Authentic Leadership Growth in Executive Coaching Happens in Three Stages

In conditioning, we help the client understand motivations and encourage them to apply them to future activities. If the client has made it this far and seems unwilling or unable to make further progress, achievements should be recognized and celebrated. Both the coach and client have adjacent seats to power and influence, one personal and the other organizational. Many executives see person and organization as inseparable, confirming that life and work are blended rather than separate. The choices we make are influenced by integrity and guided by values that honor the dignity of the individual and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As we return to Drew, his improvements resulted in his increasing influence on his team and organization. Rather than hold onto old ways that had served him well, he now sought feedback and diffused situations by paying attention to his triggers and communicating his feelings in ways that welcomed and invited participation, resulting in improvements to the company’s innovation pipeline. Drew learned new approaches to problem-solving and decision-making that grew diverse people and ideas around him and grew inclusiveness. Authentic Leadership coaching provided Drew with renewed energy and purpose that languished in the absence of catalyzing, capitalizing, and conditioning.

In the successful Authentic Coaching engagements, executive priorities and actions align. Successful engagements also result in changes to enduring relationships with family and friends. At a deep level, the coaching will have resulted in the executive bringing more of who they are to what they do and their best to every situation. For many, this journey is difficult, and, in the end, authenticity is the pathway for personal, team, and organizational prosperity.

[1] Richard Beckhard and His Contributions to Organization Development. Retrieved from https://www.shmula.com/27874-2/27874/

[2] Kegan, R., & Lahey, L. L. (2009). Immunity to change. Harvard Business Review Press.

[3] Funches, D. (1989). Three gifts of the organization development practitioner. In W. Sikes (Ed.), The emerging practice of organization development (pp. 149-164)