At an executive coaching summit, I witnessed agility and collaboration in response to a technological challenge. I witnessed leadership that was being exhibited by senior-level executive coaches who are usually doing the coaching about leadership, but in this instance were engaging in leadership themselves. It was amazing!!

[Note: This essay first appeared in a 2009 issue (No. One) of the International Journal of Coaching in Organizations] [Material for this article draws upon David Rock and Linda J. Page, Coaching with the Brain in Mind: Foundations for Practice. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.] Anthony Grant (2003) cites an article by C. B. Gorby published in I …

Many years ago, Don Schon wrote about the "messes" being confronted by contemporary professionals. These messes are multi-dimensional, requiring multi-disciplinary perspectives and multi-strategied approaches to the coaching process itself.

In the first essay in this series, we concentrated on the “pure” versions of each leadership style and suggested that each of these styles, at its extreme, is aligned with MBTI introversion. The introverted leader stands alone, wanting to assert their own ideas (Ruby Red), inspire with their own vision (Azure Blue) or sit back in order to collect and …

As President of NTL (National Training Laboratory), and a steward of OD field , you have seen the field evolve over these last fifty years. You have stood as a pillar of practice and mentored many leaders in the field of OD.

Training and education have become prominent features in the professional development curricula of many contemporary organizations. In this essay, I briefly identify several of the reasons for this growing interest. I then suggest ways in which training and education are enhanced by several complimentary coaching activities. I identify the nature of and reasons for shifting concepts of training and education, …

The field of professional coaching has matured during the past decade. Now seems to be an appropriate time to offer a status report concerning the past, present and future of this emerging human service endeavor.