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A brief history of coaching

The truth is that the beginnings of personal coaching are pretty obscure, yet traceable. Human beings' search for order and meaning has been going on since before the ancient Greeks and the earliest Chinese dynasties. Through the centuries, philosophy and literature have dug deep into the human condition.

In the 1800s, psychology was born as a field examining human thought, emotions, and behaviors. Military organizations began to use psychological principles to select the best candidates for various assignments and even to select officers. By the 1940s, guidance counselors were applying these principles in schools.

In a separate, yet connected development, psychological principles were being popularized in the business, personal finance, and spiritual sectors, including in the books How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale.

In the 1960s, feminists launched self-improvement groups. Dr. Winthrop Adkins and Dr. Sidney Rosenberg introduced life skills training in New York. The self-improvement movement grew into a decades-long phenomenon affecting all areas of business, spirituality, relationships, health and life. It has featured such names as Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Daniel Weil, and Marilyn Richardson, among many others.

The natural outgrowth has been the personal coaching field. Sometime between 1968 and 1978, personal life coaching was invented. By 1978, Dave Ellis of South Dakota began his coaching practice (http://www.fallingawake.com/). Around 1982, Thomas J. Leonard decided the clients of his financial planning business needed a special service to help them do life planning. He began offering life coaching. He later founded a major online training system for life coaches: Coach U.

In 1997, there were about 1,000 coaches working in the United States, and 2,000 by 1998. Thousands of people joined the coaching field each year; and in 2003 there were more than 10,000 personal coaches. Personal coach training and certification are available from several sources, including Coach U. (http://www.coachu.com/), International Coach Federation (http://www.coachfederation.org/), International Association of Coaches (http://www.certifiedcoach.org/), and Franklin Covey Coaching (http://www.personalcoaching.com/).

		Why coaching? What can coaching do for me? What else can coaching do for me? What is coaching? Are there different types of coaching? How does coaching work? What do I do in coaching? Is coaching like therapy or consulting? Confidentiality A brief history of coaching A brief history of coaching The truth is that the beginnings of personal coaching are pretty obscure, yet traceable. Human beings' search for order and meaning has been going on since before the ancient Greeks and the earliest Chinese dynasties. Through the centuries, philosophy and literature have dug deep into the human condition. In the 1800s, psychology was born as a field examining human thought, emotions, and behaviors. Military organizations began to use psychological principles to select the best candidates for various assignments and even to select officers. By the 1940s, guidance counselors were applying these principles in schools. In a separate, yet connected development, psychological principles were being popularized in the business, personal finance, and spiritual sectors, including in the books How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and The Power of Positive Thinking, by Norman Vincent Peale. In the 1960s, feminists launched self-improvement groups. Dr. Winthrop Adkins and Dr. Sidney Rosenberg introduced life skills training in New York. The self-improvement movement grew into a decades-long phenomenon affecting all areas of business, spirituality, relationships, health and life. It has featured such names as Dale Carnegie, Zig Ziglar, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Anthony Robbins, Dr. Daniel Weil, and Marilyn Richardson, among many others. The natural outgrowth has been the personal coaching field. Sometime between 1968 and 1978, personal life coaching was invented. By 1978, Dave Ellis of South Dakota began his coaching practice (http://www.fallingawake.com/). Around 1982, Thomas J. Leonard decided the clients of his financial planning business needed a special service to help them do life planning. He began offering life coaching. He later founded a major online training system for life coaches: Coach U. In 1997, there were about 1,000 coaches working in the United States, and 2,000 by 1998. Thousands of people joined the coaching field each year; and in 2003 there were more than 10,000 personal coaches. Personal coach training and certification are available from several sources, including Coach U. (http://www.coachu.com/), International Coach Federation (http://www.coachfederation.org/), International Association of Coaches (http://www.certifiedcoach.org/), and Franklin Covey Coaching (http://www.personalcoaching.com/). Previous Free!