Authentic Leadership Journeys

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

1 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’

2 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).

3 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 multi- dimensional, 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

Incisive questions Dubitation Restoration Metaphor

Challenge

Propose conceptualisations

Create space

Excavation Silence Materialisation

Hold moments

An Executive Coaching Process

4 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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Bono, J. Purvanova, R. Trowler, A. Peterson, E. (2009) A Survey of Executive Coaching Practices. Personnel Psychology, 62(2), pp: 361–404.

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