Organizational Psychology

The article describes the social and practical background and conceptual basis of coachingas a developmental practice; it presents the basis for the development of the “Coach” professional standard in the Russian Federation. The impetus for development of coaching as a professional activity starts from the needs and demands of modern society. On the individual level this includes striving for conscious choice in the person’s life; on the business/corporate level – the need for improving the effectiveness of key employess mobilizing their internal capacity. Definitions of coaching as a developmental practice and professional activities are given. Key features of the coaching profession includefocus on development of human potential, self-awareness, proactivity in addressing personal, professional and business objectives, reflexivity and focus on meaning; interactive, non-prescriptive, subject-to-subject character of coaching work. A coach’s role includes neutrality, and non-involvmentin possible conflicts of interests. Research data on perception of coaching in organizations show that the value of coaching is steadily perceived as very high, with coaching priorities being approximately equally distributed between employee development and dealing with specific problems/issues. The basic formats incorporating coaching into educational practice include students support (graduate and post-graduate education), supporting management and organizational changes in educational institutions. A factor hindering development of the profession in all countries is a large number of inadequately trained “coaches”, blurring the boundaries of professional activity, and creating “confusion in the market”. Coaching training fundamentally departs from the traditional knowledge-based teaching, its core is mentoring from an experienced coach. Best practices of quality coaching work include by coaching supervision providing support from a professional supervisor who has considerable experience of coaching andspecial training. The best practices of the profession are based on the work of professional associations/communities that support publicly declared standards of their members, formalised coaching competencies, certification procedures, levels of professional skill, training and supervision requirements, codes of ethics. The article sets the ground for development of the National standard of thecoaching profession in Russia.