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This paper aims to offer a theoretical foundation for a testable framework of executive coaching effectiveness and to share key findings from the research study in executive coaching effectiveness based on the theoretical framework.

This article draws on the results from a quasi-experimental field study of four firms whose primary professional services focused on executive coaching.

Practical implications and learning lessons for the three constituents: the coachee, the coach and the organization.

The research can assist individuals and organizations in making informed decisions about designing, implementing and measuring executive coaching programs, thus building the profession of coaching.

The purpose of this paper is to provide readers with research findings based on qualitative data that describe the benefits of executive coaching from a sample of 70 senior business executives, all of whom have a personal executive coach. In addition, the paper provides readers with specific questions concerning their organizations’ approach to executive leadership development and the application of these potential benefits to their enterprise.

The findings of this study are based on personal interviews with 30 executives and ten four-person focus groups in which both sets of participants were asked to describe personal and organizational benefits associated with their experiences in using executive coaches.

Interviews and focus group findings converged around a number of benefits associated with effective executive coaching. These benefits included improved executive focus, better alignment of key leadership behaviors, candid and ongoing feedback, accountability for appropriate leader behaviors, improved emotional intelligence and ego control and personal support and encouragement, among others.

This qualitative study provides empirical evidence of the benefits of executive coaching from the perspective of senior business leaders. These findings provide researchers with specific criteria that can be tested and measured on a larger scale. The primary limitation of the study is the small sample size of only 70 executives.

The findings of this research provide a compelling set of benefit trends that individual executives, boards of directors and organizations need to consider in the development of their senior leaders. Specific questions are included to guide practitioner’s thinking concerning executive coaching and its role in their organizations.

These findings make a compelling case that senior leaders can become more effective and can experience great benefits when they properly make use of an effective executive coach. The development of senior leaders using this tool can have a powerful impact on organizational performance and organization’s culture.

A review of the literature will reveal that anecdotal evidence abounds, but there is limited empirical research chronicling the true benefits of executive coaching.

Traditional clinical psychological practices have often been adapted for the context of executive coaching. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in particular is the most scientifically supported psychological modality. CBT like other practices has been used in coaching as cognitive behavioral coaching but rarely discussed more explicitly for the executive population. Here, we offer a specific adaptation – cognitive behavioral executive coaching (CBEC) – and suggest that it presents a flexible structure that can meet the multiple agendas that are framed for executive coaching. Additionally, the core features of CBT and CBEC in particular satisfy the major needs of executives in coaching arrangements. We conclude by demonstrating a CBEC process model for coaching the high-performing executive.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the “black box” of how coaching is enacted and how it unfolds in practice. Indeed, some of the mixed results concerning the efficacy of executive coaching appear anchored to the confusion and surrounding ambiguity of the episodic and processual nature of coaching. In this conceptual paper, the authors turn to the power of metaphor to explore how executive coaches, either consciously or subconsciously, approach and enact their role.

This paper is a conceptual or theory paper with a heavy practitioner focus. The authors did augment and enhance their assertions with semi-structured interviews of coaches, a therapist, a pastor and physical trainers. Institutional review board approval was granted.

The authors identify two core metaphors that enjoy some dominance in how executive coaches make sense of their role and duties: coach-as-pastor and coach-as-therapist. Considering some of the limitations of the existing metaphors, the authors offer an alternative metaphor, coach-as-physical trainer, that may offer a more compelling, comprehensive and accurate portrayal of the executive coach.

The metaphors that coaches embrace, inarguably, impact how they perceive and enact their role. For these reasons, the authors suggest that expanding the domain of possible metaphors serves both the study and practice of executive coaching. The authors offer a new, alternative, metaphor that may change how coaches think about and execute their role.

The authors challenge two widely accepted metaphors that are often used in how coaches approach and enact their roles. They provocatively dissect these metaphors to expose limitations and inaccuracies. Given these limitations, the authors offer a new metaphor in which to view the study and practice of coaching.

In this paper, we problematize the prevailing assumptions in the executive coaching literature that effective coaching is deliberative, trust-based and relational in nature, thereby requiring significant time investment before the focal leader might realize enacted benefits from the coaching. Contrary to these prevailing assumptions, we propose five contingencies wherein a more direct, performance-first approach to coaching may be more effective.

This conceptual paper reviews relevant literature to develop testable propositions regarding directive coaching contingencies.

We develop propositions that argue executive coaches will need to employ a more directive, urgent and accountable coaching relationship when the executive's career is in jeopardy, the organization is in distress, if the leader needs to signal legitimacy, if the coaching occurs within the boundaries of a high reliability organization or if the coach is working with an executive who has interim status.

This paper intends to advance the theory and practice of executive coaching by challenging executive coaching orthodoxy regarding the need for a deliberative, relational approach to coaching. Future research should broaden this theorizing and empirically test our propositions.

Executive coaching has become an increasingly common method to skill development. However, few rigorous empirical studies have tested its capacity to generate outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the links between executive coaching and self‐efficacy in regard to supervisory coaching behaviors.

The paper reports on a pretest‐posttest study of a leadership development program using three training methods: classroom seminars, action learning groups, and executive coaching. Data are collected in a large international manufacturing company from 73 first‐ and second‐level managers over an eight‐month period.

Results indicate that, after controlling for pre‐training self‐efficacy and other training methods, the number of coaching sessions has a positive and significant relationship with post‐training self‐efficacy. Results also show that utility judgment, affective organizational commitment, and work‐environment support have each a positive and significant relationship with post‐training self‐efficacy.

The paper first suggests that an organization that wishes to improve its return on investment with regard to coaching should implement a program with multiple sessions spread over a period of several months. This paper also suggests that organizations should consider coaching from a systemic point of view, that is, taking into account not only the design but also individual and situational variables.

This paper contributes to the scientific literature by investigating, with a solid methodological design, the capacity of executive coaching to increase self‐efficacy related to management skills.

The study provides practice-based vignettes describing career shocks as experienced by executives. It also offers a brief description of the approaches taken by the coach in helping executives to cope with their initial reactions. This work informs the readers about examples of career shocks in the executive population and provides access to normally rarely available information about sensitive aspects of psychological life of executives.

This paper is a qualitative exploration of managers' career shock experiences reflected in executive coaching interventions. It takes an anecdotal look at how executives react to shocks of various valences, and how coaching attempts to assist them by processing their first reactions and choosing a response. The paper particularly looks at managers' responses almost immediately following a shocking event triggering their request for coaching help.

Coaching conversation serves as opportunities for handling immediate emotional reactions to career disruptions. Even shocks with positive valence can cause ambivalent reactions. Processing of career shocks through coaching conversations can activate agency in dealing with abrupt career events. Coaches can offer further support in career deliberations. In one of the cases, an instance of anticipation of a negative career event was associated with positive hopes, and the non-occurrence of the event led to further elaboration about one's career options.

This work is based on a small sample of executives experiencing career shocks.

This work informs executives about opportunities provided by executive coaching in handling difficult reactions to external career events. Coaches or coaches-in-training receive an overview of coaching requests associated with career shocks.

With the increasing instability in careers the paper draws the attention to the helping potential of coaching to those experiencing career shocks. It also contributes to normalization of turning for support in psychologically burdening situations.

This work is a trigger for further consideration of the experiences of career shocks by business executives. It provides a first look into immediate reactions of this career population to unexpected external disruptions. It also offers opportunities for further exploration of the role executive coaching can play in career deliberations.

This paper aims to help coaches better understand their approach to coaching and to help those being coached to have a sense of options in selecting a coach. And, to overview the field of coaching and offer a typology of approaches.

This paper lays out the purposes of coaching, then review two models or approaches to coaching: behavior vs. results. Then goes through the steps for doing each.

This study finds that there are two ways to approach coaching, each with pros and cons and a clear methodology.

We could study these two approaches.

We could help coaches do their work better and help those selecting coaches make more informed decisions.

No one has contrasted these two approaches to coaching and laid out the methodologies for doing each approach. This should help coaching move to a more rigorous definition of models and approaches.

Executive coaching is commonly utilized in organizations to facilitate the personal and professional growth of executives. Executive coaches utilize a variety of proactive influence tactics to create behavioral change in their clients. The current study aimed to examine coaches' perceived use and effectiveness of the outcome, timing, and objective of proactive influence tactics in coaching relationships.

Members of ten organizations affiliated with executive coaching were targeted for participation. A total of 110 participants completed the online survey.

Influence tactics including coalition, consultation, inspirational appeals, and rational persuasion were more frequently associated with client commitment. Consultation was more frequently utilized during initial influence attempts; pressure was more frequently utilized during follow‐up attempts. Coaches also reported using different tactics depending on the desired outcome of the influence attempt: coalition and pressure were utilized to change behavior, whereas coaches used consultation and rational persuasion to both change behavior and assign work.

The results offer insights into executive coaching engagements, areas for potential training and development of practicing coaches, and techniques for creating more successful outcomes with coaching clients. The findings are limited by sample size, self‐report measures, and the lack of contextual or organizational information. Future research should expand these findings to provide additional information regarding the use of influence tactics in the executive coaching industry.

There is little empirical data regarding how executive coaches effectively influence behavioral change in their clients. The current study applies research on proactive influence tactics to the context of executive coaching, bridging these two previously disparate streams of research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational perceptions regarding the coaching process as an evaluation tool.

The research method used is a multiple case study based on the author’s work with coached executives in eight organizations in Israel. Texts of 79 coaching encounters with executives, their directors and human resource personnel, were analyzed. Text analysis was performed through a qualitative method.

The research findings provide evidence of the intensity of the coaching practice as a tacit evaluating tool for organizational functioning, in relation to five focusses: the selection of executives for the coaching meetings, the participants’ perception of their participation in the coaching process, the organizational control wishes, how participants deal with organizational supervision and confidentiality.

Research findings are discussed from a perspective of power relations in the organization, and their significance is presented.

The usage of the coaching tool, not only for its original purpose, but also for evaluating and controlling executives tacitly, can hurt the coaching process, and its authenticity.

The concept of “tacit evaluation” was developed for this research, and the concept of the coaching process as a tacit tool of control and supervision can help us to better understand the coaching process, and its covert and overt components.