Abstract
Orientation: Leaders need goodness-of-fit with the context in which they are leading, and
coaching is considered an effective strategy to achieve this.
Research purpose: To critically problematise current dominant coaching strategies in terms of
their underlying worldviews, in order to assess their potential effectiveness and relevance in
enhancing context‒leadership goodness-of-fit, given the emerging context faced by leaders.
Motivation for the study: The current ever-changing context of leaders requires different
thinking, including with regard to coaching. The framework of the coaching landscape, with
its associated building blocks, provides the conceptual framework for the review of current
coaching strategies. Three dominant worldviews that have historically influenced the thinking
in social sciences are employed in this review, namely Newtonian, general systems theory and
complexity or chaos (second-order systemic thinking).
Research approach/design and method: This was a critical conceptual study aimed at
problematising the worldviews informing the currently dominant coaching strategies.
Main findings: The problematising of the worldviews underlying the dominant coaching
strategies revealed that these strategies are not always informed by a worldview congruent
with that demanded by the qualities and features of the world that leaders currently face.
There is a pressing need for a coaching strategy informed by a complexity or chaos (secondorder systemic) worldview, which better meets the emerging contextual demands and
requirements imposed on leaders in practice.
Practical/managerial implications: A different coaching strategy, called systemic coaching, is
proposed.
Contribution/value-add: The proposed systemic coaching strategy is highly suitable to
bringing about improved goodness-of-fit between the leader and the emerging context.