About the Author
Francine Campone, Ed.D., PCC stirs the Research pot at The Foundation of Coaching as Docent of the Research Repository, in the Coaching Commons, and a part of the Foundation’s Research team. She is a professional coach and consultant, applying her background in adult learning and education flavored by diverse other educational experiences and Zen Buddhist practice. Francine developed and teaches a graduate level course in research for coaches at the University of Texas at Dallas and courses on Evidence-Based Coaching at UTD and Fielding University. She’s on the track of collaborative research projects at The Foundation of Coaching and at UTD.
See All Posts by This Author
April 7th, 2008 •
Related •
Filed Under
This month’s inaugural interview is with Laura Crawshaw, Ph.D. on her research work on Coaching Abrasive Executives.
Listen to a 20 minute interview with Laura discussing her study - what interested her in the topic, what she found along the journey, and how it has changed her coaching.
Or you can read more about Dr. Crawshaw’s study.
What are your own thoughts and experiences? Can abrasive executives be helped to change or are they “just that way?” What lessons have you learned in working with these clients?
Popularity: 71% [?]
Share and Enjoy:
These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
Comment by Francine on 22 April 2008:
So I’m wondering….has anyone here coached an executive that might be considered “abrasive”? What are the symptoms of abrasiveness? I propose that it’s a subjective designation, yet Laura’s study shows an intervention model which seems to create changed perceptions. What do you think?
Comment by Dene on 23 April 2008:
Abrasive Executives are people in power who are not in rapport with the people under them. They either process information differently and are not aware of the distinctions of visual/auditory/kinesthetic information processing, or they have low EQs (emotional intelligence quotient), or they are living out strategies they have learned from the past from either their family of origin or someone they have known. Another possibility is that he/she really doesn’t care about how people see him/her and like the powerful feeling of dominating others as a way of avoiding their own deeply felt sense of inadequacy and the fear of being exposed. In that case, it might help to get clear on the benefits and costs personally and professionally to the outcomes he/she is creating.
Comment by Gary Scholz on 24 April 2008:
Hi Francine.
The 20 minute interview with Laura was music to my ears…a coach that coaches and actually gets it and especially when dealing with the issues of the psychopathic bullies in our workplace.
This couldn’t be possible Francine, a coach that is using counseling and therapeutic skills and getting so close to her clients how scary. These are humans you’re dealing with Laura, they have emotions. You’re not trained to handle their emotions your coach not a therapist, I am confused what is coaching any way.
Ok I have had my fun…
Coaching schools listen up…Id like to share something I am concerned with.
May I quote from a book that will be used and is being used in Universities around the globe in this 21st century to teach executive coaching… The Sherpa Guide, it blows me out of the water to think that we have come this far and yet we will be presenting the Sherpa Guide as learning material for the next generation of executive coaches.
If we are going to teach people to become just executive coaches can we please ensure they are taught life coaching first. Emotional skills are necessary for every type of coaching.Therapies and techniques such as SFT, NLP, Reality Therapy, Narrative Therapy and CBT are also key learnings that assist our clients. Lets not take two steps back, lets keep moving forward. If we think that we can coach executives with out getting too involved and only focusing on their performance and results then sadly we are not coaching humans, we are coaching machines.We humans are energy in motion, releasing emotions is an integral part of what we can assist our clients with.I have never coached a client who does not present with out an emotional issue that comes up one way or an other. These blockage as we know must be dealt with if not we remain blocked. None of this is rocket science, an empathic coach who has high quality communication and listening skills can bring about powerful emotional releases.Just listening can bring about massive insights for our clients. And yet here we have a a relatively new book on the market suggesting the following.
Here are few lines from the book that confused me…
“We do not discuss personal matters with our clients, we do not discuss family issues with our clients, we are not therapists, if a client brings up family, children, or personal matters, a good coach will redirect the conversation. When your client shares a situation at home, it will often revel a problem at work. Coaching must be focused on performance and results, nothing else. This is why coaches are hired to produce tangible results. Once your client understands that you don’t under any circumstances, get into personal matters, he will abide by your standards and respect them”
and as well from the book,
“Steve Berglas, a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of management, writes in the Harvard Business Review Coaches can make bad situations worse, because they don’t have the background in psychological problems. He’s right Sherpa coaching is not therapy. We do not discuss family issues…” and so on as above.
UNBELIEVABLE…The Sherpas guide to coaching, another version of two peoples understanding on how they think we are to coach. And this my fellow coaches will be used in universities around the world in this 21st century. It seems like this book has come from the 20th century.
On one page I read not to do this and on the next page not to do that, then as if by magic when you get to page 29 “3 Find the uncloaked self, You are helping your clients find out who they are uncloaked. The client’s true identity can only be revealed when you dig deep and search with diligence. Clients are only coachable if they are willing to put down their defenses and examine themselves. As a coach, you will need to help them get there. Self-examination can be very painful. Your clients must be handled with the greatest of care, yet you cannot allow them to hide their problems”?????
Well I sure am confused, as I have been whilst looking at on the web these last 5 years. Our so called gurus are confused, our training organizations are on different pages, the public is confused and approx 95% of coaches are not making an income from coaching. Whats going on?
And we wonder why the public is confused about what coaching is and isn’t, never mind what new up and coming coaches are expected to understand.
Great work Laura, I love your passion and thanks Coaching Commons for sharing Laura’s experience with us.
Cheers
Gary
Comment by Francine on 30 April 2008:
Thanks, Dene, for a succinct definition of abrasive executives: “Abrasive Executives are people in power who are not in rapport with the people under them.” Your observations seem like a perfect lead-in to the many useful questions that Gary has raised about coaches, coaching and the preparation of coaches.
Gary, your thinking is running alongside that of some of my colleagues hosting threads here- e.g. Jonathan Sibley’s comments re: coaching and psychotherapy. I’m not familiar with the Sherpa guide but would encourage you to take heart in looking at the texts being used in some other university-based coaching prep programs- e.g. The Evidence-Based Coaching Handbook (Stober & Grant), used at Fielding University and the University of Texas at Dallas, among others. As an educator, I am concerned about and interested in the standards for coaching preparation and development and suspect you and I could have a very rich (and lengthy) exchange of ideas. In the meantime, consider joining an upcoming virtual dialogue on a newly devleoping study of how coaches develop- (Parallel Tracks? May 7 Virtual Dialogue). Keep posting!