Sometimes it helps me with my time to take something that I’m writing elsewhere and to post it on my blog. This posting is one I made to the Coaching At Work group on LinkedIn before Christmas and also to subscribers to the Training Journal Daily Digest and I’d love to extend the invitation to readers of my blog to join this discussion. I wrote:
Well, I’m just back from spending a week with Roger Schwarz, author of The Skilled Facilitator Approach. It was an immensely nourishing, enriching, challenging and thought-provoking experience.
Over dinner one evening, I was part of a discussion about confidentiality in coaching. A core value of Roger’s approach is transparency and we discussed the implications of transparency in coaching.
So I’d like to extend the question to you: what is the purpose of confidentiality in coaching? Yes we all understand that clients can feel safer to share themselves fully in coaching if they know their coach is committed to maintain confidentiality. But how often do we propose a contract of confidentiality whether the client asks for it or not – without discussion, even? And with what implications?
I’m guessing that most clients would love to work in a wider environment in which it’s safe to share and so I’m wondering – how does agreeing this contract of confidentiality in coaching serve this broader aspiration?
I found our discussion over dinner thought-provoking and I wonder: what thoughts do you have? And what practices?
Even as I write I’m grateful to John Fisher, one of my colleagues on the Digest for reshaping my question in a way which adds clarity and simplicity: do we use confidentiality for our benefit, the client’s or because we “just always do it”?