Page - 88 - in Coaching im digitalen Wandel

Deniers88 some visual clues to assure them of their coach’s undivided attention. Finally, the option to turn off the video feed and thus reduce the coach to voice only was named as another way of exerting control in the coaching situation. One interviewee reported switching frequently between audio only and video plus audio during sessions, with being on audio only having the advantage of »not being watched«, which for this interviewee is equivalent to »not being judged« (Interviewee 8). The perception of the coach: A »talking head« Several interviewees report the coach to be perceived as objectified and trans- portable: »I would have my coach on the screen.« (Interviewee 1) »I can put [the coach] to one side in terms of the voice.« (Interviewee 8) »I find it easier to concentrate when I have her in my ear.« (Interviewee 3). The way coaches are experienced is reduced to their voice as transmitted through the computer and their facial expressions. Being »a face on a screen« (Inter- viewee 10) reduces the coach’s presence and possibly also minimises the author- ity they might radiate in the physical world (Suler, 2004). For a coach working with Skype, being switched on and off at the coachee’s discretion or being asked to show their hands to prove they are not doing any- thing the coachee might disapprove of might be new experiences that possibly come as part and parcel of a new understanding of coaching, brought about by the integration of technology: »The industry must now embrace this disrup- tive paradigm shift, which puts the client in charge. They can have a coach in their pocket via a smartphone for when they need support and advice« (Jack- son, Tawadros, & Tinker, 2017). In Skype coaching, the coach has not dwindled to pocket but to screen size, a fact that had an impact on all the participants in this study. Licoppe and Morel (2012) coin the term »talking heads arrangement« to describe the default mode for video communication, where »both participants [are] on screen and facing the camera« (op. cit., p. 426). This reduced perception has implications for the »communication bandwidth« (Bohannon et al., 2012, p. 137) accessi- ble for coaching interaction: with a non-physical meeting already excluding the sense channels of touch and smell, the rigid and reductionist set-up of the video- encounter also reduces the variability of gaze, gesture and posture, which all are integral parts of visual behaviour (Whittaker & O’Connaill, 1997, p. 25). Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0