Rebecca Arnold Of Root Coaching & Consulting On The Top 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Coaching
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Professionalizing the field will become a priority. There is a need for more clarity in the marketplace about the skills and capacity of coaches. With the current certification infrastructure, it’s difficult to get a sense of coaches’ impact and competence. Because of the lack of licensure, anyone can call themselves a coach. This makes it hard for clients to distinguish among trained, professional coaches and other folks. With more and more people entering the coaching field, organizations like the International Coaching Federation will need to invest in public information campaigns about why choosing a certified coach matters.
The world of coaching is undergoing a seismic shift, with emerging trends set to redefine its boundaries and possibilities. From digital transformation and the integration of artificial intelligence to the growing emphasis on mental health and the global rise of coaching cultures within organizations, these developments are reshaping the landscape of personal and professional growth. As we navigate through these changes, understanding the forces that drive the future of coaching becomes paramount. I had the pleasure of interviewing Rebecca Arnold.
Rebecca Arnold, JD, CPCC, PCC, is a holistic leadership coach and the founder of Root Coaching & Consulting, LLC. She has worked with 100+ mission-driven leaders in the fields of academia, K-12 education, medicine, law, and social impact. Rebecca is known as a “straight-talkin’, big-hearted coach.” She’s the author of The Rooted Renegade: Transform Within, Disrupt the Status Quo & Unleash Your Legacy (Greenleaf Book Group, June 2024), which received a 5-star review from Readers’ Favorites.
Thank you for joining us. To start, could you share your “origin story” with our readers? How did you begin your coaching journey, and what challenges did you face in the early days?
I began my coaching journey after navigating an excruciating experience with burnout. I was a mission-driven leader and lost sight of my well-being and health, my values around being present for my family, and my awareness of which environments I thrived in, and which depleted me. When I burned out from my “dream job,” there was a vacuum of purpose, and I experienced existential distress. As I healed, I realized that coaching was a way to marry my interests, experiences in law, education, non-profit organizations, leadership capabilities, and commitment to social impact. I became devoted to supporting people toward holistic success so they could continue doing important work without burning out. I created my own practice to have autonomy over who I worked with, how, the alignment of the business with the rest of my life, and the values that undergird everything I do in my business. In the beginning of my coaching practice, I wrestled with imposter syndrome, what and how to charge for the work, and how to define the impact of coaching in ways that resonated for clients who were a good fit. As a holistic leadership coach, it’s challenging to put a dollar figure on the broad-reaching impact of coaching. For example, “How much would you pay to feel deep fulfillment at work; to have internal peace and quiet from negative self-talk, imposter syndrome, and perfectionism; and a profound sense of well-being and contentment?” It’s priceless.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Creativity. One huge benefit of having ADHD is my extensive creativity, quest for novelty, and capacity to generate new ideas, content, workshops, and the like. I’m able to adapt easily to the needs of my individual clients and organizations’ needs and see the applications of coaching in novel contexts.
- Empathy. My ability to connect with others impacts my coaching, relationship-building, and partnerships, and creates business and personal opportunities for growth. I care deeply about other humans and that’s the soul of my business.
- Curiosity. Getting radically curious about my clients helps me ask questions that get to the heart of the matter. I am constantly reading, taking classes, and listening to podcasts to grow my coaching skills. This means that coaching always feels fresh, and I have new approaches to share with my clients.
Can you share your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why does that resonate with you so much?
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” -Maya Angelou
We all suffer setbacks, failures, and disappointments. It’s part of being human, and it’s how we grow. But many of us need support to excavate the lessons of these moments, instead of keeping them shrouded in shame. The shame we carry undermines our peace, success, and joy. When I suffered from the painful experience with burnout, I carried tremendous shame. It kept me awake at night thought-looping about how I had let people down and how I had failed to honor myself. The shame didn’t shift until I faced into this experience and its aftermath by rewriting my narrative around it, honoring the lessons of my experience, and practicing lots of self-compassion. I want all of us to experience the freedom and self-trust that blooms by releasing the shame of past failures.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? How do you think that might help people?
I’m thrilled to be releasing my book, The Rooted Renegade: Transform Within, Disrupt the Status Quo & Unleash Your Legacy (Greenleaf Book Group, June 2024). It is a path to holistic success and rooted peace for mission-driven, change-making leaders, whether starting out, at career turning points, or on the brink of burnout. I can’t wait to see the ripple impacts of this book. With over 50 actionable tools, readers will rewire their relationship to stress, overwhelm, and self-created expectations and create a renewable approach for contributing, leading, and living at their highest level. It has been called a “nightstand bible,” “The Guidebook to Inner Peace,” and received a Readers’ Favorites 5-star review.
Without saying any names could you share a particularly memorable success story from your coaching career?
I have been fortunate to work with so many brilliant, talented, kind, mission-driven clients. The impacts I’ve seen my clients experience through coaching are breathtaking: getting the job of their dreams, sleeping better at night, transitioning to a new field that lights them up fully, completing crucial projects that profoundly impact their fields, feeling more content at home in their families and relationships, honoring the strengths and needs of their teams more fully. The list goes on and on. One client was struggling to motivate themselves and spent untold time and energy affected by negative self-talk, procrastination, and worry. Together, we worked on the client’s mindset around their work, their capacity to see their strengths and wins, their relationship with themselves, and their patterns of procrastination. They began reconnecting with what brought them joy in their field and their unique role as a renegade within it. This was a key to motivation. They began appreciating their small wins. They learned their own working style and preferences, instead of just muscling through it. Momentum built. By the end of our work, they made significant headway on a stalled project, obtained greater recognition in their field, set better boundaries to preserve their time and energy, and most importantly felt better about themselves.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview about coaching. How has your approach to coaching evolved over the years, and what personal learnings have you applied to your own development?
When I was first starting out, my approach was more structured and rigid. I wanted to do it “right,” which meant following the tools and models from my coach training (the Co-Active Training Institute). Six years in, I now integrate lots of different approaches that I’ve learned from courses, books/podcasts, and client experiences, to forge my own approach that is steeped in embodiment, presence, and connection. My clients and I co-create goals, how we want the coaching engagement to operate, the vibe we will create together, how we handle accountability, and so on. I have also seen how important it is to work with clients’ inner landscapes: self-talk, mindsets, boundaries, their relationship with themselves, emotional awareness, and resilience. Without tackling this inner work, external-oriented goals fall flat.
How do you incorporate feedback into your coaching practice to continuously improve?
When my client and I co-create the coaching container, we establish agreements. One agreement is that clients take responsibility for sharing if something isn’t working for them. That way, we can adjust to ensure they get what they need from the coaching. At the end of a coaching session, I ask what the client is taking with them. This is a chance to articulate the learnings, commitments, and if they want or need something different from the next session (or if they want to change our working agreements). Mid-way through a coaching engagement, I ask my client what’s working, what’s not, what they want more of/less of, and what would make our work together even more effective. Then we make adjustments. It’s a joint endeavor to ensure that clients get exactly what they want and need.
Can you discuss an innovation in coaching that you believe is currently underappreciated but has the potential to significantly impact the field?
There is currently a conglomeration in the coaching field where organizations contract with large-scale companies and platforms for coaching, instead of contracting with individual coaches. This is efficient from the corporate side, however, it’s a huge mistake for the coaching field (and for individual transformation). Many of the coaching conglomerates pay sub-par and use tech-enabled platforms that reduce human connection — amid a loneliness epidemic. High-quality coaches are turned off by the low wages and inability to customize approaches based on what a client needs most.
In what ways can coaching address the evolving mental health needs of diverse populations in a digitally connected world?
Most of us crave deep connection, want to feel seen in all our complexity, and seek support to make the changes that will improve our lives. In coaching, so much of the transformation depends upon presence, attunement, and attention to micro-shifts in a client’s demeanor, language, body language, and energy. Through real-time coaching (whether online or in person), a client can connect with their resourcefulness, experience self-efficiency when committing to an action and following through, and build skills such as resilience. All of these are vital components of mental health and well-being. Group coaching is an excellent, more affordable approach to address people’s evolving mental health needs. I have been part of virtual mastermind groups for years. They are supportive, feel deeply connecting, and meet my own evolving needs. There’s promise for democratizing coaching through group programs that target people’s specific mental-health and well-being goals.
How do you foresee artificial intelligence and machine learning transforming the coaching industry in the next decade?
I worry about AI undermining the soul of coaching (and what makes it so effective). Digital connections feel good in the moment — like that rush of dopamine upon getting a “like” on your social media post. However, there’s a reason we are facing an epidemic of loneliness. Digital, asynchronous approaches or bots are an insufficient substitute for human-to-human contact in real life. We’ve all had the experience of a chatbot on a website not getting the issue we are having. It’s deeply frustrating and antithetical to the deep work of coaching. There’s a reason why people hire a coach, instead of simply reading an article about change. It’s the human connection that creates a safe container in which to change mindsets, unearth patterns that have been entrenched, and confront narratives that hold us back. No degree of AI can mimic how to soften your voice when a client is sitting with intense emotion, know when to push if a client is on the precipice of change, invoke humor to shift stagnant energy, or use a powerful metaphor to encapsulate what a client is grappling with. People might *think* AI can support them, so I can envision people signing up for AI coaching apps, but then quitting because of the lack of connection and the failure of real change. Consider the difference between a personal trainer and a training app. If you’re motivated, don’t run into obstacles, and can use a standardized approach, an app is fine. However, an app is inadequate if you need more support, struggle with motivation, become stymied by obstacles, or have a unique body with unique needs. With a human, there’s relationship, accountability, connection. It’s easy to leave your app hanging, but not another human.
What role do you believe ethical considerations and privacy concerns will play in the future of coaching, especially with the increased use of digital platforms?
Protecting clients’ personal information is vital. Would you want your therapist’s notes to be available to big tech? Probably not! We are lulled into a false sense of security when we’re texting or messaging in online platforms because we do that on our phones. We think it’s “private,” but it’s not. Personally, I wouldn’t share intimate information with a coaching app. And for folks who are clear about the privacy concerns, I don’t see them wading into deep, personal waters with a coaching app.
Could you list and briefly explain “Top 5 Trends Shaping the Future of Coaching” based on your experiences and insights? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1 . Embodiment is crucial to navigate the complexities of life and work. In Western culture generally, we over-preference intellect and under-presence the wisdom, intuition, and transformation available through our bodies. In my coaching practice, I’ve seen very bright clients resist attending to the signals from their bodies, initially. For example, when working with a partner at a law firm, we focused on the somatic sensations of doing pro-bono work: the deep, heartfelt warmth, the zing of energy throughout the body, the aliveness they experienced through their entire body. They said, “I thought this was too woo-woo for me, until I experienced its impact.” That’s how it often goes. Many of the challenges today’s leaders face lie beyond their intellect: how to motivate their team, how to forecast what the field will need 10 years in the future, how to meet the well-being needs of their team, how to scale impact without burning out. The solutions require intuition, empathy, connection, vision — all capacities that require attunement to oneself, others, and the world around them.
When clients do embodied work in coaching, they build resilience. They know how to settle their nervous system through grounding practices like breathing and postures that activate calm. They learn how to activate the feelings of confidence and fortitude within them. Instead of merely having an insight, they lock in that understanding somatically, so they can easily replicate it.
2 . Professionalizing the field will become a priority. There is a need for more clarity in the marketplace about the skills and capacity of coaches. With the current certification infrastructure, it’s difficult to get a sense of coaches’ impact and competence. Because of the lack of licensure, anyone can call themselves a coach. This makes it hard for clients to distinguish among trained, professional coaches and other folks. With more and more people entering the coaching field, organizations like the International Coaching Federation will need to invest in public information campaigns about why choosing a certified coach matters. Additionally, among certified coaches, there’s a need for greater rigor, clarity, and demarcation of skill sets. Finally, as the field grows, standards to certify coach training programs will become more rigorous.
3 . More organizations are seeing the value of coaching. Coaching is spreading as a perk for senior leaders and across organizations. Job seekers are looking for coaching as part of their hiring packages or are asking for it when negotiating pay and other benefits. I recently spoke to a group leader at major financial services firm. Their group has a coach, and they have seen huge benefits from it. As more and more clients speak to the impact coaching has made in their lives and work, organizations are listening. Physician residency programs are integrating coaching, so are higher education institutions in supporting tenure-track faculty, as are K-12 school districts, and beyond. Coaching is no longer just for the C-suite. There’s an understanding that in the complexities of life and work today, coaching can support individuals throughout organizations.
4 . People are leaving therapy in favor of coaching. There is a mental health crisis and a scarcity of therapists in the U.S. There’s a growing recognition that not everyone filling therapists’ rosters actually need therapy. Many of them could be served well by coaching instead.
Coaching focuses on looking forward; clarifying your vision and goals; identifying and overcoming obstacles; shifting mindsets that hold you back; moving toward how you want to show up in your life and work; addressing negative self-talk, perfectionism, procrastination; and beyond. An often-used metaphor is that coaching is like driving and looking through the windshield to see where you want to go, what’s possible, and what might be in your way. Therapy is like looking in the rearview mirror to understand what you’ve experienced in your past, how it’s affecting you today, and ways to shift the narrative about prior events (as well as managing mental health challenges). This is an oversimplification, but it does help frame the broad strokes of the distinction. Many people don’t realize what coaching is or what’s possible to accomplish in coaching. I’ve had clients apologize for getting emotional in coaching and say, “Sorry, I know this isn’t therapy.” This is a huge misconception about coaching. I clarify, “Your emotions are welcome. They are part of you and your lived experiences, and they hold important information.”
Of course, it’s critical for people who need therapy to get it. For people with mental health challenges, addiction, PTSD and deep trauma, and challenges with day-to-day functioning, therapy is vital. We need to increase the supply of therapy slots, insurance reimbursements for therapists, and community mental health services. And one way to affect the availability of therapy is for therapists to start asking themselves, “Is this client appropriate for therapy, or is coaching a better fit to free up space for people who need therapy?” Therapists should have a roster of trusted coaches to whom they refer clients. Individuals can become better informed about whether coaching or therapy is the right fit for their current circumstances. Additionally, certified coaches should have their eye on whether to refer a client to a therapist instead of coaching, or in tandem with it.
5 . Commercialization of coaching.
There are some benefits of commercialization. It has enabled more organizations to opt into offering coaching. Coaching is now part of the vernacular of people-centered organizations. Large coaching companies have the funding for marketing to spread the word about the impact of coaching. They also have the resources to fund research on coaching and to invest in coach-training resources. Commercialization has the effect of making coaching more affordable for individual clients. However, in many cases, that affordability is driven, by low pay rates for coaches — a concern for the quality of the coaching and the longevity of the field. A look at the retention of high-impact coaches at these organizations would be helpful to ascertain the long-term viability of these organizations.
In the rush to standardize and commercialize coaching, clients and organizations miss out on some of the richest benefits of coaching. Customizing coaching is key. Together, a coach and client can adjust the cadence, the goals, the style the coach brings, the tools the coach offers, the agreements the coach and client create together, how accountability looks, and so on. In my practice, I’ve seen time and again how much growth a client generates when they take responsibility as a partner in the coaching in designing exactly what they need from it.
Additionally, the individual coach-client relationship is paramount. What people need right now is human connection. When a client contracts with an individual coach, it’s a commitment to that particular coaching relationship. The benefit is deep connection, shared working agreements, someone who sees the best in you and knows what you’re trying to create in the world, and a commitment to navigate any conflict that arises within the coaching relationship itself, first. Coaching can be confronting and uncomfortable. If a client can easily switch to a new coach when they get uncomfortable, they miss out on so much learning and growth. Many organizations seeking coaching for their staff to grow skills in change management, emotional intelligence, team dynamics, well-being, navigating conflict and challenging relationships. All that development happens in the context of the relationship with a coach.
There is a fundamental issue with taking deep, human challenges and app-ifying them. Reading an article to develop a skill, or following instructions on an app, or interacting with a large platform will never have the same impact as receiving deep coaching that reflects your individual context and offers the nuances informed by a coach’s experience with you over time.
How do you envision the integration of coaching within organizational cultures changing the landscape of leadership and employee development?
For organizations that want to keep their best people, offering coaching is vital. There’s no other means of deep, individualized, customized personal development than coaching. Most organizations that are people-first will require that their leaders have coaching skills themselves. Group coaching programs within organizations will grow, both because of the economies of scale and the recognition that it’s a way to build deep relationships and develop skills simultaneously. There’s power in being a part of someone else’s growth process and in having your own witnessed. Organizations now recognize that leadership development and employee development cannot be done through classes or workshops alone. The days of the one-off class are ending. People’s attention spans are shrinking, their motivation to sit through courses without immediate, practical implications are waning. There’s growing recognition that integrating new skills takes time and support, that leaders need to do their inner work in order to have the impact their organizations demand, and the complexities facing the workforce of today require the deeper work of coaching.
What do you see as the biggest challenge facing the coaching industry today, and how might we overcome it?
The low barrier to entry means that many people who call themselves “coaches” don’t have much experience or training. This leads to some clients having negative experiences with coaching and dismissing the entire field. The field needs more rigorous training programs, limits to the number of approved training programs so coaches aren’t flooding the market, and, ultimately, professional licensure.
What is one long-term goal you have for your coaching practice, and how are you working towards it?
I want to profoundly impact 100,000 people through my work. My book, The Rooted Renegade, is one way I’m working toward that. I want the power and possibilities available through coaching to be accessible to everyone. I imagine a world where people think of coaching as a first line of defense when their life is misaligned in some way from their hopes, dreams, and vision. I get goosebumps when I consider the possibilities for our world, if people were self-actualized, lit up by their work, living in sync with their values and goals, and in meaningful, positive relationships with themselves and others.
How can our readers continue to follow your work?
You can go to Root Coaching & Consulting (www.rootcoachingconsulting.com) or follow along on Instagram @rootcoach.
You can also purchase my book, The Rooted Renegade: Transform Within, Disrupt the Status Quo, & Unleash Your Legacy, which is a clear path toward holistic success for ambitious professionals. It is filled with 50+ practical coaching tools to support you in living and leading sustainably.
Thank you for offering such valuable insights into the future of coaching. We look forward to seeing your work continue to reach new heights, and we wish you continued success.
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein, a seasoned entrepreneur with over two decades of experience as the Founder and CEO of multiple companies. He launched Choice Recovery, Inc., a healthcare collection agency, while going to The Ohio State University, His team earned national recognition, twice being ranked as the #1 business to work for in Central Ohio. In 2018, Chad launched [re]start, a career development platform connecting thousands of individuals in collections with meaningful employment opportunities, He sold Choice Recovery on his 25th anniversary and in 2023, sold the majority interest in [re]start so he can focus his transition to Built to Lead as an Executive Leadership Coach. Learn more at www.chadsilverstein.com
