In compiling this first of two issues of The Future of Coaching on research, we have taken a metaphorically appropriate effort to look at where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going with respect to research on professional coaching. We first look at the state of research today and are delighted to offer an insightful interview on this topic conducted by one of us [BC] with a leading figure in the field of coaching, Lew Stern. As a practitioner with a scientific background, Dr. Stern outlines many of the accomplishments and challenges associated with research in coaching. We follow the Stern interview with an essay written by one of us [BB] that parallels the focus of Stern on the challenges and promises of coaching research—to a certain degree, exploring not only where we are but also where we are not. This second essay probes broad issues concerning decisions about the type of research to be conduct and the sources of information about coaching that are identified when preparing a coaching research project.

Also in the spirit of where we are, we are grateful to be able to share the survey conducted by the Sherpa Consulting Group regarding the current status of professional coaching as identified by respondents to a worldwide Sherpa survey. We are presenting the latest (2013) report.

In taking a look at where we’ve been, we next offer impressive examples of coaching research that have been conducted in recent years. Outcomes of the first research project were reported in 2006 by members of the Cambria Group (Derek Steinbrenner, Ellen Kumata, and Barry Schlosser). As one of the most widely acclaimed reports in the history ofthe International Journal of Coaching in Organizations (IJCO), it was republished in 2010, with a brief commentary written by the original authors. We have reprinted this report with the subsequent commentary.  The Cambria study exemplifies research that focuses on coaching outcomes and the factors influencing successful coaching. We also have the insights offered by the Cambria authors several years after the initial publication of this IJCO article. We also look backward at an entire issue of IJCO that was devoted to research on professional coaching—with a particular focus on Return-on-Investment (ROI). This issue of IJCO was published in 2005.

As we are doing in all issues of The Future of Coaching we conclude with two very practical essays—one concerned with conducting the business of professional coaching and the other concerned with a review of literature related to the field of professional coaching (The Bookshelf).  In this issue, we focus on the marketing of professional coaching and turn once again to an essay originally published in IJCO. We offer a unique perspective in this case, for we have not only the original article about marketing cycles written by Sheila Maher and Suzi Pomerantz [co-curator of this digital library] written in 2003, but also the commentary on this article written in 2010 by Maher and Pomerantz and a second, contemporary commentary prepared by John Lazar [publisher of IJCO] and one of us [BB] on this original article. In many ways these three different documents offers the reader an historical perspective on the field of coaching and the marketing of coaching—including three snapshots over an eleven year span of time. If nothing else, it’s an interesting look at the way the map of the same terrain may change over time.