Coaching C-suite executives and business founders.

Abstract

Founder chief executive officers and senior executives in the world's largest companies make up a distinct, elite subset of the larger world of executives. They bring a particularly confident style, strategic way of thinking, influencing ability, and sense of authority and power that present unique challenges. When they work with a psychologist executive coach, they are usually looking for a blend of psychological expertise and business understanding, often in equal measure. In this article, I discuss what these highest level executives look for in a psychologist coach, including understanding of the business world, expertise in psychology and behavior change, and a willingness to speak the truth with honesty and empathy. I also discuss what psychologist executive coaches bring to bear that makes us particularly valuable to this unique group of clients. I end with several suggestions about how the psychologist coach can add distinct value to these executives. Throughout, I use case examples to illustrate these aspects of executive coaching.

Entrepreneurial Coaching: A Two‐Dimensional Framework in Context

“…EC relative to related interventions within the two-dimensional framework though executive coaching has been suggested, similarly to EC, to contain more expert-consultation elements (e.g. Berman, 2019).…”

“…In contrast to executive coaching, it also includes a focus on the individual while sharing with executive coaching the consideration of the work-venture intersection (e.g. own role within the company, company strategy; Berman, 2019). Because of its broadened focus on the venture, EC also overlaps more than WPC with organizational development and consulting, and its entrepreneurship-specific form, namely start-up consultancy.…”

“…Top‐level executives most closely resemble entrepreneurs in their characteristics and job features. For example, these two groups share the position of being alone at (or near) the top of a company (Berman, 2019; Tetrick et al, 2000) and both carry high responsibility for a whole venture (Berman, 2019; Stephan, 2018), requiring them to make complex decisions under high levels of uncertainty (Busenitz & Barney, 1997). Nevertheless, they differ most notably in that entrepreneurs are more existentially attached to their venture since they assume multiple roles, including being the venture’s founder and owner (Jayaraman et al, 2000).…”

“…Nevertheless, they differ most notably in that entrepreneurs are more existentially attached to their venture since they assume multiple roles, including being the venture’s founder and owner (Jayaraman et al, 2000). Moreover, in contrast to entrepreneurs in early stages, top‐level executives focus on general management and rarely involve themselves in operational work (Berman, 2019).…”

“…In contrast to classical WPC, executive coaching is more concerned with the intersection between the executive’s work (i.e. leadership/management tasks and responsibilities) and the organization and its performance at large, especially the higher the executive is in the hierarchy (Berman, 2019; Stern, 2004).…”