Towards Evidence Based HRD Practice: Bridging the Gap
ABSTRACT FOR FULL REFEREED PAPER
Title: Developing Leader Consciousness through Executive Coaching
Authors:
Dr. Jane Turner (corresponding author)
Newcastle Business School
City Campus East
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST
[email protected]
Professor Sharon Mavin
Newcastle Business School
City Campus East
Northumbria University
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 8ST
Stream: Leadership, Management and Talent Development
Submission Type: Full Paper
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Developing Leader Consciousness through Executive Coaching
Abstract for Full Refereed Paper
Stream: Leadership, Management and Talent Development
Towards Evidence Based HRD Practice: Bridging the Gap
16th International Conference on Human Resource Development Research and Practice
across Europe
University College Cork 3 – 5th June 2015
Word count 1250
There are limitations in the executive coaching literature, particularly in relation to
‘how’ coaching processes, that seek to work at a deeper more psychodynamic level, the
unconscious, work. This paper presents the research findings from a qualitative study
which explored the socially constructed lived experiences and understandings of senior
leaders who had engaged in a particular executive coaching process. The aim of the
research was to deepen understandings and reveal ‘what goes on’ when senior leaders
engage in a psychodynamic executive coaching experience, to understand further the actual
process(es), the ‘how’ of leader development.
Within the coaching field, there is a lack of theoretical research and a shared
acknowledgement that practice is ahead of theory. Lowman (2005) claims that coaching
has “caught on more as an area of practice than as one of theory or research” (p.90).
Feldman and Lankau (2005) suggest coaching has “something of a black box feel” (p.845),
claiming “we know it can work, but often don’t know why it works or how it could work
even better” (p.845). Sherman and Freas (2004) draw comparisons with the ‘Wild West’
suggesting “the frontier [executive coaching] is chaotic, largely unexplored, and fraught
with risk yet immensely promising” (p.82). Similarly Bono, Purvanova, Trowler and
Peterson (2009) comment on the obscurity of the intervention claiming “much of the
process of executive coaching remains shrouded in mystery” (p.362) and Gregory, Levy
and Jeffers (2008) highlight the recurring call within the literature for a more thorough
understanding of the actual ‘processes.’ Passmore and Fillery-Travis (2011) claim that
coaching is in the case study and survey phase, the theory particularly lacking in relation to
‘how’ or ‘why’ executive coaching works and its success rate in changing executive
behaviour (Joo, 2005; Carey, Phillippon and Cummings, 2011). Consequently there are
recurring calls within the literature to identify the theoretical foundations for executive
coaching (Feldman and Lankau, 2005; Eggers and Clark, 2000; Gray, 2006). Joo (2005)
calls for further research into the coaching process, suggesting interpretive research
adopting a phenomenological lens to explore the perspectives of executives being coached.
Passmore and Fillery-Travis (2011) suggest future areas of research over the next decade
focusing in particular on developing a greater understanding of ‘deepening awareness’
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highlighting the role Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis has to play in deepening our
understanding of the richness of coaching.
There are three key executive coaching approaches situated within the literature: 1)
Skills coaching, considered to be more behaviourally-based, the modification or
development of new behaviours (Fillery-Travis and Lane, 2006; Grant and Cavanagh,
2004; Gray, 2006); 2) Performance coaching focusing upon job requirements, deficiencies
and de-railers (Stern, 2004; Grant and Cavanagh, 2004); 3) Development coaching with a
primary focus on an individual’s thinking, feeling and actions, as it attempts to “get to
deep-seated issues and often explores personal values and motivations” (Thach, 2002,
p.205). Quick and Macik-Frey (2004) support developmental coaching, claiming that
executive coaching which seeks to enhance the ‘performance’ or ‘skill’ of the individual
does not “get at the deeper level of the executive as an authentic human being,” nor does it
enable long-term change (p.2). Orenstein (2002) claims “executive coaching must be
viewed as a process that focuses on more than the individual and more than what is
conscious” (p.372), suggesting the unconscious elements are at least, or more powerful
than, conscious forces. Kets de Vries, Korotov and Florent-Treacy (2007) acknowledge that
the conscious elements are largely already known to leaders, leading to rather superficial
conclusions and so they call for attention to the “deep structure” (p.xlii); what lies beneath
the surface of a human being, some of which is conscious, some beyond consciousness,
calling for this as the focus of executive coaching. Furthermore, Peltier (2010) claims the
potential of a more psychodynamic approach, which seeks to “make the unconscious;
conscious; that is, [enable one] to become more self aware, to understand more about how
we think, feel and react” (p.62).
Other than Kilburg’s (2004a) influential article on the proposed methods to elicit
and work with psychodynamic material; “always try to get problems out on the table;”
make the ‘unsaid said;’ the “unconscious conscious” (p.292), there has been very little
research exploring unconscious dynamics in coaching (Brunning, 2006), resulting in
limited understanding and therefore theory building in relation to ‘how’ the unconscious is
brought to the surface. Possibly constrained by the scholarly debates around whether the
unconscious can be unearthed or merely inferred. Lee (2010) suggests that unconscious
issues are surfaced by ‘making links,’, drawing on the work of psychoanalyst Bion (1962),
who claims mental objects are linked to each other and Kegan (1994) presents a theory
around the development of consciousness, asserting that the more elements we have in our
sight and can subsequently respond to and make decisions upon, the more complex and
broad our view, suggesting “a leading out from an established habit of mind” (p.232).
Kegan (1994) introduces the notion of the Subject-Object relationship in the context of
one’s mental organisation, claiming ‘object’ relates to the elements of knowing that we can
“reflect on, handle, look at, be responsible for, relate to each other, take control of,
internalize, assimilate or otherwise operate upon” (p.32). Alternatively, ‘subject’
represents elements of knowing that we are “tied to, fused with or embedded in” (p.32). He
believes that if we can liberate ourselves from what we are embedded in “making what was
subject into object,” then we “can have it” not “be had” (p.34).
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Therefore greater clarity surrounding the deeper level processes of a more
psychodynamic executive coaching approach that enables access to what lies beneath the
surface of the leader, and ‘how’ the unconscious becomes more conscious, is an appealing
concept.
Fifteen senior leaders, who had engaged in an executive coaching process were
interviewed, seeking to understand their ‘lived experiences’ and ‘understandings’ of
executive coaching experiences. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was adopted,
using IPA to go beyond individual participant understandings borne out in the text,
resulting in a number of super-ordinate themes, representing distinct stages of an executive
coaching process, alongside corresponding sub themes, thus bringing the lived experiences
of the participants and the interpretations of the researcher to life.
Emerging from the research is a process with five overarching stages, characterising
a leader development process that illustrates exploration beneath the surface (the
unconscious), resulting in significant discoveries (the more conscious): 1) Dubitation, 2)
Excavation 3) Materialisation 4) Restoration 5) Relational. Four of the stages are multidimensional, with a number of sub-stages attached to them. The stages conceptualise
participants’ experiences of the executive coaching process, particularly how it unfolds.
The fifth relates to participants’ relational experiences with the coach and the combination
of support and challenge (see figure 1).
Figure 1: A Consciousness Raising Leader Development Process
The Relational System
Dubitation
Incisive questions
Restoration
Metaphor
Challenge
Propose
conceptualisations
Create space
Excavation
Materialisation
Silence
Hold moments
An Executive Coaching Process
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The research offers a transparent process that can be articulated to leaders at the
start of their executive coaching journey, thus normalizing emotions and cognitions and
reducing anxiety and doubt whilst offering a refreshing perspective for practicing executive
coaches of ‘what goes on’ for the coachee. The research establishes the climate and
environment desired by coachees, which helps to illustrate the boundaries and
responsibilities of the coach which have hitherto been rather an enigma and a significant
contribution towards a unification of knowledge, through the provision of empirics in
relation to the ‘how’ of a psychodynamic coaching approach.
The full paper will develop further the theory surrounding unconscious processes
and illustrate in detail the stages of the executive coaching process and the role of the coach
to better understand the ‘how’ of developing leader consciousness.
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