Orenstein - Executive Coaching It's Not Just About The Executive

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science
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Executive Coaching: It’s Not Just about the Executive

Ruth L. Orenstein
Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 2002; 38; 355
DOI: 10.1177/0021886302038003006
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THE JOURNAL
Orenstein / EXECUTIVE
OF APPLIED
COACHING
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCESeptember 2002
Executive Coaching
It’s Not Just About the Executive
Ruth L. Orenstein
Princeton Consulting Resources
Rutgers–The State University of New Jersey
This article challenges the prevailing understanding of executive coaching as an exclu-

sively individual intervention. It discusses executive coaching as a complex and demand-
ing process that encompasses multidimensional interrelationships among the individual,
the organization, and the consultant. It presents four premises that guide the process,
including the role of the unconscious in individual and group behavior, the interaction
between the individual and the organization, multilevel organizational forces, and the
consultant’s use of self as tool. It describes and analyzes three illustrative excerpts from
actual executive coaching cases conducted by the author in the manner proposed by the
article.
The young and talented project director of a growing advertising agency takes no steps to defend
himself or his staff from the consistently abusive behavior of one of his peers. During a meeting with
his executive coach, the director discovers why.
The administrative vice president of a major research institution avoids addressing a substance abuse
problem with an employee. At the conclusion of a meeting with her coach, she is prepared to handle
it in a completely new way.
The author would like to express her gratitude to Clayton Alderfer, David Berg, and Kenwyn Smith, without
whom this article, and the work on which it is based, would not have been possible.
Ruth Orenstein is president of Princeton Consulting Resources, Inc. and a member of the visiting faculty at
the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers–The State University of New
Jersey.
THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE, Vol. 38 No. 3, September 2002 355-374
© 2002 NTL Institute
355

356 THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE September 2002
The president of a large nonprofit organization is bewildered by the continuous disputes between the
executive vice president and the latter’s subordinate, the director of operations. During a meeting
with his executive coach, the president discovers his role in perpetuating the problem.
Over the course of the last 10 years, executive coaching—a one-on-one interven-
tion with a senior manager for the purpose of improving or enhancing management
skills—has become widely adopted by the corporate community and is quickly
expanding into nonprofit and governmental sectors. Executive coaches come from a
variety of disciplines with a broad range of credentials and use a diverse array of tech-
niques in service of improving the performance of the managers with whom they work
(Judge & Cowell, 1997; Kilburg, 1996).
In view of the apparent plethora of coaches, the literature regarding this aspect of
executive development remains remarkably scarce. What does exist falls into two gen-
eral categories: (a) description of specific executive coaching methodologies by prac-
titioners in the field and (b) definition and designation of the practice.
In the first category, the majority of the methodologies are based on behavioral
approaches to help the individual to adapt to the organization. For Saporito (1996),
organizational exigencies are preeminent. He presents a process that begins with an
understanding of organizational imperatives, role success factors, and behavioral
requirements for the specific position. Adapting the individual’s behavior is accom-
plished through individual assessment, feedback, developmental planning, and imple-
mentation of the plan. Diedrich’s (1996) methodology is based on the premise that
behavior is a function of both role and personality. His process consists of defining
competencies for the position, identifying the style and social motives of the individ-
ual, and providing ongoing feedback and coaching for individual performance.
Brotman and Liberi (1998) move the primary focus back to the individual, arguing for
a psychologically based process leading to sustained behavioral change. They define
the latter as a change in behavior that is consistent even when under stress and that
results from psychological insight subsequently translated into observable behaviors.
Other practitioners take the position that the purpose of executive coaching is to
change character. Kilburg (1997) asserts that executive coaching deals with issues of
character and, concomitantly, of unconscious psychological conflict in individuals
and in the groups and organizations that they impact. He sees improving the self-
awareness of the client as the goal of executive coaching, and he proposes three major
techniques with which to accomplish it: (a) articulating problems for exploration, (b)
making the unsaid said, and (c) making the unconscious conscious. He also suggests
that creating a safe environment and approaching the rational side of the client are crit-
ical for coaching. Kaplan (1991) views a shift in character as the desired outcome of
executive coaching. Basing his work on the belief that leadership involves the whole
person—the inner as well as the outer—and that the pressures of executive-level posi-
tions discourage self-reflection, Kaplan approaches coaching through three major
vehicles: examination of how leadership reflects character, the impact of childhood
experiences, and similarities in the individual’s behavior in both work and personal
realms. An extensive interview and feedback process, followed by a defined plan for
follow-through, are at the heart of the methodology. Kiel, Rimmer, Williams, and

Orenstein / EXECUTIVE COACHING 357
Doyle (1996), sharing with Kaplan the perspective of the executive as a whole person,
use as the conceptual basis for their methodology the view that individuals are shaped
by their past, their personal lives, and their work environments. Their process consists
of extensive data collection about both the individual and the needs of the organization,
a comprehensive feedback session, and implementation and development that encom-
passes ongoing coaching, support, and feedback.
Sperry (1993) is among those who contribute to the second category of the litera-
ture. He distinguishes among three roles for those involved in interventions with indi-
vidual executives: executive consulting, an advisory function; executive counseling
and psychotherapy to address characterological issues; and executive coaching, one-
on-one skill training that does not involve deep disclosure on the part of the executive
and consequently does not require a close bond or stringent mechanisms to safeguard
confidentiality.
A number of practitioners disagree with Sperry, including Witherspoon and White
(1996). They see coaching for skills as only one in a continuum of roles within the
executive coach’s purview. They add coaching for performance, in which the client is
helped to become more effective in the current job; coaching for development, in
which the client prepares for advancement through addressing long-term developmen-
tal needs; and coaching for the executive’s agenda, in which there is comprehensive
learning in areas of organizational leadership or personal well-being, or both.
Levinson (1996) appears to agree with Witherspoon and White, arguing that coach-
ing can range from modifying negative behavior to defining role to career planning
and, when appropriate, therapeutic referral. Levinson does, however, caution that the
word “coach” be taken seriously and agrees with a distinction between psychotherapy
and coaching, advising that “executive coaching does not allow time for developing a
therapeutic alliance, dealing with the transference problem and dealing with the
ambivalence engendered when the client becomes dependent on the coach” (p. 115).
Tobias (1996) contends that the distinction between executive coaching and execu-
tive consulting or counseling is largely semantic and, if at all extant, is purely one of
focus—either on the entire organization or on the individual. He also points out that
coaching may go on within or outside of an ongoing consultation, noting that, in the
latter case, there are consequences to the inability to understand and to intervene in
systemic issues.
In my experience, most diagnoses made by executives about a “problem person” are, at best, only
partially correct. Seldom do they sufficiently account for the setting events that trigger the behav-
ior . . . Usually, the organization needs to give a little, too, by breaking down bureaucratic barriers,
providing emotional support, tolerating failures, providing sponsors and the like . . . It is essential for
the coach to keep in mind that relevant others may not only be potentially part of the solution, but
they are usually directly or indirectly part of the problem . . . In fact, perhaps the greatest danger in
doing coaching with individuals from organizations in which there is no ongoing consulting rela-
tionship is the possibility that the psychologist may inadvertently participate in the scapegoating of
an individual by an organization or by a boss who is unable to or does not want to look deeply enough
at the ways that the environment may be supporting the conditions underlying the individual’s seem-
ingly maladaptive response. (Tobias, 1996, pp. 88-89)

Tobias (1996) thus introduces into the executive coaching literature the overlap
between consulting to the individual and consulting to the organization. In doing so, he
creates an opening for a body of knowledge that, although virtually absent from the
current literature, can rightfully be called a direct antecedent. It encompasses theory
and practice that come not from psychotherapy, the apparent conceptual precursor in
the literature, but from the social systems thinking inherent in organizational psychol-
ogy. Within this discipline, three classic research projects exemplify its legacy to con-
temporary coaching methodology.
The Tremont Hotel Project (Whyte & Hamilton, 1964) was a system-wide inter-
vention within the hotel industry that transpired from 1946 to 1947. The researchers
began the project at the behest of the hotel’s general manager, who was interested in
understanding the role of human relations and the personnel function. Making exten-
sive use of interviewing and observation techniques, the researchers analyzed the
problems of the organization from multiple levels—group, intergroup, and individual.
Subsequent interventions into every department in the hotel focused on groups as the
central unit. At the conclusion of the first year, the team had accomplished six objec-
tives: (a) a new role for the personnel function that included enhanced human relations;
(b) improvement in the quality of interpersonal relations; (c) reduced labor turnover
and increased safety; (d) development of managers and supervisors, particularly in
relation to leadership in group meetings; (e) perception of improved efficiency and
productivity; and (f) transfer of the initiative to the personnel function. The fact that the
contract was not renewed was attributed to the team’s failure to address one of the most
critical aspects of the organizational problems—the individual leadership behavior of
the senior manager. Whyte retrospectively realized that he had not addressed the issue
directly because of his own timidity and his ego involvement in continuing the project.
Once the project was discontinued, however, Whyte reacted differently, and he was
startled by the result.
Having nothing to gain through holding anything back, I decided to build a main part of the report on
our analysis of Smith’s leadership style . . . I presented him with the 10 points used in analyzing his
behavior . . . Smith was so eager to get it that he locked himself in his office immediately and read it
straight through. When he called me in, it was to express enthusiasm, particularly for my analysis of
his own executive behavior. Later, he called his management group together . . . [and told them] I had
pointed out that he was the main personnel problem of the hotel and that he intended to profit from
the criticisms I had made. This response left me in a somewhat dazed condition . . . I should have
taken the initiative much earlier and confronted him in discussion with our view of his leadership
behavior and of its impact upon the organization. (pp. 177-178)
The study therefore had two ultimate conclusions, both of which have great rele-
vance to executive coaching as we know it today: (a) the explicit conclusion that there
is a direct correlation between changes in the organization and changes in key individ-
uals and (b) the implicit conclusion that the feelings and emotions of the consultant
have a powerful influence on outcomes.
The study at Claypool Furniture and Appliances (Levinson, Molinari, & Spohn,
1972) took place in 1970 at the request of its president, Robert Claypool III, who was
interested in the application of motivational concepts to strengthen the organization

for expansion and to reverse recent profit declines. Extensive data revealed a number
of problems within the company: lack of self-respect in employees, a thwarted desire
to participate in decision making, lack of feedback, lack of recognition, salary issues,
lack of training, intergroup conflict, and lack of formal lines of communication. It also
revealed a problem within its leader: Claypool was ambivalent about his role as a
paternalistic father figure in the tradition of his grandfather, the founder of Claypool,
and his desire to be a competent executive concerned with the performance of the busi-
ness. The researchers made a number of recommendations regarding improved prac-
tices but reached a single conclusion: “The prognosis for the organization hinges on
the resolution of Robert Claypool’s ambivalence” (p. 489). Their recommended pro-
cess for helping him do so entailed individual consultations to Claypool and his execu-
tive vice president, in which the former could increase his skills in delegation, learn to
allow others to make decisions, and encourage group problem solving, while the latter,
through a “therapeutic alliance” with the consultant, could learn to ease demands on
himself, provide guidance and support to his subordinates, and improve his listening
skills. These researchers, two decades before executive coaching became popular, had
discovered its concurrent individual and systemic value and the criticality of the con-
sultant-client relationship, and they had begun to perform the function.
The Gaight School study (Alderfer & Brown, 1975) resulted from a 4-year research
and consultation project with an exclusive preparatory school for boys. It began in
1969, at the request of the school’s headmaster, as a consequence of the turbulence that
the school had experienced the previous academic year. Using a diagnostic process
that consisted of the design and implementation of a questionnaire and extensive inter-
views with groups and individuals, the researchers discovered a number of factors that
were affecting the quality of life at Gaight—student harassment, sarcasm as a norm,
intergroup conflict, and the ineffectiveness of a group (the prefects) critical to the well-
being of the school. There were three recommendations: the development of a team of
internal consultants to assist with the change process, training for the prefects and an
examination of their role, and consultation on decision making. All recommendations
were implemented, including an individual consultation to the headmaster. Reflecting
on the latter, the researcher wrote,
The process of the consultation was nondirective. I neither proposed the problems to be discussed
nor offered solutions. I did not attempt to increase the options that were considered and tried to iden-
tify factors (often emotional) that the decision makers might have been overlooking. Our working
arrangement left the decision about who to include in the sessions to the headmaster, although we
sometimes jointly discussed the possibilities. (p. 144)
One of the internal consultants reported on the consultation from the headmaster’s
perspective, as follows:
The headmaster is particularly enthusiastic about these sessions. He feels that the airing of tensions
and conflicts in the presence of a third party made his job easier in that the energy used to suppress
irritations and conflict was now released for other purposes. He firmly believes he could not have led
in the initiation of co-education and term-contained courses at Gaight without these sessions and the
help of Professor Alderfer. (p. 222)

At the conclusion of the project, the researchers developed a new theory of consul-
tation based on six propositions: (a) that it involves a joint process of inquiry by the cli-
ent and the consultant; (b) that valid data from the inquiry are contingent on the mutu-
ality of relationship and the degree to which boundaries, both physical and
psychological, are made permeable not only between but also within both the client
and consultant; (c) that understanding of the consequences of behavior necessitates
both feelings and intellect; (d) that sustained change can occur only when the client
chooses to alter behavior, there is a psychological acceptance of the change by all rele-
vant groups and individuals, and the new behavior pattern becomes routine; (e) that
two types of interventions are required—“releasing interventions” that facilitate the
expressions of suppressed emotion and “developmental interventions” that plan for
change; and (f) that consultation consists of four iterative phases: entry and contract
agreements, data collection and diagnosis, implementation, and evaluation.
This theory of consultation to organizations, emphasizing considerable emotional,
intellectual, and behavioral involvement by the client and the consultant, as well as
participation by those individuals and groups most impacted by the potential change,
also was clearly applicable to consulting done with individuals when viewed within
the full complexity of the organizational context. The relevance to contemporary
thought concerning executive coaching is unmistakable.
THE INDIVIDUAL, THE ORGANIZATION,

AND THE CONSULTANT: FOUNDATIONAL PREMISES
If there is a singularly compelling message that can be extracted from the anteced-
ent literature, it is the inextricable link among the individual, the organization, and the
consultant. It therefore is imperative that the latter, when engaged in executive coach-
ing, be in a position to understand the multidimensionality of the interrelatedness
among all three. Four foundational premises guide the ability to do so effectively, as
follows:
1. The unconscious plays a major role in individual and group behavior.

2. Executive coaching is an intervention with a specific individual within a specific organization for the
purpose of improving job-related performance; it therefore must consider the individual, the organi-
zation, and their interaction.
3. Organizations are composed of groups and groups are composed of individuals; therefore, individ-
ual behavior in organizations (a) is embedded in organizational, group, intergroup, and interpersonal
behavior and (b) influences and is influenced by intrapsychic, interpersonal, group, intergroup, and
organizational forces.
4. The consultant’s most crucial tool in the executive coaching process is the use of self.
Premise 1: The Unconscious
In 1900, Sigmund Freud presented his topographical model of the mind, describing
its components as the unconscious, preconscious, and conscious and forever changed
the manner in which the causes of human behavior could be perceived. While classical
psychoanalytic theory and practice has fallen into relative disfavor during the last sev-

eral decades, those who rejected the supremacy of the libido and the Oedipus complex
nevertheless retained the centrality of unconscious processes, conflicts, defenses, and
the transference (Westen, 1990).
This was certainly true of Carl Jung, the first to depart from Freud’s psycho-
analytical school. Convinced that there was a very different central organizing force in
the psyche than sex and aggression, Jung introduced the concept of individuation—the
integration of both unconscious and conscious into a wholeness that represents the
uniqueness of the individual. Jung’s conceptualization encompassed an unconscious
constituted by two realms: the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious.
Whereas the personal unconscious is formed by the experiences of life, houses those
memories that are forgotten or repressed, and contains those complexes relating to the
particular individual (of which he viewed the Oedipal complex as just one of many),
the collective unconscious is inborn and contains the archetypes, including the per-
sona, the shadow, the anima, the animus, and the Self (Jung, 1921/1971; Singer, 1994;
Whitmont, 1964). The goal of the therapeutic process, therefore, is to enhance individ-
uation by helping the individual identify and bring to consciousness the unconscious
personal and archetypal material in the psyche. Unlike Freud’s “blank screen,” in
which the countertransference was seen as a barrier, Jung saw analysis as a dyadic pro-
cess, with the therapist as a vital instrument, in which exploration of the unconscious
(particularly as expressed through archetypal symbolism), transference, and
countertransference were central.
This view of the dyadic relationship was echoed by Henry Stack Sullivan and the
interpersonal tradition that he inspired. Sullivan (1970) viewed therapy as an
interactional field, consisting of patient and therapist, in which the latter acts as a “par-
ticipant observer” to help the client gain an awareness of self-defeating patterns in
interpersonal relationships. Essential to his process were in-depth interviewing tech-
niques to understand the experience of the patient from the patient’s perspective
(Sullivan, 1970) and the active use of the countertransference to interpret the patient’s
characteristic, and inevitably emergent, interactional patterns (Mitchell & Black,
1995).
The object relations tradition also stresses the importance of the environment and of
interpersonal relationships. From Fairbairn’s (1952) object-seeking libido to
Winnicott’s (1965) “holding” by the “good enough” mother to Kohut’s (1971) “ideal-
ized parent imago,” it is the parenting relationship—both actual and internalized—that
determines the health of the psyche. As a result, the goal of the therapeutic process is to
heal the wounds of inadequate parenting and to revise the internalized objects. This is
accomplished by broadening the therapeutic relationship to include the reenactment of
the original relationship and the substitution of appropriate parental responses (i.e.,
empathy, mirroring, setting of boundaries, etc.) for the inadequate ones that are the
source of the patient’s difficulties (McWilliams, 1994; Mitchell & Black, 1995).
The transition from depth psychology to the interpersonal and object relations
schools represented a change from a one-person to a two-person psychology (Ghent,
1989) and thus expanded the focus from the intrapsychic to include the interpersonal.
This focus was further expanded to include the collective when Wilfred R. Bion (1961)
introduced group-as-whole theory. Bion saw group dynamics as the interplay between

individual needs and group mentality and culture. The interplay, he felt, creates a fun-
damental unconscious conflict between the group mentality and the desires of the indi-
vidual. The conflict produces intrapsychic anxieties that manifest themselves in
shared unconscious fantasies (“basic assumptions”) on a group level regarding the rea-
son that the group has formed. Individuals in the group, through “valency,” demon-
strate the extent to which they are willing to combine with the regressed group by
“holding” a particular aspect of the basic assumption behavior and unconsciously tak-
ing specific roles on behalf of the group. The work group and the individuals
composing it who come together to accomplish a specific task thus are powerfully,
albeit unconsciously, influenced by primitive regression inherent in basic assumption
behavior in the group as a whole.
Premise 2: Individual and Organization
Four decades ago, Daniel Levinson (1959) revolutionized the view of organiza-
tional role. Rejecting the notion of the omnipotent, mechanistic organization with
individuals as mere cogs, Levinson substituted a perspective that not only viewed the
individual as an equal contributor to role but also introduced the influence of uncon-
scious forces in the individual and the organization.
Levinson’s argument (1959) is based on a differentiation between role demands
(the requirements of the organization externally imposed on the individual) and per-
sonal role definition (the individual’s way of adapting to the organization). The latter,
which Levinson saw as the “linking concept between personality and social structure”
(p. 482), consists of two levels: (a) role conception, formed by the present context and
also a range of previous psychological experiences, and (b) role performance, the
degree to which organizational role norms are met by the observable behavior of the
individual. Levinson thus proposed that intrapsychic forces have a direct impact on
performance and saw role performance as an external ego function influenced by the
internal dynamics of the unconscious.
Role definition is, in this sense, an “ego achievement”—a reflection of the person’s capacity to
resolve conflicting demands, to utilize existing opportunities and create new ones, to find some bal-
ance between stability and change, conformity and autonomy, the ideal and the feasible, in a com-
plex environment . . . [It] is influenced by the ways in which the ego carries out its “internal func-
tions” of coping with, and attempting to synthesize, the demands of id, superego, and ego . . . [and]
“to varying degrees,” related to and embedded within other aspects of personality . . . [One’s] ways of
dealing with the stressful aspects of organizational life are influenced by the impulses, anxieties, and
modes of defense that these stresses activate in him. (pp. 480-481)
But Levinson notes (1959) that the organization, in formulating its demands for the
individual, also has a psychological side.
An organization has “latent” as well as “manifest” structure: It has a many-faceted emotional climate;
it tends to “demand” varied forms of interpersonal allegiance, friendship, deference, intimidation,
ingratiation, rivalry, and the like. If characteristics such as these are considered intrinsic properties of
social structure, then they must be included in the characterization of role performance. (p. 479)

Consequently, role performance can be viewed as the result of conscious and

unconscious forces in the individual in continuous interaction with conscious and
unconscious forces in the organization.
Premise 3: Multilevel Forces
Organizations, however, are not monolithic. Like all living entities, they must
define themselves, both physically and psychologically, through interaction with their
environment. In addition, they are not simply composed of, and concomitantly influ-
enced by, individuals but also groups. Two theories by Clayton P. Alderfer provide fur-
ther explication.
In his first, the theory of underbounded and overbounded organizations, Alderfer
(1980) provides a vehicle with which to determine the relative boundary permeability
of an organization and, therefore, the prognosis regarding the organization’s ability to
survive. He describes 11 indicators of boundary permeability—goals, authority rela-
tions, economic conditions, role definitions, communication patterns, human energy,
affect distribution, intergroup dynamics, unconscious basic assumptions, time span,
and cognitive work. By observing these, which often are easier to recognize than the
actual boundaries, it is possible to determine whether the organization is overbounded
and in danger of losing the ability to continue to interact with its environment or
underbounded and subject to being submerged into the outer environment. He con-
cludes that, because of the interdependence of an organization’s related subsystems,
the indicators also can serve as a vehicle with which to formulate hypotheses regarding
the state of the organization’s psychological boundaries.
Embedded intergroup relations theory (Alderfer, 1986) not only recognizes the
impact of groups within an organization but also views them as fundamental to an
understanding of organizational dynamics at all levels.
Alderfer describes five characteristics of intergroup relations—group boundaries,
power differences, affective patterns, cognitive formations, and leadership—and
divides organizational groups into two categories—identity groups, those sharing a
common worldview (i.e., race, ethnicity, generation, family), and organizational
groups, those sharing a common organizational view (i.e., task, hierarchical position).
He postulates that any interaction between two individuals must be viewed as an
unconscious interaction between the salient identity and/or the organizational group
memberships of each within the context of a particular social system. Because of this
embeddedness, furthermore, the relationship among individuals or groups (the sub-
systems) is shaped by relationships in the larger context (the suprasystem). To this phe-
nomenon Alderfer assigns the term “parallel process” and demonstrates how observ-
ing individuals and groups can give crucial data about dynamics at a broader level. He
also demonstrates that embedded intergroup relations and the enactment of parallel
processes apply equally to the researcher in interaction with the individual, group, or
entire system under study.
Hence, by superimposing on Levinson’s conception of role formulation the views
of analytical psychology, the interpersonal and object relations schools, group-as-a-
whole theory, embedded intergroup relations theory, and boundary theory, individual

performance in organizations can be seen as a function of the interaction between the

salient conscious and unconscious responses that are triggered in the individual by,
respectively and collectively: (a) internal, intrapsychic forces; (b) interactions with
other individuals; (c) requirements as a subsystem of a group, acting on behalf of group
life needs; (d) membership in an organizational and/or identity group in interaction
with representatives of the same or other organizational and/or identity groups; and (e)
requirements as an organizational member—all of which have both conscious and
unconscious elements.
Premise 4: Self as Tool
Based on the previous discussion, it becomes clear that the consultant, in entering
the organization to work with the individual, stands at the intersection of their interac-
tion and, concomitantly, at the intersection of multilevel conscious and unconscious
forces, including those that the consultant himself/herself brings as part of his/her
being. Thus, for the time he/she is present, the consultant becomes part of the multidi-
mensional system, both influencing it and being influenced by it. To do the work of
executive coaching, then, the consultant must be able to tolerate, and ultimately make
use of, being in a place that is neither individual nor organization alone but both indi-
vidual and organization together, that contains the exigencies of working life and the
impulses of the psyche, and that engages and is engaged by his/her own intrapsychic
material. In addition, if the work is done effectively, it requires that the consultant be
both involved enough in the dynamics so as to perceive their impact and removed
enough so as to analyze what is transpiring (Smith, 1995). These demands make
imperative the ability to use oneself as a tool.
The concept of the use of self is pervasive in the foundational theoretical material
that has been discussed thus far. The countertransference—what is being evoked in the
psychologist when working with the client—is viewed as the lynchpin of the therapeu-
tic process in analytical psychology, in interpersonal psychology, and in the object
relations school. Parallel processes—unconscious reenactment within the subsystem
of suprasystem dynamics—are a key component in embedded intergroup relations
theory. Whether in the language of psychodynamic theory or organizational theory,
however, the message is the same: The consultant must engage in a continuous process
of self-scrutiny to identify what is being evoked in himself/herself so as to appropri-
ately inform his/her choices in the ongoing process.
David N. Berg and Kenwyn K. Smith (1985) are among the researchers who view
self-scrutiny as indispensable to effective work. They point out that it is only through
continuous commitment to engage in self-reflection that the researcher can uncover
the internal intellectual and emotional forces that impact his/her research. In addition,
it is self-examination that makes possible the garnering of information about the
dynamics of an individual or a social system through analysis of the countertransfer-
ence or parallel processes. They also speak to the necessity for self-scrutiny to address
the complexities arising from the simultaneous influences on one another of the
researcher and those being researched. Cammann (1985) places these concepts within
a consulting context and discusses the need for self-knowledge so as to counteract the

inevitable distortions caused by the consultant’s individual preferences and biases in

organizational diagnosis, to differentiate between personal and systemic causes of per-
sonal reactions in gathering data by direct experience, to recognize the consequences
of one’s actions in designing interventions, and to recognize projections when encoun-
tering resistance.
The same principles apply to executive coaching. In this context, the use of self is
the tool with which the consultant gains, through direct experience, an empathetic
understanding of
• the inner life of the individual being coached and the specific intrapsychic forces that are being trig-
gered by other individuals, groups, intergroup relations in the organization, and organizational role
demands;
• the characteristic interpersonal patterns of the individual being coached and of other individuals with
whom the individual is in contact;
• the impact of and reaction to the consultant’s salient group memberships and, consequently, the
nature of the intergroup relations embedded within the organization;
• the relative boundary permeability of the organization and its subsystems, attendant psychological
boundaries, and the nature of work life within the organization; and
• the impact of the consultant’s ongoing interventions on both the individual and the organization.
EXECUTIVE COACHING IN ACTION:

A MULTIDIMENSIONAL VIEW
The excerpts that began this article are vivid illustrations of the complexity and the
multidimensionality discussed in the previous section. The dramatic moments of
insight, while appearing to be isolated, spontaneous events, are products of a coaching
process designed to continuously reveal, at every stage from initial entry through
assessment, feedback, and intervention, the multilevel conscious and unconscious
forces that impacted each of the executives. The examples, drawn from actual cases
with changes made only to ensure confidentiality, are discussed more fully below.
Tom: The Defenseless Director

The young and talented project director of a growing advertising agency takes no steps to defend
himself or his staff from the consistently abusive behavior of one of his peers. During a meeting with
his executive coach, the director discovers why.
Tom had not been forthcoming during my first attempt to learn about his family of
origin. He had answered the questions but had not gone beyond a superficial response.
We therefore spent the first four sessions on recent work-related issues and behaviors.
At the end of the fourth session, we had discussed Tom’s belief that challenging those
who were aggressive to him would mean that he was abusive. We discussed this per-
ception in terms of personal boundaries, to which Tom was readily able to relate, and
he immediately saw how he was allowing boundary intrusion.

When I arrived for the fifth session, Tom asked me about my career decisions—
specifically, why I had chosen a midcareer shift and whether I was happy with my
choice. I chose to answer his questions in some detail. He said he was very interested
because he wondered whether he would stay in his current career for the rest of his life.
I summarized Levinson’s (1978) life cycle concepts and told him I would give him
some excerpts.
He then began to tell me about his father—a miner who had spent his entire life in
one place in one job working 16 hours a day to support his wife and their five children.
Tom, the oldest, had been the first on his father’s side of the family to earn a college
degree. Working his way through college, he was considered the “trailblazer” in the
small farming community in which he had grown up. When he joined the military, it
was the first time he had left the area. He had met his wife during college and, as the
daughter of a military career officer, she was with Tom during his tours of duty. Tom
talked about the importance of exposing his two daughters to “experiences” versus
“giving them things” because of what he had learned growing up: “We didn’t have a
lot, but we didn’t know the difference.”
Tom continued by telling me that all of his siblings had followed his lead and had
begun college. He then talked about the middle child, Nat, who seemed to have “no
direction.” Nat had dropped out of school and was unsure what he wanted to do. He
was resentful of Tom, however, and continuously referred to Tom’s success as “luck.”
When I asked Tom whether he had ever countered Nat’s conclusion—pointing out that
he had worked very hard to achieve the success he had had—he indicated that he had
not. When I asked why, he said that he did not communicate difficult situations very
well. When I asked him if he had any sense of why that was so, he talked about his par-
ents’ unbending faith and their attitude that “everything will work out.” I asked him if
he, too, believed that. He said, while he respected his parents’ commitment to religion,
he did not agree.
Tom was silent for a moment. He then looked up and said, “This is just like the diffi-
culty I am having here at work, isn’t it?”
Analysis—The Defenseless Director
In this example, the executive’s pivotal insight regarding the reenactment of his
family of origin dynamics was possible only as a result of a convergence of multiple
factors: a new understanding of boundaries; clarification of organizational role expec-
tations; illumination of unconscious group-as-a-whole demands; awareness of uncon-
scious, embedded intergroup relations; the salient group memberships of the consul-
tant; and the consultant’s use of self as tool.
The first step toward Tom’s full understanding of the forces impacting him was
taken when he began to examine the nature of boundaries. He engaged so readily not
only because it was a concept to which he could personally relate but also because of its
relevance to his prescribed role in the organization—the agency’s primary client liai-
son, bridging the gap between the creative team and the production team to present a
seamless whole to the customer. He realized that successful performance had eluded
him because, although it required that he and his staff continuously cross departmental

boundaries, they could not do so because of the state of the other two departments.
These units were embroiled in bitter disputes and finger-pointing and maintained
boundaries that were highly impermeable. He concurrently was able to see how and
why the organization was reinforcing his inability to function well: By unconsciously
endorsing the antagonistic pairing that existed between Tom and his colleague, atten-
tion could be deflected from the departmental disputes, and departmental boundaries
could remain intact. Furthermore, as long as the pairing continued, organizational
members could unconsciously share the fantasy that the ultimate resolution of Tom
and his peer’s differences would miraculously create harmony and efficiency through-
out. He came to understand that by allowing personal boundary intrusion, he had been
unconsciously colluding with the organization and that, paradoxically, the only way
that he could begin to successfully cross other boundaries was by strengthening his
own.
It was not until Tom became aware of why he was allowing the intrusion, however,
that he was able to take definitive steps to reverse it. His understanding was fueled in
the subsequent session when the consultant followed her instincts to make her own
boundaries more permeable by openly responding to Tom’s questions. This created an
environment of intimacy and trust in which it was safe to share personal information. It
also facilitated a positive transference to an authority figure whose life path made her
vastly different from Tom’s father, his first authority figure, and whose gender made
her vastly different from Tom’s subsequent authority figures in the military and in the
almost exclusively male advertising firm. The explicit discussion about the consul-
tant’s professional background and experiences provided the transition Tom needed to
share his own history—which inexorably led him to disclose, as much to himself as to
the consultant, the hurtful relationship with his brother. His understanding of its paral-
lel in his work environment was instantaneous—a colleague who openly challenged
Tom’s trustworthiness and competence and attributed Tom’s success to “good looks
and charm,” rather than to talent and hard work, and a senior manager old enough to be
Tom’s father who, although obviously fond and supportive of Tom, was decidedly con-
flict averse and would not intervene into the difficulties between his two direct reports.
Tom simultaneously became aware of the parental ideals and behaviors that he had
unconsciously internalized and now was prepared to reexamine them to determine
which ones he wanted to maintain and which caused him to behave in unproductive
ways. After this session, Tom was able to reject the unconscious role he had accepted
on behalf of the group and make conscious choices about his actions. He experimented
with new behaviors that allowed him to more skillfully challenge his peers, confront
substandard performance with his direct reports, and develop his own vision and goals
for his department.
Christine: The Avoidant Administrator

The administrative vice president of a major research institution avoids addressing a substance abuse
problem with an employee. By the conclusion of a meeting with her coach, she is prepared to handle
it in a completely new way.

Christine had asked that we devote a major portion of our scheduled meeting to the
employee substance abuse issue that she needed to confront. She began by sharing
what she had learned from her own human resources department: “The usual. Docu-
ment, document, document.” That dissatisfied her because her goal was not to termi-
nate her employee. I then told her the advice I had received from a trusted human
resources professional—to conduct a series of conversations, each becoming sequen-
tially more confrontational about the issue, but with the intent of urging the employee
to address the problem and receive help. Christine liked that approach, and we deter-
mined that it would be wise to seek the human resources department’s approval.
I suggested we role-play the first conversation—a gentle confrontation in which
Christine would tell her employee, “Rick,” that she was concerned with some behav-
iors impacting performance and then invite discussion. Christine froze. I asked her
why it was so difficult. She explained that she, on behalf of her family, recently had
confronted her father with his alcohol problem. When I asked the outcome, she
explained that it had turned out successfully—her father had sought help and had
stayed in recovery—but that the process had been excruciating for her: In addition to
having to hurt her father, Christine’s mother (after urging Christine to take the appro-
priate action) had accused her of being “too hard” on her father. The pain and guilt had
been overwhelming. I asked her what parallels existed in the work situation. She saw
them immediately—taking the full burden of responsibility, inflicting pain on some-
one for whom she cared, being in a position in which she could be unsupported. I asked
her if she could reframe what she was about to do—to look at it as an act of love that
would have a happy ending like her father’s. She said she would try to remember that,
and we began the role-play.
She immediately became very formal, dispassionately enumerating observations
she had made about Rick’s performance. I asked her how she thought he would react to
that. She said that Rick would sit quietly and say nothing. We did what she described. I
asked Christine what she wanted to say next. Christine asked Rick for his reaction. I
asked Christine what Rick would say to that. Christine said he would probably remain
quiet and simply say, “Okay.” We enacted that, and Christine became frustrated.
“Christine, what do you really want to say?” I finally asked. “Don’t think about it, just
say it.” Christine, with great emotion, blurted out, “What I want to say is, Rick, you are
my friend and I care about you and I am really worried about you.” There was silence in
the room for a moment, and then I asked Christine why she thought she could not say
exactly that, in exactly that way, to Rick. “Because I’m his supervisor!” she quickly
replied. “What makes you think that being his supervisor precludes your demonstrat-
ing how much you care about him?” That remark seemed to stun Christine for a
moment and then her expression changed. “Do you really think that’s all right?” “I’m
convinced of it,” I replied. In the final version of the role-play, Christine was fluid and
caring. We agreed that she would hold the meeting with Rick that week.
Analysis—The Avoidant Administrator
In this example, the profound inner change in the executive was the outcome of a
series of compelling insights that conjoined with the strength of the alliance with the

consultant. The insights centered on embedded power and authority dynamics, uncon-
scious role enactment on behalf of a regressed work group, and the triggering of
family-of-origin defense mechanisms; the alliance was forged through the power of
the consultant’s salient group memberships and the willingness of the consultant to
engage transferential and countertransferential material.
In previous sessions, Christine had discovered how the formal structure in her orga-
nization, with power and authority residing with predominantly male, doctoral-level
scientists and researchers, had both formulated the prevailing ideology of the organi-
zation—rationality, linearity, and dispassionate inquiry—and had relegated all other
groups, including hers, to lesser status. She had become aware of how this reinforced
her self-imposed obligation to support and protect her boss, the president of the organi-
zation, at all costs. It manifested not only in her obedient completion of numerous spe-
cial presidential assignments (despite the formidable responsibilities of her formally
defined role) but also in her resigned acceptance of others’ perception of her as the
“hatchet woman.” She had seen how these actions had catapulted her into her role as
the president’s unofficial (and therefore unauthorized) confidante and advisor, thereby
placing her in an exceedingly precarious position with the rest of the organization,
arousing fear among staff, jealousy among peers, and distrust among professional
staff—further reinforcing the negative projections. She also, gradually and somewhat
reluctantly, had become conscious of subtle ways in which the president, although
vociferous about his desire to reinforce the coaching process, was undermining her
efforts to change so that he could continue to project his disowned shadow onto
another.
Christine was ready to understand the ways in which she was unconsciously collab-
orating with the forces around her to keep her imprisoned in her self-defeating pat-
terns. It came as a result of two factors. First, although Christine had been forthright
from the very first meeting about her father’s alcoholism and the manner in which it
was affecting her ability to confront the substance abuse issue at work, it was not until
she participated in the role play that she understood the full extent to which her current
situation resembled the familial one that had been so painful to her. She was able to see
how she unconsciously, and at her own expense, had continued to use the tactics that
she had learned as a child caught up in the dynamic of her father’s alcoholism—
enabling, caregiving, denial, and the facade of normalcy. Second, because of the
strength of the relationship with the consultant, Christine was able to experience
unconditional love and acceptance from an authority figure in the workplace. This was
a first for her. The fact that the authority figure was female, moreover, encouraged her
to challenge, at the deepest of levels, the male-based standards of management behav-
ior and career success that she had encountered in all of her previous professional
experiences. A seismic shift occurred in Christine’s psyche. She was finally able to
replace, and thereby internalize, an archetypal “good mother” for those other mothers,
both biological and professional, who had consistently disappointed her in the past.
She was additionally ready to alter a persona, constructed to adapt to numerous
animus-driven work environments, that no longer represented the self she was
discovering. The work that Christine and the consultant were doing was, in fact, a par-
allel process to the work that was to be done with her direct report. Christine experi-

enced firsthand the effects of working with compassion. She also became conscious of
the forces, both internal and external, that had conspired to prevent her from being who
she truly wanted to be. As a direct result, she was prepared to experiment with new
behavior, equipped to recognize and more productively counter the resisting forces,
and able to integrate and manifest desirable behavior from that point on.
Joe: The Perplexed President

The president of a large nonprofit organization is bewildered by the continuous disputes between the
executive vice president and the latter’s subordinate, the director of operations. During a meeting
with his executive coach, the president discovers his role in perpetuating the problem.
I entered Joe’s office for our scheduled meeting. As I sat down, he did not greet me
in his customary cordial manner. Instead, he said, “I have something to discuss before
we begin. Alan has given Edward his yearly performance review, and Edward has chal-
lenged it. As Alan’s boss, I must meet with both of them. I had a meeting scheduled to
discuss it. I asked Edward to make it earlier, and he said you wanted it scheduled for
that day. Now I think you’re going too far. Why should a psychologist be involved in
matters relating to performance appraisal discussions?” Joe had become increasingly
angry as he spoke. I responded by telling Joe that I had agreed to work with Edward to
help him prepare for the meeting that was already scheduled. Subsequently, Edward
had informed me that Joe had requested that the meeting be moved up but, on learning
that a preparatory meeting with me was arranged, Joe had said to leave it as it was. I
then said, “There are two things I would like to add. The first is that although I am
applying organizational psychology in this setting, I believe the reason I do it well is
because I am an experienced executive who has been intimately acquainted with the
performance appraisal process—and, if I remember correctly, it was my experience as
a manager that made you comfortable in hiring me.” Joe nodded. “The second is that I
think it is imperative that you ask Edward to come into the room so that the three of us
can discuss this and sort it out.” Joe agreed and asked his secretary to call Edward.
When she reported that Edward was in a meeting that would conclude in 15 minutes,
Joe asked her to tell him to join us then. As soon as she closed the door again, Joe
relaxed in his chair and said, “I guess I’m just really nervous about this meeting. It is
not something that I like to do.” When I asked him if he had any idea why, he thought
for a moment and said, “The only time I ever saw my father cry was when I was a young
boy. He and my mother had had an argument. They never argued again.” He paused and
then continued, “Maybe that’s the reason that my marriage ended after so many years. I
guess there were just too many hurts that remained unresolved.” After another pause,
he quietly added, “Too bad,” and sat silently for a few moments.
Edward rushed into the room, breathless and with a calculator in his hand. “I wasn’t
sure what you needed, so I brought this—just in case.” Joe explained that there seemed
to be some miscommunication that needed to be clarified. He asked Edward to repeat
the story. His report was identical to what I had described. Joe looked at me and said,
“It is exactly what you said. I guess I didn’t hear it very well for some reason.” Edward
then asked for 5 minutes to brief Joe on the meeting that had just taken place; he did so
and left. We both thanked him.

Joe and I spent the remainder of the session talking about what had just happened. I
explained the concept of triangulation (Smith, 1989) to him and how that applied to
this situation and others I had witnessed in which he took part. We discussed what
could have happened had I not suggested that we all be in the room—the lack of trust
and animosity that could have developed between Edward and me, between Joe and
Edward if this caused him to question Edward, or between Joe and me if it caused him
to question me. We applied it to other instances, including the manner in which
Edward had, just moments ago, excluded Alan. Joe agreed that he needed to become
aware of creating or being ensnared in destructive triangles, and we concluded the
session.
Analysis—The Perplexed President
In this case, a “here and now” intervention (Alderfer & Lodahl, 1971) opened the
door to the executive’s self-awareness. Its effectiveness, however, was a consequence
of much more than excellent timing; rather, it emanated from the confluence of a num-
ber of factors: recognition of characteristic interactional patterns, identification of
repeated defense mechanisms, acknowledgment of the saliency of group member-
ships, understanding of parallel processes, and the consultant’s use of self as tool,
including interpretation of archetypal symbols and awareness of messages from her
own unconscious.
When Joe greeted the consultant for his coaching session, it was in a manner quite
untypical of their past interactions. In all previous instances, he had been courteous
and polite, never showing any sign of anger or irritation (although reports of both had
figured prominently in interviews with Joe’s staff). In addition, a frequent pattern had
emerged in their discussions. Whenever the consultant introduced a difficult subject
identified in the feedback—such as the high percentage of retired military officers in
senior management (including Joe) and what seemed to be a concomitant absence of
women in professional positions, the ways in which he was reportedly
micromanaging, and thereby disempowering his staff, or the possibility that he was
unknowingly contributing to the numerous interpersonal conflicts among staff—he
had patiently listened, rationalized, and dismissed the matter.
There had been a single exception: Joe had been willing to acknowledge that there
was little, if any, positive reinforcement for people in his organization. After some urg-
ing by the consultant, he had agreed to initiate a recognition plan for staff. It had been,
to Joe’s surprise, extremely valuable. In an attempt to express his gratitude, he had
given the consultant a small gift—a Jiminy Cricket puppet. “You are my conscience,”
he had told her. She, however, had remembered that Jiminy Cricket was more than
Pinocchio’s superego; he had helped the puppet become a real human being.
That was the first thought that arose from the consultant’s unconscious when Joe
began the meeting. Rather than being offended or intimidated, therefore, the consul-
tant was relieved—Joe, for the first time, was expressing negative emotion in her pres-
ence. The meaning of this was augmented by the fact that the anger centered on the
consultant’s right to cross a task boundary that Joe had implicitly deemed inappropri-
ate for her. The consultant saw this as a direct parallel to the manner in which he had

maintained the impermeability of his psychological boundaries. She chose to chal-

lenge him.
When she did so, something crucial shifted in Joe. It began with the saliency of the
consultant’s group memberships. Now, rather than being a woman entering a bastion
of male power and authority or a psychologist relegated to focus attention on the “soft”
issues, what became most prominent was that the consultant was a former business
executive. This gave her the right, in Joe’s mind, to involve herself in expanded areas.
This, in turn, became the outward manifestation of a far more important inward shift:
Joe was finally giving the consultant permission to cross the psychological boundary
that he had been protecting since the beginning of their work together. He was now
willing to look at himself in a much deeper way, and he disclosed the distressful experi-
ence that led to his inability to skillfully confront difficult situations. The alliance that
was forged in that moment facilitated his ability to courageously reexamine his recent
behavior, to acknowledge how his attempt to engage the consultant in triangulation
was representative of an ongoing interpersonal pattern, and to admit to the highly
destructive organizational consequences of his actions. It was at this point that Joe
became ready to embrace the process of change.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
As the preceding cases illustrate, executive coaching must be viewed as a process

that focuses on more than the individual and more than what is conscious. It regards the
organization and its components as active participants rather than as contextual back-
drop and therefore treats every individual intervention as a simultaneous organiza-
tional intervention. It explores every observable action for underlying meaning and
thus examines behavior in light of a multitude of forces—not only intrapsychic and
organizational but also interpersonal, group, and intergroup—and maintains that those
forces have unconscious elements that are at least as powerful as those that are con-
scious, if not more powerful. It affirms that the consultant, on entering the organiza-
tion, is subject to the same forces and therefore insists that the consultant engage in
self-reflection and self-scrutiny to use himself/herself as a finely calibrated instrument
with which to formulate and test hypotheses, to select and implement appropriate
interventions, and to monitor individual and organizational change.
There, of course, are significant implications to working in this way. One of the
most obvious is an issue that has recently become pervasive in the field—the education
and training of competent executive coaches (Kilburg, 1996, 2000). The methodology
described in this article clearly cannot be used by those unfamiliar with a broad range
of psychological concepts and technologies—clinical and organizational, individual
and group. It necessitates training that emphasizes self-awareness and self-reflection.
It compels an understanding of management concepts and techniques. And it requires
an ability to maneuver through the peculiar labyrinths of diverse organizations—
corporate, nonprofit, government, and educational. Learning to do the work in this
way does not happen quickly, and it is not an immediately transferable skill from other
specialties.

Closely related is the gray area that exists between therapy and coaching. Although
the differences between coaching and therapy must be clearly delineated, the use of
transference and countertransference, the exploration of family-of-origin dynamics,
and the development of the working alliance have the potential to obfuscate the bound-
aries. Thus, the consultant must remain ever vigilant to maintaining the appropriate
role while still having the ability to employ creative interventions. Having specific cri-
teria with which to judge when the line between therapy and coaching is becoming
confused as well as when a referral to a qualified therapist is appropriate is therefore
critical.
Finally, it is impossible to work in this way without intense personal investment.
Those who would prefer not to involve themselves in the murky areas of the uncon-
scious, of painful emotion, and of relentless self-scrutiny are best advised to seek out
other venues. For those prepared and willing to fully engage, the psychic rewards are
limitless.
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The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science

Executive Coaching: It’s Not Just about the Executive

The online version of this article can be found at:

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This article challenges the prevailing understanding of executive coaching as an exclu-

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THE INDIVIDUAL, THE ORGANIZATION,

1. The unconscious plays a major role in individual and group behavior.

Premise 1: The Unconscious

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Premise 2: Individual and Organization

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Consequently, role performance can be viewed as the result of conscious and

Premise 3: Multilevel Forces

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performance in organizations can be seen as a function of the interaction between the

Premise 4: Self as Tool

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inevitable distortions caused by the consultant’s individual preferences and biases in

EXECUTIVE COACHING IN ACTION:

Tom: The Defenseless Director

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Analysis—The Defenseless Director

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Christine: The Avoidant Administrator

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Analysis—The Avoidant Administrator

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Joe: The Perplexed President

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Analysis—The Perplexed President

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maintained the impermeability of his psychological boundaries. She chose to chal-

CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS

As the preceding cases illustrate, executive coaching must be viewed as a process

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Alderfer, C. P. (1980). Consulting to underbounded systems. In C. P. Alderfer & C. L. Cooper (Eds.),

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