Applied Coaching Research Journal Volume 1 | Page 48

APPLIED COACHING RESEARCH JOURNAL 2018, Vol. 1 Coaching Impacts – life-saving and life-enhancing Coaching Inside and Out saw clients gain self-belief and hope, take responsibility, reduce the harm they did themselves and others, take up education, get clean, get fit, get jobs, start their own businesses and look for more ways to help others, including becoming coaches themselves; all of which happened without us giving any advice whatsoever. As our very first client told me: “You’ve made me realise I can do things, just by making me think about it.” Everyone likes to see, hear and count all the changes that coaching triggers, so the charity has always gathered data as well as stories from clients and coaches. An independent evaluation validated this by triangulating it with staff views, and 94% of those interviewed reported that coaching had a positive impact on them. A client put it much more starkly: “If I’d had coaching earlier I think it would have stopped me coming to prison. I think it would have saved my life - it has saved my life.” Coaching Inside and Out is now running a one-year research project to understand just how much its mind coaching makes a difference (thanks to a major international funder, the Oak Foundation). Coaching Impacts includes a review of the existing evidence of coaching’s effectiveness in any context and maps who else coaches clients who are socially excluded anywhere in the world. Then we’ll decide which of coaching’s many benefits we want to measure and how best to do so to convince commissioners. If you’re already doing inclusive mind coaching yourself, please link up to share evidence or ideas, put your work on the “map”, see who else is coaching and keep up to date with the project by following the charity’s website. 48