoring (1970)

Mentoring has a long history. The word ‘mentor’ comes from Greek mythology, when Ulysses entrusted his son’s education to his old friend, Mentor. This is described in The Odyssey, an epic Greek poem dating back at least 3,000 years. The term ‘mentor’ thus became associated with the idea of a more experienced person acting as a guide to a younger and/or less experienced person.

Inner game (1974)

Inner game by Timothy Galleway is on how to develop the mental skills, which is imperative for high performance. This is depicted through the author’s experiences as a tennis coach and his personal experiences. 

Life Coaching (1980)

The concept of life coaching goes back to sports coaching and then the realization of how advantageous it can be for people in all walks of life and occupations to have the support of a coach to bring them to their full potential. Thomas Leonard, an American financial planner, is generally acknowledged as the first person to develop coaching as a profession in the 1980s and the history of life coaching today really starts with him.

Coaching for Performance: John Whitmore (1992)

Much of what has come to be known as professional business coaching came from Timothy Gallwey and Whitmore’s sports training techniques. John Whitmore introduced the G R O W model that provides a sequence of questioning and for the coaching session.

Executive Coaching (1992-2004)

Following the publication of Whitmore’s book Coaching for Performance in 1992, executive coaching started to flourish in the UK in the final years of the twentieth century and has been gaining momentum steadily since then. Corporate realized that Coaching helps in:

• Getting rid of their teams limited beliefs

• Enhanced people thinking

• Challenged their challenge

• Correct and realigned their perspective

• Realize their employee’s true potential

• Uncolor their perception

• And so much more..

Business and Leadership Coaching 2004-2010

In recent years, the sphere of coaching has adopted several models where the root disciplines of coaching can be employed in the various business sectors. Coaching is heavily integrated from other disciplines such as sociology,linguistics,business,management,well-being,motivation theories and anthropology.

Business and leadership coaching is becoming an essential intervention for development of leaders for sustainable leadership. Organizations are realizing its need and impact at multiple layers of the organization. Organization psychology further strengthened coaching by offering numerous strategies and also supported developmental counseling for leaders and employees at large.

Niche Coaching 2010-2022

With increased awareness and demand,coaching’s benefits are realized in multiple spheres of life and business.Professinals seeking coaching education has also seen an upward trend in last one decade and so the need for specialization.There is a surge of health coaches,relationship coaches,parenting coaches,life coaches,business coaches,leadership coaches, executive presence coaches,communication coaches,team coaches etc.The need to provide focused solution through coaching is accelerating.

In organizations, Coaching is taking seats in boardrooms. Organizations are considering coaches for board positions to benefit from their perspective.

The International Coaching Federation has also announced new Team Coaching Competencies to support coaching professionals develop relevant skills for coaching teams.

Team coaching is becoming more prevalent to share the benefit of coaching methodology at scale. Topics like creating trust in the team, enhancing open communication, reducing biases , and creating collective outcomes are the focus of coaching interventions.

At leadership level coaching is leveraged for succession planning and leadership development.

Individuals are seeking coaching support in their personal space as well to gain perspective on relationship, stress and family issues.

In Summary over the years Coaching has been widely and successfully used to support all categories of people in the society ranging from students, business leaders, patients, health professionals, future leaders, senior executives , in fact anyone who wishes to achieve more of their potential or manage themselves more efficiently.