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1. Reinventing Executive Coaching
to Accelerate Leadership Development
David B. Peterson, PhD
david.peterson.phd@gmail.com
15 November, 2013
Congresso Brasileiro de Coaching
Sao Paulo, Brasil
Copyright © 2013, David B. Peterson, PhD. All Rights Reserved.

2. Executive Coaching
Reinventing

To remake or redo
completely

How do we equip coaches to
dramatically accelerate leader
development, and to foster
leaders who can transform
organizations and the world?

How do we manage coaching
for the greatest individual,
organizational, & societal
impact?

How do we stay ahead of the
accelerating pace of change?
To make as if for the
first time something
already invented


To replace with an
entirely new version

3. Executive Coaching 2.0

Coaching is not going away



However, it needs to stay ahead of the pace of change,
which requires a lot of thought, energy and commitment
Changing faster than the pace of change around us does not
require working harder or running faster: it requires a change of
paradigm and perspective
My intention is very positive:


How do we make coaching significantly better to increase
value to coaches, leaders, organization, the world?
If we don‘t continue to question ourselves and advance our
practice, how can we remain effective at what we do and be
compelling role models of transformational development?

4. Three threads

My own journey: Faster, better cheaper, more
rewarding

Working at Google

My beliefs and models have been expanded
 Interviewing over 250 external coaches

Observing how leadership and the needs of leaders
are changing

5. What is the future of coaching?
Do you want the optimistic view or
the pessimistic view?

6. What is the future of coaching?
Continued diminishment of what it
means to be a professional coach.
More people calling themselves a
coach who don’t fit our definition.
Coaching associations will continue to
be irrelevant to the people who call
themselves coaches.
Take it out a bit farther and coaching
is just another skill in anyone’s
toolbox.
David Goldsmith (2010)

7. Market signals (Internal)
More coaches available

Capable coaches in every market; fewer globe-trotting coaches

Commoditization of coaching, esp. mid-level

Organizations bringing coaching internal for scalability – and upgrading
quality
More competitive marketplace

Excess of proprietary models with little real differentiation

Efforts to band together and protect the field; certification, competencies
Many comfortable, happy coaches

―I love what I do. I love coaching smart, motivated people. They‘re the
best clients. They‘re so easy to work with.‖

Coaches searching for cool new tools, not ways to rethink how they work

8. Disruptive forces (External)

Technology

Physiological monitoring and real-time feedback
 Apps for learning and development

Self-directed learning

Leaders learning how to learn
 Instant access to resources and tools

9. ―As evolutionary biologists have taught us, the more
adapted (i.e., comfortable) you are in your current
environment, the less likely it is that you‘ll be
adaptive to environmental changes.‖
David Maister (1997, p. 158)

10. What matters now
(Hamel, 2012)
The world is becoming
more turbulent faster than
most organizations are
becoming more resilient.
What are the implications
for leaders and for their
coaches?

11. Reinventing Executive Coaching
You have to train yourself to look in the places that you don‘t
understand. Because that‘s where the problem is likely to be.
— Phil Schultz, HP GM, August, 2001 —
We must dare to think unthinkable thoughts. We must learn to
explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a
complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome
and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think
about unthinkable things because when things become
unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.
— J. William Fulbright —

12. Leadership & leaders
are changing

13. The Development Pipeline
(Peterson, 2006)
INSIGHT
Do people
know what
to
develop?
MOTIVATION
Are they
willing to
invest the
time and
energy it
takes?
CAPABILITIES
Do they
have the
capabilities
they need?
REALWORLD
PRACTICE
Do they
have
opportunitie
s to apply
their
capabilities
at work?
ACCOUNTABILITY
Do they
internalize their
capabilities
and feel
accountable to
actually improve
performance
and results?

14. Leadership development:
Complex & changing
 Insight:
Constantly changing: Roles, environment, success
factors, audience (therefore perceptions), etc.
 Motivation:
Increasing, but still a tough sell on any given new
skill; overload, fads, conflicting demands…
 Capabilities:
Totally new capabilities and challenges emerge;
sustainability, networked leadership, design thinking
 RWP:
More opportunity, but increased demands leave less time
to experiment and reflect
 Accountability:
development
Focused on performance and results, not

15. Leadership and the fate of organizations
(Kaiser, Hogan & Craig 2008)
Leaders actually make a difference in the fate
of organizations: Success, mediocrity, or
failure:

―research on managerial succession over
the last 20 years has consistently found a
relationship between who is in charge and
organizational performance‖ (p. 103)
But we know little about what actually makes a difference

―leadership research often focuses on how leaders are
perceived and tells us little about leading effective
teams‖ (p. 102)

16. Leadership and the fate of organizations
(Kaiser, Hogan & Craig 2008)
―the characteristics associated with career
success are not the same as those
associated with leading a team to success‖
(p. 102)

―Managers are rarely chosen on the basis of
their talent for leadership‖

―are promoted on the basis of their skill at
managing impressions, not their skill at
leading‖

―CEO charisma predicted level of pay but
not firm performance‖

―Thus, although charismatic CEOs transform
their personal wealth, modest and persistent
CEOs with a talent for leadership transform
lackluster organizations into effective
competitors.‖ (p. 103)

17. Average CEO performance declines
after a few years (Luo, Kanuri, & Andrews, 2013)
For average CEO, after 4.8 years:

Shareholder returns and product quality diminish
 Employee tenure and benefits improve
Their hypothesis? New CEOs:

Seek diverse information from employees and customers
 Are willing to take risks and try new things
Over time, CEOs:

Become entrenched and attached to status quo
 Seek to avoid loss rather than pursue gains

18. The new leadership context
(Duke Corporate Education, 2013 CEO study)

The world is more interdependent

Challenges are less predictable
3.
Problems are multi-dimensional (rather than uni-dimensional)
Authority has shifted from control to influence
Second-order change is required (rather than first order)
4.
Challenges are emergent: Unknown, unpredictable
1.
2.

Knowledge is less reliable
1.
2.
3.
4.
Access to knowledge is uncontrollable
Shelf-life is low
Tacit knowledge as important as explicit knowledge
Systemic knowledge is critical to understanding and solving
problems

19. Leadership capabilities for the new context
(Duke Corporate Education, 2013 CEO study)
1.
Understand how to understand
2.
Develop new sources of reliable knowledge and
information
3.
Develop the ability to grapple and ‗grok‘ (figure things
out)
4.
Learn to lead through successive approximation
5.
Build and influence collectives
6.
Broaden systemic self-awareness
7.
Engage the organization in the ―new rational‖

20. Reinventing coaching
Faster* than the pace of change
* Faster because we are working smarter, not merely running faster…

21. Seven paths forward
1. True professionalism: Dedication to clients and doing
great work that makes a difference
2. Savvy consumers
3. Deep insight into mechanisms of development
4. Faster, better, cheaper, more rewarding
5. Address accelerating complexity and other emerging
leadership development needs
6. Leverage human-technology interface
7. Manage full portfolio of coaching & development
resources for greatest value

22. 1. True professionalism
(Maister, 1997)
Dedicated to clients, do great work that makes a difference
Dedicated to self-development and improvement
Put client needs and interests first, including opportunity cost

―the ethical and professional thing to do… is to work hard to achieve the
client‘s goals at the minimum possible cost to the client on each transaction.‖
(Maister, 1997, italics his)

―I like working with people for at least a year or two, because I can really have an
impact.‖

―I prefer to do 8-10 360 interviews because it helps me understand the whole
context of what they need to work on.‖ (8 hours + 4 hours integration + 4 hours
written report)

―Shadowing the client is important so you can really see people in action and give
them real-time feedback.‖

23. 2. Savvy consumers
Equipping them to understand their own role in selfdevelopment and how to benefit from coaching
Better consumer education: ―I‘m a surgeon‖
How to find the right coach for the need… Four kinds
of coaches

24. Different coaches address different needs
(Peterson, 2010)
Insight
Focus
Motivation
Capabilities
Real-world
Practice
Accountability
Type of coach
Approach
1. Feedback
coaches
360/multirater, feedbackintensive coaches, some
psychologists
360 feedback
Assessment and interviews
Development plan
2. Insight +
Accountability
coaches
Personal/life coaches, trusted
advisors, follow-up coaches,
some internal coaches
 What are you trying to do?
 What‘s important to you?
 Did you do it? How did it go?
3. Content
coaches
Former business leaders,
mentors, gurus, content
experts, academics, authors,
sports coaches
 Focused on capabilities
 Lots of advice and ideas,
 Experts
 Individually customized
 Putting ideas into action
 Equip leaders to be better
4. Development
coaches
(experts on
learning)
on how to accelerate
and apply learning
 Work across entire
Development Pipeline
not
necessarily skill-building
learners

25. 3. Deep insight into mechanisms of change
Better understanding of psychology of human behavior, motivation,
performance, etc. (Peterson, 2010)
Better coaching research, e.g., side-by-side comparison: What
approaches work best, for whom, for what needs, what circumstances?
Focus on the ends, not just the means

It‘s not about being a good listener or asking powerful questions, it‘s about
meeting the client where they are and helping them through the most
appropriate tools available
Best options to address mediating elements (motivation, capabilities,
accountability; Peterson 2010). E.g., Insight:





Systematically analyze successful vs. not-successful colleagues
Self-awareness, observation, reflection, introspection
Compare self to best and worst leader you know – what do you have in common?
Personal mission and vision, values
User Guide to Me

26. The uncoachable
(Goldsmith, 2009)
1.
She doesn't think she has a problem
2.
He is pursuing the wrong strategy for the organization
3.
They're in the wrong job
4.
They think everyone else is the problem

27. Lore’s coachability index
(Bacon & Spears, 2004)

28. Coachability or coach ability?

The ―uncoachable‖ are often the people who need
coaching the most

Some coaches can coach successfully on these
challenges



There is great value in coaching the ―uncoachable‖


28
The right type of coach for the need
The right experience and expertise, e.g., some expert coaches
are well-qualified to work with narcissistic, defensive, distrustful,
and difficult people (Ludeman & Erlandson, 2004; Mansi, 2009)
High-visibility success for coaches
Even incremental improvement often has real value; moving
from unacceptable to barely acceptable

29. Developing coaching maturity
(Clutterbuck, 2010)


Frequently try out new ideas in coaching, with clients as
partners in learning

Individual and collective reflection on those
experiments, engaging clients and colleagues in
thinking about how tools work in practice

29
Seek wide exposure to different philosophies and
perspectives of coaching and related disciplines
Cultivate a deep honesty about one‘s own motivation in
learning and about how and why we select new areas
of knowledge to explore

30. Enhancing our own vertical development,
maturity, and cognitive complexity (Cavanagh, 2013)
1.
Perspective-taking capacity

2.
Purpose

3.
The pattern of commitments (i.e., desires, values, hopes, fears and
responsibilities) that give meaning to human activity. Rather than a clear
end state, purpose can be thought of as the set of criteria by which one
judges the degree to which something of value has been achieved.
Mindfulness

4.
Capacity to understand, critically consider and integrate multiple competing
perspectives into comprehensive perspective that enables adaptive action.
A motivated state of decentred awareness brought about by receptive
attending to present moment experience.
Positivity

The quality of interaction needed to develop shared perspectives &
purpose.

31. 4. Faster, better, cheaper, more rewarding
Equip people to be better learners

Development FIRST (Peterson & Hicks, 1995)
Attitude of experimentation and innovation


Practice Aikido using only one hand (Mastery, Leonard, 1992)
Practice coaching without providing feedback or asking
questions
Better matching of coach and approach to the real need
A little more humility

We‘re not that big a deal. We over-estimate our own contribution to
success and under-value luck, timing, fortune.

E.g., Gladwell‘s Outliers (2008), Taleb‘s (2012) randomness and
selecting on the dependent variable

32. 5. Address accelerating complexity and
other emerging leadership development needs
Understand how leadership is changing better than our
clients (Denning, 2013; Hamel, 2012)
Understand what really contributes to leadership
performance and effectiveness (Collins & Hansen, 2011; Kaiser,
Hogan, & Craig, 2008)
Develop better tools, techniques and models to
accelerate development of leadership maturity, cognitive
complexity (Bachkirova, 2010, 2012; Cavanagh & Lane, 2012)
Help leaders build and lead more robust, viable
organizations (Collins & Hansen, 2011; Taleb, 2012)

33. 6. Leverage human-technology interface
What is uniquely human, interpersonal vs. what can be
automated, streamlined?


Paying attention to people, caring?
Being disruptive and challenging and interesting and novel?
How do we maximize the value of the human touch?


In-person vs. phone-based coaching
Videoconferencing
Incorporate technology, e.g., biophysical monitoring,
apps, learning tools and resources,
Incorporate social and gaming aspects of development

34. 7. Manage full portfolio of coaching &
development resources for greatest value
What‘s the best way for this person to develop specific
capabilities, perspectives, character, maturity, wisdom?
When is coaching ideal vs. just useful?
Integrated, holistic development offerings: Where does
coaching add something essential to lessons of
experience and development programs?
Aligned with HR processes (talent reviews, org surveys,
performance reviews)
Truly customized – diverse providers to meet unique
needs

35. 7. Manage full portfolio of coaching &
development resources for greatest value
Strategically build and manage portfolio of scalable
coaching resources across the whole spectrum







Internal professional coaches: complex, nuanced,
confidential
External coaches
Internal trained coaching resources
HR business partners
Managers
Mentors
Peers and colleagues

36. The End...
…Or just the beginning of the journey??
It does not matter how
slowly you go as long
as you do not stop.
— Confucius —