Cultural Competence in Leadership Coaching Education: What can We Learn From the Mentoring Literature?

Abstract

Our review addresses a gap in Human Resource Development (HRD) by examining how cultural competence can be developed within leadership coaching. Cultural competence, the awareness, skills, and knowledge needed to engage effectively across cultural contexts, remains underexplored in coaching education and practice. Finding no integrative reviews on this topic in the coaching literature, we turned to mentoring, a related field where cultural competence has been more clearly theorized. We synthesized 59 studies to inform the Cultural Competence in Coaching (CCiC) Roundhouse, a conceptual model depicting interconnected areas of competence through a Critical Human Resource Development (CHRD) lens. The model challenges assumptions of neutrality in coaching and positions cultural competence as a critical, relational, and ethical practice. This review calls for the integration of cultural competence into coach education, credentialing, and professional standards to advance coaching as a more inclusive, socially conscious, and transformative HRD practice.

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