By Maria Newport
Coaching in the Time of COVID-19 or What they don’t Teach you in Coaching School1 Drought, floods and even bushfires feel like a distant memory with Covid-19 emerging here in late January and the subsequent lockdowns across Australia and New Zealand in late March, this year. We have been lucky here in Australasia, benefitting from the knowledge of what has happened elsewhere and being geographically distanced from global hot spots. New Zealand locked down hard and fast and are in the enviable position of having lifted restrictions, except border controls, declaring the country “virus free”. But, as Prime Minister Jacinda Arden has warned, “We will almost certainly see cases here again”.23 In Australia, there have been only 102 deaths of 7,290 known cases - far lower than anticipated.45 However, we are subject to Stage 2 restrictions with variances between states, with an anticipated easing of restrictions in July. So, we are not out of the woods yet. The pandemic has also meant disruption to the global economy on a scale not seen since the Second World War and the biggest contraction of the economy since the Great Depression.67 But hopefully we will be in a position to return to normality faster than other countries. 8 So, beyond the potential threats to our physical and fiscal health, how are we faring amidst this crisis? What is the role of coaching now? What do we need beyond coach training? And what might the hope be for the coaching profession?
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Sara Smith MCC (Chair of the ICF Professional Coaches Global Board) at the recent International Coaching Federation Global Leaders’ Forum https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/08/new-zealand-abandons-covid-19-restrictions-after-nation-declared-no-cases 3 https://www.tepunahamatatini.ac.nz/2020/05/22/effective-reproduction-number-for-covid-19-in-aotearoa-new-zealand/ 4 https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/the-maths-and-ethics-of-minimising-covid-19-deaths 5 (https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers#at-aglance). 6 https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2020/jun/03/yes-australia-is-in-a-recession-but-worse-is-yet-to-come, 7 https://www.sgsep.com.au/publications/insights/the-economic-impact-of-covid-19-and-bushfires 8 https://www.asb.co.nz/documents/economic-research/quarterly-economic-forecasts/fast-and-furious.html 2
