Coaching is a tool which is more and more trendy in human resources management and especially for the professionals who are in charge of the managers professional development. Coming from the USA and popularized through sports (Aimé Jacquet for football and Yannick Noah for tennis), coaching aims at helping managers to assume for the best their strategic and managerial functions, while working for their own performance and fulfilment.

In the past, coaching was reserved to happy fews, but it is now becoming more and more democratic. Thus occupational health professionals are likely to meet this new type of consultants and to perceive them as potential partners in the spotting of professional difficulties amongst managers. For this reason it is important, for them, to clarify their ideas about the nature of coaching and what a coach really is. So they will understand how they work and the ethical aspects, which are really crucial. In fact, every mission of coaching lays on a explicit contract which combins volonteering and confidentiality.These two conditions are imperative for contracting a tripartite relationship full of confidence, between the coachee, the coach and the human resources manager or the direct supervisor.