Elaine Cox (Oxford Brookes University)

Welcome to the August 2024 issue of IJEBCM. There are nineteen papers in this issue showcasing a wide range of coaching and mentoring issues, contexts and perspectives. Authors are from Ghana, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA.

We begin with four quite distinct peer reviewed papers relating to aspects of mentoring. We then introduce ten coaching papers: three focusing on aspects of coach development, four looking at client development, and three exploring issues germane to the coaching profession as a whole. Then we present a further five coaching papers in our ‘Reflections from the Field’ section and finish this issue with two book reviews.  

Peer Reviewed Papers

Our first mentoring paper is a systematic review of gender and mentoring. Eila Prats-Brugat, Alba Castellsagué and Òscar Prieto-Flores from the University of Girona in Spain, explore the gap in research by analysing 405 articles focused on types of mentoring, mentor-mentee matching and chronology. The study highlights the need to incorporate a gender and intersectional perspective into mentoring research.

Next, Samuel Amponsah and Boadi Agyekum from the University of Ghana and Kwaku Nhyira Okai from Auckland Central, New Zealand, present a comparative case study of the role of mentoring in doctoral studies across institutions in Ghana and the United States. Findings suggest that differences in mentoring processes and program design lead to differing levels of engagement and impact on student decision making.

Our third mentoring paper by Catherine Comfort, researching in the UK, looks at social capital in relation to youth mentoring. The research uses interpretive, qualitative methodology and using social capital theory as a lens for analysis the article concludes that mentoring can increase mentees’ self-awareness, sense of agency and confidence.

The fourth of our mentoring papers focuses on mentorship skills in occupational therapy. Sara Stephenson and Gretchen Bachman from Northern Arizona University, USA and Dana Mills from Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, explore differences in mentor readiness and identify areas for improvement. 103 participants completed a Mentor Competency Assessment but no significant differences were identified, indicating that the instrument was unable to differentiate between those with and without mentor experience.

The first of our ten coaching papers is by Michael Grissom researching in Singapore, and Jenny Gordon from Oxford, in the UK. Their paper looks at cultivating coaching presence through master level education programmes in UK and Ireland. Coach educators and thought leaders were interviewed about approaches used to cultivate coaching presence. Findings suggest that although presence is critical to coaching outcomes, its place in graduate coach education programmes is inconsistent.

The second coaching paper looks at what coaches do to actually learn and develop. In this qualitative exploration Stephen Burt, Duminda Rajasinghe and colleagues researching in the U.K. explore the development narratives of experienced coaches. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to gather coaches’ experiences of their development journey. Findings suggest no universal set of development activities, but considerable commonality in how coaches resource and support themselves, and the influences on their development. Rather than transmission and mastery of a pre-determined skill-sets or knowledge, facility and investment in reflexive learning emerges as the key motor of coaching excellence.

Our third coaching paper is by Elizabeth Crosse researching in the U.K. It focuses on executive coaches’ views on continuous coach development. The article discusses the outcomes of a Q methodology study exploring how forty-eight executive coaches prioritised their development needs. It presents a typology of developmental strategies and developmental types and makes a case for a more pluralistic attitude to identifying and addressing developmental needs.

The first of our four client focused coaching papers is from Thabo Mosala from the University of Witwatersrand, and Kathy Bennett from University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. The authors focus on leader identity and identity work through an interpretive study investigating how executive coaching facilitated leaders' identity work during the COVID-19 pandemic.. While the outcomes of the coaching were shifts in leader identity as a result of the transition to virtual leadership, it is argued that coaches need to work more explicitly with an identity lens.

The second client focused paper is by Elfreda Manahan-Vaughan, from the Coláiste Dhulaigh College of Further Education in Dublin and Julia Papworth from Oxford Brookes University in UK. It examines the role of metaphor in coaching when re-authoring narratives in post-traumatic growth. Participants who had been coached during trauma recovery were interviewed and themes emerged that suggested metaphor use is a common factor in the awareness of past-trauma and the need for reauthoring.

The next paper studies breastfeeding coaching as an intervention to support working mothers in Egypt. Iman Sarhan, an organizational psychologist from Newcastle Upon Tyne in the UK, and Dasha Grajfoner, from the DOBA Business School in Slovenia interviewed 28 working mothers with breastfeeding experience and self-efficacy and well-being scores were also assessed. Findings show that working mothers need support from their workplace, as well as professional breastfeeding support through coaching.

The fourth paper in this client focused set is from colleagues, O’Donovan, Loughnane, Van Nieuwerburgh, and Dunne from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Duggan from Boston College. The paper explores how human-led positive health coaching using a digital platform provides opportunities for building a relationship with participants and prompts reflection in action. Evidence draws on text based coaching conversations from RCSI ‘Coach Connect’ to illustrate the potential of digital health interventions to create momentum for positive change in participants’ lives.

The first of our three professional issues papers is entitled: When is neuroscience stretched too far? A spotlight on ‘coaching to the pea.’ Here Adrian Myers and Sanjay Kumar from Oxford Brookes University offer a critical review of a foundational article in neuroscience (Boyatzis & Jack, 2018) which sets out to provide the neuroscientific foundations of Coaching to the PEA, a coaching model. The critique interrogates the validity of the underpinning neuroscientific research; the problematic positioning of the coach working with the brain; and the risk of reductionism and generalisation of findings from limited empirical research. The critique questions how far neuroscience can be applied in coaching.

The second professional issues paper is by Andrew George from Imperial College in London, and Susan Rose from Henley Business School, UK. The study explores the moral purpose of coaching and asks: What is the ultimate ‘good’ that we aim to achieve as coaches? Thirteen coaches and eleven clients were interviewed to determine their understanding of the moral purpose of coaching in the context of the workplace. Findings suggest the flourishing of the client through the development of self-awareness, identity and agency are important.

Our final professional issues paper examines how coaching efficacy may be advanced using 360° survey metrics. Using a case study approach, Hilton Rudnick from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and Neville Goldin, a Consulting Psychologist also from Johannesburg, discuss 360° reviews as a method to measure coaching efficacy in organisations. Their findings indicate visible behavioural shifts in the post and pre 360° rater categories, suggesting that for 360° reviews the benefits outweigh the overhead.

Reflections from the Field: papers with a practitioner focus

The first of our five ‘Reflections from the Field’ contributions is a conceptualisation of how coaching supervisors meet their supervisees’ needs. In this paper, Jeremy Lewis from West Yorkshire in the UK describes qualitative research undertaken with five experienced coaching supervisors using the conceptual encounter method. Findings are presented as a working definition of coaching supervision and a framework for coaching supervision interventions that illuminates the intentional choices coaching supervisors have when selecting interventions.

The second practitioner paper evaluates a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in coaching skills for learner-centred conversations. Here Arti Maini, Zoe Moula, Celine Esuruoso, and Victoria Collin from the Medical Education Innovation and Research Centre at Imperial College London use a mixed methodology to evaluate the course. Survey participants (n=1521) scored the MOOC highly on scales for intrinsic motivation and critical reflection and felt the MOOC aligned well with their cultural beliefs. Interview participants (n= 16) reported development of a learner-centred mindset and described applying coaching skills in a range of contexts, the challenges encountered and how these were addressed.

The next paper is a qualitative study of client experiences using imagery rescripting during schema coaching by Iain McCormick, an executive coach working in Auckland, New Zealand. Schema coaching uses the methods of schema therapy and applies them with high-functioning individuals in the workforce. Imagery rescripting, a core schema technique, is an imagery-focused approach designed to reduce distressing memories and so change related beliefs. Findings of the study suggest that imagery rescripting, although emotionally draining, was powerful and had a positive long-term impact.

In the fourth paper of this set, Yannick Jacob from Cambridge University in the UK, Nigel Pedlingham of Magey Consciousness in the Netherlands, and Marcel Braun from Germany, ask whether coaching and psychedelics is a beneficial partnership. Grounded in a review of existing literature and drawing on assumptions from coaching psychology and positive psychology, the paper’s authors argue that psychedelic experiences, beyond their potential to treat disease and disorder, hold promising potential to foster growth, learning, and wellbeing for non-clinical populations, and that coaching can offer effective, safe, and ethical support.

The final reflection from the field is from Michelle Lucas of Greenfields Consulting in Weymouth, UK. Building on previous research, Lucas presents the acronym “StEWARD” as a framework for articulating and exploring the coach supervision mindset. The acronym stands for Stewardship, Exploring, Wisdom, Agility, Relationship and Doubt. Each element is expanded upon in turn, describing the supervisor’s likely disposition, beliefs, feelings, and values. Consideration is then given to how this mindset will influence what supervisors pay attention to and how they respond.

Book Reviews

Team Coaching with Impact at Work
by Gill Graves (2024), Rethink Press.
Reviewed by: Elaine Cox, MA, PhD, Oxford Brookes University Business School, UK.

Reflective Practices for Coaches: A Guidebook for Advanced Professional Development
by Iain McCormick (2023). Routledge, London.
Reviewed by: Stewart Forsyth, MA (Hons), Dip Clin Psych, FX Consultants, New Zealand.

Elaine Cox, 1 August 2024