As professional coaches, we are called to a world of expansive cultural diversity. In this global and multi-cultured context, it is more important than ever that we have a deep awareness, consideration, and appreciation of how we are alike and how we are different as humans. Coaches need to be aware of and manage our own biases to serve our clients effectively.

Students will leave this 7-week, 10-hour course with valuable tools for connecting as coaches, equipped with growing confidence in a vast world of cultural diversity, expression, and beauty.

This course is designed for coaches who desire to:

• Be culturally aware and responsive to clients who have different cultural orientations from their own.
• Deepen their own understanding of how culture shapes them individually and as a coach.
• Be aware of the challenges facing their clients in global organizations, multinational corporations, and NGO’s.
• Partner with clients who live and work cross-culturally in ministry contexts.
• Deepen their understanding of the role that culture plays in a variety of environments.

Objectives for this course include:

• Explore 11 specific Cultural Values Continuums and their implications for effective coaching.
• Guide students to assess and discover their own cultural values and biases, and consider their implications for coaching.
• Learn how to transparently evaluate cultural distance between coach and client in order to determine coach-client compatibility and apply appropriate coaching strategies.
• Explore specific challenges that are common to both coaches and clients who live and work in contexts where varying cultures come together.
• Develop a framework for doing the work of self-reflection that results in self-awareness and self-management necessary for effective work among a variety of cultures.
• Experience the opportunity to coach or dialogue in class with guest clients from a wide variety of different cultural contexts.
• Explore what coaching offers to the world as a potential means of cultural transformation. and inviting students to consider their contribution.

Required Texts:

• Dancing Between Cultures: Culturally Intelligent Coaching for Missions and Ministry by Tina Stoltzfus Horst
• Different Like Me: Exploring Common Human Experiences from Multi- Cultural Perspectives by Cindy Schmelzenbach (provided with student material)