Sometimes when we’re working with clients in organisations we discover something that is harming them, someone else, or the organisation. What should we do? We have agreed to maintain the strictest levels of confidentiality and we know that by doing so we may be allowing harm to continue. An ethical dilemma. We minimise the risk when we’re coaching by exploring what should happen if a situation like this arises before we start working with a client. It’s part of the contracting process .

We are likely to experience ethical dilemmas every day, and have private conversations with ourselves about whether we should say something, do something, or keep what we know to ourselves. When thinking about what to do a critical question for us should be ‘who/what may I be harming here?’

This involves Meeting Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards, Establishing the Coaching Agreement, numbers 1 and 2 of the  ICF Core Competencies