The AC Podcast

About The AC Podcast

Coaching Voices brings you helpful, diverse conversations with coaches, thought leaders, academics and industry innovators: the people that are shaping what great coaching looks like today. We believe the best ideas come from a variety of perspectives, so each week you'll hear voices from across the coaching world; from a variety of different backgrounds, specialisms and experiences who share their stories, strategies and insights with you. Whether you're building your coaching business, deepening your practice or just starting out, you'll find practical tools and real insight to help you grow, professionally and personally. Part of the Association for Coaching's Digital Learning Hub, where you'll also find an extensive library of webinars, interviews and live events to expand your coaching expertise. https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub

Publisher

Association for Coaching

Category

business · education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

2 Jun 2020

Latest episode

12 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

316 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   12 Oct 2026

   316: A Day in the Life of Paul Williamson: Creative Leadership Coach

   This episode is part of our 'A Day in the Life' series, where we talk to coaches about their real lives and businesses. What happens when creativity, personal story and deep self-reflection find their way into coaching? In this warm, honest conversation, our host Maxine Bell, talks with Paul Williamson, Group Head of Talent Development at ATG Entertainment.  He has designed acclaimed in-house leadership development programmes, helped to build a successful internal coaching faculty, and coached leaders at all levels within the organization. Paul traces his path from a creative childhood filled with art, drama and storytelling, through management roles, to becoming a qualified coach. Like many people, he was steered toward more 'sensible' career paths, but his creative instincts never left him, and he came to see creativity as a powerful tool for transformation. Central to Paul's practice is Childhood Story Work, the approach pioneered by Dr Sarah Hill. He explains how looking at your own childhood story and its influences can reveal surprising connections between early narratives and present-day behaviour, work he describes as "transformational for me personally." Paul sees his role as creating a safe container for deep exploratory work, one that invites people to call on "all aspects of who they are, including their creativity." Drawing, music, imagery and metaphors help clients move beyond intellectual defences and into deeper layers of meaning. Running through the conversation is the question "Who am I?", which Paul returns to throughout his work and his own life. It shapes how he shows up as a coach, from his shift away from structured models like GROW towards a more intuitive, emergent style, to his commitment to self-care, supervision and reflective practice. For Paul, the goal is genuine connection: finding out "what lights up their soul." You will learn: ·       Understanding the early narratives that shape us can reveal the influences behind present behaviour and empower clients to change limiting narratives and create real transformation. ·       The importance of creating a safe container for creativity and deeper, exploratory work. ·       The power of asking 'Who am I?' and 'How do I want to coach?' 'I think if you can encourage people to step into that childlike space of wonder and possibility, you can start to get wonderful results.' Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel_day-in-the-life-of-coaches-childhood-storywork-creativity

2. 

   5 Oct 2026

   315: What AI Is Asking of Coaching with Rebecca Rutschmann

   In this final episode of our series: AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching, we step back from individual perspectives and ask what all these conversations might be telling us about coaching itself. Rebecca Rutschmann, co-founder of Viva la Coaching, researcher, educator and long-standing explorer of the space between coaching and technology, joins host, Smaranda Dochia, to consider whether AI is forcing the profession to become clearer about what coaching is really here to do. Together they explore what should remain distinctly human, why people choose to work with another human being in coaching, and what we want technology to support rather than replace. Rather than framing AI as something to embrace or resist, the conversation is about engaging with curiosity, maturity and agency, and making deliberate choices about how we use it. It's a conversation about finding our core, and about what AI may be asking the coaching profession to become next. You will learn: ·       New capabilities are pushing us to revisit what coaching is for, who it can reach and why people value working with another human. ·       It's not a choice between embracing or resisting AI but staying informed, curious and deliberate about how you use it ·       Build strong roots in who you are and what you value, with enough curiosity to explore what is becoming possible. "You need your North Star; you need your core. As long as you have roots, you can also fly. That's something my parents taught me very early. You need roots to hold you tight, and you need wings to fly." Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-what-AI-asks-of-coaching

3. 

   29 Sept 2026

   314: AI Coaching: What Does the Evidence Actually Tell Us? With Professor Nicky Terblanche

   AI coaching is moving fast, but the evidence hasn't quite caught up with the excitement. In episode 9 of our AI, Ethics and Trust in Coaching series, host Smaranda Dochia sits down with Professor Nicky Terblanche, Professor in Leadership Coaching at Stellenbosch University Business School in Cape Town, South Africa, where he leads the master's and PhD programmes in leadership coaching. Nicky began his career in electronic and software engineering before moving into coaching and applied psychology and has been researching AI coaching since well before generative AI arrived on the scene. The conversation centres on a key distinction: 'AI in coaching' versus 'AI coaching' itself, and why the field still needs clearer definitions and professional boundaries. Nicky brings the research into focus, sharing findings that AI coaching can be effective for goal attainment, but has yet to show the same results when it comes to areas like stress, wellbeing, and resilience: the deeper developmental terrain where skilled human coaches still lead. They also explore whether AI should even aspire to imitate a human coach, why coaching methodology matters when evaluating a platform, cultural bias in AI coaching tools, and how AI might ultimately raise the bar for human coaching rather than simply replace it. Throughout, one message keeps returning: keep an open mind, but remain critical and ask for evidence. Nicky's research suggests a more nuanced picture than either the hype or the anxiety around AI coaching would have us believe - AI coaching can already support outcomes like goal attainment and offers real value through its scale, cost, and accessibility, reaching people who might otherwise have no access to coaching at all. But when it comes to deeper transformation, human coaching still holds its ground. Nicky's closing challenge lingers too: perhaps we're worrying too much about AI replacing coaches, and not enough about what it means to outsource our thinking to technology over time. You will learn: ·       'AI in coaching' and 'AI coaching' aren't the same thing. The field still lacks clear definitions and professional boundaries, and getting this distinction right matters for standards and accreditation. ·       AI coaching if far off from replacing human coaches but it does have value in it's scalability and reach. ·       The real risk may not be replacement - it's outsourcing thinking:  what happens to our critical thinking and capability when we lean too heavily on technology to do it for us. "AI coaching is not competing with human coaching, but it can be incredibly scalable and helpful to millions of people who would never otherwise have any coaches." Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave us a review! Your feedback helps us bring you more valuable content. For the episode resources and guest bio, please visit: https://www.associationforcoaching.com/page/dl-hub_podcast-channel-AI-ethics-trust-in-coaching-AI-coaching-research-service

Who has been a guest on The AC Podcast

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Clare Norman
• Anna Springett
• Linda Beatty
• Tony Worgan
• Katy McGregor

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 66 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

97

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about The AC Podcast