Unfortunately, executive coaching is often viewed as an effort to “fix” leaders, but that doesn’t actually work.
We’ve coached thousands of leaders and we know that a problem-focused approach typically creates a defensive and unengaged response from the leader, and no real progress. Instead, Boda coaches help leaders understand how they are operating today, create a vision for how they want to operate in the future, and build the capabilities to lead more effectively.
Richard Boyatzis at Case Western Reserve University is a psychologist and also a trained and certified executive coach. He and his colleagues have spent more than 20 years researching the science behind effective coaching methods and impact of executive coaching.
Many years ago, Boyatzis developed a theory of intentional change, which explains that in order to improve and achieve meaningful and sustained change, leaders need to take four steps:
- Build a positive vision of the future.
- Understand their current situation—what’s true today.
- Develop a learning map to get from today to the future.
- Experiment with and practice new behaviors that will lead from today to the future state.
This is exactly what happens in effective executive coaching with an experienced coach.
Here are a few more terrific resources on Boyatzis and his colleagues’ work that explain the research on the impact of coaching:
- An HBR article on how coaches help people create change.
- A podcast: What Great Coaching Looks Like.
- One of Boyatzis’s many research papers on the impact of coaching.
- A video of Boyatzis teaching at class around his change theory and how coaching helps leaders create meaningful change.(We recommend in particular watching from ~46:00 through ~52:00 to understand why feedback alone can actually do more damage than good!)
We’d love to talk with you about how Boda executive coaches can help you and/or your leaders.
The Boda Team