Inside the coaching professions, there is growing awareness that the foundations of coaching and coaching research predominantly developed from theories in WEIRD (Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic) societies. This session will invite coaches to examine how disclosing their own identity during initial discovery meetings better allows a potential client to determine whether there is coach-client compatibility and the basis to cultivate the necessary trust and safety for a coaching relationship to flourish.

1. Not disclosing how you identify as an individual creates a power imbalance in a coaching alliance, potentially hindering your ability to co-create a relationship, particularly with individuals who identify as belonging to a non-dominant or “othered” group(s).
2. As coaching grows globally and coaches coach employees in other countries via digital coaching platforms, it is critical to understand that components of your identity may take on different meanings to clients in other societies.
3. Coaches can create greater equity in a coaching alliance by explicitly managing our potential for bias by inviting feedback from our clients as it may pertain to our identity in relationship to theirs.