Implications for Professional Coaches

In presenting the implications associated with each of the four positions regarding determinism and free-will, I turn to a basic coaching template that I have offered with my colleague, Agnes Mura (Bergquist and Mura, 2011). We propose that professional coaching is fundamentally concerned with three domains: information (where the coaching client is right now), intentions (where the coaching client wishes to be) and ideas (how the coaching client gets from where they are right now to where they want to be). This very simple template can yield some surprising insights regarding perspective and practices associated with specific coaching strategies.

When applied to the deterministic perspectives, this template yields an emphasis on the domain of information. If our decisions and actions are determined by external forces, then it is critical that coaches and their clients focus on the identification of these external forces. This means a coaching focus on the environment in which the client is operating. The coaching enterprise, in other words, places emphasis on and leans toward reality. The coach encourages their client to spend considerable time gathering data about where they are right now and about the forces out in the world that are impacting on the decisions they are making and the actions they are taking.

A deterministic perspective also requires a search for cause. As Bertrand Russell notes, this perspective is not about purpose; rather it is about the forces that are creating the current conditions in which one’s client is operating. Decisions are made and actions taken that influence or even determine further causes. It is a billiard ball universe, and the coach is of greatest value when they can help their client pit a ball in the proper spot and with the proper force so that it will yield the most beneficial outcome (other balls landing in the pocket). The purpose is already given (win the game), so the “player” can focus on hitting the ball(s).

While the pure determinist is focusing on the external environment (the billiard table), there is the “deep determinism” that I have already identified as being engaged by the psychoanalytic community. They suggest that the coach and client focus not only on the external environment, but also the internal environment within which the client is making decisions and taking action. This means a focus on unconscious processes.

With the coach’s prodding and assistance, the client attends to that which drives them–yet is rarely acknowledged (or even recognized). Challenging questions are offered by the coach regarding untested assumptions (the “why” questions). Most importantly, the shallow assumption that we are captains of our own internal ship is challenged. If our client is to be truly skillful when operating in our challenging 21st Century world, then they must attend to what is happening inside themselves (especially when they are anxious) as well as what is happening in the outside world (Bergquist, 2020).

Position Two: Free-Will

Those theorists who have embraced a deterministic system are in general oriented toward or come out of a scientific or medical tradition. Those who accept a free-will position on the other hand tend to come from a philosophical-religious background or orientation. The idea of human as animal goes against the fundamentalistic interpretation of the biblical creation, and the notion of a totally determined person invalidates human responsibility for sin, hence faces a religious person with the task of reconciling a just God with a diseased, imperfect world. Furthermore, a simple, operational acceptance of a deterministic system has rarely appealed to the speculative mode of philosopher. on the other hand, the idea of a “free-lance” person within a predictable, controllable world is painful to the scientist and medical practitioner.