Our fourth article moves directly to one of the issues discussed in Santa Fe: the challenge of coaching in a nontraditional age group. Written by Vicki Foley and one of us [WB], it explores the use of coaching in undergraduate and graduate education programs—coaching being a tool set that anyone might use in their life planning and in their own career within organizations, as well as being a peer-based service that young men and women might use in facing their immediate issues as someone who might be leaving home for the first time and might be facing the many demands associated with completing a collegiate degree program. This article also addresses the challenge associated with coaching young, high potential employees in contemporary organizations and suggests ways in which coaching might be engaged with even younger clients:

Coaching the Young Client

Our fifth article sustains the focus on coaching across generations that was discussed in Santa Fe: what about coaching to someone from a different generation? This article (like Pam McLean’s) is reprinted from the issue of IJCO that focused on developmental perspectives. Written by Sandy Smith, this essay concerns her own work as a senior-level organizational coach with young men and women who are leading startup high tech companies. Smith offers a fascinating study of the opportunities facing anyone who is coaching across the generations:

Gen Y Leaders, Boomer Coach

We turn in the second half of this first issue of The Future of Coaching to several of the regular features we hope to provide in this magazine. First, we offer a leadership interview – in this case with a participant in the above mentioned Sage project. This interview is conducted by Gary Quehl with Norman Westmore, who is retired from a high level leadership position in a California Corporation, but is now providing just as important leadership in his new community located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California:

Senior Leadership in Community: Interview with Norman Westmore

Another of our other regular features provides practical tips and insights regarding the practice of professional coaching as these tips and insights relate to the theme of this issue: coaching across generations. One of us [WB] offers a specific tool that can be used by coaches as they explore life and career transitions with clients who are moving through the distinctive developmental transitions of their own generation. Called Life Shields, this coaching tool seems appropriate whatever the age of your client:

Life Shields: A Coaching Tool