CPD Psychology for Leadership coaches

This informal CPD article was provided by John O’Brien, from C G Jung Centre, Jungian analysts and pioneers of Jungian Coaching.

Leadership mistakes can cost lives

From simple everyday mistakes to catastrophic events such as nuclear power plant disasters, leadership decision making has played its part. The most serious ones are rarely examined or understood enough for repeat episodes to be prevented. Behind the scenes, professional coaches and close advisors often witness and are sometimes party to such events.

Since the 1990s recession, there has been a steadily increasing demand for coaches who can assist leaders with rational decision making not only via the standard coaching competencies but also with safe and sensitive expert knowledge of the intricate workings of the mind. This helps leaders to prevent the critically disastrous decisions which can occur when good intention and reason are overwhelmed by a combination of external pressures and hidden inner emotional functioning.

People do not usually fail deliberately. But they do all the same. Generally speaking, coaches have been advised to draw a line between mental health work and coaching. Yet popular coach training is founded upon counselling and psychotherapy and it is slowly incorporating more personal development science into its body of knowledge. It is increasingly recognised that coaches are: 

a) only as competent as their personal and professional development

b) leaders are only as competent as their personal and professional development

c) personal and professional development are prerequisite for both leaders and coaches

A useful guideline for coaches is to expand mental health awareness and psychological skills, as a natural part of personal and professional development. This year (2023) has seen a significant development in equipping leaders and their coaches in mental health awareness and knowledge. Awareness is one thing. Skill in helping leaders in highly responsible positions to stay safe, and to exercise their leadership talent under pressure, is quite another.

The coaching boundary paradox

Only very few coaches and leaders have time and resources to train in the complex science and arts of psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, and to learn how to apply them in a coaching context. In many respects, the boundaries between psychotherapy and coaching are firm, and this is important for coaches who are trained in the basics, as it helps them to recognise their limits and to refer clients where and when required.

The boundaries prevent deep coach involvement in the more complex psychological areas which if poorly addressed are dangerous. But if these areas are not addressed at all, they can be even more dangerous and catch both leader and coach by surprise. That is perhaps one of the reasons why, as the industry grows, coaches are incorporating more professional diagnostic and helping skills into their practices. The cross-boundary evolution must be safeguarded by expert education.

Practical new solutions

A few notable educational institutions and private companies have specialized in providing leadership and coach training which to some extent addresses this requirement, helping coaches to work more deeply, but safely, with the interest and welfare of their client paramount. Examples are training services provided by leadership & executive coaching experts dual qualified in psychoanalysis and clinical psychotherapy.

The need is not for more academia. It is real, pressing and practical.

The world situation now demands timely and safer delivery of clinically informed coaching from a limited supply of practitioner’s dual qualified and experienced in both fields. Jungian coaching via CPD is one example which has quietly but surely evolved from clinical expertise and leadership performance coaching in the major corporates on the UK, US and worldwide over the last half a century.

CPD is a powerful means of helping coaches to absorb safe clinical methods into their practices, using their parallel personal development, and enhanced training to further help their clients. It is also an effective way for busy leaders to build self-development into their professional development in unique ways based on the individual personality operating under pressure in challenging times.

We hope this article was helpful. For more information from C G Jung Centre, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively, you can go to the CPD Industry Hubs for more articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.