The Handbook of Knowledge-Based Coaching: FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

BECOMING A SYSTEMIC ECLECTIC COACH

So how can and do coaches mature into systemic eclectics? One ingredient is likely to be time. Malcolm Gladwell (2008) summarizes research into exceptional performance in a range of activities from business to sport and suggests that it takes ten thousand hours to achieve mastery in any field. Certainly, all the systemic eclectics we have observed have been involved with coaching—or with related disciplines—for a good many years. But putting in the hours does not automatically create mastery—there must also be an immense amount of reflection, experimentation, and adaptation of practice.

We observe that for systemic eclectics, the learning they acquire shows them how much more they could learn. Their experience ...