Page - 89 - in Coaching im digitalen Wandel

Through the eye of the camera 89 The coaching space: So big and yet so small Many participants reported that Skype coaching gave them a bigger choice of coaches by bridging geographical distance: »I’d rather have a professional on Skype than someone with lesser capabilities in person. It’s the quality first and then the medium« (Interviewee 3). Several interviewees worked with coaches located in different countries or even on different continents. In this sense, Skype certainly makes the coaching space bigger than it ever has been before. On the other hand, due to the spatial limitation of the computer screen, it also brings with it an aspect of confinement, as experienced by Interviewee 3: »There is nowhere to go. You can’t look out the window and you can’t just take a break, you are actually paying complete attention, because it’s a captive audi- ence, 100 per cent captive.« Interviewee 10, on the contrary, experienced »an extra sense of freedom … so there is more kind of freedom around me … I can do different things, I can do things that I wouldn’t normally do, you know with someone else in the room.« Revealing a similar width of reactions, the physi- cal disparity of spaces was felt both as a »sense of intimacy in that [the coach] is inviting you into her space« (Interviewee 1) and as bringing about irritation and confusion: »I wasn’t sure what physical space I was in« (Interviewee 5). Apparently, the »appropriate contextualization of users’ interactions [required] in a virtual space« (Wilbur, 1997, p. 353) very much depends on preconceptions on the side of both coach and coachee as well as on their mutually developed under- standing, a process, which cannot be explored further within the scope of this study. Conclusion This study investigates the coachees’ individual perceptions of receiving career coaching via the video-conferencing tool Skype. It shows that the presence of a camera in the coaching encounter impacts the self-image of the coachees as well as their perception of the coach and their experience of the space coach- ing takes place in. Distance coaching incorporating video technology will probably gain even broader acceptance with growing coverage of broadband Internet and refine- ments in HD technology. The insights provided will enable coaching profession- als using video technology to align their contracting, the set-up of their sessions and the coaching encounter accordingly. The same applies for managers lead- ing and coaching remotely and HR professionals setting up video-supported coaching and mentoring schemes. Open-Access-Publikation im Sinne der CC-Lizenz BY-NC-ND 4.0