**I am sharing this with permission from both the client and fellow coach.**

Recently, I interacted with a new client whom one of our graduates from The Coaching Guild knows personally. That client interaction was unusual from the onset because there were circumstances only the client was aware of behind the scenes that made the situation very complicated. 

My former student contacted me after the second session with said client and raised concerns about how I had handled the situation from an ethics standpoint. 

I, for real, have never been called out over an ethics issue before.

I had some real big feels about being questioned about my ethics by anyone, let alone by a former student. I take ethics very seriously. I did not love how it felt, but...

I was overwhelmingly proud. 

In fact, I was genuinely thrilled - and I told her so. 

I know it took some big courage to call out a fellow coach.

Why? 

Although I would stand by how I handled the client situation and would do it the same way if I had to do it again, it was a dicey situation and deserved deep consideration. 

Secondly, because, as an industry, we do a shit-ass job of self-policing. I loved this coach for having the heart to question whether or not I got it right - 

And self-police we must because there are no rules, and there is no governing board that will keep coaches in check when they fuck it up. 

I believe many coaches low-key hide that fact from clients because the ambiguity benefits the coach. 

Not a week goes by where I don't see something(s) on social media or hear a story that makes me cringe because a well-meaning coach has either loosely crossed or sprinted way past what should be an obvious ethical boundary in their work - and coaches do this, not because they are bad, but because, in most cases, they either don't know better or they've been taught and embraced unethical marketing tactics. 

Ethics in coaching are more complex than we like to think they are. On more than one occasion, I have had to seek counsel from another coach or attorney regarding how to best handle a situation (while protecting the identity of my client in every way possible), which came up in my practice from an ethical and legal standpoint. You never know when the shit in a session is going to get complicated. 

Many coaches don't have ANY formal training at all. 

Most coaches who have formal coach training still do not get any actual training on ethics. Given how complicated ethics can be, it is no wonder coaches unintentionally blunder really important things too frequently. 

This week at The Coaching Guild, we are finishing our Ethics Training module, which Janette Dalgliesh taught. I have coached for decades and still learned a ton from Janette in this module. She is passionate about this topic and knows her stuff with a depth of integrity that is rare in our industry. 

I took copious notes listening to Janette's presentation because there are so many concepts around ethics to consider when we work with humans who are complicated - and for the record, all humans are complex. 

Our goal at The Coaching Guild is to help our students become the best coaches in the world. If they are going to be the best coaches in the world, we have to learn and discuss

complicated things with experts who love to teach what they know. 

At the end of every ethics module at The Coaching Guild, I give a mini-lecture / warning because ethical breaches, particularly ethical missteps around client privacy, are the only thing that will get you unceremoniously removed from our program without delay. We take this stuff very seriously. 

Giving this lecture/warning is easy because I have never had a class or even a single student I worried might do it. Our students understand the cost to the client when confidence is broken, and as a community, "people over profit" is not just a sales slogan. 

The Coaching Guild is a training coach training program specifically designed to nurture dreamers, artists, creatives, outsiders, rebels, and good troublemakers. It is a multi-instructor, multi-disciplinary approach to training that prioritizes learning innovative foundational coaching skills and marketing training. 

If you're a coach who wants to grow your skill set, a newbie coach who wants training that you can feel good about, or coach-curious, email me for a no BS, no pressure conversation about how The Coaching Guild might be right for you.