An Introduction to Professional and Executive Coaching

The coaching profession is growing. According to the International Coach Federation (ICF), coaching earns over $2 Billion per year in US dollars. The proposed readership of this book is both practitioners and scholars of executive coaching. It will also fill the current gap of a universal textbook that can be used in higher education coaching curriculum.

The International Coach Federation (ICF) conducts a global study every four years. The 2016 study found that there are over 100,000 practitioners of coaching across the world. It also found that almost all coach practitioners received some form of coach specific training. There are over 1,500 ICF approved coach training programs. Currently, there is not a consistent set of textbooks or resources that are used by these programs.

This textbook is for the developing coach practitioner as well as the experienced coach practitioner that would like to develop further. Coaching is an exciting and powerful skillset that allows individuals to empower others and helps individuals to generate awareness that opens the door for great levels of success.

The approach of this book is to look at the theoretical framework of coaching as it applies to the actual practice of coaching others and groups. It will also take the approach of covering the comprehensive coaching curriculum that is ingrained in the 11 core competencies of coaching and will also provide an overview of building a coaching culture in an organization as well as how to build an independent coaching business. The International Coach Federation (ICF) 11 core competencies are the most widely accepted coaching framework in the industry and profession of coaching.

It is important to ground practice in theory and research to bring together the researched framework to help to inform the approach. There is an old proverb that states: “Theory is when you know everything but nothing works. Practice is when everything works, but no one knows why.” The approach of this book will enable the student with the theory, the processes and the skills to coach in a way that works, and to be able to understand the why behind the success as well as make it replicable.

It is the author’s hope that the readers of this book will find information that is relevant, helpful and even challenging in ways that increase their personal growth and development as coaches.