Volunteering as a Coach is good. Doing harm to the coaching profession is bad by Maria Biquet
Volunteerism is a core activity of Coaching Organisations that offer pro bono coaching to communities and people in need and project teams with a (usually humanistic) purpose.
A large number of coaches worldwide start gaining experience by offering pro bono coaching while experienced professional coaches get involved in their Coaching Organisations’ projects and volunteer to offer coaching sessions.
The general impact of Coaching in positive and helps people understand themselves and their behavior; sometimes they get great results, other times they become more aware of themselves and take action; the organizations always benefit from this intervention directly or indirectly. The individual may find inner peace and feel less stressed or will become better at what they do or in some cases will make the decision to leave a company that is not a good fit for them and create an opportunity for a more suitable employee join them.
Why do Coaches volunteer to offer pro bono coaching?
Novice coaches need practice. Volunteering is a great opportunity to offer pro bono coaching and register a number of hours for their accreditation of certification while collecting significant experience with various cases and people.
At the same time they feel that they offer their time and interest to another human being that needs somebody to listen and understand them. The coachees feel relaxed and reassured, discover new knowledge and understanding of their behavior and context and usually appreciate the work they do and the interaction they have with the coach. And that is an important reward for a volunteer!
On the other hand, experienced professional coaches still get involved in volunteer projects because they really want to give back to the society. This is also an indirect way of promotion of their work to the organization or the coachee who will continue with a paid programme or introduce them to other organisations or individuals.
The Coaching Associations promote volunteerism in Coaching
Coaching Associations like EMCC and ICF undertake initiatives locally to support social groups and communities that face difficulties and engage their members to volunteer. It is a positive and constructive way to “give back to the society” as a CSR activity that creates impact in multiple ways. Coaching as a service gets free promotion, the coachees may become its ambassadors and multiply the impact of the activity; it is a pro bono service that supports people facing difficulties and it is usually offered by both novice and experienced coaches.
Pro bono coaching is well accepted by people who don’t have experience of it and are interested in trying it and by people who know about it and enjoy the interaction and the potential benefits of the process.
As a promotional - CSR activity enhances the image of the Coaching Associations and their members and offers the benefit of expanding the awareness about the process through the experience of it.
Obviously creating positive experiences is an excellent way to promote coaching and the coaches who may get new clients and introductions.
On the other side, there are some pitfalls that we should be aware of and avoid in our career.
Offering a lot of pro bono work affects negatively the coaching profession
As there is a large number of coaches in most markets and the number increases quickly as coaching becomes more of an established profession, volunteering may become a risky initiative.
Not-for-profit organisations, start up hubs, charities and other organisations whose purpose is to support their members usually don’t allocate any budget for coaching and get the most they can from pro bono coaching programmes. There are some risks for the coaching profession in this case:
Offering pro bono service especially when the coach is a new professional might create an impression that the service is “not worth paying for”;
People think that since they can get it for free there is no reason to pay for it;
Coaches get trapped by their need to practice for a number of hours and offer a significant number of hours without any kind of compensation for their time and effort;
Most pro bono clients will not switch to paying clients although the coaches usually expect that.
In my opinion the most dangerous of all the above is that the coachees may not realise the value of coaching and the effort of the coach and can be less dedicated and focused on getting results or achieving their goals. This attitude undermines coaching and impacts the image of the profession. As coaches we know that we cannot achieve our clients’ results for them and unless they do their part the whole programme will fail.
Offer pro bono coaching as a volunteer and protecting the coaching profession
I have worked in several pro bono programmes with the Coaching Association in my country and still do when I have time; I have realized though that the majority of organisations that receive pro bono coaching will not become paying clients as long as they know that they can always get more coaching for free.
Volunteering is good when it is offered for a good cause and in the right circumstances.
For example, there are Not-for-profit organisations that receive hefty financing and could afford to hire executive coaches for their executives and employees. In such a case, offering pro bono coaching is like depriving a professional coach from a potential job.
It is similar with start up hubs that offer support to new entrepreneurs and ask for pro bono coaching for the participants although their sponsor could finance the cost of coaching programmes. In this case again a professional coach misses an opportunity for a project.
We should offer pro bono coaching because it is good to give and to offer to the society; on the other hand we should be vigilant about cases like the above mentioned ones. If the organization can find the budget to pay for coaching then we should think twice before we offer for free a job that another coach needs for their survival.
Another important issue is that pro bono coaching shouldn’t be a full programme but a “short version” meaning that if we really want to use pro bono as a promotional tool, we should offer a limited number of sessions so that the client gets results but not the 100%. This is not easy but imagine a client who pays a couple of thousand euros to receive the same service with a pro bono client who gets everything for free!
Some ideas to reconsider about volunteering
Volunteering is great because we are human beings living together in communities and supporting each other is the utmost action of love and respect.
Being professionals requires being careful about protecting our job and consequently our income and survival together with the quality of our work.
Offering to people and to society for a good cause is great; working pro bono for an organization that can find the budget for coaching could end up being unethical towards the other coaches and our paying clients.
So, yes to volunteer coaching with careful consideration and respect for the profession, the colleagues and the clients!
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