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Executive Coaching

Executive coaching is an increasingly popular and important part of overall executive development in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. At the present time, large numbers of people say they do executive coaching, representing a wide range of kinds and levels of knowledge bases, competencies, and credentials—including psychology, engineering, philosophy, anthropology, education, economics, English, communications, and library science (and even no college degree). At this writing, there are no universally recognized and accepted standards for practice, and definitions of executive coaching vary.

In the past 10 to 15 years, however, the practice of executive coaching by psychologists has become more defined and has gained considerable momentum, and a distinct body of knowledge from practice and recent research is being developed and shared. This piece pertains to executive coaching by psychologists.

Definition

The following definition is consistent with most of the working definitions found in the existing psychological and management literature and in presentations at professional conferences: executive coaching is an individualized process of executive development in which a skilled expert (coach) helps an individual who is in a leadership or managerial role in an organization learn how to become more effective in that organization and/or in those kinds of roles. Italicized terms are key. Coaching is a helping relationship between a coach and coachee, one-on-one. It is a process, as opposed to a fixed-curriculum program such as training or group executive development programs, and is designed specifically for the coachee. Some coaches refer to the process as a “journey” of discovery, learning, and change. As the process unfolds, and as the coach and coachee learn more, the course (path) is adapted or modified to best meet the goal(s). The coachee's overarching goal is to become more effective, and the primary enabling objective is the coachee's learning.

Although coaching is a key responsibility of every manager who supervises employees, executive coaching, as discussed here, pertains to the role of a third-party (i.e., not the coachee's supervisor) professional psychologist coach.

History of Executive Coaching

Consulting by psychologists to organizational leaders has been around for a long time—at least since the 1940s—and the name executive coaching to describe it emerged in the late 1980s. This practice area has seen what many describe as explosive growth over the past decade, because of significant popularity and widespread demand.

The vast majority of the research to date has been conducted in the past 15 years and is primarily practice-based, with case studies being the most common method. Although little empirical research on outcomes has been published to date, there is evidence of increasing focus on coaching by scientific researchers, with several studies recently published and in progress.

Nature of Executive Coaching by Psychologists

The practice of executive coaching spans a number of areas of psychology, including clinical, counseling, industrial/organizational, developmental, and social psychology—all represented in consulting psychology. Because executive coaching is a one-on-one helping relationship, clinical and counseling psychology have contributed the most in terms of typology of coaching methods; the principles, art, and ethics of working with individuals; and associated research methods. Industrial/organizational and social psychology contribute significantly in organizational theory, work motivation, interpersonal dynamics, social-organizational dynamics, psychometric theory, assessment, organizational development methods (applied one-on-one), and meta-analysis of outcomes. Coaching draws from developmental psychology for principles of adult learning, stages and characteristics of adult development, and maturation.

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