Problem Creation
As a rule the impetus for coaching is that the person to be coached cannot cope with some aspect of his professional life. He feels a victim of circumstances in the environment (superiors, colleagues, employees, organisation etc.), or circumstances in his internal life (decision-making difficulties, conflicts, loss of meaning, burnout etc.). Usually he then tries to solve or overcome these ‘problems’. The problem solver does not realise the responsibility for the existence of the problem, he stumbles across it. However, as long as he does not realise how he creates the problem himself, all attempts at solutions will fail or remain superficial. Who would regard it as effective to try to dig one’s way out of the mud, learn to clean oneself off well, if, on the other hand, one does not notice that one is constantly jumping into the mud again?
Existential anthropology does not see people as victims of influences and heredity, but rather as beings who find their own answers to the environmental stimuli. These answers are often not favourable and they are frequently created as reactions to very destructive environments. But they are the responsibility of the respective individual. Thus, the way in which one perceives the world and shapes it, how one responds to the environment and influences it, is not fate, but created by oneself and, therefore, alterable. This view of personal responsibility is now confirmed by many approaches and sciences (neuro-biology, system theory, behavioural science, psychotherapy research). If one views the individual as personally responsible in every respect, then all coaching procedures must be evaluated to see if they are based upon, or strengthen the personal responsibility of the client. Thus, in accordance with C. G Jung: “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate!” Accordingly, responsibility is not an ethical concept, but an existential one. It goes without saying that this consideration is of immense significance, particularly for management functions in organisations.