Page 118 [118]
FRANK ÁUSTERMANN
going to illustrate the importance of self-care. In a further step I shall answer
the question of why I take recourse to Foucault’s philosophy and its underlying
concept of self-care, and of good interaction and its relevance to coaching. The
following sections will deal with impulses from Foucault’s philosophy, above
all with his concept of the practice of freedom. The practice of freedom firstly
encompasses self-care, secondly the courage of truth, and, thirdly, criticism. In
the end I will draw a conclusion proposing to understand coaching as an appeal
to take care of oneself, especially in times of acceleration and boundless work.
In my opinion this is the only way to avoid that acceleration and boundless
work lead to an accelerated and boundless coaching.
I am convinced: Self-care will become ever more important in coaching,
especially given the sweeping social trends such as economisation!, acceleration?
and the delimitation of work. In a first step I wish to approach this context by
looking into the question of the quality of coaching.
From my point of view, good coaching interrupts the professional everyday
lives of executives in a sustainable manner. This distinguishes good coaching
from poor coaching.
Poor coaching simply continues the burdensome and accelerating situation
at the workplace of persons with managing functions in the same ways and
patterns. Poor coaching solely serves to adapt executives to drastic social
trends. It is restricted to optimise the coachees‘ performance or to increase
their ability to present themselves without critically reflecting working life in
general und thus the social changes and their repercussions on professional
everyday life.
For our future society, the question is not so much if professional consulting
such as coaching will become more popular but rather what the difference
between good coaching and poor coaching actually consists of.
The decision about the quality and future of coaching will depend on how
this form of consultation responds to social trends. Where social trends are
not considered at all or are taken for granted as matters of fact, it will be easy
to exploit, or even “hijack”, coaching for other purposes.
The question is what good coaching could consist of, how it responds to
acceleration and if coaching is capable of a critical reflection of the situation
at work; or if it simply serves to adapt executives to changes accepted in a
fatalistic manner.
Rudolf Heltzel - Wolfgang Weigand, Im Dickicht der Organisation. Komplexe Beratungsauf¬
träge verändern die Beraterrolle, Göttingen, 2012, 17.
Hartmut Rosa, Beschleunigung. Die Veränderung der Zeitstrukturen in der Moderne, Frank¬
furt am Main, 2005.
* 116 +