Q&A: Why Diversity and Equity Matter in Coach Training

Q0:  Question that landed in my Messenger Inbox from a Coach whose work I've followed for years.

Do you really have to make such a big deal about diversity and equity when you're marketing The Coaching Guild? It feels to me like you've lost the plot. Should you be training your students to help people rather than teaching a course on politics and social etiquette?

So, to be clear, if by "helping people" you mean pretending the world is flat and everyone has the same starting line, then sure. If you actually want to be an effective coach, you'd better be able to see the differences that shape people's lives—race, culture, gender, sexuality, class, ability, identity. Ignoring those realities isn't neutral. It's lazy. And it causes harm.

Q1: Why do you make such a big deal about diversity and equity in a coach training program?

Because coaching doesn't happen in a vacuum. Coaches work with humans from every background, identity, and lived experience. If your training doesn't reflect that reality, you're not being prepared for the work; you're being prepared to recycle privilege.

Q2: How does understanding difference make someone a better coach?

 When you learn to see and honor difference, you stop projecting your own experience onto your clients. You become a coach who listens deeper, sees the whole person, and holds space that is safer and more effective for transformation.

Q3: What does diversity have to do with harm reduction in coaching?

Coaching without equity awareness can unintentionally cause harm. Microaggressions, bias, and cultural blindness can wound clients. Training in a diverse, equity-centered environment reduces that risk and creates coaches who do less harm and more good.

Q4: Why do diverse student groups make better learning environments?

Because every voice adds depth. A classroom where students bring different identities, cultures, and perspectives becomes a laboratory for real-world coaching. You don't just learn from instructors—you learn from each other.

Q5: How do diverse instructors expand the learning beyond basic coaching mechanics?

A single instructor can only teach from their own lens. At The Coaching Guild, our multi-voiced faculty brings nuance and layers that one person simply can't. You get coaching mechanics, yes—but also psychology, history, culture, and lived wisdom that deepen every lesson.

Q6: Isn't coaching just about asking good questions? Why complicate it with equity?

Because "just asking questions" without context can be shallow—or even harmful. Equity and diversity training give you the awareness to ask better questions, at the right depth, in ways that don't erase or diminish someone's reality or assume you already understand something you actually cannot.

Q7: Why center LGBTQIA+ inclusion in a coach training program?

Because your clients will include LGBTQIA+ people or people with loved ones who are LGBTQIA+. Pretending otherwise is erasure. Training in an environment where LGBTQIA+ voices are centered prepares you to coach in ways that affirm, respect, and empower every identity.

Q8: Isn't all this just political correctness?

No. It's professional correctness. A coach who can only work comfortably with people like themselves is under-trained. Equity and diversity aren't politics—they're the foundation of ethical, effective practice.

Q9: Won't focusing so much on equity take away from learning the core skills of coaching?

Not at all. It makes those skills stronger. Equity doesn't replace core coaching competencies—it sharpens them. You learn to listen more fully, question more skillfully, and lead more powerfully when you can see the whole human in front of you. When we quit unintentionally homogenizing every client to a standard of sameness/whiteness, we can be present for what's really right in front of us rather than generalizing in a way that shuts individuality down.

Q10: What's the real benefit of training in a program that puts diversity and equity at the center?

You graduate not just as a coach with technical skills, but as a coach prepared to change lives in a real, inclusive way. You can walk into any room—corporate, grassroots, LGBTQIA+ circle, multicultural community—and coach with depth, respect, and confidence OR you can know when it's time to pass on a client that might be better served by a coach that shares more of their cultural experience. That's the difference between being a coach and being a transformational coach.



The Coaching Guild is a training coach training program specifically designed to nurture dreamers, artists, creatives, outsiders, rebels, and good troublemakers. It is a multi-instructor, multi-disciplinary approach to training that prioritizes learning innovative foundational coaching skills and marketing training.

If you are interested in coach training done very differently, hit me up for a no-pressure, no BS, no trip, and fall into a sales funnel conversation. Let’s talk about what's possible for you as a coach.