ABSTRACT
Business coaching, originating from the USA, has developed essentially from common sense (e.g., set priorities, manage time) and psychology (e.g., behavioral psychology, emotional intelligence). The cultural dimension was missing or at best given anecdotal and superficial attention. Coaching, defined in this chapter as ‘the art of facilitating the unleashing of people’s potential to reach meaningful, important objectives’ (Rosinski 2003: 4), assumed a worldview that was not universally applicable. My book (Rosinski 2003) Coaching across Cultures’ purpose was to help unleash more human potential by tapping into the richness of cultural diversity. This chapter gives attention to the use of the Cultural Orientations Framework (COF, see Figure 10.1), which is explained in detail in the book. The COF is an integrative framework designed to assess and compare cultures. It is a coaching-specific measurement tool that can be invaluable for introducing meaningful dialogue about culture into coaching and coach-training. The COF can be used to establish individual and collective COF profiles, while providing the scope for creating new cultural dimensions that reflect unique contexts.
