ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the origins and foundation-stones of business coaching worldwide. It examines the core theoretical and psychological underpinnings of coaching, with an overview of the current reality for business coaching worldwide as it is emerging in the USA, UK and Europe, Australia, South Africa, India, China and East Asia, and Argentina. The chapter addresses the influence of adult learning and experiential learning on the business coaching process, where coach and client probe the essence of an experience to understand its significance and the learning that can be gained from it. It refers to various psychologists and psychotherapists whose practice and research have made a substantial impact on the development of coaching: Irvin Yalom, an existential psychotherapist at Stanford University, California. Abraham Maslow, like many other psychologists, believed that one needs to resolve certain issues before he/she can move on to the next ones that need resolution.
