What can you, as a coach, do for the planet today?
One of the most damaging myths about coaching is that it is completely non-directive (in spite of its origins in very directive tutoring). Every time a coach chooses to ask or not ask a question, they have just influenced the conversation. And our research into coach maturity reveals starkly that mature coaches use their own wisdom to provide context that helps the client with the quality of their thinking. Our role as coaches is to stimulate the client’s awareness and reflections, so that they achieve greater clarity. And that sometimes means opening up topics that they have not been thinking about at all, but which we recognise are or may be relevant to their functioning as a complete human being. If we limit our role to simply helping them achieve a specific goal, we are short-selling them. The core value of coaching lies in helping them recognise and find different strategies to react with the context around them.
We now have a mass of evidence that individual and collective well-being are significantly influenced by how we interact with the natural environment. For example, studies of children walking to school through concrete streets or green space show that the latter have less presence of stress hormones and greater attention to their studies through the school day.
If we observe that a client is showing signs of burnout, we have an ethical responsibility to raise the topic. They may choose to engage with it or not. If we observe that they have become disconnected from their environment, why would we not have a similar ethical obligation?
From thinking about their individual well-being it’s not such a big step to think about the well-being of people around them; and from there to thinking about their responsibility towards the natural world. We can start the process in simple ways. As an analogy, it would be hard to savour a gourmet meal amidst the sights and smells of a fast-food burger bar. Having a coaching session (virtual or in person) at a desk in the clinical surrounds of an office has many similarities. So, encourage clients to treat themselves to the luxury of coaching in a garden or beside a stream. When people are surrounded by natural space, innovative thinking is a lot easier – and so is the potential to connect with their environmentally aware self.
Raising sustainability issues, as appropriate, is not beyond the coach’s responsibilities – it is fundamental to them. Doing so is not about having courage; it’s about having different tactics to remind clients of their own humanity and the need we all have for connectedness.
©️David Clutterbuck, 2026