Executive coaching is a discipline, that over the past three decades has been in exponential growth. However empirically based studies that examine the effects of executive coaching is lacking behind. After having conducted a systematic review in the fall of 2017, that focused on qualitative studies which measured the perceived contribution of executive coaching from 2007-2017, it was found that only 7 studies examined this topic, and none of them was conducted in Danish corporations. Based on these findings we therefore wanted to contribute empirically to the emerging literature on the field of executive coaching. The aim of this study is therefore to investigate how six Danish leaders, three from a large Danish region, and three from a Danish large private corporation, each experience receiving executive coaching.
To investigate this, we have conducted a qualitative study using the hermeneutic phenomenological research methodology. This was selected to capture the participants’ lifeworld and interpret this with an as open mind as we can possibly achieve. The data were collected through semi structured interviews which were conducted in each participant’s workplace. The data was then analyzed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) method, which is a thematic analysis method. Through this method, we found five main themes with each two subthemes that emerged across the interviews.
The themes captured the participants perceived benefits of executive coaching such as change or implementation of leadership style, coping with organizational conditions, learning about self and others among other things through being object of their own self-awareness, importance of the coaching relation, the value of seeing things in different perspectives and the use of executive coaching as a leadership developmental tool to name the most evident.
Through the emerged themes it became clear, that the participants had a positive experience of receiving executive coaching. It especially became apparent, that they specifically had great benefit of the tailored style of executive coaching, which approached their problems very particular, rather than other leadership development programmes, which as a tendency to be mere generic. The participants therefore expressed a high benefit from receiving executive coaching and several would recommend it or even consider it mandatory for all, especially new leaders.