Executive coaching (EC) has grown significantly in the past decade as an important organizational consulting intervention. This article proposes a working definition for EC that specifies its process and methods, differentiates it from other forms of coaching, and suggests a set of perspectives, principles, and approaches needed to guide its professional practice. It also puts forth a set of core competencies for professional executive coaches. Implications are also explored for how to select a coach, how to prepare for an EC practice, and how to understand why certain EC interventions are more effective than others.Lewis R. Stern has more than 25 years experience as an executive coach, organization development consultant, and consulting psychologist. He is currently the president of Stern Consulting, a founder and chairman of the board of the Executive Coaching Forum, and on the advisory board and faculty of the

Executive coaching (EC) is an important method that can be applied as part of an organizational consulting intervention. It entails a coach working one-on-one with executives to help them learn how to manage and lead and to assist them to establish, structure, plan for, and lead the executives' organization. This article puts forth and exemplifies a working definition of EC: what it is, how it is similar and different from other forms of coaching, what principles should guide its practice, and what it takes for a coach to apply it successfully. In addition, this article explores the implications of this definition for the training, selection, practice, and continued development of professionals who apply EC in their consulting practices.

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There are five apparent assumptions underlying what McKenna and Davis (2009) put forth about executive coaching: 1. Psychologists have a superior contribution to bring to executive coaching compared with professionals from other disciplines. 2. The ''client'' is the individual being coached with the primary focus on his/her relationship with the coach, his/her individual differences, motivating and changing his/her individual behavior, and contracting for engagement with that individual. 3. The primary goal of executive coaching is to remediate individual client's problems that interfere with his/her working effectively in the organization. 4. Coaching happens in one-on-one meetings occurring about every 4-6 weeks.

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