Scan Magazine | Business | Column / Calendar
Coaching as a subversive activity Training can be a messy business. Trainers often have to cobble together a compromise between the conflicting expectations of the sponsor – the organisation buying the training, the client – the person or persons receiving the training, and their own employers (if they are not self-employed) – the organisation selling the training. It can be a difficult juggling act. Coaching ought to be simpler. The core relationship is the private one between the coach and the coachee, with the agenda set by the latter. But what happens when an organisation brings in a coach to train its executives? Or when line managers coach their reports? Or when employees are told to do some coaching because, for example, they are underperforming? In all such situations, if I may mix my metaphors, the clear waters of coaching are at risk of being muddied since the spon-
sor now becomes, unavoidably, the elephant in the room. Executive coaches reading this will indignantly respond that working for the company in no way compromises what they do and that they can demonstrate that their work adds value and enhances productivity. But this belies the principle that the coach’s professional commitment is first and foremost to the individual being coached, and not to the coachee’s company. Coaching is a powerful tool for change and for selfrealisation, and coaching outcomes can be unpredictable, radical and transforming. If coachees start to develop objectives at odds with those of the organisation, then coaches will find themselves in a similar moral situation to that explored by Pat Barker in her Regeneration novels, in which First World War doctors cure soldiers of shell shock so they can go back to the trenches.
Business Calendar Scandinavian business events you do not want to miss this month By Thomas Schroers | Photos: DUCC
(Are you still) Welcome to the UK 2017 ‘Welcome to the UK’ is a series that was started ten years ago. Now, with an adapted title, the event addresses the uncertainty of many people with an interest in the UK since the tumultuous events of 2016. The event aims to strengthen that interest and give individuals and companies the opportunity to learn more about a potential expansion of business to the UK. Date: 21 February Venue: Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, Brunnsgatan 2, Stockholm www.scc.org.uk
HCOD – Knowing your employees This interactive forum brings together the Danish-UK Chamber of Commerce member companies to talk about modern Human Resource management. Nowadays, talent is competing internationally, employees are mobile and an international workforce is very common, creating new challenges for the HR
94 | Issue 97 | February 2017
department. How to meet these challenges will be discussed based on best practices, risk limitation strategies and much more. Date: 23 February Venue: South Quay Plaza 3, 189 Marsh Wall, London E14 9SH www.ducc.co.uk
Nordic Business Forum 2017 Organised by the Nordic Chambers of Commerce in the UK, the business forum is an annual event empowering and inspiring professionals through a one-of-a-kind networking opportunity. This time a focus will be placed on the topic ‘Nation Branding – Dead or Alive’, investigating whether the strength of a nation/ region is really dependent on active branding and whether this holds true for the Nordic brand in the UK. Date: 1 March Venue: TBC www.ducc.co.uk
By Steve Flinders
Coaching, like teaching and training, is a subversive activity. It invites the coachee to challenge the status quo and to consider alternatives to accepted ways of thinking. That is why I prefer to coach alone. Steve Flinders is a freelance trainer, writer and coach, based in Malta, who helps people develop their communication and leadership skills for working internationally: steveflind@aol.com.