The Game of Teams
Tara Nolan
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The Light and Shadow of Coaching - A Conversation with Tunde Erdos
Introduction: Tunde Erdos holds a PhD in Business and Organisational Management, A Masters in Executive Coaching, A Masters in Translation & Simultaneous Interpreting and a Bachelor’s degree in Law. She is an author of 3 books, a prolific speaker at conferences and has published articles in peer reviewed scientific journals and professional coaching magazines. Tunde’s latest endeavour is a documentary on the Light and Shadow of Coaching and she produced this to raises funds for a Social Impact Initiative in Kenya. Podcast Episode Summary This episode explores the many facets of Coaching, our relationship to it and the often and many unexamined shadows that exist for coaches and the coaching profession. The phenomenon of Coaching Presence and our collective understanding on what Presence is and could be for coaching is discussed. The words, curiosity, relationality, power, presence and energy surface several times across this provocative conversation. Points made over the episode Tunde when asked to share a different story of her than the one I introduced is quick to share that she is joy, playful and full of expansion more than the knowledge perspective I shared with the listeners. There are so many facets to a person, so many selves that we approximate a diamond. Coaching does too. We are interactional human beings resonating, being stimulated and responding differently to whomever is present and in differently too depending on the contexts we live Tunde was quick enough to notice her own shadow operating her in the moment, where she was walking away from the direct question posed. Tunde recalls a dark moment, shameful moment in Coaching where her client was more present than she and it prompted her to explore Presence, Movement Synchronicity, and non-verbal communication in coaching through her PhD Some of the results from her research were surprising. Coaches with more education, more advanced training are more reactive and defensive of their practice. Tunde’s process research, which looked at the energy between coach and client, the coaches self-regulatory capacity after a coaching session, and the many interviews with coaches and feedback sessions given on various noted observations from video recordings, showcased this phenomenon that was surprising. Another research finding and a shadow of coaches, Tunde calls the Snow White Phenomenon where she reframed the famous expression the queen uses in the movie, Mirror Mirror on the wall who is the fairest of them all to, Mirror Mirror on the wall who is the most present of them all. The light of coaching is well documented and researched. We know Coaching is a powerful tool for growth, development, learning, change and transformation. We know and understand this. We are in love with Coaching, so in love that is too is a shadow. We have to be willing to be curious about our attachment to coaching in this direction. Some coaches like to think they know the “Ideal Client” but Tunde’s research found that often the energy between coach and client in an “ideal” scenario was asynchronistic. In terms of our understanding of Presence, it diminishes over time. Coaches put a lot of effort at the beginning of a session to be present but they confuse the relationality of presence. Curiously the effort we expend in this way to show up creates a lot of energy but also a lack of dissonance. The ICF Ignite program aims to anchor coaching beyond 1:1 Coaching, beyond Team Coaching to be seen as a social impact tool Tunde’s documentary’s main purpose is to raise funds for a Social Impact Initiative she is developing to support women in Kenya, through coaching to become entrepreneurial. The documentary also serves another purpose, to shine a light on the shadow side of coaching by way of several hundred interviews, exploring the contributions made by coaches and leaders in the field. Interestingly one contributor shared that he tho
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