The Philosophy and Practice of Coaching within Leadership

K Gørtz International Journal of Coaching in Organizations 2008

This article draws upon a hybrid conception of ‘power’ stemming from the French philosophers Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, and translates it into an understanding of how to cope with the “power issue” in the coaching relation between managers and employees. As coaching gradually becomes more popular in the corporate community of modern organizations, the subject of power has found its way to the agenda. Can leaders coach their employees? And how can it be avoided that coaching turns into abuse of power when the leader is the coach? This article suggests a number of ways for leaders to tackle the issue of power versus coaching.