Critical moments in coaching practice
De Haan, E.
Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 60, 1, 91-105, 2008
How can coaches learn from moments and incidents in their own practice, particularly from moments that somehow feel critical? How can they improve working with the tension and anxiety that such moments will generate, and how might they even make use of such tensions? This is the first report of a research project into critical moments in coaching practice, which looks at critical moments of relatively inexperienced coaches. The second report, which looks at critical moments of much more experienced coaches, can be found as a companion article in this same issue.
The sample size of the inexperienced coaches was 65 and 49 coaches responded communicating a total of 56 critical moments. Analysis of the moments revealed that they were all somehow related to a doubt that the coach had, so doubt seemed to be the overriding form of tension for the inexperienced coach. The type and nature of doubts are analysed and the possible impact of
(in-)experience is studied.