Elaine Cox ✉ (Business School, Oxford Brookes University)

For the August 2020 issue of the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring we have a bumper crop of thirteen papers. The increase in submissions is welcome and reflects the growing number of coaching and mentoring researchers and scholars globally. The diversity of topics of the submissions also mirrors the diversity of settings for coaching and mentoring and it can be observed that some contexts, such as health and wellness coaching and team coaching consistently feature within this journal’s volumes. The issue includes other contexts as well as these two: small businesses, sales, education leadership and artificial intelligence, and two papers concerned with relatively new strategies used for support within coaching and supervision: photography and self-determination theory. This issue also presents a practitioner paper on sustainable mentoring.

The first three papers focus on coaching with teams. Initially, Joanne James, Sharon Mavin and Sandra Corlett from the Newcastle University Business School in the UK, explore modes of awareness for team coaching practice. They undertook a 12-month autoethnographic study of the practice of team coaching and, as a consequence, present a new concept of modes of awareness that enable coaches to reflect on their knowledge and experience to inform the multiple perspectives required for advanced practice.

In the second team coaching paper, Sue Fontannaz and Elaine Cox, from Oxford Brookes Business School in UK, look at the use of coaching for skippers in a round-the-world sailing race. A case study methodology was used to examine how different coaching interventions were incorporated in an 11-month sailing race and supported contextually embedded team leadership development for the boat skippers as they transitioned into their team leadership roles.

The final paper in this trio is a review of the team coaching literature. Here, Lucy Widdowson, Liz Rochester, Paul Barbour and Alicia Hullinger, all working in the UK, synthesise the literature to identify gaps and inconsistencies in order to facilitate formulation of research questions and hypotheses. The review suggests that the limited team coaching research to date has focused on defining the term, identifying effectiveness factors and investigating the efficacy of team coaching.

The next two papers emphasise the development of business from different angles. First, Salomé van Coller-Peter and J.P. Cronjé from the University of Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa, present a qualitative study detailing the contribution of coaching and mentoring to the development of participants in Entrepreneurial Development Programmes in a university small business academy. Findings suggest that coaching and mentoring should be defined separately and differently within that particular context.

Second, Christine Eastman, Peter Critten and Carl Day, also in the UK, examine coaching in the sales profession and ask what part coaching-through-literature can play when dealing with a contemporary “Bartleby”. This article utilises a Herman Melville short story, to support new sales staff. Findings suggest that there is a case for using literature as part of a coaching development exercise and that literature, including short stories, can be helpful in navigating work situations.

Our three papers focusing on wellness begin with an exploration of health literacy and its relationship to health and wellness coaching. Elizabeth Ahmann, Sherry Leikin, Katherine Smith, Laurie Ellington and Rebecca Pille, all connected to Maryland University of Integrative Health in the USA examine key theories of health and wellness coaching and health literacy and make observations about interconnectivity and the implications this might have for mobilising positive change in healthcare.

The second paper in this triad is from Thobias Solheim and Ruth Albertyn from the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. These authors are concerned with how coaching can support recovery from alcohol misuse. They use a narrative inquiry to explore experiences of recovery coaches working with employed professionals recovering from alcohol misuse. Findings indicate not only that recovery coaching may be a useful service but also convey insight into perspectives of coaches regarding the goals, processes, challenges and outcomes needed to help employed professionals become architects of their own recovery.

The third paper with this emphasis, is from Shazya Karmali and colleagues from Western University, Ontario, Canada. They present a qualitative study of clients’ and coaches’ perspectives on a life coaching intervention for parents who were either overweight or obese. Clients reported increased accountability, goal setting skills and awareness, while coaches shared tools they used, insights from working with this population and advice for other coaches.

The ninth paper in this issue reports on doctoral research into an intensive leadership coaching intervention for academic deans within a university in the Middle East. Iftikhar Nadeem from Canterbury Christ Church University in the UK and Bob Garvey from Sheffield Business School found that coaching can offer an opportunity for leaders to develop insights and strategies to cope with their challenges. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study identifies some of the ways in which the deans learned and suggests a flexible and adaptive coach is needed with a repertoire of skills and processes to draw upon.

Our tenth paper describes a design framework to create artificial intelligence coaches. Nicky Terblanche from the University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa, examines the debate about the potential impact of artificial intelligence and explores its application in organisational coaching. In this conceptual paper, Terblanche presents the ‘Designing AI Coach’ framework that uses expert system principles to link human coaching efficacy and established AI design approaches, thus creating a baseline for empirical research.

There are two papers that concentrate on approaches to coaching practice. In their paper exploring coachee experiences of using photography in coaching, Maureen Donaldson-Wright, from King’s College London and Kate Hefferon from the University of East London, UK, explain that little research has been done to explore the use of photography within coaching. In their qualitative IPA study they ask, ‘How does using photography affect coachees’ experiences of engagement and accessibility in coaching?’ Findings show that using photographs enriches the coaching experience, extends engagement and participation and can cultivate mindful, self-awareness.

The next paper is from UK based researchers, Alan Wingrove, University of Portsmouth, Yi-Ling Lai, Birkbeck, University of London; Stephen Palmer, Wales Academy for Professional Practice and Applied Research, and Stephen Williams, University of Portsmouth. It presents the results of a study of coaching supervision for internal coaches that showed internal coaches were using group supervision for three areas: competence, relatedness and autonomy. The paper proposes self-determination theory as an evidence-based theoretical framework to help supervisors understand these areas when supervising internal coaches.

The final paper in this issue concerns success factors for implementing sustainable mentoring in large organisations. Carola Hieker from the American International University in London and Maia Rushby from Diversity-in-Leadership, UK, critically reflect on how to make mentoring programmes successful and sustainable. This article, included in our ‘Reflections from the Field’ section, develops practical recommendations on how mentoring can be supported by different stakeholders and can be used as a sustainable development tool. The article aims to bring clarity to the concept of mentoring and to offer guidance for organisations and institutions on how to set up mentor programmes.