What’s your system as a coach?

Although it doesn’t figure highly in some competency frameworks, systemic thinking is one of the key differentiating factors between mediocre and masterful coaches. Whether it’s an individual client or a team, understanding the systems around them is the first step in initiating positive and durable change.

Yet in my coaching retreats around the world and in supervision groups, I increasingly find that coaches have given little thought to their own systems. Nor to the fact that, when they engage with a client, they become part of the client’s systems and vice versa.

Awareness of our own systems allows us to recognise forces that drive or impede good coaching. It also enriches our personal development planning, aligning our growth and adaptation with that of our systems.

So, what is a coach’s system? Among elements are:

1. The internal system — our evolving identity as a coach and human being; our confidence and inner critic; our knowledge, humanity and wisdom, and how we draw upon them in a coherent and helpful manner.
2. Our clients and through them, their systems. For example, where do their assumptions and yours overlap, to the extent that you are less likely to challenge them?
3. Our system of family and friends. Who do we go to for support and who needs our support?
4. Our peer system — other coaches and work-related colleagues. What role do they play in our success and our development and vice versa?
5. The broader world of coaching — professional bodies, educators, academics and so on. What level of engagement does a coach have with these post-accreditation?
6. The broader worlds of technology, business, the environment etc. How well are we keeping up with changes in each of these domains? How aware are we of the implications for our future practice?
7. The next layer of systems is where the various players within a system interact. For example, the system between professional bodies and educators may be in need of radical overhaul in some cases. Unless coaches engage with these whole system, there is a danger that it becomes less for purpose. So, what role should individual coaches and groups of coaches play in this complex system?
8. Beyond that is where the different systems interact. For example, how do the corporate buyers of coaching influence the coaching educators and professional bodies? What are the ethics involved?

Drawing your personal systems map isn’t that difficult. Nor is reflecting on the interactions between elements of the system. The hard bit is having the discipline to review our systems regularly and turn insights into action.

The good news is that role modelling systems thinking for ourselves increased our ability to see our clients’ systems — and to help them understand their systems, so they can make more informed choices.

©️David Clutterbuck, 2024