Dr. Marilyn Puder-York is a coach to Fortune 500 corporations and has a “traditional” approach to executive coaching. Dr. Ellen McGrath emphasizes innovative approaches to coaching and developing new coaching models and venues. The views they expressed in interviews offer an enlightening overview of coaching.

Marilyn Puder-York, Ph.D.

For Dr. Marilyn Puder-York, there are two types of executive coaching:

1) Client pays the fee

With this model, the client comes to your office and pays for services out-of-pocket. This type of practice is appropriate for a psychologist who wants to expand a private practice–provided he or she makes the distinction between traditional psychotherapy and executive coaching. The services are:

1. brief and practical
2. results oriented
3. behaviorally oriented
4. savvy about the business world

Psychologists who have the flexibility to work within these parameters can “wade into” executive coaching as an additional service to their practice. Their practices can offer both “products”—executive coaching and psychotherapy with clear distinctions made between the two services. Psychotherapy services can be “long-term” while the coaching is necessarily short-term. While some coaches have separate business cards for coaching and psychotherapy, she believes its it appropriate for coaches to identify themselves as psychologists if they are comfortable with it.

Psychologist/coaches are venturing into the same territory as a lot of career counselors and vocational counselors and often deal with issues such as losing one’s job (both the emotional issues of dealing with the loss and the job seeking skills). Psychologist/coaches need to know the business world to deal with harassment issues, “toxic” work environments, problem co-workers and supervisors, and managing emotions in stressful circumstances. Psychologists who have worked in management in corporations will be at a big advantage in executive coaching. (Coaches in niches other than executive coaching would need to know other niches, e.g., family businesses, particular industry groups.)

2) The employer pays the fee

With this model, the employees are typically seen at their offices. While the psychologist/coach attempts to help the employee, the psychologist/coach is also addressing the corporate expectations of increasing productivity and solving corporate problems. This involves balancing the needs of the employee and the business’ needs. The employer generally is looking for someone who has exceptional business skills in addition to coaching skills. Being a psychologist is a nice extra (though sometimes stereotypes of psychologists might initially be a hindrance). Dr. Puder-York relates, “There are a lot of land mines in these assignments. There is often a system, political, or boss problem and if you do not understand how to manage these land mines, you may do more harm than good. Psychologists should not attempt this kind of work unless they are industrial/organizational psychologists or clinicians with a lot of business experience and savvy.”

Dr. Puder-York relates that the business world is a very different culture from what we learned in graduate school. She relates, “I learned the most about coaching when I was an executive and made mistakes and learned from experience. What I learned academically is not the same as “street smarts” in the business world. Business has its own games and rules that initially might seem irrational but it is the way companies operate. It’s not the language I was trained in and I am more credible when I talk their language. Since graduate school I have become more humble, respectful, and balanced in my appreciation of how business works and its need to balance common sense with making a profit. I’ve learned to be relative in my judgement of others and to meld my skills to business environments so I can make changes in ways that are non-threatening. My success in executive coaching is largely attributable to the skills I learned in the business world.”

“Coaching is a hot trend—I don’t know if it will still be flourishing in five years,” says Dr. Puder-York. “Businesses have their fads. There were T-groups and team building. While coaching provides a very valuable service, there is no guarantee it will stay. If there is an economic downturn, training and coaching are often the first things corporations cut.”

Marilyn Puder-York, Ph.D. was trained as a clinical psychologist. She was a vice-president for Citicorp for ten years, heading up their Employee Assistance Program. She then primarily practiced psychotherapy in her New York City private practice but increasingly has been doing executive coaching in Manhattan based corporations.

Ellen McGrath, Ph.D.

While Marilyn Puder-York’s practice is “traditional” and the corporation is usually the client, Dr. Ellen McGrath focuses on individuals as clients and coaches in a wide variety of settings. Dr. McGrath views coaching as removing obstacles to success. She sees individual coaching as a three part process of assessment, feedback, and coaching. Psychologists already have strong expertise in assessment. Psychologists are also proficient in feedback–though coaching feedback needs to be faster and more focused than most therapy. She views coaching as a skill set that should not be difficult for psychologists to learn if they are flexible and adaptive.

Dr. McGrath says that in every coaching session she uses a one page sheet that identifies four issues:

1. the problem
2. feelings or conflicts
3. one or two action strategies
4. a timeline with an agreement (contract)

Each subsequent session refers back to the previous coaching sheet. The feelings issue involves little processing and is “just enough to get them going.” Feelings are only discussed in the context of how they impede goal achievement.

Dr. McGrath speculates that not all psychologists can make the transition to coaching. Psychologists can’t assume that just because they do therapy they can do coaching. They need to learn the skills involved. She relates that psychotherapy tends to be process oriented while coaching is results oriented. Psychologists who are suited to coaching need to be:

1. outgoing
2. flexible
3. focused and action oriented
4. good at closing deals.
5. good “cultural anthropologists” who perceive and adapt to the groups norms
6. dressing in a manner appropriate to the business’ culture

Dr. McGrath began with mental fitness coaching for her children’s sports teams, e.g., how to deal with winning and losing, staying focused, and dealing with opponents’ comments. She also found coaching opportunities at the fitness center where she works out. She relates that doing simple applied research to show what works can be a good way to develop credibility with an organization. Studies might focus on ways to improve productivity or performance.

To make the shift to coaching, McGrath recommends experiencing being coached yourself. If coaching fits with your passions and dreams, the next step is to set boundaries and learn to be very focused. She advocates not trying to do it alone but building a network of colleagues who are also coaching. Although she is has made frequent media appearances, she has not found they resulted in coaching business. Rather her coaching jobs have come through getting to know the businesses of people she knows, applied research, and volunteer work. She believes “there is enormous opportunity here; I believe the coaching I have been doing is the best work I have done in my life.” Another plus for coaching is that it values age as older coaches have the most wisdom to offer.

Dr. McGrath led a symposium and was a presenter on coaching at the 1998 APA convention and says 250 gave her their business cards for more information–more response than she has ever received from a presentation. She is writing a book on coaching yourself to success and is developing a training program for psychologists who want to learn coaching skills. Coaching will be a focus of presentations she will make at the 2000 APA Convention.

Ellen McGrath, Ph.D. does coaching in the New York City area, frequently appears on the television program, Good Morning America, and is a frequent presenter at APA conferences. Her coaching group is The Bridge Coaching Institute, Inc.
e-mail:  McgrathDr@aol.com
Tel. (718) 855-1635

Interviews with Marilyn Puder-York and Ellen McGrath

By Michael Brickey, Ph.D., ABPP