Several months ago reporter David Molpus asked to interview me regarding my work as an executive coach for a story he was preparing for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” He proceeded with the interview despite my conviction that the topic was “old news” and would be of little or no interest to his audience. As it turned out, I could not have been more mistaken. The interview led directly to follow-up feature stories in a leading human resources trade journal, a newsletter for health professionals, and Forbes magazine. I received more calls, letters, faxes and e-mails about that interview than anything I had ever done. The contacts came from all across the nation from both business executives and professional colleagues. The executives were looking for information on how it was done, what kinds of problems could be addressed, and where to find a good coach. The practitioners, on the other hand, were seeking information on where to obtain training and how to develop and market the service.
In the balance of this paper, I will share some of the things I have learned from my work with mid- to upper-level executives over the past several years. I make no claims of expertise regarding executive coaching. Rather, than posing as a guide, I see myself more as a traveler who has been to a territory that others are thinking of exploring and who is willing to share his observations and experiences with colleagues.
What is Executive Coaching?
First let me define what I mean by executive coaching. As currently used, the term may refer to everything from psychotherapy for executives, to something as limited and straight forward as teaching a client to speak more forcefully or to be more congenial in contacts with customers. “Coaches” I have come across include licensed psychologists, other mental health professionals, organizational development experts, former high school and college coaches, and a barber who expanded his services into coaching for clients who had initially sought his advice regarding appropriate dress for business functions and how to decorate their offices! One way I distinguish my services from those of football coaches and barbers is to refer to what I do as “executive development” rather than “coaching.” Regardless of what it is called, I use it to refer to individual work with executives that is focused on helping them learn or modify such specific skills as team leading, active listening, assertive communication, conflict resolution, managing difficult employees, how to negotiate, and so on. Like Sperry (1996), I distinguish between psychotherapy with an executive (which is focused on self-understanding), executive consultation (in which the goal is to resolve or improve a problem or process), and executive coaching (which aims to enhance one or more of the executive’s interpersonal skills).
Coaching may be suggested by me as part of a plan to help an executive to resolve a problem or to enhance skills required by his or her position. Alternatively, the executive’s superior may offer (or demand) coaching with me to underscore the importance the superior attaches to the need for change or the urgency which he or she places on resolving a problem. In either case, the first and most crucial step as a coach is to obtain the executive’s cooperation — a process that is often rendered more difficult when the pressure for change comes from outside rather than from within. Securing a client’s active cooperation is quite similar to the process of dealing with the ambivalence and/or resistance often encountered in routine psychotherapeutic work.
How Is It Done?
Although the intervention is modified to meet the needs of each client, the five-phase general process I use is similar to that used by other consultants with whom I am familiar:
• data collection from interviews with the executive and other key individuals (such as peers, supervisor, supervisees, etc.) as needed;
• determining competencies, strengths and weaknesses relevant to resolving the problem at hand;
• identifying behaviors to be improved or changed, setting specific goals and agreeing on markers for measuring improvement;
• designing a customized program that is aligned with both the goals of the individual and the organization; and
• individual sessions for practicing new behaviors, refining critical behaviors based on feedback from others and/or observations of meetings or work samples by the coach.
The key skills involved in the process outlined above are quite familiar to most clinicians: the use of data such as interviews, questionnaires and structured assessment instruments to understand problems and formulate plans for their resolution; giving feedback that clients can understand and accept; securing and enhancing client motivation; and, expertise in helping people change through use of guided fantasies, active role-playing, real-life practice, and so on.
Although much of the coaching process is similar to psychotherapy, there are a number of differences: the coach is hired by the client’s organization rather than by the client; meetings most frequently occur on the client’s turf; the aims and goals of the process are decided by the client; the coach is more in the role of an expert advisor than is the case with most psychotherapy; defenses or personality problems are worked around rather than explored or understood; and confidentiality problems may be more complicated than those most frequently encountered in psychotherapy.
Although infrequent, there are occasions in which coaching turns into psychotherapy. One of my current clients is the CEO of a successful family business that he took over when his father retired about two years ago. The CEO initially hired me as a consultant for help with generating more employee ownership for changes that he felt were essential to maintaining the competitive advantage his firm had enjoyed for many years. One of my recommendations was coaching to help him be more assertive in making his wishes more explicit and in dealing with problem employees. In a few short sessions, he largely resolved these difficulties but came to realize that the real problem he was not confronting was his reluctance to make changes in processes and procedures that had been put in place by his father. Although the father was no longer involved in the business, he had hired virtually all of the present senior management team and several of them continued to consult with him on a regular basis. Although my client knew that his father was skeptical of many of the proposed changes, the two of them had never directly addressed their differences — a long-standing characteristic of their relationship. After discussing the matter, the two of us agreed that I would refer him to a colleague for psychotherapy because neither of us wanted to alter or disrupt the ongoing consulting relationship we had established.
One of the most important judgments a consultant makes before taking on a coaching assignment is determining whether the executive’s work difficulties exist independently, in combination with, or secondary to his or her psychopathology. Lowman (1993) believes that clinicians commonly ignore or significantly downplay the work context that may be the primary source of the observed difficulties. In my opinion, this happens because most clinicians lack the conceptual schemas and concepts required for understanding organizations and businesses.
Dealing With Knowledge Gaps
Two experiences in my own background greatly facilitated my learning about organizational dynamics: experience and expertise in family therapy, and having been raised in a family business. Trained in both dynamic psychotherapy and family systems therapy, I am accustomed to thinking in terms of systems and group interactions and the importance of understanding the interpersonal context in which problem behaviors occur. Such knowledge and experience is invaluable in another way as well: the majority of businesses in the U.S. are family-owned and operated. In such organizations it is common for business and family issue to interact and for problems in one domain to cause or contribute to difficulties in the other. Likewise, having been raised in a family business has proved to be very valuable. It gave me an intuitive understanding of business people and how they talk and think.
Most of what the typical clinician will need to learn about organizations and about how to adapt their skills to a different purpose, can be obtained through the same methods used to learn about many other practice areas: networking, reading, continuing education, supervision by more experienced colleagues, and lectures and seminars. In the main, I do not believe it is necessary for clinicians to return to school or obtain another degree to be qualified to do executive coaching as I have defined it.
While it is not possible to list all the resources that I have found helpful, I can provide a sample that should be helpful in getting started. Sperry (1996) provides a good general overview of organizational consulting and where executive coaching fits in the mix. I recommend almost anything written by Edgar Schein, particularly his two volume work on process consultation (1987, 1988) and his seminal work on organizational culture (Schein, 1992). I also highly recommend any of Schein’s seminars on the latter topic. Weiss (1992) provides lots of good suggestions regarding how to build and grow a consulting practice. In terms of networking, APA’s Division of Consulting Psychology (Division 13) provides convention programs and many quality opportunities for interacting with and learning from other consultants. Ben Dean, a clinical psychologist practicing in Maryland, offers teleworkshops on executive coaching and an electronic newsletter. Several trusted colleagues recommended him to me as a good resource for practical information about coaching and how to market it. I have sampled several of this offerings and they have been more than sufficient for me to recommend him to others. He can be reached through E-mail at ben@mentorcoach.com.
Getting Started
Although I have no sure-fire program for how to market an executive coaching or executive development service, I can share a few of those efforts that have worked for me. I will not bother to discuss numerous others that did not work for me, for reasons that are still unclear. For starters, nothing works like personal contacts. The best and most satisfactory projects I have obtained came through personal contacts. In fact, it was such contacts that led me into consulting and coaching in the first place. As the Dean of the Wright State University School of Professional Psychology for many years, I came to know a number of business leaders in the region who called on me for advice and help regarding high-level personnel problems and personal/business issues. I found that I had a lot to offer; and, the work was interesting enough that I began a deliberate effort to expand my knowledge base in this area.
Exploiting past experiences to develop a market niche is also useful. My own background and experiences were in health care organizations (such as hospitals), universities and family businesses. One of the things that weighs heavily in the minds of potential new clients is your familiarity with their particular type of business. Like most people in the role of customers, business leaders do not want to put themselves in the hands of an “expert” who is unfamiliar with their realities. They want someone who understands them and what makes them go. They will ask for references and they will pay particular attention to those from people in the same type of business.
Other methods for generating contacts are talks and/or workshops for business organizations (such as the Chamber of Commerce), and publications. Articles related to my work with business executives placed in newsletters and trade papers have been useful in generating some business. There is a credibility attached to authors that is not always well-placed, but it is there none the less. One of our best contracts over the past few years came through a psychologist in a large national corporation who recommended our book on organizational change (Norton and Fox, 1997) to his supervisor.
The group practice with which I am associated is large enough to operate several Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) for public and private organizations in our region. Two years ago we began offering a small consulting service as part of the EAP package. This service allows managers, supervisors and executives access to brief consultation regarding organizational problems and structures. Basically, we provide a brief assessment of the problem and practical assistance in resolving minor issues. For more complicated problems, we provide advice about what needs to be done, general cost estimates and assistance in finding another consultant in the rare event that it seems best to contract with a firm which has had no personal contacts with employees. This approach has proved to be an especially rich source of clients.
Closing Note
Executive development or coaching has been around for a long time, but it is a relatively new area for most clinicians. The potential market is huge given the large number of public and private businesses and organizations. It is becoming increasingly clear to business leaders that the primary problems in today’s world market are related to the people who do the work. Clinicians know about people, groups, systems, and how to enhance the effectiveness of human behavior. What will be increasingly valued in the decades to come will be expertise in the application of psychology to the world of work — and clinicians could provide a significant part of that need.
References
Norton, J. Renae, & Fox, Ronald E. (1997). The change equation: Capitalizing on diversity for effective organizational change. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Schein, Edgar H. (1992). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Schein, Edgar H (1988). Process consultation volume I: Its role in organization development. (2nd ed.). Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley.
Schein, Edgar, H. (1987). Process consultation volume II: Lessons for managers and consultants. Reading, Mass.: Addison Wesley.
Sperry, Len (1996). Corporate therapy and consulting. New York: Burner/Mazel.
Weiss, Alan (1992). Million dollar consulting: The professional’s guide to growing a practice. New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc..
Ron Fox is a past president of APA and the current Chair of CAPP. He is the Executive Director of The Consulting Group, a division of HRC of Chapel Hill and Raleigh; and, a Senior Partner of the Meridian Group, a national, virtual consulting organization. His E-mail address is Ronald F 625@aol.com and his phone number is 919-968-7966.
By Ronald E. Fox, Ph.D.