What Works for Executive Coaching?
What Works for Executive Coaching?
Patrick Kambu Mbenza | 2022
Abstract
Executive coaching has become the standard used to address organizational performance and productivity. Executive coaching has gained a significant consideration in senior leaders and executive development. Research show that companies are investing considerable amount of resource in area of coaching to withstand the constant changes in the business environment. Recent research in business indicates that coaching has dramatic effects on performance outcomes and this sort of effect is felt in all areas of coaching. Thus coaching, as has emerged over the last 20 years in the Western world, is a standard process that can help not only the performance of individuals and the productivity of organizations, but also anybody and everybody in facing the issues they have in their private and personal lives (Sale & Moynan, 2018).
A recent survey from the Conference Board of Canada revealed that 72 percent of organizations surveyed use coaching to support leadership development. However, despite its growing popularity in applied settings, this developmental intervention has to date received little attention in empirical research. Few rigorous quantitative empirical studies have been conducted, and most of them have focused on the effectiveness of coaching (Baron, Morin & Morin, 2010). For the purpose of this doctoral project, a study has been conducted through a survey to find out what works for executive coaching. All people who completed the survey hold leadership positions, whether in a business organization or a not-for-profit organization. This project represents a valuable resource for coaches and coachees. Executive and leadership coaches will be better prepared to help their clients most effectively by making value of this project. This project goes through in-depth analyses of what coachees expect from coaches; how they can better support them in achieving their goals. The leaders who completed the survey shared their coaching experience. They shared the strengths and weaknesses they have observed from their coachees and made some suggestions on how coaches could improve their coaching practices. This study has revealed that coaching is a productive relationship and partnership. Coachees observe their coachees more than they imagine. They are detail-oriented and look at all aspects of the coaching sessions: personal connection, competencies, time management, and many more. What ten years ago was seen as an emergency measure to address toxic behavior in leadership has now become a privileged service provided to the high potentials to help them further develop their capabilities and successfully ascend the organizational hierarchy. Executive coaching has also permeated the traditional management education boundaries, with an increasing number of business schools globally incorporating EC practices into their postgraduate and executive education program. A recent survey of executives and business school deans identified a clear need for business schools to do more on leadership development, including the incorporation of individual coaching into their curricula (Athanasopoulou & Dopson, 2015).
Keywords: Executive coaching, coach, coachee, leaders, survey, project, organizational performance, Leadership development, business