Beautiful ideas that can make us ill: Implications for coaching

Bachkirova, Tatiana; Borrington, Simon

doi:10.22316/poc/05.1.03

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Life coaches step into the picture here, offering support to individuals who struggle with this 'selfentrepreneurial process' (Nehring, et al, 2016). By doing so, they align themselves with the entrepreneurial spirit fostered by neoliberalism (Harvey, 2005), reinforcing the notion that individuals possess the power to shape their destinies in the relentless pursuit of a 'good life' (Bachkirova and Borrington, 2020;Deery, 2006;McGee, 2005;Raisborough, 2016). Their very existence thus upholds the status quo of an everneeding-to-improve individual (Lynch, 2004;Tiusanen, 2021), which guarantees the continue demand for their services (Nehring, et al, 2020).…”

Section: The Field Of Life Coachingmentioning

confidence: 98%

"Unlock a better life: Here's how!": A critical inquiry into how life coaches gain capital and shape legitimacy using Instagram's affordances

Verhulst,

De Wolf,

Evens

et al. 2024

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Instagram has become a primary platform via which life coaches establish a relationship with potential clients and advertise their professional services. In this study, we draw from Bourdieu’s work on taste and capital to unravel how life coaches capitalize on the affordances of Instagram to generate legitimacy and credibility for their profession. Drawing from a one-month observation of 1,650 posts collected from 20 Instagram profiles of life coaches, our analysis provides insight into how these professionals strategically display and integrate cultural practices, tastes, and preferences that align with neoliberal ideals of self-improvement and self-responsibility to set themselves apart as experts within their field. They then use this distinctiveness as a marketing technique, thereby feeding off their cultural and social capital, among others by rationalizing their expertise by appealing to their own experiences, embedding client testimonials, and driving the narrative by combining hashtags or images that refer to self-entrepreneurism, self-responsibility, and the good life. We reflect on the potentially harmful implications of these legitimization techniques on individuals and society.

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Section: The Field Of Life Coachingmentioning

confidence: 98%

"Unlock a better life: Here's how!": A critical inquiry into how life coaches gain capital and shape legitimacy using Instagram's affordances

Verhulst,

De Wolf,

Evens

et al. 2024

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Authors worry that otherwise, coaches may apply tools atheoretically and engage in ‘cherry picking as coaching tools and techniques proliferate’ (Hurlow, 2022, p. 121). As captured by Bachkirova and Borrington (2020), some of coaching's ‘beautiful ideas (…) can make us ill’, meaning that concepts that are applied unthinkingly and inappropriately can be a ‘source of harm’ (p. 17).…”

Section: Coaching Neutrality In Theory and Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite an emergent literature around its organizational and managerial processes and implications (e.g., Graßmann et al, 2020; Louis and Fatien Diochon, 2018; Shoukry and Cox, 2018), coaching has been portrayed as a practice running ahead of its supporting theories (Boyatzis et al, 2022; Cox et al, 2014), ‘an industry without a discipline’ (Bachkirova and Borrington, 2019, p. 337). This theoretical paucity leaves practitioners with an assortment of eclectic concepts and tools, with the risk of inconsistencies, incoherence, or even harm when putting their ideas into practice within complex organizational contexts (Bachkirova and Borrington, 2020; Cox et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neutral In‐Tensions: Navigating Neutrality in Coaching

Diochon

Louis

Islam

2022

J Management Studies

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Neutrality in coaching, as an often‐mentioned yet under‐theorized norm of practice, is illustrative of how a lack of conceptualization leaves professionals with eclectic and contradictory tools and techniques. Therefore, the current study examines coaches' attempts to practice neutrality, with diverse implications for their conceptions of professional practice. Through a qualitative study of 57 executive coaches using a critical incident technique, we identify situations of conceptual and practical complexity. The ongoing practice of enacting neutrality gave rise to diverse tensions, to which coaches responded by formulating individualization and socialization strategies that had different consequences in terms of forms of awareness. Considering neutrality in terms of situated, engaged, and processual practice, we use these findings to theorize its enactment within the interest‐laden world of organizations. Our study contributes to the theory and practice of coaching while also furthering understanding of the dynamic nature of seeking neutrality in professional contexts.

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“…1. a naive belief in the positive intention and potential of the chosen coaching approach leading to a failure to question if this work might actually cause harm to clients (Bachkirova and Borrington, 2020) 2. coaches underestimating their level of ethical vulnerability (de Haan and Bienfait, 2022); or 3. the potential role of self-deception in our individual practice, leading practitioners to overlook ethical dilemmas in their work (Bachkirova, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%