The Five Stages of Executive Coaching: Better Process Makes Better Practice

Abstract

There remains a paucity of research investigating the efficacy of executive coaching. Ambiguity surrounds its definition, its methodology and outcomes. Despite this, the executive coaching remains a viable business proposition. Practitioners bring services to the business community offering services that transcend traditional performance management consultations establishing independent ''performance-driven'' relationships with executives. This paper examines the process of coaching suggesting that a better understanding of process will enhance practice efficacy and accelerates empirical investigations. In addition, ethical, confidential and legal issues require attention when planning to utilize an executive coach. All this implicates the need to better understand coaching -and how it typically operates. Case studies are provided in the examination of coaching consultations in Fortune 100 settings.

Skill-Based Development of Entrepreneurs and the Role of Personal and Peer Group Coaching in Enterprise Development

“…Executive coaching is employed to address a variety of specific scenarios, such as appointment to a new job or speeding adjustment for transition to another role within a company. Natale and Diamante (2005) have identified five major reasons why executive coaching is used: leadership skill development, correction of managerial style, support to newly promoted managers, correction of relational problems, and provision of management and leadership skills to technically oriented employees. Berman and Bradt (2006) propose a four-category model of executive coaching: facilitative coaching that helps new and existing leaders in organizations to accept new challenges and advance leadership skills; executive coaching emphasizing creative problem solving, decision making, and capitalizing on strengths; restorative coaching that helps a valued manager to overcome difficulties related to personal or organizational changes; and developmental coaching that builds strengths and alleviates deficits in individuals who experience substantial difficulties.…”

“Put me in, Coach”: A pilot evaluation of executive coaching in the nonprofit sector

“…Similarly, the self-report nature of the data may present an overly favorable view of the program, since the coaches and executives may be biased toward more positive interpretations. Third, there is limited detail on the nature of the coaching model used in the pilot, aside from length, intensity, and focus, which makes it difficult to place the approach in the broader continuum of approaches (Natale and Diamante, 2005). All these limitations could be effectively addressed in subsequent studies that seek to minimize their effects.…”

The Potential Contribution of the Field of Organizational Development to Crisis Management

“…OD is research-action oriented and favours a constant and iterative dialogue between practical and theoretical concerns. It is a field of practical application based on a process of accompaniment, initiated either internally or externally (Schein, 1999) and covering a vast panoply of activities (Carter et al, 2001(Carter et al, , 2005French and Bell, 1999;Rothwell and Sullivan, 2005) such as: organizational diagnosis (Harrison, 1999); feedback mechanisms for members of the organization such as survey feedback (Ryan et al, 2000), search conference (Cabana and Emery, 1995;Emery and Purser, 1996), coaching (Evered and Selman, 1989;Testa, 2005;Thach, 2002;Natale and Diamante, 2005), appreciative inquiry (Cooperrider et al, 2003;Egan and Lancaster, 2005;Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, 2003); and the design of interventions at the level of human processes, technostructure, human resource management and global strategy. This array of methods allows organizational actors to master new knowledge and ways of doing things.…”