[Edited] by Catherine Fitzgerald and Jennifer Garvey Berger, Davies-Black Publishing, 2002, 368 pages, US $49.95

Reviewed by Ray Biegun, Biegun & Associates
Journal of Organizational Change Management, Volume 16 Number 1; 2003

Executive Coaching: Practices & Perspectives, is an excellent and timely text consisting of 16 chapters written by 20 contributors, the editors also being contributors, providing a wide breadth of information and references. It provides a rare opportunity to shadow many experienced coaches from diverse backgrounds and learnings. I applaud the editors for what is a very successful attempt to weave many different "essays" into a coherent book. The writing styles and approaches are different for each of the chapters resulting in many practices and theories, and many modes of learning for the reader. Executive coaching is still a fairly new profession and this book provides a wide variety of perspectives not typically shared among peers.

Although titled Executive Coaching, it indirectly explores the diversity of individual and organizational learning and change with a keen appreciation for the complexities of the human mind. For executive coaching, as in organizational development consulting, one size does not fit all. The diversity of approaches from the respective authors reflects the strength of belief in their own methods when dealing with the complexity and diversity of the human mind; and reveals the many barriers to individual learning and ultimately organizational learning. In many ways the book is about organizational development and organizational learning brought to an individual level.

Most of the contributors have psychology backgrounds; however, the editors have made a good attempt to look at executive coaching from a variety of lenses, with a noticeable influence of Carl Jung and Robert Kegan. As an organizational development consultant and executive coach, I find some bias toward the need for a psychology or psychotherapy background in some of the chapters. Does one need a degree in psychology to have an understanding of a variety of perceptual views through intentional, behavioral, cultural, and social dimensions, for example? I don't believe so.

There are many issues that emerge when we have conversations at personal and sometimes intimate levels. Do we dare go where no non-psychotherapist has gone before? I believe the human psyche is much less fragile than most psychotherapists, and even psychologists, might have us believe. And as organizational change consultants, how much damage have we inflicted because we dared not to tread, or even look, in those heretofore-protected domains?

Where is the line drawn between learning and repair, or between personal growth and cure? The authors have drawn their lines and they are in different places. I do believe, when coaching Executives, it is essential to have a greater depth of knowledge and abilities as an observer and guide.

I believe executive coaching can increase the potential for profound change. Peter Senge, in his book The Dance of Change, describes profound change as "organizational change that combines inner shifts in people's values, aspirations, and behaviors with 'outer' shifts in processes, strategies, practices, and systems ... In profound change there is learning." (p 15) W. Edwards Deming said, "Nothing changes without personal transformation."

Executive coaching allows us to further shift the learning paradigms of our clients. We are beginning to apply to individuals what we have applied to organizations. Coaching appears to be the natural progression to double-loop learning at a personal level, in addition to the organizational level, and further progression to triple-loop learning. Double-loop learning is a concept developed by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon based upon the work of Gregory Bateson. The term "triple loop learning" was used by William N. Isaacs, in Taking Flight: Dialogue, Collective Thinking, and Organizational Learning. "Double-loop learning encourages learning for increasing effectiveness. Triple-loop learning is the learning that opens inquiry into underlying 'why’s.' It is the learning that permits insight into the nature of paradigm itself, not merely an assessment of which paradigm is superior." Effective coaching includes the practice of Dialogue at a one-to-one level. This "third" level of learning can be called transformational learning. As such, this book could be about transformational learning.

A noticeably missing piece was a chapter on distinguishing coaching from therapy, and addressing some of the boundaries to be considered and what resources the executive coach should have available in assessing and dealing with those boundaries.

Another missing piece was the role our body plays. Recent studies suggest a more holistic approach is needed in our learning - the integration of language, emotions and the body. I am referring to more than the traditional concept of "body language." Albert Einstein said, "My primary process of perceiving is muscular and visual." Richard Heckler, a psychologist and director of the Rancho-Strozzi Institute, says in his book The Anatomy of Change, "An education that connects us with our body would teach us the difference between what we are experiencing and what we are thinking and fantasizing about." (p 12)

Full awareness goes beyond what we are thinking. The body can reflect what we are thinking and feeling and the body can support what we desire to think and feel. Stuart Heller, mathematician, operations researcher, and psychologist, says in his book Retooling on the Run, "To make a change in any part of you, you have to change all of you." (p 10) "Your results are a function of the way you organize and use yourself. By studying your patterns of reaction, belief, tension, feelings, and posture, you learn how you both hinder and help yourself." (p 17)

What follows is an attempt to share some details about this richly filled book. Although the book is divided into five parts, all the chapters in the book address perspectives, practices, issues, and situations. As a result, the titles of the Parts provide a limited guide to the content and context of the chapters within.

Part I: Executive Coaching Perspectives: Chapter 1, "A Coach's Lessons Learned", provides principles for thinking about a client's issues; principles for taking action with a client; and paradoxical guidelines for the moving the coaching conversation forward; and some lessons learned. Chapter 2, "Leadership and Complexity of Mind", is a beautiful chapter providing some lenses for viewing the client. Based upon the work of Robert Kegan, it focuses on two aspects: The movement from Subject to Object - the basic process for becoming more complex (learning); and Orders of mind - five qualitatively different ways of constructing reality (meaning making), which develop from less to more. Useful strategies are included for working with clients using these lenses. Chapter 3, "The Coach as a Reflective Practitioner", provides a model for meaning making for both the client and the coach; and maintaining a balance between advocacy and inquiry. Insights are provided on the distinctions between being an intuitive practitioner and a reflective practitioner, with a model for enabling that shift.

Part II: Executive Coaching Practices: Chapter 4, "Understanding and Supporting Development of Executives at Midlife", is a very rich chapter using a Jungian psychological type based framework for facilitating changes in midlife. The chapter explores the shifting between Sensing and Intuitive types, Thinking and Feeling types; and the stages that occur during these shifts. The author also includes some very detailed strategies for nurturing those shifts. Chapter 5, "Breaking the Boundaries", is a brief chapter that focuses on the psychotherapist-coach. This chapter moves significantly into the realm of psychotherapy and advocates a "long-term ongoing relationship (typically eighteen to twenty-four months)." The authors state, "We believe that this psychological understanding permits deeper and more lasting behavioral change." This was the shortest chapter and left me with a limited appreciation for the need for psychotherapeutic expertise in order to effectively coach executives. Chapter 6, "Coaching Senior Executives for Effective Business Leadership", is written as a tutorial with scripts and focuses on transformational learning, utilizing the work of Robert Kegan on adult development theory. The reader is guided from meaning making, through building new perspectives, to developing action.

Part III: Managing Coaching in Organizations: Chapter 7, "Initiating Executive Coaching in Your Organization", is a mini handbook for managing a successful Executive Coaching program within an organization, from screening and matching coaches to measuring results. Chapter 8, "Executive Coaching and Business Strategy", focuses on moving from the personal to the broader organizational picture; and linking a variety of coaching frameworks to the business. This chapter provides another piece that could go into a handbook for managing a successful Executive Coaching program. I find that linking Executive Coaching with business strategy is challenging and this chapter only scratches the surface. Chapter 9, "Using Executive Coaching in Organizations", focuses on the hard lessons learned (mistakes) and covers a wide range of situations from both the client and the coach's perspectives. Chapter 10, "Coaching from the Inside", is another mini handbook for managing a successful Executive Coaching program within an organization only using coaches who are employees of the organization.

Part IV: Executive Coaching Issues: Chapter 11, "On seeing the Forest While Among the Trees", addresses the need to blend interpersonal skills and management skills, and to relate it to strategy. Included is a limited discussion of what constitutes "strategy" and strategic thinking. I particularly liked the inclusion of being creative and adaptive, along with being able to effectively navigate, as characteristics of strategic thinking. Chapter 12, "Love and Fear in Executive Coaching", offers some unique views from both the coach and the client's perspectives. Issues covered include control, the need for certainty, and the power of language in influencing others. Many of the issues are covered in other chapters, however, the author takes a sensitive approach with a strong focus on the awareness of fear and exercising authority (again, from the client and the coach's perspectives) based on love, delight, trust, and joy. Chapter 13, "Failure and Negative Outcomes", provides key factors contributing to failure and negative coaching outcomes - both in clients and in coaches, with emphasis on the need for awareness. This chapter goes deeper than the lessons learned in chapter 9, in that the author reflects upon several failed coaching engagements.

Part V: Special Coaching Situations: Chapter 14, "The Isolated Executive", is addressed from a Jungian perspective. Useful strategies are provided for dealing with Extraversion and Introversion particularly when being at odds with extraverted or introverted individuals or organizational culture. Chapter 15, "Coaching Entrepreneurs", addresses "the dramatic transition toward professional management (increasingly systematic procedures and more formalized structures);" and how this is at odds with an entrepreneurial executive who used to living and controlling chaos. I recently consulted with an entrepreneurial executive, and interviewed his subordinates, and I found this chapter to be very informative. It effectively addresses what is needed for a powerful executive to move from an extraordinarily successful doer and manager to a leader. Chapter 16, "Coaching Across Countries and Cultures", starts off with a lovely Chinese saying - "A frog in a well only sees his piece of the sky." The authors suggest that differences in perspective can be substantial and challenging even when coaching takes place within a single national culture, and that coaching across cultures can be especially complex. I found this to be a significant chapter in that it starts to address the concept of cultural views and worldviews.

I highly recommend this book to anyone involved with coaching and executive development. In addition, it offers many insights to any organizational change consultant wishing to search deeper in the psyche of an organization. Many organizations, and individuals, are struggling to find ways of breaking free of traditional thinking and modes of operation to enhance continuous learning. At a minimum, these insights may help forge better partnerships with clients and help facilitate greater awareness, reflection, and ultimately learning.

REFERENCES

Heckler, R. (1993), The Anatomy of Change, North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA

Heller, S. (1994), Retooling on the Run: Real Change for Leaders with No Time, Frog Ltd., Berkeley, CA

Isaacs, W. (1993), Taking Flight: Dialogue, Collective Thinking, and Organizational Learning, Organizational Dynamics Fall 1993, Vol. 22 #2, pp 24-39

Senge, P. (1999), The Dance of Change, Doubleday, New York, NY