Anthony M. Grant

Executive coaching enhances goal attainment, resilience and workplace well-being: a randomised controlled study

In a randomised controlled study, 41 executives in a public health agency received 360-degree feedback, a half-day leadership workshop, and four individual coaching sessions over 10 weeks. The coaching used a cognitive-behavioural solution-focused approach. Quantitative and qualitative measures were taken. This is the first published randomised controlled study in which coaching was conducted by professional executive coaches external to the organisation. Compared to controls, coaching enhanced goal attainment, increased resilience and workplace well-being and reduced depression and stress. Qualitative responses indicated participants found coaching helped increase self-confidence and personal insight, build management skills and helped participants deal with organisational change. Findings indicate that short-term coaching can be effective, and that evidence-based executive coaching can be valuable as an applied positive psychology in helping people deal with the uncertainly and challenges inherent in organisational change. Practical impactions are discussed and recommendations are made for the effective measurement of coaching outcomes.

Cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused life coaching: Enhancing goal striving, well-being, and hope

Research is in its infancy in the newly emerging field of coaching psychology. This study examined the effects of a 10-week cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused life coaching group programme. Participants were randomly allocated to a life coaching group programme (n = 28) or a waitlist control group (n = 28). Participation in the life coaching group programme was associated with significant increases in goal striving, well-being and hope, with gains maintained up to 30 weeks later on some variables. Hope theory may explain such positive outcomes. Life coaching programmes that utilize evidence-based techniques may provide a framework for further research on psychological processes that occur in non-clinical populations who wish to make purposeful change and enhance their positive psychological functioning.

Professional and peer life coaching and the enhancement of goal striving and well-being: An exploratory study

Few studies have investigated the impact of life coaching on self-regulated behavior and well-being. A limitation of past studies has been their reliance on peer rather than professional coaches. The present randomized controlled study compared peer with professional life coaching over a 10-week period with 63 participants. Results indicated that, compared to peer coachees and controls, coachees of professional coaches were more engaged in the coaching process, had greater goal commitment and progression, and greater well-being in terms of environmental mastery; other facets of well-being did not change. The results suggest that the presence of a supportive person may be a necessary but insufficient condition for enhancing goal striving and highlight the importance of expertise in coaching. Recommendations are made for future research and for using life coaching as a methodology for applied positive psychology.

Personal life coaching for coaches-in-training enhances goal attainment, insight and learning

Abstract Evidence-based approaches to coach training and education are vital if the coaching industry is to continue to mature. Drawing on past research on mandatory personal therapy for therapists-in-training, this paper reports a qualitative and quantitative within-subject exploration of the impact of compulsory participation in a personal life coaching program for coaches-in-training. Twenty-nine coaches-in-training set personal goals and completed a 10 to 12 week, five-session, solution-focused cognitive-behavioural personal coaching program. Three sessions were face-to-face, two by telephone. Following each coaching session the coach and the coachee independently completed a structured reflection exercise. Participation in the program was associated with reduced anxiety, increased goal attainment, enhanced cognitive hardiness and higher levels of personal insight. Participants also had higher end-of-semester marks as compared to a cohort that did not participate in the intensive personal coaching program. There was no change in participants’ levels of psychological well-being.

The integration of mindfulness training and health coaching: An exploratory study

Abstract Coaching has attracted much attention from health professionals interested in collaborative, person-centred approaches to motivating behaviour change. Whilst initial research supports the efficacy of coaching in health contexts, more theoretical and empirical work is needed. Based on recent work demonstrating the important role that mindfulness plays in self-regulation, it was hypothesised that the efficacy of health coaching could be enhanced through the inclusion of Mindfulness Training (MT). To test this, 45 adult were randomly assigned to three health programmes for eight weeks. Using a crossover design, two groups received an alternative delivery of MT and cognitive-behavioural, solution-focused (CB-SF) coaching, whilst the third group participated in a series of health education seminars. Results showed that goal attainment was significantly greater in the facilitative/coaching format than the educative/directive format. No significant differences were found for goal attainment between the two MT/CB-SF conditions suggesting that the delivery sequence had little bearing on outcomes. After reviewing the results, the implications for health professionals are discussed.

Coaching expatriate managers for success: Adding value beyond training and mentoring

This paper explores the potential of evidence-based executive coaching as an intervention for facilitating expatriate success. One-to-one professional coaching is proposed as a powerful supplement to two interventions that have traditionally been used to assist expatriate managers – training and mentoring. Coaching is likely to be effective with expatriate managers because, like the expatriate experience itself, it is a connected process that impacts interactively across the individual’s affective, behavioural and cognitive domains. Coaches can work with individuals to deal with their specific contexts, taking into account the complexity of the circumstances. It can also assist managers to take full advantage of training and mentoring programs. Evidence-based coaching informed by cross-cultural research and experience has the potential to improve work performance and the personal satisfaction of the expatriate manager. Its effectiveness would seem to be currently dependent, however, on the availability and deployment of suitably qualified and experienced coaches.

The Efficacy of Executive Coaching in Times of Organisational Change

Abstract Executive coaching is often used in times of organisational change to help executives develop the psychological and behavioural skills needed to focus on reaching their work-related goals whilst simultaneously dealing with the turbulence associated with organisational change. Despite its widespread use, little research has explored the impact of executive coaching during periods of organisational change. This within-subject study used both quantitative and qualitative measures to explore the impact of executive coaching during a period of organisational change on 31 executives and managers from a global engineering consulting organisation. Participation in the coaching was associated with increased goal attainment, enhanced solution-focused thinking, a greater ability to deal with change, increased leadership self-efficacy and resilience, and decrease in depression. The positive impact of coaching generalised to non-work areas such as family life. Recommendations are made for the measurement and design of executive coaching programmes.

From GROW to GROUP: theoretical issues and a practical model for group coaching in organisations

Abstract Despite considerable organisational development research and practice suggesting that interventions in organisations should also be targeted at the group level, most organisational coaching is dyadic (one-to-one) and few models of group coaching have been developed. In Part I of this paper we present an introductory overview of group coaching and compare it to other group-based interventions. We distinguish between the goal-focused nature of group coaching and the process-orientation of group facilitation, and posit that group coaching has important but under-used potential as a means of creating goal-focused change in organisational contexts. In Part II of this paper we address practice issues and we present a practical model of GROUP (Goal, Reality, Options, Understanding others, Perform) coaching that integrates the well-known GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Way forward) coaching framework with Scharmas U process for group dialogue, double loop learning and other theoretically-grounded practices. From a practitioners perspective, we draw on the extant literature, we compare group coaching to other team and group-based interventions. Although precisely distinguishing between different group-based change modalities is difficult, we argue that group coaching is a more goal directed process than group facilitation, and that group coaching has important but under-used potential as a means of creating change in organizational contexts.

The differential effects of solution‐focused and problem‐focused coaching questions: a pilot study with implications for practice

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the differential effects of problem-focused and solution-focused coaching questions by means of a literature overview and results of an exploratory pilot study. Design/methodology/approach – In a problem-focused coaching session 39 participants complete a range of measures assessing self-efficacy, their understanding of a problem, positive and negative affect, and goal approach. They then respond to a number of problem-focused coaching questions, and then complete a second set of measures. The 35 participants in a solution-focused session complete a mirror image of the problem-focused condition, responding to solution-focused coaching questions, including the ‘‘Miracle Question’’. Findings – Both the problem-focused and the solution-focused conditions are effective at enhancing goal approach. However, the solution-focused group experience significantly greater increases in goal approach compared with the problem-focused group. Problem-focused questions reduce negative affect and increase self-efficacy but do not increase understanding of the nature of the problem or enhance positive affect. The solution-focused approach increases positive affect, decreases negative affect, increases self-efficacy as well as increasing participants’ insight and understanding of the nature of the problem. Practical implications – Solution-focused coaching questions appear to be more effective than problem-focused questions. Although real-life coaching conversations are not solely solution-focused or solely problem-focused, coaches should aim for a solution-focused theme in their coaching work, if they wish to conduct effective goal-focused coaching sessions that develop a depth of understanding, build self-efficacy, reduce negative affect, increase positive affect and support the process of goal attainment.

ROI is a poor measure of coaching success: towards a more holistic approach using a well-being and engagement framework

In this article, it is argued that financial return on investment (ROI) is an unreliable and insufficient measure of coaching outcomes, and that an over-emphasis on financial returns can restrict coaches’ and organisations’ awareness of the full range of positive outcomes possible through coaching. Furthermore, poorly targeted coaching interventions that myopically focus on maximising financial returns may actually inadvertently increase job-related stress and anxiety. The well-being and engagement framework (WBEF) is presented as an example of a potential approach for evaluating the impact of coaching in organisational settings that can give a richer overview of coaching outcomes than financial ROI. Although financial ROI may well be an attractive metric for some managers and organisations, it is proposed that frameworks such as the WBEF and goal attainment can provide a far more comprehensive and meaningful metric than financial ROI.