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This study is relevant as organisations navigate increasingly intricate transformations where sustainability is critical. It explores the sustainability of changes through executive coaching with managing partners during these renewal periods, often imbued with potential challenges and corporate divergences. Addresses a substantial gap in the literature and provides insights to drive enduring, significant changes. It employs a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews with ten service sector managing partners (former coachees). It examines four thematic dimensions: interrelationship, process, business strategies, and coaching experience, offering a holistic view of your impact. Conduct rigorous reflective analyses before and after each step, facilitated by NVivo software, with external validation. Additionally, the study interprets its findings within transformative learning, as discussed in key works on the subject. In an ever-evolving business landscape of challenges, executive coaching emerges as an indicator, showcasing its capacity to promote renewals within organisations. This comprehensive study contributes to theoretical knowledge and actionable insights for practitioners and business leaders who seek to facilitate learning and transformative changes in multifaceted and dynamic business environments. Among the key findings, the influence of concepts used in coaching approaches and contextual factors on the impact of changes and sustainability stands out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing need for positive leaders to develop and sustain healthy organisations. This need is growing stronger as the world is experiencing a global pandemic, social and political unrest worldwide, the need for diverse, equitable and inclusive work cultures, and a growing call for environmental focus. Leaders are not only expected to drive bottom-line results, but also need to lead mental and physical well-being for their employees. Evidence-based coaching (EBC) and positive psychology coaching (PPC) at the executive and leadership level can be the keys to help leaders. This study strives to help answer the question of whether EBC and PPC directed at executives and leaders can result in positive leadership outcomes. Using nine building blocks (PERMA+4: the original five factors of PERMA; positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, accomplishment, plus four additional factors of physical health, mindset, environment and economic security) this study explores using an EBC and PPC framework the authors title, 'coaching for positive, or, Coach4+'. This study provides a unique perspective to consider and aims to contribute to the growing base of work in positive psychology coaching. This paper highlights an original case study showing results of the new approach to drive positive leadership outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Female leadership development has become a key issue in organisations' strategy to ensure equal representation of male and female leaders throughout organisations, including top management. This article investigates the deployment of a combined programme of executive and group coaching to support female leader development in a multinational. Drawing on the experiences of key stakeholders: clients, coaches and the programme team using a case study approach, it offers a rich depiction of this novel use of dual forms of coaching. The findings and discussion identify the personal value of individual executive coaching, the collective value of group coaching and the synergies achieved from the interplay of the simultaneous use of both forms of coaching within the organisation, and beyond. These findings have theoretical and practical implications for our understanding of coaching as a social process, the effect of combining coaching approaches, and female leader development, emphasising the need for further research on coaching as a social process as part of leadership development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working women who fulfil multiple roles face demands which test their resilience. The purpose of this research paper is to report on how postgraduate studies in executive coaching at a South African Business School, had a spill-over effect that assisted women with their resilience in their triple roles of business leaders, mothers at home and postgraduate students at university. Eight women in these triple roles were chosen from a class of postgraduate students studying towards a master's degree in executive coaching. This qualitative study employed Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis to analyse their lived experiences using a combination of individual semi-structured interviews and excerpts from their reflective journals. Studying coaching gave participants valuable external resources (techniques, tools and new competency skills), which in turn built their internal resources (self-esteem, confidence and new perspectives) that led to increased resilience. In addition, the positive spillover effects from their postgraduate coaching studies strengthened their resilience in their other roles, while negative spillover effects had the opposite effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaching as a practice borrows from many related fields. The problem is that most of the coaching models in use have not been tested or validated for the coaching context. If coaching is to be taken seriously, it needs to derive its own models that are methodologically rigorous, theoretically grounded and empirically informed. The Coaching Model Derivation Process (CMDP) offers a possible solution. The CMDP is a five-step conceptual process that combines grounded theory principles and canonical action research to systematically create rigorous, empirically-based and domain-specific coaching models. By following the CMDP, coaching researchers can derive coaching models that are fit for purpose given a specific coaching problem domain. These models can, in turn, be used by coaching practitioners in situations where a focussed coaching approach is needed to address a known problem situation. It is hoped that through using empirically derived coaching models, coaching efficacy could be improved and moreover, the perception challenged that coaching practice is not evidence-based. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The history and sociology of faculty career transitions to academic deanships is an intriguing phenomenon, given that the skill sets of accomplished scholars vary immensely from the duties and responsibilities of academic deans. On top of that, today's academic deans continue to face particularly challenging leadership dilemmas. This exploratory, qualitative study sought to learn if executive coaching is an effective strategy to swiftly and ably prepare deans for the unique requirements of the position, as well as to equip them with and/or improve transformational leadership skills. Results were favourable towards coaching and showed associations in transformational leadership to be strongest in the component of intellectual stimulation. Deans also described improvements in empathetic behaviour, self-awareness and self-care – outcomes that suggest deans received value on a personal level and not just professionally. As perceived by the deans, coaches achieved these outcomes by the superior quality of their listening skills, their ability to offer useful perspectives, and by building trust. The information provided in this study might challenge institutions of higher education to consider executive coaching as a way to eliminate blind spots and address personal and organisational challenges that academic deans and other senior-level administrators encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisational coaching has significantly grown in popularity, but in spite of this growth, the use of an evidence-based approach in the practice is limited. To address this limitation, this paper brings together strategies and techniques drawn from three evidence-based interventions - cognitive behavioural coaching, motivational interviewing (MI) and mindfulness - to form an integrative model for coaching in organisations. This model, unlike the others found in the literature, recognises the importance of considering and addressing three factors that can influence the outcome of coaching: (1) the effect that cognition has on enhancing goal attainment, (2) the match between the client's readiness level and stage of change and (3) the emotional stress and/or mental distractions that a client may be experiencing in the workplace. By taking all of these factors into account, what the integrative model offers to organisational coaches is a toolkit and structure that could optimise their ability to help employees improve their performance, change their problematic behaviours and enhance their well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this qualitative interview study was to explore the change-coaching process as perceived by middle management executives and coaches using an inductive approach. We interviewed both executives and coaches about their experience of organisational change, and the role of coaching as a developmental tool for executives when managing change initiatives. Thematic analysis revealed distinct perceptions of coaching across the stages of the coaching process, including pre-coaching (phase 1), during coaching (phase 2) and post-coaching (phase 3). Pertaining to the pre-coaching phase, executives spoke of their demands during change and the benefits of coaching for meeting their goals, which motivated the choice to engage in coaching. During coaching, executives’ expectations for coaching focused on their reactions to change and their need to engage in leadership behaviour. Referring to the post-coaching phase executives anticipated outcomes of the change-coaching process included both organisational (implementing change) and social (managing others through change) outcomes. Coaches spoke of their role in facilitating the executive to develop behaviours and coping skills to manage the change process (self-management). From the findings, we developed a conceptual model of change-coaching (C-C) across the three phases, which will serve as a guide for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceived impact of executive coaching upon students in an enabling education programme at CQUniversity, Queensland. While there are shared philosophical underpinnings for enabling education and executive coaching, there are also clear distinctions between the two, which have ramifications for the type of support offered to improve student performance and retention rates. This is a mixed methods case study involving six enabling students who each underwent five individual coaching sessions in one term of their programme of university study. Semi-structured interviews, surveys and triangulation with nominated critical friends were the methods used to collect perceptions of the impact of coaching. The implications of this study are that coaching does provide a positive and effective form of support for enabling education students that is distinct from the support already provided by lecturers and counsellors to improve student performance and retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Company restructure and retrenchment is a sensitive issue for all affected as well as involved, to adopt various strategies to deal with this situation. The use of a coaching intervention as a support strategy in this situation has not been given much attention in practice. In this paper the practitioner-researcher presents the details of a qualitative study using interpretative phenomenological analysis of participant experiences of a coaching intervention conducted during company restructure and retrenchment, for six managers and the HR business partner coached during five sessions spread over three months. Qualitative research interviews using semi-structured questions were conducted two to three weeks after the end of the coaching. The major themes identified from the participants’ experiences are (1) learning and recognising usefulness of coaching as a management tool; (2) understanding and seeing value in correct timing of the coaching intervention and (3) realising helpful and supportive role of coaching to face adversity and move forward. This study contributes to our knowledge of the experiences of the employees coached and the executives during company restructure and retrenchment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show the advantages and disadvantages of internal and external executive coaching. To this end, it offers a thorough review of the literature and an exploratory study based on the Delphi method with 40 selected experts, who gave answers based on their own experience. The results indicate that the decision on whether to opt for internal coaching (IC), external coaching (EC) or both depends on the objectives to be achieved, the capacity of the organisation and an awareness of the characteristics of the two types. IC is viable when there is a high level of trust in the confidentiality of the process; there are a large number of processes to be carried out; the hierarchical status of the executives is not greater than that of the coaches and the culture of the organisation views coaching as an executive responsibility. EC is the best option for small organisations, for one-off interventions, for top executives and for organisations whose culture does not promote this practice among its own executives. The findings could assist companies in deciding which type of coaching is best suited to their needs, coaches and coachees in achieving greater improvement and better outcomes and offer a clearer view of this segment. The study also sets out the reasoning offered by the experts and provides recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Supervision is an important component of coaching that can help practitioners work to the highest professional standards. The aim of this paper is to introduce a new conceptual tool for business coaching supervisors. SAFE TO PRACTISE is a framework that describes the functions of coaching supervision. Designed to provide a structure to assist supervisors in their own self-reflection, SAFE concerns theSystemsin which the coaching is taking place, theAgendaof the coaching, theFrequencyand duration of coaching, and to whichEthicalguidelines the coach is working; TO concerns theTheoretical Orientationunderpinning the coach’s work; and PRACTISE concernsProfessionalism,Reflectivity,Actions, Challenge,Transparency,Insight,Support, andEmpathic engagement.Using illustrative questions supervisors can ensure they are fully attentive to each of these components. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A systematic search of the coaching literature for original peer-reviewed studies into business coaching supervision yielded seven research reports. Evaluation of these studies showed them to be low in the reporting of methodological rigour. However, as an emerging area of research with great importance for the development of the profession of business coaching these studies provide valuable insights into the functions of supervision and its benefits. Gaps in knowledge and directions for future research are identified. There is a need for future research to be more rigorous in its reporting of methods and analytic procedures, small-scale qualitative research that can provide insight into the issues and challenges of coaching supervision in specific contexts, and large-scale quantitative research which can provide broader and generalisable understandings into the uses and benefits of supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue including effects of coaching on relationships, benefits of self-awareness for coach and coachee educators, and effect of coachee readiness on leadership coaching outcomes.

Coaching is defined as a one-to-one relationship in which the coach and coachee work together to identify and achieve organisationally, professionally, and personally beneficial developmental goals. However, it is often unclear what the relative effects of coaching are on specific coaching outcomes. We adopt meta-analytic techniques to investigate the predictive power of coaching on coach–coachee relationship outcomes, and coachee goal-attainment outcomes. Our findings suggest that coaching has stronger effects on eliciting relationship outcomes with the coachee than goal-attainment outcomes. Moreover, of the goal-attainment outcomes, coaching has the strongest effect on behavioural changes as opposed to attitudinal changes. Sample type, study design, background of the coach, and number of coaching sessions all emerged as significant moderators. Implications of these findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigates the impact of coachee readiness for change and core personality traits as both criteria and predictors of outcomes after strength-based leadership coaching. Specifically this study examined developmental readiness, change readiness and core self-evaluations (CSEs; locus of control, neuroticism, self-efficacy and self-esteem), in the coachee to measure both their capacity to predict changes in transformational leadership and to act as outcome criteria in themselves after coaching. Thirty executives and senior managers from a large not-for-profit organisation were assigned to either a coaching or waitlist cohort using a between-subjects non-equivalent control group design. The coaching cohort received six sessions of leadership coaching involving feedback on leadership and strengths, goal setting and strengths development. After six sessions of coaching over three months, cohorts then switched roles. The results showed that participants in the waitlist first group declined in both developmental and coaching readiness whilst waiting for coaching. For the coaching first group their CSEs increased significantly over time but this was not the case for the waitlist first group. Only change readiness at Time 1 and CSEs at Time 2 were significant predictors of enhanced leadership effectiveness after coaching. The results suggest that these coachee variables are potential outcome criteria and predictors of change after leadership coaching. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This case study charts the progress of a two-year programme to build a coaching culture at a small Australian multinational organisation. The intervention consisted of executive coaching and coaching skills workshops aimed principally at potential successors to the senior leadership team. Over the course of the programme the organisation went through many changes, including an organisational restructure and a change in CEO. The outcome of the intervention is discussed with reference to previously published models for implementing a coaching culture and to work on complex adaptive systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This case study summarises how an ongoing coaching programme was implemented in a UK mining organisation to help develop leadership performance and enhance leadership behaviours developing a more supportive and people focused approach. We outline how the use of Emotional Intelligence (EI) assessments complements a Cognitive Behavioural Coaching (CBC) approach to contribute to evidence-based coaching. We acknowledge the unusual organisational context and culture which resulted in some resistance to the discussed approach, but note how the use of ‘data’ in the form of individual psychological profiles and a rigorous goal-based coaching approach went some way to alleviating initial reluctance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As our readers will know, Doug MacKie has joined our journal in the newly created role of Practice Editor for our Partner the Association for Coaching. We are excited about this addition to our editorial team. Doug has already been adding value behind the scenes by getting actively involved in our editorial processes and his commitment to put evidence into practice. We are taking this welcome opportunity to share a recent interview with Doug, where he reflects on his new role, his practice experience and also his vision for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although coaching is widely being used as a means for leadership development, very little is known regarding CEOs' perceived value of coaching and those factors that influence these perceptions. Using 583 complete surveys from a national US survey of hospitals, this article examines the relationship of organisational and individual characteristics to the value CEOs have of coaching. National survey data of hospital CEOs in the USA were used in this research. Analyses included means, correlations, a Duncan–Waller test comparing multiple means and regression analyses. Overall, this research shows that CEOs value coaching more for staff improvement than for succession planning. Organisational factors that appear to increase the value of coaching include size of hospital and system affiliation. CEOs working for for-profit companies perceive less value in coaching. Males and CEOs with more direct reports have significantly lower values for coaching. Leaders should be more aware of the value of coaching and look for means to increase the use of this valuable tool to improve leadership skills. This research adds to the growing literature on how to understand and encourage more effective coaching in organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within the principles of constructivist grounded theory this study investigates the developmental factors involved in executive coaching for women in senior roles. The paper presents an analysis of the unique experiences of eleven senior women in their executive coaching engagements in Australia. The findings support recent discourse suggesting the need for a gender perspective in coaching senior women – an area currently underexplored in the research literature. The formation of a professional identity as a female leader was a core theme that emerged from the data. Analysis of semi-structured interviews led to the identification of several enabling factors that contributed to their leader identity formation and helped to mitigate the impact of male norms of leadership evident at senior levels. These included the coach as role model, managing motivation at senior levels and leading with authenticity. These enablers were salient in the analysis and reinforced the gender dynamics implicit in the participant's organisational contexts. The emergence of professional identity formation and the relevance of gender-related aspects of this formation process suggest that executive coaches need to explicitly recognise leader identity formation, and the potential implications of gender, in order to optimise executive coaching for senior women. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research and anecdotal evidence suggest that the majority of organisations make no attempt to evaluate their investment in executive coaching services. Although a body of work espousing the value of financial return on investment (ROI) methodologies exists, few organisations appear to have faith in the value of these frameworks in persuading senior management as to the efficacy of coaching. This paper reports the findings of a survey conducted with purchasers of executive coaching services (purchasing clients) using a semi-structured interview. The survey was designed to explore how purchasing clients currently evaluate their investment in coaching. Using a grounded theory approach, a new model for evaluating investment in coaching services is presented. The new model places a primary emphasis on establishing the purpose of coaching, and on establishing an ongoing, formative approach to evaluation. The potential value of the new model to both organisations and executive coaches is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The role of the coach–coachee relationship in influencing coaching outcomes has emerged as an area of interest in research into the mechanics of effective coaching. Although extensively researched in the psychotherapeutic domain, exploration of the working alliance represents a new phase in executive and life coaching research. This paper presents an exploratory empirical study that explores four aspects of the coach–coachee relationship to investigate which is more related to specific measures of coaching success: (1) autonomy support; (2) the extent to which a coachee feels satisfied with the actual coach–coachee relationship; (3) the extent to which the coaching relationship was similar to an ‘ideal’ coach–coachee relationship; and (4) a goal-focused coach–coachee relationship. This is the first study to use multiple measures of the coach–coachee relationship in order to directly compare the relative efficacy of different aspects of the coach–coachee relationship. In a within-subject study, 49 coach–coachee dyads conducted four coaching sessions over a 10- to 12-week period. Results indicate that satisfaction with a coach–coachee relationship does not predict successful coaching outcomes, and whilst autonomy support and proximity to an ‘ideal’ relationship moderately predicted coaching success, a goal-focused coach–coachee relationship was a unique and significantly more powerful predictor of coaching success. The findings emphasise the importance of goals in the coaching process and highlight important differences between psychotherapeutic and coaching working alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Coaching has established itself as a key component of employee learning and development. Yet, despite the prevalence and impact of coaching in organisations, there has been a lack of theory regarding the processes through which coaching behaviours influence outcomes for coachees (i.e. motivation, performance and well-being). As such, in the current review, we integrate theory from the emerging humanistic coaching literature with self-determination theory to explicate a process model of how different types of coaching practices (autonomy-, competency- and relatedness-supportive behaviours) that are integral to humanistic coaching influence employee outcomes through the attainment of psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness). The proposed model has practical implications to enhance the success of coaching relationships, in addition to creating a stronger theoretical foundation upon which humanistic coaching research and practice can draw. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study 33 executive coaches from Australia/New Zealand, and 29 purchasing clients, were interviewed about the functions of coaching supervision. Though coaches cited supervision as the intervention they would be most likely to deploy if they felt the need for emotional support, few coaches said they often felt the need for such support. The predominant function of coaching supervision for coaches was developmental. For purchasing clients, on the other hand, the primary purpose of supervision was quality control, though only 21% of purchasing clients insist on supervision as part of a quality assurance process. In this context, the notion that coaching supervision should be mandatory, regular and undertaken individually with a qualified coach supervisor is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents some practical insights, strategies and tips about how to help organisations embed leadership coaching skills in the workplace following participation by executives and managers in ‘Leader as Coach’ development programs. Given that organisations globally are increasingly using such programs as part of leadership development initiatives, it is important that we develop effective methodologies for teaching and embedding coaching skills in organisations. We argue that an evidence-based approach to program design and solid alignment with the organisation's goals, values and language are essential foundations for the process of embedding coaching skills. In addition to internally branding the program, using respected figures internal to the organisation as role models and champions and encouraging participants to personalise the coaching methods and models, we have found that regularly sending reminder tips on how to use coaching skills in emails or other web-based communications to be effective in prompting leaders and managers to use coaching skills on a daily basis. This article presents seven such tips and other ideas about embedding and sustaining leaders' coaching skills in contemporary organisational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Measuring the benefits obtained from the use of executive and organisational coaching is of interest both to coaching service providers and to the organisations who engage their services. Survey instruments, designed to measure coaching effectiveness, have emerged as a means of easy access to information on the success of the coaching provided to individual recipients (termed in this paper ‘coaching counterparts’). However, the appropriateness and reliability of the instruments used are critical to good-quality coaching evaluation. This paper argues that reliability tests should be undertaken, and assessments made, in terms of the general efficacy of any instrument that is used. It reports on a study that investigated the reliability of a custom-designed survey instrument, the Coaching Effectiveness Survey (CES) which was developed by the Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership, a commercial coaching service provider and coach training organisation in Australia. Although the CES has been in use since 2005, this study was completed when a population size of 291 coaching counterparts was reached in 2011. Results revealed that the CES is a reliable survey instrument and that coaching counterparts were most satisfied with the coaching experience for developing benefits in key intrapersonal and interpersonal areas, and, importantly, self-efficacy. Finally, this paper reminds us that although no survey instrument is sufficient for measuring the human experience of coaching (the ‘immeasurables’), surveys can be a useful and convenient starting point for investigating coaching effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several factors termed the active ingredients have been shown to play a major role in the success of psychotherapy. These ingredients have been theoretically extended to executive coaching, but the impact of these ingredients on coaching success has not yet been tested. This study examined the effects of three active ingredients on competency change in 30 coaching engagements. The results suggest that executive involvement, perceptions of developability and individual development plans are related to coaching success. Specifically, executives rated higher on these components indicated a greater degree of competency change. This study provides support for the use of the active ingredients framework within executive coaching engagements, suggests areas for future research and offers recommendations for practicing coaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaching of employees, executives and organisations is becoming increasingly widespread. Improvisation may be essential to dynamic, interactional relationships such as those found in coaching. This paper introduces improvisation to the coaching literature, measures its importance to coaches and highlights improvisation usage within 12 coaching activities. Data from 113 coaches across two studies indicate that most coaches believe improvisation is essential and use it to a great extent. The combined results indicate improvisation is commonly utilised by a majority of coaches in a variety of coaching activities. Consequently, this paper offers a first step towards understanding how and why coaches use improvisation in organisational coaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports and discusses the findings of the UK coaching survey run in 2010/2011 and compares these findings with similar surveys within the UK and in the USA. The paper explores the nature of coaching in the UK today. It confirms that the prevailing focus of UK coaching activity is business and management related. It also establishes that a majority of UK coaches who responded to this survey are accredited with a coaching-related professional body, and the majority of coaches identify themselves as independent consultants, with a business and management orientation. This trend appears to reflect business demand for recognised qualification among a growing number of external coaches in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the present study was to implement an experiment with a control group designed to explore the effects from external executive coaching on goal setting, self-efficacy and causal attribution. The study is comprised of 20 executives at a branch of a Norwegian Fortune 500 company who all voluntarily participated in an experiment over a period of 1 year. Analyses by means of analysis of covariance show that the goal setting strategy dimension, leadership self-efficacy and successful causal attributions to strategy increased in the experiment group compared to the control group. These findings are discussed based on the possible impact these variables have on performance, and how external executive coaching might be beneficial for companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explaining the purpose of a research study and providing a compelling rationale is an important part of any coaching research project, enabling the work to be set in the context of both existing evidence (and theory) and its practical applications. This necessitates formulating a clear research question and deriving specific research objectives, thereby justifying and contextualising the study. In this research note we consider the characteristics of good research questions and research objectives and the role of theory in developing these. We conclude with a summary and a checklist to help ensure the rationale for a coaching research study is convincing. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What do coaches need to know? This paper draws on the literature in expertise development, adult learning and evidence-based practice to offer a fresh perspective on the development of mastery in coaching. In doing so, it goes beyond traditional notions of competencies in suggesting that Mastery = Artistry + Knowledge + Evidence (MAKE). It offers new ways of thinking about knowledge and evidence in coaching, the Mastery Window as a model for assessing and developing coaches, and some practical steps for coaches wishing to move closer to mastery. This approach places a greater emphasis on the vertical maturation of holistic (inter)personal expertise (the art of coaching) to complement the traditional focus on the horizontal progression of atomised technical expertise (the science of coaching). The conclusion offers insights on five challenges faced by coaching, five trends affecting coaches and implications for the way forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of narrative-collaborative group coaching on career development, self-reflection and the general functioning of young sports talents with the goal of achieving integration of their sports careers, educational demands and private lives. The intervention was based on a narrative-collaborative approach, with the intention of inviting the participants to share with and learn from each other. The randomised control design was based on 77 participants (questionnaire measuring recovery/stress, motivation and action control). A qualitative interview study included six participants. The group-coaching intervention had a significant effect on the scores for social recovery and general well-being. The qualitative study showed that group-coaching participants valued the shared process of meaning-making as especially valuable. Narrative-collaborative group coaching can be understood as a community psychological intervention that helps to support the development of durable social networks and the increase of social capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the impact of Motivational Interviewing (MI) using Co-Active Life Coaching skills as a treatment for adults (age, 35-55 years) struggling with obesity. Eight women (BMI≥30) who reside in London, Ontario, received 18 coaching sessions over six months with a Certified Professional Co-Active (CPCC) coach. Participants engaged in semi-structured pre- and post-interviews, along with a focus group six months after the last coaching session. The study's CPCC was also interviewed post-intervention to gain an understanding of what it was like coaching this population. All interviews were analysed using inductive content analysis. Following the intervention participants credited increased self-confidence; learning to cope with life in a healthy manner; putting self first; increased emotional healing; the importance of social networks in weight loss; and learning to step outside their comfort zone to the coaching intervention. During the focus group, the following themes emerged: weight was a symptom; increased self-care; life coaching and weight loss as a journey; support required as a motivator; and importance of the coach/client relationship. The study's CPCC provided insight into the styles and skills most often used from the Co-Active method as well as suggestions for future coaches working with this population. MI using CALC is an effective intervention in supporting individuals in dealing with life factors that may impede weight loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to summarise the current state of coaching research as a basis for future studies. It seeks to provide a frame of reference for researchers and reflective practitioners interested in research to ensure that future studies build on previous work and add to our knowledge and understanding of coaching as a unique domain of practice. The paper is divided into three sections. The first two sections review the state of coaching research over the past 100 years, with a greater focus on the past decade when the number of studies published has accelerated. The paper divides the recent research into categories: the nature of coaching, coach behaviour studies, client behaviour studies, relationship studies and executive coaching impact studies and discusses research methods including Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Grounded Theory and Discourse Analysis, randomised controlled trials, meta-analysis and mixed methods research. The third section considers the future direction research may take. It identifies key themes and sample research questions which the authors believe could be the focus of future research. The paper concludes by noting that coaching research is likely to continue to grow over the coming decade, and this growth offers an opportunity for the research-practitioner partnership to be strengthened and maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'profession' derives from the Latin word 'profiteor' meaning to profess. Professionalisation is the process whereby a gainful activity moves from the status of 'occupation' to the status of 'profession'. Claims for professional status and the emergence of standards and awards are typical of the journey that occupations make (or attempt to make) towards professionalisation. However, some occupations fall short of the mark or, at best, become semi-professions with shorter training, less specialised knowledge; and more societal (state) control. If coaching is to become a profession it must adopt criteria such as the development of an agreed and unified body of knowledge, professional standards and qualifications, and codes of ethics and behaviour. While some of these are already completed or in development, the continuation of a growing multiplicity of coaching associations suggests that the pathway of coaching to professionalisation may be at best bumpy, and at worst derailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a time of recession, coaches meet two opposing consequences, the first is that cutting corporate coaching is a quick way to save money and the second is that more people feel less secure and may need coaching help. The first is serious for independent coaches with few clients, the loss of a couple may be a big setback, and it also makes getting started much tougher for those just embarking on a coaching career. In principle the demand for coaches is increasing all the time as coaching gets more and more recognition and acceptance as a useful resource for businesses, but at the same time clients are becoming ever more discriminating and they expect higher coaching qualifications. While many coaches obtain clients by word of mouth anyway, clearly those coaches with better credentials will still be in demand and will suffer less in a recession. These are the simple and more obvious answers to a potentially huge question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaches generally assume that their clients will be happy after they've achieved their goals, which is not an unreasonable assumption, and which is a belief shared by the majority of clients. It may not, however, be helpful as it will be argued in this paper that such an approach may well contribute to a phenomenon labelled as the 'tyranny of when' and also to a range of problems including negative, self-defeating emotions such as frustration. As an alternative, the author proposes that rather than waiting until success is achieved, happiness and positivity should come first and foremost. By promoting the 'primacy of positivity' coaches can help their clients' achieve their goalsby capitalising on the significant findings of Fredrickson, Lyubomirsky and others and by leveraging off the energy and motivation created. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal-orientation research exists in a variety of academic, athletic, and organisational settings. Previous research within organisations focused on the impact of goal orientation on diverse constructs such as goal setting, sales performance, and training. This paper describes a study that addressed a gap in the research by examining the relationship between goal orientation and leaders' professional development during coaching engagements. It was hypothesised that the degree and type of goal orientation would influence the level of leaders' professional development. The study's participants were 110 leaders from a US-based corporation who represented diverse professional specialties including human resources, information technology, operations, finance, sales, legal, and client services. Results revealed that learning goal orientation was associated with the level of professional development. Conversely, performance goal orientation was not associated with the level of professional development. Most of the leaders were identified as predominantly learning goal-oriented; none were identified as predominantly performance goal-oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has its origins in several complementary sources: the personal coaching experiences of both myself and my co-authors in 14 books on coaching and mentoring; the experiences of coaches, who I have supervised; and observation of coaches in real plays within coach assessment centres (robust, validated processes for evaluating the competence and 'fit' of executive coaches for large-scale users of external coaches). The assessment centre approach is primarily a European and South African phenomenon currently, but multinational companies that have experienced it have voiced intentions to bring it to all territories, where they have a significant spend on executive coaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines coaches' views on the role of unconscious dynamics in executive coaching. It considers whether they believe unconscious dynamics to be relevant in coaching; it addresses the role of coach training and supervision in understanding them; and it explores how coaches distinguish between coaching and psychotherapeutic interventions. The research was based on two strategies with coaches in the UK: an online survey (n = 376); and 15 in-depth qualitative interviews and suggests that the unconscious is widely accepted as central in coaching. Most coaches perceived unconscious processes to be relevant to (89%) and occur in (68%) the majority of coaching conversations; a very small number of coaches saw dangers in raising awareness of them; and just under half (47%) considered that their coaching training had adequately prepared them to deal with unconscious processes. Coaches who had practised for less than one year were least likely to have supervision or to feel adequately prepared to deal with these dynamics. Many coaches felt the boundaries between counselling, therapy and coaching were 'fuzzy' and highlighted the need for psychological awareness. This article puts forward two models to position coaching within diverse knowledge bases; and sets out recommendations related to training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable organisational development research and practice suggesting that interventions in organisations should also be targeted at the group level, most organisational coaching is dyadic (one-to-one) and few models of group coaching have been developed. In Part I of this paper we present an introductory overview of group coaching and compare it to other group-based interventions. We distinguish between the goal-focused nature of group coaching and the process-orientation of group facilitation, and posit that group coaching has important but under-used potential as a means of creating goal-focused change in organisational contexts. In Part II of this paper we address practice issues and we present a practical model of GROUP (Goal, Reality, Options, Understanding others, Perform) coaching that integrates the well-known GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Way forward) coaching framework with Scharma's U process for group dialogue, double loop learning and other theoretically-grounded practices. From a practitioner's perspective, we draw on the extant literature, we compare group coaching to other team and group-based interventions. Although precisely distinguishing between different group-based change modalities is difficult, we argue that group coaching is a more goal directed process than group facilitation, and that group coaching has important but under-used potential as a means of creating change in organizational contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The popularity of executive coaching has increased dramatically in both the practitioner world and academia during the past decade. However, evaluating the effectiveness of coaching has lagged behind. Executive coaching is a multidisciplinary practice, and professionals from many different scholarly backgrounds provide coaching services. The paucity of empirical research may be attributed to the lack of a consensus among these divergent professionals regarding whether and how to evaluate the effectiveness of coaching. In this article, we conducted a meta-analysis of the empirical research as well as reviewed the retrospective studies evaluating coaching effectiveness. Subsequently, we discussed six areas that impact the way researchers evaluate coaching effectiveness and the conclusions they may draw from their studies. Although the Return On Investment (ROI) index provides a straightforward, overall measure of effectiveness, its veracity and usefulness is questioned. It is hoped that the clarification of these areas will help guide the future of coaching evaluation research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most coaches would say that coaching is a facilitative process - the coach listens, asks questions, and contributes observations. But what do coaches really do? Based on careful study of actual coach-client conversations, it becomes clear that coaches actually have a wide variety of hats that they can choose to wear in the course of a coach-client conversation. Which hat the coach puts on at any point of the conversation is mostly made instinctively, rather than by conscious choice, because up until now there has not been a good vocabulary to name each hat. To name the hats, and show how each is used in conversation, this study uses the concept of conversational identity. The premise is that each sentence or phrase that a coach uses in conversation with a client can be associated with putting on a particular hat, or adopting a temporary 'conversational' identity. Qualitative analysis of coaching conversations led to the development of a framework consisting of sixteen categorized conversational identities. The Typology of Conversational Identities for Professional Coaches described in this article can be a tool for coaches to be more self-reflective about what they say, how that relates to what hat they are choosing to wear, and ultimately to be able to make observations of their own style and what works best with clients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article looks at two psychometric tools that may be used by coaches to enhance our understanding of the client and to help the client gain a new perspective on their situation. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI®) and the Leadership Development Framework (LDF) can both give the coach insight into a client's world. Either tool may be useful on its own but when used in combination, a more detailed and subtle picture emerges, which can help the coach intervene more effectively. Interactions between the models and implications for coaching are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition is growing of the advantages of building a cultural perspective into executive coaching, particularly where executives and managers are working in a globalised business environment. There is somewhat less recognition of the contribution that coaching from a cultural perspective can bring into any business coaching situation, whatever the role or context of the coachee. Culture may be perceived as an integral part of the individual's identity, as well as a set of characteristics held by other groups, and thus an awareness of one's own cultural orientations and preferences is a powerful aid to self-understanding and sustainable success in roles and relationships. This paper presents and discusses the use of an online assessment tool, the Cultural Orientations Framework (COF) assessment tool (www.philrosinski.com) designed for use by coaches and coachees in an individual or team context. The conceptual dimensions of the COF - as operationalised in the tool - are described, and in order to demonstrate the way in which the tool stimulates reflective learning, one of the co-authors presents a heuristic reflective account of an experience of completing the assessment tool online. The authors suggest that, for the coach, using the COF online assessment tool opens up greater awareness and clarity about one's own cultural starting points and assumptions, particularly the cultural foundations of values and beliefs. For coaches, using the assessment tool within the context of a coaching relationship can open the doors to a wider and deeper understanding of learned behaviours; the degree of congruence or incongruence experienced in different aspects of life; and the possibility of consciously choosing different orientations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australian coaching industry is undergoing an important period of maturation, with growing numbers of Australian Universities offering postgraduate degrees in coaching and mentoring. Australian commercial coach training organisations are also increasingly offering government accredited coach training (vocational) programs under the Australian Qualifications Framework. In addition there is an increasing output of Australian coaching-related research. Arguably, some of this research is genuinely cutting edge and world leading. In addition to the coaching-related research being generated by a number of different universities, the Australian Research Council (a government research funding body) has recently awarded at least three large government grants for research into coaching. Coaching in Australia has become mainstream and shows important signs of being an significant contributor to the global coaching movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coaching has been primarily used as an individual growth and development process within organizations, particularly at the leadership or high potential employee level (Hunt & Weintraub, 2002). While developing top talent is undoubtedly an important use of coaching, other organizational objectives can also benefit from using coaching. Organizational Change (OC) is one such area in which coaching can contribute to the overall effort. Organizational Change requires a number of interlocking phases of change from the individual to the team to the organization as a whole, opening up a number of opportunities for coaching to those involved in these types of initiatives. In this article, short overviews of models of individual change and organizational change are given and through the discussion of an OC effort within an organization, the use of coaching as a tool in implementing and sustaining change is illustrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the aims and significance of the publication of "Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice."