The Executive Coaching

Handbook

Principles and Guidelines for a

Successful Coaching Partnership

Developed by
The Executive Coaching Forum

Fourth Edition
November 2008

www.executivecoachingforum.com

Copyright ã 2008 by The Executive Coaching Forum

This Handbook may be reproduced only for the benefit of people involved with executive coaching (executives, coaches, HR professionals supporting a coaching project, managers and other colleagues of an executive being coached), and only where no fee will be charged nor profit made as a result of the reproduction or distribution of the Handbook.

Required Notice for Changes to This Handbook

No changes may be made to this Handbook (additions, subtractions, revisions, edits, etc.) without the express permission of The Executive Coaching Forum. To obtain permission to make changes in copies you plan to distribute, or to suggest changes in future editions, please e-mail your revised copy to The Executive Coaching Forum c/o Judy Otto, otto.judy@gmail.com. Your input will help with the continuous improvement of the Handbook.

The following notice must be printed in place of the above copyright statement when any changes are made to the Handbook:

The original version of this Handbook was developed and copyrighted by The Executive Coaching Forum (TECF). It has been revised significantly from its original form by (name of person(s)/entity) in the following ways: (describe revisions). TECF endorses the original version of the Handbook only. The revisions are supported by, and are the responsibility of, those people/entities that have made them.

The Executive Coaching Handbook
Table of Contents

The Need for a Handbook............................................................................................. 5

Why a Handbook?........................................................................................................ 5

Recent Trends in Executive Coaching....................................................................... 6

The Current State of Research.................................................................................... 7

The Executive Coaching Forum............................................................................... 14

Handbook Organization........................................................................................... 16

Defining Executive Coaching..................................................................................... 19

What Is Executive Coaching?................................................................................... 19

What Is a Coaching Partnership?............................................................................. 21

What Is Different About Executive Coaching?.......................................................22

Overreaching Principles for Executive Coaching.....................................................27

1. Systems Perspective........................................................................................... 27

2. Results Orientation............................................................................................ 30

3. Business Focus.................................................................................................... 32

4. Partnership.......................................................................................................... 34

5. Competence......................................................................................................... 36

6. Integrity................................................................................................................ 41

7. Judgment………………………………………………………………...41

Guidelines for Practice……………………..………………………………………….............43

1. Managing Confidentiality................................................................................. 43

2. Pre-coaching Activities…………………………………………………..46

3. Contracting.......................................................................................................... 48

4. Assessment.......................................................................................................... 51

5. Goal Setting......................................................................................................... 54

6. Coaching.............................................................................................................. 56

7. Transitioning to Long-Term Development.................................................... 59

Overview of Guidelines for Each Member of the Executive Coaching Partnership 61

Executive’s Guidelines.............................................................................................. 61

Coach’s Guidelines.................................................................................................... 64

Other Partners’ Guidelines....................................................................................... 66

Core Competencies of the Executive Coach……………………………………..........68

Why a Competency Model?...................................................................................68

Defining Executive Coaching.................................................................................68

Construction of the Model.....................................................................................69

Potential Uses of the Model...................................................................................70

Psychological Knowledge.................................................................................... 72

Business Acumen....................................................................................................73

Organizational Knowledge...................................................................................74

Coaching Tasks and Skills....................................................................................76

Building and Maintaining Coaching Relationships.....................................78

Contracting.........................................................................................................79

Assessment.........................................................................................................80

Development Planning.....................................................................................81

Facilitating Development and Change...........................................................82

Ending Formal Coaching & Transitioning to long-term development.....84

Attributes and Abilities.........................................................................................85

Mature Self-confidence.....................................................................................85

Positive Energy..................................................................................................86

Assertiveness......................................................................................................87

Interpersonal Sensitivity...................................................................................88

Openness and Flexibility..................................................................................89

Goal Orientation................................................................................................90

Partnering and Influence..................................................................................91

Continuous Learning and Development.......................................................92

Integrity...............................................................................................................93

The Need for a Handbook

Why A Handbook and Now a Competency Model

Executive Coaching is becoming commonplace in leadership development and as a transition tool on an international basis. It is seen as viable lever in the retention of top talent. Twenty years ago, it was a one-off activity, now organizations that use coaching report that they’ll likely increase its use in the next five years, and numerous large and small companies say they will introduce executive coaching within two years. Coaching grows in popularity and prestige. Yet, there still is no widely agreed definition or set of professional standards. This Handbook was conceived as a step in establishing guidelines by starting a dialogue in the field about what is executive coaching, what is its purpose, how do we make sure it’s being practiced well and ethically, and how do we know it really works. We have added the Competency Model to help define the knowledge areas, tasks and skills sets, attributes, and abilities that are critical for executive coaches to use in their work to be successful and to create effective experiences for clients.

In 1999, when a group of Boston area executive coaches, leadership development consultants, and human resources professionals began meeting regularly to put guidelines in place for our own practices and organizations, we realized that we had a valuable resource for the field and a way to jump start the conversation about professional standards. We published The Executive Coaching Handbook both in print and on the web with the explicit intent to get the Handbook out to a broad array of users and practitioners to promote interest and progress in creating a well-respected profession. The Handbook is used in hundreds of coaching training programs and by thousands of coaches in over 25 countries. We distribute the Handbook at the website below as an open source document, free of charge, with the request that you send us notification if you use it, and that you don’t profit from our work. (www.executivecoachingforum.com)

Recent Trends

In the past five years, we have seen the field of coaching become intensely interested in establishing credentials and standards. In the past 10 years, consumers have become savvier, the coaching engagements more packaged, and the process better managed. Coaching is now commonly bundled with leadership development programs and introduced as a key element in leadership transitions. The field is maturing into a profession, and standards are beginning to be fleshed out. Substantive university-based academic programs are becoming commonplace in graduate schools across the world, and practitioners are presenting themselves and their expertise as part of a profession with unique requirements. Our Handbook has been part of this journey and highly influential, we hear, in establishing the training curricula. We hope you benefit from this guide and that you share your learnings and insights with others in the field. Please let us know if you use the Handbook and provide your comments. (Contact Judy Otto by emailing her: otto.judy@gmail.net)

Future Trends

Now, coaching is accepted as a viable, impactful leadership development tool. Coaching will likely increase as baby boomers mature and new leaders need to take their places and define what leadership looks like in the new business order. Just as the demand will increase to meet the needs of emerging leaders, the supply of experienced semi-retired executives and development professionals will increase. The market will mature further with customers looking for more robust coach credentials, simpler pricing structures, more common contracting procedures, and protocols to manage coaching interventions. There will be fewer independent coaches and more firms offering coaching, as consumers want one-stop shopping, and a third party to watch over the coaches’ activities with clients. This will increase barriers to entry for executive coaches and create clearer definition between coaches who work in organizations and business systems, and those who do life and career coaching with individuals. There will be greater networks amongst coaches using their alumni connections from their coach training and from working together in systems, so that collaboration and sharing of leads and opportunities are more likely. All of this speaks to consolidation of the field.

There will be more and better-trained internal coaches within companies, an increase in peer coaching amongst colleagues, group coaching sessions, and more virtual or phone/video conference coaching. There will be an increased drive to train and measure line managers on their coaching abilities as well. All these factors will drive prices down and make coaching more prevalent in organizations.

Some issues have been challenges from the beginning of executive coaching such as:

· How do you measure effectiveness of an individual coaching intervention or an overall program?

· How do you establish definable, comparable metrics of success?

· How do you match coaches and executives?

· Where do we draw the lines of confidentiality?

· How do you meet the needs of the individual and the organization if they are in conflict?

· What is coach/client chemistry and how much of a role does it play in success?

These and other questions need to be further explored as part of making executive coaching an even more compelling route to performance enhancement. It will be exciting to watch and participate in the next phase of growth and maturity of the field.

Current State of Research

The first Global Coaching Convention took place in Dublin, Ireland in July 2008. More than 60 leaders in coaching who represented dozens of coaching and related organizations represented 22 countries from around the world. Nine working groups spent a year leading up to the Convention. More than 200 people from all aspects of coaching from around the world worked as part of those groups, which led to the development of White Papers. Recommendations came out of that exploration to further the field of coaching as a professional discipline. One of those Working Groups was on Coaching Research. The White Paper on the topic was published as part of the Appendix to the GCC’s Declaration for Coaching, which is available at:

http://www.pdf.net/Files/Dublin%20Declaration%20on%20Coaching.pdf

One outgrowth of the call for research on key questions about coaching is that the Foundation of Coaching sponsored the first International Research Conference on Coaching at Harvard University in September 2008. More than 100 research questions were identified with recommendations on how they might be studied. Forty world leaders on coaching research developed these recommendations at the conference. Those topics are available at: http://www.coachingresearchforum.org/

Although there is an enormous need to generate useful, reliable and valid data about executive coaching and coaching in general, in the past few years much research has begun. We know more about what kinds of coaching are being done by whom in what ways, but little about the factors that make significant differences in the outcomes of executive coaching. We also know very little about the satisfaction with its practice, or what coaches, their leaders, and their organizations do or don’t do that differentiates the better practices of coaching from the least effective. Although controlled experimental studies are often difficult to conduct in executive coaching situations, many other research designs can and do add to the evidence we need to inform best practices and help coaches and the people they coach know what to do to get the desired results.

Sources of Information on Executive Coaching Research

See the White Paper referenced above, the Resources page, and the Links page on theexecutivecoachingforum.com website. Below are journals that publish current research.

Academy of Management Journal

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources

Australian Psychologist

Career Development International

Coaching at Work

Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice

Competency and Emotional Intelligence Quarterly

Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research

Counselor Education and Supervision

Harvard Business Review

Human Resources Executive

Human Resources Planning

Individual Psychology

Industrial and Commercial Training

Intermediair

International Coaching Psychology Review

International Journal of Coaching in Organizations

International Journal of Evidence-based Coaching and Mentoring

International Journal of Mentoring and coaching

Journal of Business Research

Journal of Business Strategy

Journal of Management Development

Journal of Managerial Psychology

Journal of Occupational and Organizational

Psychology

Journal of Positive Psychology

Leader to Leader

Leadership & Organizational Development

Leadership Quarterly

Management Learning

Management Review

Organizational Development Journal

Organizational Dynamics

People and Organizations at Work

People Management

Performance Improvement Quarterly

Proceedings of the ICF Coaching Research Symposiums

Public Personnel Management

Public Service Executive

Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management

Selection and Development Review

Social Behaviour and Personality: An International Journal

Supervisory Management

The Annual Review of High Performance Coaching and Consulting

The Coaching Journal

The Coaching Psychologist

The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

The Occupational Psychologist

Training and Development

Major Questions in Executive Coaching Research

A partial listing of important research questions to date can be drawn almost directly from the definition of coaching as stated in this Handbook. Executive coaching is viewed as a multiparty set of relationship-based activities involving the client, her coach, and her organization. The goal is to enhance the capability of the executive and her ability to help the organization achieve short- and long-term goals. Each component of the definition suggests a range of largely unexplored research questions that can be organized under six topics:

The executive
The executive coach
The relationship between executive and coach
The executive coaching process
The organizational context of executive coaching
Coaching outcomes

(See Hunt and Weintraub, 2002, for a more thorough discussion of these questions.)

1. The Executive

· Who is most likely to benefit from executive coaching? Who is not?

o What role do emotional maturity, personality, personal values, psychological defenses, intelligence, career stage, life stage, and other individual attributes of the executive play in executive coaching?

o How does/should executive coaching relate to other aspects and roles of the executive’s life (such as family and health)?

· What kinds of learning and development needs is executive coaching best suited for?

o Can a useful typology of such needs be developed and validated?

· How can executives maximize the positive impact of executive coaching?

· What role does/should organizational position and role (CEO, VP) play on executive coaching processes and outcomes?

· What role does/should gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation play in executive coaching processes and outcomes?

· How are the expectations that executives bring to coaching shaped?

· How do executive clients define success in executive coaching?

2. The Executive Coach

· What are the appropriate qualifications for an executive coach?

· Should executive coaches be certified? If so, how?