Executive and leadership coaching

Domain VI · Brief, integrative, trauma, hypnosis & coaching

What it is

Executive and leadership coaching is a field of practice, not a single therapy or a single trademarked model. The Executive Coaching Forum (TECF) defines it as a one-to-one, individualised process that builds a leader's capacity for current and future leadership, with goals set jointly by the…

Format

• Within each session ICF requires agreeing the session outcome, what must be addressed to reach it, and how success will be measured, then closing collaboratively with learning summarised and next steps set. GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) is a common in-session sequence, used flexibly.
• What it is. Executive and leadership coaching is a field of practice, not a single therapy or a single trademarked model. The Executive Coaching Forum (TECF) defines it as a one-to-one, individualised process that builds a leader's capacity for current and future leadership, with goals set jointly…

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Session count and format. TECF does not specify duration or frequency. Goldsmith's process runs 12–18 months, with a short stakeholder mini-survey within about six months and the cycle repeated to sustain progress. EMCC requires the length of the engagement to fit the agreed goals and support the client's growing independence. Common practice of sessions every two to four weeks over six to twelve months, 60–90…
• Version followed: engagement structure from The Executive Coaching Forum, The Executive Coaching Handbook, 6th ed. (Ennis & Otto, eds., 2015; now distributed by the Institute of Coaching, McLean/Harvard Medical School); in-session conduct from the ICF Core Competency Model (updated 2019); stakeholder method from Marshall Goldsmith's published leadership coaching process (Stakeholder Centered Coaching); conversation…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• a client who hopes for covert therapy paid by the employer.
• therapists slipping back into a treatment frame when emotions rise.
• single dramatic comments that dominate; look for themes across raters.
• practice that never reaches the workplace; ask for evidence from live use.
• stacking the list with allies; a balanced list is part of what makes later results credible.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.