CHAPTER 6
An Integrative Goal-Focused Approach to Executive Coaching
ANTHONY M. GRANT
THIS CHAPTER DRAWS on the goal-setting, self-determination, and personality literature from the behavioral sciences and presents an evidence-based, integrative goal-focused approach to executive and workplace coaching, and then relates that approach to the two case studies presented in previous chapters. The process of coaching is essentially about helping individuals regulate and direct their interpersonal and intrapersonal resources to better attain their goals. Such self-regulation has a long and well-researched history in psychology (Bandura, 1982; Collier, 1957). Indeed, Carver and Scheier (1998) argue that all human behavior (here behavior is broadly defined to include cognitions, emotions, and actions) is a continual process of moving toward or away from mental goal representations, and that this movement occurs by a process of feedback control.
The core constructs of goal-directed self-regulation are a series of processes in which the individual sets a goal, develops a plan of action, begins action, monitors their performance, evaluates their performance by comparison to a standard, and based on this evaluation changes their actions to further enhance their performance and better reach their goals. In relation to coaching, the coach’s role is to facilitate the coachee’s movement through the self-regulatory cycle.
Figure 6.1 depicts a generic model of self-regulation.
In practice, the ...