Multidimensional Executive Coaching

Executive roles carry heavy pressures, and a recent study found that 40% of U.S. executives fail in them. To help leaders perform at their best, many organizations now bring in an executive coach. Ruth L. Orenstein draws on her training as a psychologist and her decades of experience as a business executive to explain how that coaching works in practice. Her approach is illustrated with real case studies.

The book asks clients to consider several overlapping influences on their working lives. These include the individual and the organization, unconscious forces, multi-level forces, and the way a person uses themselves. Each influence then informs the coaching sequence: setting goals together, agreeing to a coaching contract, working toward objectives, assessing results, and bringing the engagement to a close.

The text is written for graduate students in applied psychology and related fields who plan to coach executives. It will also be useful to anyone in business who wants to use executive coaching to strengthen their organization.