Coaching 2025 – Movement, Change and New Perspectives

1. The Coaching Landscape in Transition

The coaching scene is in flux. New methods and certifications are constantly emerging. In addition to established psychotherapeutic approaches and business-oriented career coaching, the industry is increasingly integrating esoteric and spiritual perspectives. Social trends are also finding their way into coaching. One example is men’s coaching with traditional male role models. Certificates and training courses are springing up everywhere – some with imaginative titles such as »Value-Oriented Master of Business Coaching« or »Naturopathic Wellness Coach.«

1.1 Regulation and professionalization

The growing number of coaches has triggered a movement that aims to protect coaching by law. Economic interests also play a role here. This is particularly relevant in the digital space: as soon as coaching includes learning and training content, a license is required. The question »Where does coaching end and training begin?« is a hot topic in the industry. Experienced coaches try to set themselves apart by mentoring beginners. This dynamic is reminiscent of the psychotherapy scene, where different schools fought for recognition.

1.2 The decisive factor: relationship quality

A meta-study in psychotherapy showed that the decisive factor is the quality of the relationship between therapist and client. It will be no different in coaching.

2. Current developments and trends

2.1 Challenges of the systemic approach

The dominant systemic approach is increasingly being questioned. Experienced coaches want to pass on their knowledge. The previously frowned-upon practice of »giving advice« is being rehabilitated in favor of the pure midwife approach. External mentoring brings a valuable outside perspective. Contributing experience and knowledge creates a space in which emergence becomes possible. Every participant emerges from a good conversation changed.

2.2 AI as a coaching partner

Advantages of AI:

• Broad and deep data availability
• A shame-reduced encounter is possible; AI is good at simulating empathy.
• Always a valuable source of development when the AI-human relationship can be reflected upon. This is done effectively with a coach. AI as part of a love triangle, so to speak.

Limitations of AI:

• Analog signals (tone of voice, atmosphere) are hardly taken into account in relationship building.
• No perception of body tension, facial expressions, gestures
• Very reduced sensory dimension
• Hardly any possibility to perceive the transfer process and use it as a starting point for reflection.

A coach looks behind the prompts. The relationship between two people always remains a sensory one, not an abstract intellectual one.

2.3 From agility to high performance

In consulting, buzzwords come and go. First it was agility, then purpose, now high performance. High performance is often mistakenly pitted against purpose.

The reality:

• Purpose is the indispensable basis for high performance.
• Having purpose is not an ethical category in itself.
• The company cannot give purpose, it can only create space for it.
• Drive and energy come from the individual subject.

The coaching room is not a place to complain about the company or superiors. It is a space for self-efficacy. This requires self-empowerment.

Viktor Frankl put it succinctly: Without a willingness to make sacrifices, there can be no meaningful life—and therefore no meaningful work.

3. Coaching as an organizational development tool

Coaching is increasingly being used as an organizational development tool. Is this a sign of helplessness or the result of an overly simplistic analysis? Both are possible—but there is also an opportunity here.

3.1 The pitfalls of current coaching programs

Typical process:

• Perceived competitive weakness of the company
• Cause is seen as weak leadership
• Assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses
• Individual coaching to »repair«

The problem: In most people’s perception, coaching is positioned here as a repair operation. Yet coaching was just beginning to position itself as a best practice in leadership behavior.

3.2 Structural problems

Assessment tools:

• Often work with outdated leadership models.
• Do not utilize the social knowledge of the organization.
• Are perceived as evaluation tools.
• And above all, they shift the concrete work on the leadership model that this organization now needs to a third party, instead of the management team itself discussing the concrete, prioritized requirements. If this happens, then this approach is already a learning and coaching process.

Even if managers have been involved in deciding on the typical approach described above, it is not a good prerequisite for successful coaching. It may offer individuals an opportunity for development, but whether this will be effective in the organization is questionable.

The fallacy: »If each individual improves, the whole will improve.« In our experience: No!

3.3 Effective design

Two key questions:

• How should a coaching program be designed to have a relevant impact on the performance of the entire organization?
• How can coaching be integrated into a shared leadership process in which leadership skills are developed internally and reflected upon collectively?

There are answers to both questions, which we have discussed in detail. Coaching can then become an effective organizational development process.

4. Who is the coach?

4.1 The coach as curator

In a Chinese desert. Silent. You can hear the earth breathing.
You see and marvel at the starry sky—as everyone before us has done. Marveling without wanting to.
The small group of executives is changing. They are touched differently, in a different mood. And they look differently at what was just very dominant.

Coaching can be: Leading to places. Inviting experiences that lie hidden under the pressure of everyday life.