Coaching at the Top, Optimizing the Impact of Senior Leaders

Susing, I. 2017 (University of Wollongong)

Short summary: A challenging article, in which the author tries to identify, by means of interviews with 12 Senior Human Resource Directors at companies in Australia, which variables are important in successfully coaching Senior Leaders.

The author initially identifies a number of critical success factors:

• a ‘vertical focus’ on development (including the ability to take up different perspectives, to think in terms of leadership in complex adaptive systems, effective relationship development and influencing, and finally, a greater self-regulating ability to handle the previous three elements well)
• aligning development with business needs and stakeholder expectations
• targeted learning, delivered in an experiential learning manner
• working from the context of the leader
• selective advice by qualified coaches

The author then elaborates on the ‘characteristics’ of effective Executive Coaching of Senior Leaders. In addition to a number of characteristics that are relatively well-known, the interviews reveal a challenging aspect. Many of the 12 Senior HR Directors interviewed indicate that the really good coaches are able to selectively provide their clients with high-quality advice ánd are able to challenge their clients. In this way, the interviewees go significantly further than the ‘classic’ image that coaches often adopt a non-directive attitude.

Link: https://bit.ly/398YHZg

Published in: OD Practitioner Vol. 48 No. 4 2016

Research type: Qualitative

Number of participants: 12

Control group: No

Keywords: Optimizing Impact, Senior Leaders, Stakeholders 

Language: