Leadership Development Survey: Summary of Findings

As the second initiative in the ongoing research being engaged on behalf of the New Executive Coaching Summit (NECS), the Institute for Research on Professional Coaching has conducted an online survey regarding Leadership Development and the implications of this development for executive coaching practices. Following is a brief report being made by Dr. William Bergquist that summaries some of the results from this survey:

Following is a printed version of the summarized results reported in this video recording.

Survey Results

• Executive Coaching must play a central role in the development of leadership
  1. Coupled with training
     1. Valuable at any age
     2. When engaged by CEO can serve as model for other members of the C-Suite
  2. Critical as part of any corrective action
     1. 6 month program (Marshall Goldsmith)
     2. 360 degree process as part of coaching initiative
  3. A key ingredient in any “agility” initiatives
  4. Best engaged from an appreciative perspective (build on strengths)
• Leadership development must be conducted from a systemic perspective
  1. Work at 3 levels: organizational structure/organizational processes/organization culture (Goodwin Watson)
  2. Important for leaders-in-training to gain a broad perspective on organizational operations (e.g. job rotation)
• There are diverse perspectives regarding leadership development in certain areas
  1. Working with “High Potentials”
  2. Working with solid employee with personal problems
  3. Wiz-kids without human interaction experiences (not education)
  4. Succession planning (new CEO)

What are Implications for Field of Executive Coaching?

• Marketing: what is message to be delivered?
• What are the skills/knowledge needed to be an effective executive coach?
• How do we best sort out/identify the best practices to engage in areas that are confusing/contradictory/complex?