In many books these strategies are grouped under one heading, executive coaching. However, the term executive may not be appropriate, for the strategies we will describe and explore in this book encompass not only the coaching work with men and women who are in formal positions of leadership in an organization, but also the work with other members of an organization who seek out or find themselves in position of leadership under conditions of complexity, unpredictability and turbulence. Those who head committees on a local school board or who are Distinguished Engineers in a software company – with no direct authority over others—are leaders to whom people look up. A finance professional who takes the responsibility to raise attention about ethical conflicts is a leader, as is the supervisor who must inform a subordinate of his unsatisfactory performance. These people, along with formal titular leaders, must perform, make many decisions, and align values in meeting their civic or professional responsibilities.
Conclusions
This book describes ways in which each of these leaders, formal and informal, can best be supported by organizational coaching. We will use the terms executive, administrator or manager when describing work with those in formal leadership positions—but will in most instances use the much more broadly-defined term leader (or client). Another implication of the term executive coaching as it is used in the literature is that it describes a triangular relationship. In that sense, we agree that all organizational coaching has to satisfy both the interests of the sponsoring organization and those of the individual being coached. Numerous return-on-investment (ROI) studies (for example, Schlosser, et al., 2007) are highlighting the impact of effective coaching on factors like performance, team climate, retention, innovation, strategic thinking and, ultimately, the financial bottom line.
Such organizational benefits are corollaries to the personal development and growth experienced by the individual leader being coached. The three interlocking gears on our book cover are a reminder of this—one of the greatest challenges and distinctions in organizational coaching: the triangular stakeholder configuration. The number of stakeholders involved can even grow in certain cases, when boards, communities or public bodies are involved in the successful outcome of a coaching assignment.
