About Us: Honoring the People Who Built The Foundation of Coaching

"This economic crisis doesn't represent a cycle. It represents a reset," Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, said today. "It's an emotional, social, economic reset."

We think Jeff Immelt has it exactly right. It’s an emotional, social, economic reset.
And so it is with The Foundation of Coaching – we’ve hit the Reset button. Before we reboot completely, we’d like to take a moment to look around at what is, what was, and how we got to this moment.

In the fall of 2005, members of the board of the Thomas J. Leonard Memorial Foundation met at the office of The Goldsmith Group in Santa Fe, NM. David Goldsmith and others in his firm had been involved with Thomas and his pioneering work in the nascent field of coaching. After Thomas’ sudden and surprising death, the memorial foundation was created to honor his memory. Ruth Ann Harnisch had been invited to join the board.

As the group discussed possibilities for projects, it became clear that Dave Buck, to whom Thomas bequeathed his business and intellectual property, was the natural leader of anything directly connected to Thomas. He accepted that leadership (and ownership) role, along with the opportunity to reconfigure the board.

David Goldsmith, Ruth Ann Harnisch, and others wondered how else they might be of service to the field of coaching. They decided to explore the creation of another nonprofit, and at the fall conference of the International Coaching Federation in San Jose, California, they began discussing the idea with others.

What they had in mind was a “big tent,” an independent, inclusive organization that could be an international online resource for “all things coaching.” Funding from The Harnisch Foundation made the work possible.

The first to join what would become The Foundation of Coaching was Dr. Mary Wayne Bush, who was heading up the ICF Research Symposium that year. Ruth Ann happened to sit next to Mary Wayne at lunch that day, and before the meal was over, Dr. Bush shared her far-reaching vision for the future of coaching-related research.

Next to say “Count me in!” was Vikki Brock, who might have been personally acquainted with more individuals in the coaching world than anyone on the planet, and she had interviewed most of the major figures who shaped the emerging field of professional coaching.

Goldsmith and Harnisch had many more conversations with leaders in coaching centered on this question: If we build it, will coaches come?

Were coaches interested enough to work together across disciplines, share information, research, history, and participate with one another globally? The nucleus of interested coaches discussed a variety of needs The Foundation of Coaching might serve: Communication, History, Research, Archives, News – what else?

Mary Wayne Bush led the Research division, administering a $100,000 annual budget for coaching-related academic research grants. Mary Wayne assembled the first group of coaching professionals to serve as the Research Advisory Panel. James Hunt (USA), John Bennett (USA), Michael Cavanagh (Australia), Alison Carter (UK), and Dianne Stober (USA) helped define The Foundation of Coaching philosophy and guidelines for accepting grant proposals. This esteemed inaugural panel reviewed and discussed research proposals that were submitted, and made recommendations for grant awards.

Mary Wayne Bush traveled to more places, made public appearances before more audiences, and her personal connections and relentless networking made The Foundation of Coaching Research Division the best-known and most effective leader in coaching-related research.

Dr. Francine Campone joined the effort, dedicating herself to the creation and promotion of the first-of-its-kind Coaching Research Repository, a place where peer-reviewed research is readily available to the public. She continues to contribute, now at the Coaching Commons, hosting and recording coaching researcher interviews that enable practitioners to access and understand current coaching research and how it is beneficial to coaching practice.

Vikki Brock headed up the work that was concerned with the history of coaching, the artifacts and documents that existed, and the possibility of a library for such materials. Although Vikki advocated forcefully for the creation of a library, there wasn’t enough financial support available to make that a reality. In the meantime, several other coaches and interest groups began their own efforts to create libraries. Core values of The Foundation of Coaching included “non-duplication of effort” and “collaborate, don’t compete.” So The Foundation’s ideas for a library were shelved.

However, Vikki continued to explore the history of coaching, eventually writing her Ph.D. dissertation based on those interviews. This work was the centerpiece of the History Division of The Foundation of Coaching. The woman now known as Dr. Brock is using the research from her dissertation to create a reader-friendly reference on the historical roots of modern coaching. Vikki also writes for the Virtual Museum of Coaching and the Coaching Hall of Fame at the Coaching Commons, retelling stories from her (over 175) interviews with coaches and her research about those who pioneered the coaching field.

The Communications division of The Foundation of Coaching had many early supporters and leaders. Deborah Brown-Volkman was there at the beginning.
The Chronicle of Coaching began as an idea to track news and identify coaching trends in the media.

In May 2006, Pamela Gerloff joined the team as the editor of The Chronicle, providing a weekly snapshot of coaching-relevant information. Since that humble beginning, which cited only seven items of interest from the coaching world, The Chronicle of Coaching has evolved to a comprehensive view of many areas of coaching: breaking news, executive coaching, life coaching, niches in the coaching fields, samples of blogs, books, products and press releases worldwide.

In addition to Dr. Gerloff, Christine Heinrichs, Alex Goldsmith and Linda Ballew have all served as newshounds and editors for The Chronicle. Each week, the Chronicle of Coaching features selections from a wide variety of popular media around the world. Today The Chronicle of Coaching includes 25-40 entries each week, and is loaded with the latest news and trends on global coaching worldwide. To view the latest issue, CLICK HERE.

When Linda Ballew joined the team in July of 2006, her organizational skills, attention to detail and divine flexibility helped bring order to the many projects of The Foundation of Coaching, along with a heaping helping of Southern grace and charm. She now reverently holds much of the Foundation’s organizational memory. She’s not only the temporal and parietal cortex of our brain, she’s the beating (and sometimes bleeding) heart of this organization.

Late in 2006, the concept of a Community Network Division and an online coaching reference was born. Robyn Logan, a brilliant early adopter of social networking, took on this challenge. Robyn is an international visionary who was more than slightly ahead of her time, and she was certainly ahead of ours.

Robyn believed building a social network of coaches would allow the global community to be involved in every aspect of the “all things coaching” dream. She envisioned an online wiki-type “Coachpedia.” She devoted countless hours to these projects. Robyn is now concentrating on her business, and we will always be grateful for her farsighted ideas and selfless contributions.

Providing crucial administrative support throughout all these enterprises, Harnisch Foundation Grants Manager Jennifer Raymond has been an essential contributor to the work from the very beginning, overseeing the creation of www.thehf.org and keeping an eye on the big picture.

When Andrea J. Lee joined the team, she took the social networking idea to a new site: the Coaching Commons, which became another project of the Harnisch Foundation.

In spring of 2007, Dr. John Bennett was hired as CEO of The Foundation of Coaching, along with Peg Esgate Aldridge. The directive: explore the viability of The Foundation of Coaching as a stand-alone, self-sustaining non-profit organization. Was there sufficient support from the global coaching community that would value and contribute to this independent “all things coaching” concept?

John soon discovered that Mary Wayne Bush and the Research Division of The Foundation of Coaching had done such a spectacular job in getting the word out about their work that “The Foundation of Coaching” name was known worldwide. One problem: it was known almost exclusively for coaching research.

Attempts to expand the way people thought about The Foundation of Coaching did not gain traction. Changing the perceptions and raising outside funds seemed like insurmountable obstacles to independence. The Foundation of Coaching continued to rely upon the Harnisch Foundation for financial support.

In the fall of 2008, the first International Coaching Research Forum was convened by Dr. Mary Wayne Bush and Dr. Carol Kauffman, and facilitated by Dr. Sunny Stout Rostron. Meeting at the Harvard Faculty Club, dozens of academic researchers and others from the field gathered to identify the top priorities for the future of coaching-related research.

As a result of the work done by the ICRF and the relationships formed there, Ruth Ann Harnisch established The Harnisch Fund for Coaching, which will continue the next generation of grants for coaching-related research and support the creation and launch of The Institute of Coaching. Headquartered at the Harvard Medical School teaching facility McLean Hospital, the largest psychiatric hospital affiliated with HMS. The Fund is intended to make $100,000 in coaching-related research grants each year until at least 2015. The agreement specifically promises to "leverage prior successes and brand awareness of The Foundation of Coaching and build continuity from that entity's endeavors to the work now moving forward at McLean.”

The agreement says: "The purpose of the Fund will be to generate empirically supported best practices for coaching, especially peer-reviewed research into the transformational aspects of coaching relationships and effective change strategies, then assure the widespread dissemination of those research findings to encourage the application of the coaching model of conversation in everyday life."

The Institute of Coaching is now headed by Dr. Carol Kauffman, working with Lew Stern, Susan David, and Margaret Moore. The last of the research projects funded by grants from The Foundation of Coaching will be coming to a conclusion soon.

From its beginnings in 2005, The Foundation of Coaching has been a leader in coaching-related research and providing opportunities for people to talk about coaching. Co-founder David Goldsmith served as the organization’s manager, leader, and strategic planner. His international ambassadorship helped put The Foundation of Coaching at the forefront of “all things coaching,” his original vision.

As we hit the reset button, you’ll see even more exciting developments in the weeks and months ahead. Follow the developments on The Coaching Commons and The Harnisch Foundation.