INTRODUCTION: INTEGRATIVE EXECUTIVE COACHING

Despite its popularity, there is still a lot of mystery around executive coaching, and a large number of managers are not fully aware of the benefits it can bring to their businesses and lives. Some people doubt the return on investment with coaching, and some dismiss it as a passing fad. However, there is data from more and more organizations that point to coaching as a key source of executive development. Improved performance and wellbeing, and more effective leadership competencies and interpersonal skills are some of the most commonly cited benefits of coaching. Yet, there is still a need for executive directors and managers to become more familiar with what actually takes place in a coaching process on a practical level and, in this way, decide for themselves the value that it could bring.

More than a technique, coaching is a way of thinking and learning based on genuine dialogue. Ultimately, it is an approach to reality. We, human beings tend to act as though the way we perceive the world around us corresponds 100% to reality. This is neither accurate nor possible since all of our perceptions are coloured by our mindset, beliefs, values, attitudes, emotions, personality, culture, and other factors that make up our inner world. Some of these factors are outside of our control but some we can influence. We have more control than we think over our states, beliefs and attitudes: they are the window through which we see our reality, so if we make a change in them, we can alter our perceptions and our approach to life and work.

When we are dealing with a challenge in our everyday lives or we want to reach an objective, our assumptions, feelings and attitudes can work for or against us. Limiting beliefs and dysfunctional attitudes can distort our viewpoint, inhibit us from acting, or make us feel unnecessarily worried and distressed.Coaching enables clients to explore and challenge the beliefs and judgments which alter their perception of reality, and to train and “select” the beliefs and attitudes that work best for them. In other words, coaching helps people get over mental and emotional interferences so that they can make better decisions.

The goal of the coach is to provide the client with a wider perspective, so that they can ponder a larger variety of actions, attitudes and behaviours and choose the most helpful and constructive ones. It is not a vague or theoretical exercise of intellectual reflection. It is, indeed, about thoughts and mental processes, but it is essentially focused on action, behaviours, execution and ultimately results and performance. We are speaking ofexecutive coaching. In particular, in this book we want to talk about solution-based coaching.

What do we mean by “solution-based”? There is a specific objective/area/issue that a coach and a client focus on during their work together. The coaching process is an empowering method which enables the client to open up to a variety of possible reactions and solutions to a situation, all of which come from their own experience, intuition or judgment. In coaching, the solution always comes from the client themselves. The role of the coach is to accompany (not to advise) the client in that search for possible solutions.

Another way