Executive Coaching: Building and Managing Your Professional Practice

Citation

Grenier, R.S. (2009), "Executive Coaching: Building and Managing Your Professional Practice", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 33 No. 4, pp. 381-382. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590910959326

Book synopsis

Executive Coaching: Building and Managing Your Professional Practice attempts to fill a gap in existing executive coaching (EC) literature by offering a “practical guide” ideal for novices interested in become executive coaches. The author endeavors to cover all aspects of EC and dedicates a large portion of the book to tools for starting out and building an EC practice including bulleted lists, reflective questions, checklists, guidelines, and matrices.

The author begins with an overview of EC including definitions, competencies, and types of coaching and leads to the question of whether EC is the right career choice for the reader. Chapter 2 offers the reader a practical approach to answering the question presented in Chapter 1 through the use of a self‐assessment, 360‐degree survey, and professional development plan template.

With a foundation in the reader's readiness to take on the demands of EC based on the results of exercises in Chapter 2, the remaining chapters (Chapters 3‐6) provide details for creating and sustaining an EC practice. Chapter 3 outlines the need for creating a value proposition and marketing strategies. The reader is encourages to define his or her target market and incorporate networking and consultative sales through a variety of approaches including the internet, direct mail, publishing, and presentations. In Chapter 4, Stern specifies what he calls the “building blocks” of an EC practice, namely the coaching network; toolbox; office infrastructure; coaching project management system; professional and peer supervision; research and publication; and service to the community. Chapter 5 explains how the reader can transition from an existing discipline, such as organizational development, into EC and how to build upon the strengths and barriers gained from prior careers. The last chapter is a review of the prior five chapters and offers a plan the reader can complete to document the development of an EC practice or for managing the supervision of coaches.

Besides the six chapters, the book also contains an appendix that provides an array of resources useful in the creation of an EC practice. Stern includes a listing of book titles, journals, websites, and professional organizations that support the work of executive coaches as they build and run their practice.

Evaluation

Based on over 30 years experience as an executive coach, Stern relies heavily on his own expertise and opinion to inform the reader. The book lacks empirical support and theory from the field of executive coaching to lay a foundation for the advice and exercises offered by Stern. Moreover, the self‐assessment and 360‐degree survey that set the basis for the reader considering a career change are not validated instruments, and instead are offered as a way to “gain greater awareness of a set of core coaching competencies identified by a group of experts […]” (p.29).

With a heavy reliance on bulleted lists, guidelines, and exercises, the workbook structure provides ideas in executive coaching to think about, but often these ideas are not followed‐up with explanations or implications for the reader's responses. For example, the self‐assessment provided in Chapter 2 is nearly 23 pages long, but only four pages apply the assessment to practical considerations and those pages are boiled down to three fill‐in‐the‐blank activities and three pages of strategies displayed in bulleted lists.

Although somewhat predictable and watered down, this how‐to book may offer novices a supplement of practical suggestions, strategies, and methods for establishing an executive coaching practice.

In the author's own words

An executive coach is like an athlete or surgeon. If you decide to play professional baseball, you'll begin by determining if you have what it takes to make the cut. You'll focus on the position you will play. And you'll get feedback. If you don't know what you're good at, you won't be able to make the most of your strengths and correct your weaknesses. You can compete and perform to your potential only by developing self‐awareness, using your strengths, and improving continuously […] Professional executive coaches must go through a similar process of general to specialized training and development (p. 27).

Reviewer's details

Robin S. Grenier is an Assistant Professor of Adult Learning in the Department of Educational Leadership at the University of Connecticut. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia and has worked as a high school English teacher and a training and educational consultant for school districts and non‐profit organizations. Dr Grenier's research interests include expertise development, informal and experiential learning, museums as sources of adult learning, and qualitative inquiry. Robin S. Grenier can be contacted at: robin.grenier@uconn.edu