There is a lack of awareness about the importance of executive and life coaching from businesses and individuals in Bermuda.

That was the conclusion from participants at the 'Bermuda Executive Coaching Roundtable' which was held by the Columbia Coaching Alliance at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess hotel on Friday.

The event was hosted by Human Factor International executive and transcultural leadership coach and managing director Jeffrey Jones, Dr. Terrence Maltbia, Professor at Teacher's College Columbia University, Margaret D'Onofrio, executive coach and founder of D'Onofrio Consulting Partners, and Fatima Doman, executive coach at Columbia Coaching Alliance.

Among the topics up for debate during the session were confidentiality and anonymity, the impact of the recession on the executive and life coaching industry and the biggest issues and challenges facing the sector in Bermuda.

The event, which focused on the ever-changing role of the executive in today's rapidly evolving global business climate, was an opportunity to network and learn from the key thought leaders and senior business executives present.

Mr. Jones said a lot of businesses had panicked and frozen their training budgets when the economic downturn struck, but quickly revised their strategies due to the extra pressure their employees incurred.

"Companies would downsize and the people buckled under the added burden and then they got in the executive and life coaches," he said.

He said the organisers had encountered some difficulty in setting up the event in Bermuda, questioning the awareness of executive and life coaching among the Island's business community.

"We started about two months ago trying to engage the local business community in a discussion around executive training," he said.

"We got in touch with a lot of leading corporations, the business community, etc., but there was relatively little interest.

"I just wonder what the awareness of this is in Bermuda because it is relatively new here. We want to learn from what is going on here - we are not trying to sell anything or push a patent.

"Compared to other markets, the business community in other places was more interested and there seems to be less awareness in Bermuda."

One participant reckoned there was a reluctance to accept people coming in from outside who think they have the answer and tell Bermudians to do it.

"I think that there is a great need for coaching in Bermuda," she said. "I don't think people in Bermuda identify the word coaching with their need for it." Another participant said that executive and life coaching was not happening on a regular basis in Bermuda, with possibly only one full-time coach on the Island and no coaching group which meets to discuss such issues.

Other subjects of debate included the need for regulation and an ethics code, as well as clinical trained coaches, and maintaining client confidentiality. The global roundtable has collected results from at least 15 countries and 20 cities looking at global leadership trends and opportunities and will publish a white paper on it next summer.

The members of the Columbia Coaching Alliance were on the Island to take part in the eighth International Transformative Learning Conference, 'Reframing Social Sustainability in a Multicultural World', at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess last week. The conference was sponsored by the Columbia University Teachers College, Department of Organisation and Leadership, Adult Learning and Leadership Programme.