Coaching Practiced

14 Leadership Coaching? No thanks, I’m not worthy

Vicky Ellam-Dyson & Stephen Palmer

Abstract

The question of what encourages or discourages individuals to be coached, or not, is an interesting one. Particularly when the coaching is being funded and it has been positioned as a useful tool to aid the transition to a more senior position. In a study intended to follow 41 executives through the coaching process almost half of the participants declined the opportunity to receive coaching. It is possible that this is related to avoidance behaviour. In previous research avoidance behaviours have been linked to maladaptive beliefs and demands, such as low self-worth/acceptance, perfectionism and low frustration tolerance. Beliefs data for the coaching and no-coaching group were compared and it was found that those who chose not to be coached had significantly lower unconditional self-acceptance than those that were coached. Implications of the findings in terms of how they relate to potential leadership effectiveness are discussed, along with suggestions for organisations and coaches regarding how to overcome these issues. This paper also describes the pitfalls at various stages in the research which resulted in an unavoidable change of focus and alternative research questions, but also led to unexpected important findings.

Keywords

coaching, leadership transition, unconditional self-acceptance, contingencies of self-worth, frustration tolerance, perfectionism.

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