Book Review: Executive Coaching: A Practitioner’s Guide to Creating Excellence

In this book ‘Executive Coaching: A Practitioners Guide to creating excellence’, the author, Prof. Sunil Unni Gupta infuses new insights in the techniques employed in executive coaching. In other words equipping the trainers with additional model upgraded skills in the training so that corporate professionals exposed to this new pedagogy become competent enough to choose the right strategic shift in their professional careers and lives if so desired.

In Chapter 1 the author highlights specialized coaching for executives has undergone a rapid transformation, a substantial progress from the 1980s when executive coaching even in the west was the exclusive domain of the human resource department of an organization and more remedial in nature.

Today coaching has evolved from being mere therapeutic and counseling in nature to more issue based—thereby enhancing present performance in progressing towards a future goal. In this pursuit the coach can never be in contradiction to the coachee and must win the latter’s confidence to begin with.

Chapter 2 deals with various theories which familiarize the reader to executive coaching. These theories range from well-known established psycho dynamic approach which has considerably progressed from the Freudian concept of psycho analysis to several clusters and theories that connect the human mind to its behaviour. Next is the behavioural approach in corporate organizations with problem solving techniques of psycho therapy. New approaches or methods of the transactional analysis of individual in a connected world is important to the Ontological study of the human being and reality are all mentioned in a very objective manner. At the end of the chapter he highlights very precisely the role of the manager as a coach with the subordinate in the development as an integral part of the managerial responsibility which naturally brings into focus the features of team coaching etc.

It is from Chapter 3 the author begins in a structured method of the processes involved in an executive coaching. As he says the coach should plan his function which should differ significantly from the earlier method of just mentoring. He must be more purpose driven and the author from his vast experience and exposure to such training must very specifically chart out a structure for the coach which he aptly titled as ‘preparing for the spring boat kick of session’. The successive chapter familiarizes with the propose to the imparted. Before the kick of session the author very prudently suggests that the coach should evaluate his own preparedness for such case sensitive study and he has provided a comprehensive checklist for the coach in self evaluation which goes as far to include the rescheduling of the time and priorities of the coach.

Chapter 5 goes further on evaluation of the coach’s personal competence and capabilities which are natural corollaries to his maturity and wisdom based on integrity commitment and of course most importantly emotional fortitude. It is not easy to be an executive coach as the author points outs that in his rendition or execution skills, he should also be a communication basket comprising of transaction of information with the outside world.

In Chapter 6 he equips the coach with various tools beginning from the learning inventory to the questionnaire. The above mentioned tools help the coach to evaluate the coachee in terms of personality, attitude capability skills as his own judgment which predetermine the model and the necessary tool the coach must engage in dealing with his coachee.

After introducing the various techniques and tools of coaching, the author mentions issues confronting executive coaching. A coach should be impassionate and impersonal and should try not to pass their own unfulfilled plans or life script to the coachee. The agenda will always be gray or unclear as the entire exercise is conducted in a mutual learning environment. There can never be a predetermined goal or score to be achieved. Therefore, a sense of ‘egalitarian equality’ prevails between the two whereby the coach with his deft handling introduces a more effective real life environment than his prevailing coaching environment.

So far the author has dwelt on the coach–coachee relationship on an individual capacity. From Chapter 8 the author brings into focus the role of the coach in team building in an organization. The culture of an organization is of utmost importance in pre-determining its practices which are generally an amalgam of its shared expectations, practices, experiences and norms within the organization based on the values, beliefs and attitudes of the stakeholders.

The author mentions that in order to introduce executive coaching culture in a organization one must have the tacit approval and encouragement from the senior management and the best practice would be ideally a member of senior management as a coach from time to time. This should enhance the characteristics that competition should always be performance driven and not personal driven which should further be based on the tenets of transparency, sincerity, authenticity and above all, laced with a sense of organizational loyalty.

In Chapter 9 he highlights the importance of human resource function in talent management. It becomes all the more imperative that the HR department entrusted with the responsibility to react to the requirements of the organizations for future and also strategize the requirements needed.

In general the approach to executive coaching is well covered starting from the field of psychology to arriving at a solution from a practitioner’s point of view to psycho dynamic level. This is largely due to the author’s conviction based on his experience in corporate consulting in close association with CEOs. Ultimately the success of any corporate or a unit depends on the relationship of individuals in an organization to cohesively deliver the results in achieving organizational objectives. As he confidently feels a coach must share, guide but never show the tendency to boss around. The concept is further supported and enumerated by the author through caselets.

However, the author’s assumption that behavioural corrections of the person being coached will happen during the process may not be an easy task for any coach. The author’s use of techniques in dealing with transference is interesting in exploring the thought dynamic process of the person being coached. Cognitive behavioural approach which is in fact contemporary and used widely nowadays is however briefly covered by the author. If it was explained by more models it would have added more insights to this approach. Although the author has explained the whole process starting from Spring Board, Protocol Exploration and Analysis before setting goals and milestones and review mechanism through a simple diagram it is not that easy to achieve with frequent changes in top management of the organization. The new leader is likely to bring his or her thinking and process under the guise of Change Management. The learning style inventory especially the Converger, Diverger, Assimilator, and Accommodator approach is interesting. However, the 360 degree feedback may not be the best case always if the whole organization is not sponsoring the same whole heartedly. It is also noted, that the 360 degree feedback mechanism which was used in some of the multinationals landed into problems as it was not purely used for developmental purpose.

On the whole this book is useful for practitioners as it will surely help the executive coach who will be a great enabler in guiding the person being coached to find solutions to problems thereby implying the coach also learns while helping others to learn.