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Coaching and Executive Character Core Problems and Basic Approaches

Richard R. Kilburg Johns Hopkins University

This article explores three major problems often encountered by consultants who are engaged to coach executives and who confront difficulties related to the character of their clients: execu- tive character as a complex adaptive system that influences the unconscious aspects of organiza- tional life, unconscious psychological conflict as a key motivating factor in individual and or- ganizational behavior, and the challenges of changing executive character and behavior to improve organizational performance. Conceptual approaches to understanding these problems are provided. Specific methods and techniques for managing several of the more difficult issues in creating change in the behavior of executives are presented and briefly explored. A case study il- lustrates the material.

Susan Luci, a senior staff member and programmer in the management informa- tion systems unit of the computing depart- ment, sought an appointment with me after she had witnessed significant, positive changes that her boss had made in his ap- proach to the management of their depart- ment after approximately three months of executive coaching. I was already somewhat familiar with Susan from my work with her boss, who was struggling to make sense out of a leadership succession process while working for an interim director. He sup- ported her decision to solicit coaching assistance.

Susan had a reputation for technical ex- cellence in her position. She worked very hard, completed her assignments on time, and expected her colleagues and clients to do the same. Many of her projects crossed multiple administrative lines within the or- ganization, which required her to rely on others, work as part of multidisciplinary teams, and juggle many different tasks with

very few resources under her control. She had two assistants who possessed reasonable competence, but she believed strongly that she had to watch their work carefully be- cause of ongoing problems with lapses in quality.

Susan described a history of conflict with subordinates, peers, clients, and her boss. She complained bitterly of difficulties in obtaining the resources she knew she needed to do her job well. Her clients often com- plained about jobs being late, customized software that developed or was delivered with operating bugs, and problems in com- municating with her staff. Susan maintained an attitude of unflagging support and diplo- macy with clients in the organization, but she had a reputation as a picky perfection- ist, who could and would explode verbally with subordinates, colleagues, and manag- ers in other departments upon whom she sometimes depended for resources and ad- ministrative support. Her staff repeatedly went to her boss behind her back with com- plaints about her, and they were also well known for discussing the unit's problems with staff members in other departments.

Richard R. Kilburg is senior director of the Office of Human Services in the Department of Human Resources and adjunct assistant profes- sor in the Department of Psychology at Johns Hopkins University. In Fall 1996, he was guest editor for a special issue of Consulting Psy- chology Journal: Practice and Research on the topic of executive coaching. He has pub- lished two books with the American Psycho- logical Association.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Richard R. Kilburg, 5 Barrow Court, Towson, Maryland 21204.

Copyright 1997 by the Educational PubUsfaing Foundation and tbe Division of Consulting Psychology, 1061-4087/97/13.00 Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, Vol. 49, No. 4,281-299 281

In our first session, Susan described her frustrations with an administration that re- fused to supply the resources that she re- peatedly, and as she saw it, tactfully re- quested. This situation forced her and her subordinates into untenable situations with clients in which they were often unable to deliver high quality systems within the time frames expected. On many occasions in team meetings and administrative forums, her colleagues and others complained about the difficulties in quality and delivery they ex- perienced from the products and services of her unit. These confrontations would often result in harsh and sometimes nasty ex- changes. Her boss had been approaching these issues by triangulating himself between Susan, her staff, and the others with whom conflict emerged. He often left Susan out of the loop, choosing whether or not to com- municate about one of his discussions based on how much energy he had for dealing with her interpersonally, and how he evaluated the degree of political risk in a particular situation. This history had left Susan resent- ful, suspicious, and often combative with him. During our session, she said that she had been very impressed by the way in which her boss had changed his behavior toward her, and that their relationship had now be- come one that she felt she could count on for support. We agreed to work together to assist her in refining her administrative and interpersonal style and to create a different approach to her professional relationships.

After several months and four or five ses- sions and telephone conversations in which we explored many of the troublesome aspects of her current situation and behavior and in which I constantly and tactfully pushed her toward an increased awareness of the com- plexities involved, Susan came in for a regu- lar appointment bringing a copy of an E- mail note that she had sent to her boss in an effort to educate him about a problem in one of her projects and the effects that resource shortages and lack of cooperation from other departments had created for her and her

staff. She wanted feedback from me about the content and tone of the note, observing that she had labored over the two paragraphs to try to ensure it contained a constructive and problem-solving tone. As I read through the note, I discovered a typo in which she referred to the "moral" (meaning morale) of the unit staff. This typo was embedded in two paragraphs that described the various ways in which she and her staff were being forced to fail by the problems and difficul- ties in their department. To be sure, she used constructive language and certainly at- tempted to identify real problems they were experiencing.

I asked her what she thought the typo meant, and initially, she simply laughed it off. She said she was quite proud of the work, and that she often had misspellings in her E-mail notes. I said that I could find only the one mistake in the note and wondered out loud if she might be making a statement about how she believed her superiors were managing the situation. She laughed again and said "not consciously." I agreed with her and asked if she wanted some feedback on the note. She said certainly. I proceeded to point out that the approximately 10 sen- tences in the note all identified some form of failure. Although she had used tactful lan- guage, the note was actually one long com- plaint in which, between the lines, she re- peatedly told her boss how he was failing her and their clients. I suggested that the typo actually might represent her true thoughts, namely, that she believed that her boss and many of his colleagues in the de- partment had a problem behaving "morally" with regard to resource allocation, decision making, and interpersonal relations.

Susan was stunned by this suggestion. She claimed that this was not her intent. I asked her if that was what she thought, and she replied immediately, "Of course" and smiled very broadly. This led to a discus- sion of the organizational and political con- straints of her boss and their department and to an exploration of her tendency to demand

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perfection from herself and the others close to her. We explored several major dimen- sions of emotion as they affected job perfor- mance, including anger, sadness, shame, and anxiety. Susan admitted that she was chroni- cally angry with those with whom she worked. During the session, she also dis- closed that her mother had been orphaned during the Holocaust, and that both of her parents were demanding, preoccupied with doing what they considered right, and an- gry and depressed most of the time. At the end of this discussion, Susan acknowledged that these were real problems that she must solve if she wanted to make professional progress. She promised to take up these is- sues with her outside psychotherapist, who had never really questioned her about her job difficulties. She stated that she would make a series of additional appointments with me to explore further these issues.

In our next appointment, Susan and I made headway on her anger, clarifying some of the stimulus conditions and typical re- sponse modes that characterized many of her interpersonal exchanges. We identified sev- eral techniques that she could use when she felt herself "losing it" with someone. We also spent a little time further exploring her expectations of others in light of her own developmental experiences and those of her parents. She described the emotional bur- den that many children in Holocaust fami- lies feel to challenge what is wrong in the world and to succeed in all things. She stated that she had never seen or experienced this largely unconscious pattern as causing any trouble for her, but she now understood that her standards, demandingness, tendencies to overgeneralize and think categorically, and her willingness to fight overtly and sometimes with unrelenting negativity, made her a target for rumors, gave her a reputa- tion for being hard to get along with, and had probably caused her to lose several pro- motional opportunities.

A week after this session, Susan called me and described a series of meetings in

which she had participated that had made her furious. However, she had retained con- trol of her temper and used several of the techniques we had discussed, including tim- ing herself out, making notes rather than knee jerk responses, and being very careful to stay problem focused and assertive rather than trying to correctly apportion the blame on her colleagues. She was pleased with what she had accomplished but complained that it was draining and very difficult for her to do. She also said that her superiors had announced that they would be getting a new department director.

Several days later, one of my colleagues in the Human Resources Department stepped into my office. She wanted to let me know that Susan had been terminated and offered a generous severance package. She said that Susan had asked if I could con- tinue to coach her as she made her transi- tion. Surprised and concerned, I agreed to do so.

At our next session, Susan and I discussed her derailment She was remarkably com- posed and not overly concerned about fmd- ing another job in a full employment economy. She said she could see how she had contributed to the situation that led to the decision to release her. She was very con- cerned with some of the formal language in the termination letter she had been negoti- ating with the organization, stating her be- lief that it potentially placed most of the blame for the situation on her, despite a promise that the letter would never be shown to anyone but her. We discussed her ap- proach for negotiating changes in the letter, her plan for out placement, and scheduled a series of follow-up meetings.

At the next meeting, Susan came dressed in jeans and a T-shirt. She reported that she was able to negotiate successfully for the removal of the offensive language from the termination letter by using her sense of hu- mor; excellent history of working relation- ships with key colleagues; tactful, diplomatic assertiveness; and staying out of the zone of

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angry, blaming, and threatening behavior to which she felt constantly drawn. She had been to see her out placement consultant and already had an informational interview with her previous employer from whom she ex- pected a job offer. She said that she was feel- ing tired from the emotional strain of the changes, but she was happy about how things seemed to be working out for her. She said that she wanted to focus our work on how she could ensure that she would not repeat the pattern of behavior in any new position that she took.

I open this article on coaching and char- acter with this lengthy example because it illustrates many of the typical issues that consulting practitioners face with real cli- ents who are in deep trouble in their organi- zations and careers and may not even know it. The complex interactions between orga- nizational systems, group and organizational behavior, and the conscious and unconscious components of the patterns and dynamics

of character in our individual clients present some of the greatest challenges and prob- lems to those of us in the field. The pur- poses of this article are to describe briefly three core problems in coaching executives on character and performance issues and to identify conceptual and technical approaches to manage these problems. These problems include: executive character as a complex adaptive system that influences the uncon- scious aspects of organizational life, uncon- scious psychological conflict as a key moti- vating factor in individual and organizational behavior, and the challenges of changing executive character and behavior to improve organizational performance.

Executive Character as a Complex Adaptive System

Figure 1 presents a 17-dimensional model of psychodynamics and systems de- scribed by Kilburg (1995). Within this ap-

Defense System Structure | Past Relationship(s)

Rational Self

Input

Emotion

Present Relationship(s)

Instinctual' Self

System Process

Conscience

Throughput

Cognition

Focal Relationship(s)

Idealized Self

System Content

Output Conflict Figure 1. A 17-dimensional model of psychodynamics and organizational systems. Org. = organization; Inds. = individuals.

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proach, individual, group, and organiza- tional behavior arise out of the interaction of 6 system and 11 psychodynamic dimen- sions. Many other authors have described both system and psychodynamic issues as they interact in human organizations (Baum, 1987; Czander,1993; Diamond, 1993; Fineman,1993; Kets deVries, 1984; Kets deVries & Miller, 1987; Levinson, 1981; Lowman, 1993; Obholzer& Roberts, 1994; O'Neil,1993; Schwartz, 1990). Stacey (1996) examined the interaction between complexity theory and psychodynamics as they operate in human organizations. He em- phasized that the future of any institution and its people depended on the ability to move individuals, groups, and organizations into a phase state in which compulsive and largely defensive behavioral routines can be transcended without regressing into emo- tionally pressured, pathological symptoms and disorders. In these paradoxical phase

states, Stacey believes that creativity and growth become possible. He also maintained that the adaptive success of any human sys- tem, including individual executives, de- pends on the ability to enter into and ben- efit from the new ideas and pattern-breaking behaviors that become possible when anxi- ety and human resistances can be contained and managed.

Figure 2 depicts the foci for executive coaching as initially described by Kilburg (1996b). Following on Figure 1, the systems dimensions become one focus for coaching sessions. All of the psychodynamic dimen- sions along with the issues of job require- ments, roles, and tasks, and knowledge, skills, and abilities become the second ma- jor focus for coaching. It is in this second zone that the traditional issues of leadership style, personality, and character are usually addressed. In organizations, human relation- ships serve as the place in which both of

Executive Focus

System Focus

Mediated Focus Rational SelfConscience

Idealized Self Instinctual Self

Relationships Past

Present Focal

Cognition Emotion Defenses ConflictBehavior

System Whole Organization

Subunit Organizational

Work Unit Group

Individual Output > ^ ^ Tasks

Knowledge Skills

Abilities

Personality Styles

_ , Jobs Roles

Throughput

Figure 2. The foci for executive coaching.

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these foci tend to play out as work is con- ducted by the people engaged in the enterprise.

The opening case study presented a typi- cal illustration of these various dimensions in real time operation in an organization. Susan, the manager responsible for design- ing and delivering high quality outputs, soft- ware products, to demanding internal cus- tomers, had to mobilize herself and her subordinates and the structures, processes, and contents of the organization's systems to do her job. Although she had been suc- cessful at creating and delivering the prod- ucts and managing her unit's resources, vari- ous components of her conscious and unconscious behavior, as manifested through and mediated by her working relationships with subordinates, colleagues, and superi- ors, led to the derailment of her career in her organization. Susan did everything that she could think of to prevent this from hap- pening, but her adaptive efforts clearly failed, and our coaching activities obviously began far too late in the process.

Susan understood a lot about herself. She had worked for years with a private psycho- therapist. She had direct access to her emo- tions and could identify and tolerate them sufficiently to discuss them with me. She quickly made the connection between her inability to constructively channel her an- ger and the difficulties she was encounter- ing on the job. However, the contribution of the dynamics of her family of origin to the creation and functioning of a demanding and perfectionistic conscience was completely unconscious until she brought in the E-mail message for discussion. Once this issue sur- faced, Susan demonstrated a remarkable ability to use the material consciously, and she quickly began to change her approach to her superiors and subordinates. Knowing that some of the strength of her anger and the extent of her demandingness and desires for perfect performance from everyone came from inside of her and had evolved from her family's transgenerational experience helped her move in a different direction.

Unfortunately, her superiors and col- leagues had already decided that they were unwilling to grant her any additional time to change her behavior. The combination of the leadership succession process and an absence of leadership support for Susan led to the preparation and delivery of an "evic- tion notice" from which there was no ap- peal and within which there was very little room to negotiate. The collective action of the connected group of colleagues to reject and expel her was done as a surprise fait accompli. Comments by the human re- sources manager led me to understand that the leadership team in the unit was frustrated and angry at Susan for her approach to situ- ations, her constant battles with those around her, and her "negativity." From the consultant's perspective, I believe that Su- san was scapegoated by the group for many flaws and problems in operating systems, historic inadequacies in management and supervision, and real resource shortages. No person in the administrative system was willing to sit down with Susan and review the history and problems with her or specify that changes in her behavior must be made. Instead, the group eliminated her position in a "reorganization" that would give the new director a free hand in redesigning and shaping the unit. I believe this is a fairly typical outcome in many of these situations.

Within these models and this example, we can see that executive character is both complex and adaptive. It has many differ- ent dimensions both conscious and uncon- scious, and its influence on organizations and individuals can be profound. The ex- ample also demonstrates how difficult these complexities can be for executives and their organizations. Mismatches between an individual's character and the culture and relationship matrix of an organization can lead to failure of the executive, the team or subunit, or the organization as a whole. Similarly, failures on the part of consultants to consider the complex, adaptive nature of executive character in their work often lead

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to major resistance to organization devel- opment interventions (Stacey, 1996).

Unconscious Psychological Conflict in Individual and Organizational

Behavior

We might ask why individuals, who con- sciously desire to succeed and do an excel- lent job, who bring energy and passion to their work, who put in long hours and sweat the details, and who possess superb educa- tional foundations and technical back- grounds for their jobs, manage to fail so of- ten. Hogan, Curphy, and Hogan (1994) suggested that up to 50% of executives will "derail" or fail in their efforts to advance in their careers. To me, this figure is stagger- ingly high, and it indicates that our organi- zations are woefully underprepared to help managers perform well in their jobs and succeed in their careers. The case of Susan Luci presented earlier demonstrates some of the complexities in this arena because con- ventional approaches to professional devel- opment failed miserably in this situation.

Susan routinely attended professional conferences to keep her knowledge and skills sharp. She had also taken advantage of some of the internal course offerings on manage- ment and supervision in her organization's training department. On top of that, Susan had obtained the services of an outside psy- chotherapist whom she said was very help- ful to her. In spite of all of these efforts on her part and the availability of the resources and administrative support to use them in her organization, Susan's behavior at work never changed until she began working ex- plicitly to do so in a coaching relationship. As she started this work, she could identify many of the problem behaviors and contrib- uting factors. She could describe these is- sues and complexities in rich and insightful detail. However, she had been completely unable to change her behavior. Only after manifesting and exploring aspects of the un- conscious components of the behavior was

she able to mobilize herself and begin to make creative efforts at doing something different. I believe that this example amply demonstrates the second major problem of coaching executive character, namely that unconscious psychological conflict in indi- viduals, work groups, and organizations of- ten impedes executive and organizational performance.

Figure 3 presents aflow chart of the struc- ture and process of psychodynamic conflict and adaptation. It represents a pictorial sum- mary of the detailed work of theorists such as Brenner 1976), Conte and Plutchik (1995), Gray (1994), Greenspan (1989), Sigmund Freud (1916/1973a, 1923/1973b, & 1933/1973c), Anna Freud (1966), Langs (1973, 1974), and O'Neil (1993). The chart begins with stimuli of two major types, ex- ternal reality such as challenges and trauma, and internal states such as wishes and drives. These stimuli are informed and influenced by the person's history and relationships and push the major psychological structures of conscience, rational self, instinctual self, and ideal self to respond from each of their major organizing principles. If these structures are not in conflict about what is occurring and the responses that are required to meet the stimulus demand, the result is behavior that can be said to exist in a "conflict-free zone" and which can produce adaptive efforts that can have homeostatic, entropic, or emergent properties. In other words, the adaptive be- havior can lead to maintaining the status quo, creating change, or decaying regres- sive behavior.

However, if the psychological structures are in conflict over the stimulus or over the response that should be made, the resulting behavior enters into the conflicted response zone. Conflicts of various types (approach/ approach, approach/avoidance, avoidance/ avoidance, and double approach avoidance) are mediated by and interact with emotional and cognitive systems. The emotions of anxi- ety, shame, guilt, sadness, anger, and sexual arousal play particularly important roles. De-

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Hiatazy and Relationships - * *

Psychological S l n i e t n r a

External Reality and Change

Challenge! and Trauma of Daily living

«TT*

Internal States

Wishea, Need*, Fantasies, Memories, Thoughts and Drivei

Conscdanee Moral Principle

Rations] Self Reality Principle

Instinctual Self Pleasure Principle

Ideal Ban* Idealuatian

Devaluatian PrinaplH

CanfHeted R u p o n N Zone

Approach/ Approach

Approach/ Avoidance

Avoidance/ Aral dance

Double Approach/ Avoidance

Anxiety

Anger

Sexual Arousal

Cognition

DefiansJv* Operations Formations

Behavior

Conflict Fre« RMpont* Zone

Adaptive Behavior

Creativity/ Changs (emergence)

Entrophy /regnssiojiA Vreaiatance/

TT

Symptoms and Disorders

Figure 3. Structure and process of psychodynamic conflict and adaptation (the unconscious or shadow system of behavior).

fensive operations such as splitting, denial, projection, rationalization, intellectualiza- tion, detachment, isolation, humor, creativ- ity, and others are then brought into play, and the result is a behavioral response to the stimulus called a "compromise forma- tion." These compromise behaviors repre- sent the best that a person can do under the circumstances of inner unconscious conflict. These behaviors can be thought of in two major categories. The first are the adaptive efforts described earlier. I would suggest that most compromise formations, even as they represent the results of unconscious conflict, do lead to adaptive efforts. History and clini- cal material are replete with examples of major creative or destructive acts performed by individuals as a result of their inner con- flicts. The second, and more problematic, category is behavior that produces symptoms and disorders for the individual (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994). Table 1 provides a set of example compromise for- mations that can often be seen in executive behavior. These examples are adapted from Horney's (1937,1942) celebrated exposition of neurotic trends in human behavior. We

can readily see several of these compromise formations at work in the character and be- havior of Susan Luci in our case study. Her drive for perfection, need to dominate oth- ers, and need for affection and recognition all contributed significantly to her profes- sional derailment. It is important to note that consultants can, in fact, encounter almost any symptomatic behavior or psychological disorder in their work in organizations. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Men- tal Disorders (APA, 1994) formally recog- nizes 10 different types of personality dis- order, the worst forms of character disturbances, but no effort will be made here to describe them despite the fact that these disorders can have major negative ef- fects on organizations. If the destructive ef- fects of character problems are to be mini- mized, these disorders and the unconscious patterns of conflict and behavior that deter- mine or result must be addressed directly by consultants when they are encountered.

The flow chart also indicates that each of the components of this complex system can interact with any and all of the other components. Defenses can affect psychologi-

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Table 1 Examples of Compromise Formations (Adapted From Horney's Neurotic Trends)

1. Need for affection and approval • Indiscriminate desire to please others and live up to their expectations • Strict conformity; fear of self-assertion; fear of conflict or hostility in self or others

2. Need for a partner who takes over your life • Love solving all of the problems of the world • Fear of abandonment; fear of being alone

3. Need to restrict one's life within narrow borders • Reduced ambition, necessity to remain in second place • Modesty as the supreme value • Fear of self-expression or making demands

4. Need for power • Seeking dominance in all things and relationships • Combativeness; basic disrespect for others' feelings and dignity • Adoration of strength and contempt for weakness of any kind • Fear of loss of control or helplessness • Belief in the omnipotence of intelligence and reason • Fear of mistakes, errors, and bad judgment • Belief in the omnipotence of will • Hyperresponsive to any frustration of wishes • Fear of recognition of any limitations

5. Need to exploit others • Pride in exploitation of others, bargaining, possession • Fears of being exploited and possessed

6. Need for social recognition or prestige

• Self-image and esteem based entirely on social acceptance • Fears of public humiliation and shame

7. Need for personal admiration • Narcissism, entitlement • Fears of public humiliation or shame

8. Need for personal achievement above all else

• Self-esteem dependent on being recognized as "the best"; constant striving to compete and de feat others; workaholism

• Relentless anxiety-ridden drive for success • Fears of failure

9. Need for self-sufficiency and independence • Fears of attachment, love, needing others

• Detachment as the major source of security; difficulty in belonging to a team or group 10. Need for perfection

• Fear of errors, mistakes, flaws, criticism

• Fears of public humiliation or shame

cal structure, emotion, cognition, the nature change, clearly can have an impact on all of of a conflict itself, the original stimulus, the these system components as well. Indeed, individual's relationships, and history, coaching efforts systematically try to push Adaptive behavior, particularly creative clients into this creative and adaptive zone,

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what Stacey (1996) calls a paradoxical phase state, in which new learning that makes fun- damental changes in the way in which an individual operates can occur.

Bion (1961) demonstrated that groups themselves can have organized defensive operations in response to conflicts. Many of the other authors identified earlier in this article have described the operation of simi- lar unconscious processes and structures in organizations themselves. These levels of conflict and adaptive or symptomatic behav- ior frequently are influenced by or are caus- ally related to the inner lives of the mem- bers of the organization, including the organization and components of their characters or personalities.

The structure and process of psy- chodynamic conflict comes into focus when- ever consultants are called upon to help an individual or organizational client try to address a problem that relates to character issues and often exert major influence on organizational performance. In our case study, Susan was broadly known in the or- ganization as a "prickly character." Some of her behaviors routinely caused problems for her colleagues and her superiors, lead- ing to major conflict between organizational units and individuals. Nothing that they tried to do had any impact on the behavior. Su- san herself suffered greatly from being such a character, and she clearly wanted to change. She even had external psycho- therapeutic assistance, but the patterns per- sisted until she was forced out of the orga- nization. After she was able to identify and explore some of the levels of unconscious conflict directly tied to the daily experience of her work life, she began to make steady progress in changing the way she related to her colleagues. Her interactions around stan- dards of performance and errors became less infused with anger, and deliberate efforts to make people feel guilty and ashamed or to control them decreased. She became some- what more realistic about her role in the or- ganization and the degree to which she was

responsible for problems that arose. As her awareness of her levels of anger increased, she proved more creative and flexible in managing the emotions in the moment. She started to talk to her therapist actively about the degree to which the unstated values, as- sumptions, wishes, beliefs, and largely un- explored traumatic history of her family might be affecting her behavior at work through the processes and various compro- mise formations I have discussed. Most of this progress was made after she brought in the E-mail for a brief review. A single slip, the deletion of an e from a critical word, and the way in which I was able to work with that material, freed Susan to enter into a more creative and constructive effort to change her behavior.

Many consultants who do coaching do not subscribe to a psychodynamic perspec- tive, and therefore, would be unwilling and even unable to work with clients in this fash- ion. Many of their efforts can still be quite successful, and Figure 3 suggests why. Keep in mind that a great deal of behavior for any individual can be said to operate in the con- flict-free zone. If an individual has a need to learn something new or to change some behavior that has been or has become a prob- lem, and there is little or no conflict about what must be done, the person and the con- sultant will usually be able to work together quite successfully to address the issue or need. Similarly, in a group or organization that is motivated to examine what must be changed and to move forward, there is of- ten no true need to explore the shadow or unconscious side of their functioning. How- ever, when conflict does appear, when be- havior does not change despite overt assur- ances that the motivation to do so is high, where major resistance is encountered, and when clients tell you everything that they have tried has failed, consultants should be alerted to the possibility that psychodynamic conflict may well be present and will need to be managed effectively for progress to be made.

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Figure 4 further illustrates this complex- ity by presenting the multidimensional com- ponents of executive character in a some- what different view. The major components of the 17-dimensional model from Figure 1 are arrayed in a series of four interlocking Venn diagrams. At the center of each of the Venn diagrams, a zone of behavior is de- picted as a band that can range from con- flict free and adaptive to symptomatic and disordered. This behavior zone links the major psychodynamic dimensions including psychological structures, conflict, defense, emotion, cognition, and the various forms of relationships. In addition, a fourth Venn diagram extends Figure 2 by illustrating that these psychodynamic dimensions are also linked through behavior, structure, and pro- cess to what we call character, or "the sum of a person's relatively fixed personality traits and habitual modes of response" (APA, 1980); a person's attitudes, beliefs, and val- ues; the individual's dimensions of diver- sity, including age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, manage- rial style, and so on; the organizational sys- tems and job requirements of the present position; and the person's knowledge, skills, and abilities. This figure illustrates that char- acter is thus intimately interconnected with all of these other psychological, behavioral,

and organization dimensions, and that this linkage is most often seen in either conflict- free behavior or compromiser formations. Coaching efforts can and may need to enter any or all of these domains to help an indi- vidual client develop. I believe that consult- ants will be more successful with a wider range of clients and in more conflicted situ- ations if they can keep these psychodynamic principles in mind and help clients find meaningful ways to address unconscious is- sues that may be uncovered.

Changing Executive Character and Behavior

Thus far, I have tried to demonstrate that coaching with executives can be a complex phenomenon involving a dynamic system and understanding unconscious conflict. However, most of the material presented thus far concentrates on the issues of why this work is so difficult and where to look when major problems arise. The case study sug- gests part of the third and final problem, namely, How can consultants work with ex- ecutives to help them change themselves and their behaviors? At conferences, in work- shops, in the hallways of consulting organi- zations, and in supervision sessions, that question dominates many of the conversa-

Compromise Formations Conflict Free Behavior

Figure 4. Multidimensional components of executive character.

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tions. I believe this is one of the most chal- lenging issues that all consultants face. I would like to suggest that it is possible to construct a systematic approach to the issue that borrows liberally from the century of empirical and clinical work of our psy- chotherapeutic colleagues but retains the unique components of working with "nor- mal people" largely in their work settings. What then are the components to this sys- tematic approach?

First, the major principle underlying the provision of effective executive coaching services is to improve the self-awareness of the client. Recent empirical research has demonstrated a significant positive relation- ship between managerial self-awareness and managerial performance (Church, 1997; Wohlers & London, 1989; and Yammarino & Atwater, 1993). These studies suggest that as managers become more insightful about various aspects of the execution of the re- quirements of their jobs through participa- tion in 360-degree reviews, ratings of their managerial performance by subordinates, peers, and supervisors improve. The empiri- cal nature of these findings is reassuring, but I would like to suggest that these studies in reality represent an extension of what practicing clinicians and clinical research- ers have demonstrated repeatedly with vast numbers of people and a huge array of prob- lems. As human beings improve their abil- ity to be self-aware, they become more able to change things for the better in their lives. Although self-awareness itself is no guar- antee of improvement, as people change things for the better, their mental and physi- cal health and their performance in chosen spheres of activity get better. This principle then provides very solid and strong guid- ance for executive coaches. Any activity, structure, or process that increases a client's ability to be self-aware can ultimately make a positive impact on his or her management and leadership skills.

Self-awareness can be improved through a variety of mechanisms. As stated earlier,

formal 360-degree review instruments now represent one methodology that has demon- strated positive impact on executive growth. These 360 reviews are now routinely in- cluded in many organizations' formal ap- proaches to executive coaching (Saporito, 1996; Peterson, 1996). Some consultants are also using other psychological tests, family interviews, and behavioral observations to provide additional data to clients (Kiel, Rimmer, Williams, & Doyle, 1996). These approaches extend the traditional uses of the assessment center (Howard & Bray, 1988) to provide information and ongoing efforts to change the behavior of specific clients and not just to select them for positions or pro- motions. As described earlier, psychotherapy itself can be quite useful for many clients in increasing access to their emotional lives, understanding family-of-origin dynamics, working through the toxic effects of various traumas, and improving their ability to vol- untarily direct their flows of attention (Bar- row, 1993; Sigmund Freud, 1937/1973d; Goldberg, 1993; Gray, 1994; and Horney, 1942) described the uses and many of the techniques of self analysis. It is safe to say that a very wide variety of human activities can be quite useful in pushing and support- ing an individual's quest to improve self- awareness.

Keeping this fundamental principle in mind, a consultant can then orient himself or herself in virtually any situation with a client. If one of the major goals is always to improve the client's self-awareness, and the steps to such improvement also increase managerial and leadership performance, the consultant acts in a tactful and sensitive way to:

1. Always try to get problems on the table where they can be approached consciously and explored actively.

2. Make the unsaid said. Keep in mind that organizations and their people often know or perceive precisely what the prob- lems are with individuals or systems, but they often collude to keep silent or to em-

292 Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research Fall 1997

ploy nonproductive, and at times symptom- the client in which reflection, creative ex- atic compromise formations, instead of de- ploration, and self-examination are encour- scribing what is happening and engaging aged and supported. Table 2 identifies some in constructive problem solving. characteristics of the coaching relationship

3. Make the unconscious conscious. As that will help clients build and maintain that described in the case study and material pre- safety zone. It borrows heavily from the work sented earlier, this can be an extremely use- of Meissner (1996), Langs (1974), Winnicott ful and productive approach. However, not (1965), and Stacey (1996). As Stacey de- everyone is equipped to do the work. If you scribed in his recent book and repeated ear- believe that unconscious aspects of behav- lier, the goal is to create a phase state be- ior are at work in a client and do not feel tween the controlled, homeostatically comfortable addressing these issues, look for balanced, and defensive behaviors of every- a partner to help you and the client on these day life and the destructive potential of a issues or someone to whom you can refer psychotic regression. In a safe, holding en- for this aspect of the coaching project. vironment with the characteristics described

Second, create a safety zone for you and in Table 2, it becomes possible to explore,

Table 2 Some Characteristics of the Successful Coaching Relationship

1. The relationship is predictable and reliable for the client.

2. The issues of time, fees, places of meetings, confidentiality, requirements for self-report, participation, practice, follow-through and homework, cancellation policies, information exchange, and goals are made clear in a for- mal agreement (see Kilburg, 1996a, 1996b)

3. The consultant consistently displays the following behaviors toward the client:

• Respect for the client as a person, a learning manager, and a striving performer in the organization

• Consideration and understanding for the complexities of the client's life at work, at home, and in his or her inner world.

• Courtesy in managing the various technical and interpersonal issues that arise.

Accurate empathy for the client and his or her struggles

Provides an experience of nonpossessive regard, of friendly, and, when possible and desirable, tender feel ings that can approximate the early learning acquired with nurturing, contact parents or teaching others in the client's life.

• Consistently and, at times, playfully challenges the client to change, grow, explore, reflect, be curious, and ultimately be responsible for participating fully in the coaching process.

• Engages in tactful exchanges with the client.

• Provides assistance for the regulation and direction of attention.

• Interacts with the client in a nonphony, nondefensive, authentic, and genuine fashion.

• Provides knowledge, skill, and technical assistance on the client's organizational systems, behavioral interfaces, working relationships, and psychological components of institutional, managerial, and, at times, personal lives.

• Uses coaching interventions in an appropriate, timely, and effective fashion.

4. Emotions such as shame, anxiety, sadness, anger, and sexual arousal are monitored, identified appropriately, and regulated in such a way that the client can use them productively in the work of personal and professional growth.

5. The client and consultant constantly and consistently reflect on and explore issues and methods that either impede or improve the executive's or the organization's performance, especially the manifestations of defen- sive operations, resistance, and conflict.

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Table 3

Coaching Methods to Facilitate Growth and Minimize Resistance

1. Use appreciative inquiry (Cooperrider, 1996) and Socratic method (Overholser, 1993) to establish a reflective, dialectic dialogue.

2. Exercise great care in the choice of language.

• Nonnormative, descriptive statements

• Permissive statements (using could instead of should and making suggestions or providing ideas that might be considered, explored, reflected on, or thought about.

• Skillful and tactful maneuvering when die consultant believes that he or she made an error of omission or commission (including apologies and amends when necessary)

• Use of metaphors, symbols, stories, and examples to which the client can easily relate.

3. Request permission to ask questions of, explore issues with, challenge, or push the client

4. Issue invitations to explore issues and events; receive feedback; consider odier options, choices, ideas, data, and opinions; be curious; experiment with new concepts and behaviors; and play creatively.

5. Ask for assistance and help in learning about the client's world, history, relationships, experiences, and ways in which the person thinks, perceives, feels, responds, solves problems, learns best, defends, manages conflict, and generally behaves.

6. Work together to create and play "what-if' games, build scenarios, create simulations, explore future consider- ations, and anticipate potential developments or outcomes.

7. Encourage the client to develop and use empathy and use it to reflect on the positions, behaviors, attitudes, and values expressed by the other important people in the environment.

8. Encourage the use of higher order psychological defenses, including sublimation, reality testing, problem solving, creativity, humor, constructive play, curiosity, communication skills, and accurate empadiy.

9. Explore the overt and covert meanings of statements, behaviors, and positions.

10. Qarify values and assumptions that underlie statements, behaviors, and positions.

11. Listen actively and carefully at all times for indications diat other dimensions of behavior and reality may be active in a situation, especially when there may be conflicts and contradictions in what is said, implied, or described by the client and when there may be multiple motives, unstated wishes and needs, situations in which behavior or perfor- mance is being judged overtly or covertly, and circumstances that may be repeating historical patterns of behavior or conflicting client expectations based on die client's history or dimensions of diversity.

12. Be aware of the client's dimensions of diversity and prepared to explore any that may be relevant to the problem or issue being discussed.

13. Be judicious in the use of self-disclosure.

14. Provide assistance in properly framing or reframing an issue, event, or problem.

15. Work carefully to identify and manage defensive behaviors and resistance to exploration, growth, and change when they occur.

16. Use your skills to assist the client in choosing the appropriate focus for die coaching work and the correct zone or mode for his or her attention.

• Adaptive problems of external reality at work or in the client's personal or professional life

• Internal states involving wishes, needs, fantasies, memories, thoughts, and drives

• Actions, responses, predispositions, and expectations of the inner psychological structures of conscience, rational self, instinctual self, and idealized self

• Conscious and unconscious psychological, interpersonal, and reality-based conflicts

Emotions—especially anxiety, anger, shame, sadness, or sexual arousal—and thoughts

• Compromise formations that express the outcomes of the processes of conscious and unconscious conflict

(table continues)

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Table 2 (continued)

and result in various forms of adaptive behavior or can lead to the formation of symptomatic behavior and mental and physical disorders

• Conscious and unconscious defensive operations and resistance to learning, change, and self-awareness

• Knowledge, skill, and ability strengths or deficits

17. Provision of new information, ideas, concepts, methods, skills, and material that can stimulate learning.

18. Provide emotional support for the processes of exploration and change, including hope, encouragement, and, when appropriate, confrontation.

19. Practice or rehearse new or altered skills and behaviors.

20. Use other techniques and tools of organization development, psychotherapy, behavior modification, and educa- tion.

experiment, think, feel, and do what seemed impossible, and grow as a human being and as a manager.

Third, and finally, always try to approach the client from the side of the rational self. Keep in mind that coaching activities and the coaching relationship themselves can become stimuli that move a client into the zone of unconscious conflict Consultants must work hard to keep their own work with clients as clear of this zone as possible. Table 3 provides an array of methods and tech- niques that can facilitate growth and mini- mize resistance. These approaches can be combined with many of the other organiza- tion development interventions identified by Kilburg (1995), to create complex change strategies for clients.

Virtually any coaching intervention that overtly or covertly judges behavior has the potential for siding with the client's con- science and eliciting a great deal of histori- cal material related to moral development, episodes of public embarrassment and shame, relationships in which struggles for control and autonomy were significant, and events and activities about which there may still be a great deal of unresolved guilt. A coach acting as an agent of moral develop- ment or enforcement of social control takes significant risks with the future of the con- sulting work because characteristics of the client's past relationships, some of which may be extremely dysfunctional, may be brought into the ongoing coaching relation- ship. There is currently no real guidance on

or technique for managing these types of "transference" relationships outside of psychodynamic psychotherapy and psycho- analysis. It is highly doubtful that the tech- niques that have proved effective and safe in the therapeutic environment will be en- tirely or easily applicable to coaching rela- tionships. Moral and ethical issues can be addressed forthrightly by coming at them from the side of reality. Inviting a client to consider consequences, providing sugges- tions or data points that a client might want to consider before acting or in making repa- rations, or telling someone the kinds of is- sues that would readily come to mind if the consultant were placed in a similar position are techniques that can maintain the qual- ity of the relationship, stimulate the client to explore thoroughly a difficult matter, and consider actively choosing a different course of action, without evoking compromise for- mations that lead to maladaptive behavior, symptoms, or disorders.

Similarly, siding with the instinctual self of a client can be a risky tactic. Encourag- ing a client to act on events that have pro- duced strong emotions such as anger, fear, shame, or sadness or to take a course of ac- tion that seems logical but perhaps impul- sive invites the client to "act out" with per- mission. If the action taken proves ill advised, the client might well blame a con- sultant for not stopping him or her from doing something harmful. In addition, in those cases in which there is an internal his- tory of conflict between the client's instinc-

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tual self and the conscience or rational self, a consultant runs the risk of being "judged" by these other structures and found to be not very helpful, professional, effective, or moral, among other possible complaints. Here again, responding to the client from the rational side which encourages reflec- tion, consideration of consequences, and al- ternative courses of action but may also empathise with the desire for quick action in response to strong emotion, will ulti- mately prove more consistently helpful. This does not speak to the case in which there may be a real crisis that demands rapid and rational responses. In those situations, a consultant does his or her best to help the client determine how they feel, what may be reality or emotional consequences, and to rapidly scan through the range of accept- able and effective responses.

Situations in which a consultant feels drawn to idealize or devalue a client or some aspect of his or her behavior or performance also must be handled with caution. Clients are human in every way. They want to be admired, and they try to avoid being deval- ued at all costs. Providing the basic con- tainment for the coaching relationship ad- dresses most of these issues (see Table 2). Communicating your basic respect for a person and their efforts to improve them- selves and their organizations and encour- aging exploration, toleration of frustration, and the anxiety that comes with risk-tak- ing are all very appropriate and part of the basic relationship. Unnecessary compli- ments, encouragements, flattery, or court- ing favor will usually lead to trouble in the coaching relationship. When circumstances call for a consultant to provide "bad news," "negative feedback," or simply to challenge or discourage attitudes, values, beliefs, as- sumptions, or behavior that a consultant thinks will lead a client to a poor outcome, extreme caution rules the session. Consult- ants must gauge the extent to which a cli- ent is ready to receive such information or engage in a real dialogue. I usually try to

prepare a client by setting up a "good news/ bad news" format to a feedback session, or ask him or her if it is a good time to move into some difficult material. It has been my experience that clients can be remarkably courageous in exploring and reflecting, if the relationship is sound, the information is presented in the spirit of enabling the cli- ent to explore and consider safely, and the consultant is prepared to reduce pressure if the situation seems to call for it. In addi- tion, humor, metaphor, and personal ex- amples in these situations can be extremely useful, if a consultant can be sensitive to when a comment, story, or example is the best way to make a point and not simply put the client in a one down, defensive posture.

In every session with a client, the consultant's helping skills are tested and on display. Consultants listen, empathize, pro- vide feedback, give information, create sce- narios, challenge, symbolize, and explore the wonderful, often wacky, and sometimes terribly traumatic world of the executive. At each turn, the client watches and listens to the consultant very carefully for how he or she conducts the session. Clients judge their coaches very realistically and at times harshly. In the end, the client must deter- mine whether the time, energy, and finan- cial investment is worthwhile.

Finally, consultants must recognize that one of their most essential skills is how they help a client direct his or her attention. Each of the components in Figure 4 becomes a potential world for the client to explore with coaching assistance. The consultant uses his or her judgment constantly to assist a cli- ent to determine on which of these venues a particular session or segment of a session should concentrate. The growth of a client and the success of a coaching agreement are concrete indications that the consultant has selected strategies wisely and helped to di- rect the client's attention effectively.

Figure 5 presents a final Venn diagram that follows on Stacey's (1996) concept of

296 Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research Fall 1997

the need to build a space or phase state for creativity in individuals, groups, and orga- nizations. In Figure 5, three zones are de- picted, one for adaptive behavior, one for symptoms and disorders, and one for cre- ativity and growth. This figure builds on the material presented in Figures 3 and 4. In the zone of adaptive behavior, homeostatic control remains the primary feature of be- havior and, in some situations can also be a phase state in itself, particularly when a con- sultant is trying to help a client move from symptomatic behavior into equilibrium. In- dividuals work to keep themselves well regu- lated. In most situations, coaching clients may be unaware of any need to change out of this zone as the behaviors are mostly func- tional, not typically challenged from either the inside or outside, or are so well protected by psychological defenses that they are

nearly impervious to change. This zone over- laps with the zone of creativity and emer- gence, and where that occurs, change be- comes possible.

In the zone of symptoms and disorders, behavior can be rigorously structured, heavily defended, and extraordinarily re- gressed. In the worst cases, the client can demonstrate major psychopathology up to and including psychotic states, and these types of regression can also be considered as phase states with sometime severe nega- tive consequences. In my experience, psy- chosis is rare in organizations. However, some forms of symptomatic behavior such as workaholism, alcohol abuse, perfection- ism, and features of narcissistic preoccupa- tion with the self are fairly common. Where this zone overlaps with the zone of adap- tive behavior, consultants are likely to see

Zone of Creativity and Growth

J

A( > Zone of Symptoms 1 and

t Disorders \Phase StaU

L^ Striving

and Conflict

• •

\ Regression

Phase State

JBSL Emergence X S \ and

/ 1 \ Change fCoaching\ 1 Platform \

Attention : L Lenses 1

V^ 7XEntrophy/

Resistance

L

K f Zone of

Adaptive Behavior

• Phase State i

Homeostasis /

Figure 5. Zones of behavior and coaching goals.

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297

high levels of resistance to change, ma- jor regressions, especially in times of high stress, and a general state of entropy in which it will be very hard to motivate or mobilize the client.

In the zone and phase state of creativ- ity, growth and experiments with new be- haviors are definitely possible. In this zone, consultants often experience them- selves making the biggest difference and having the most impact on clients as they witness the wonderful and amazing pro- cess of emotional and behavioral change. In the middle of all three zones, we see the coaching platform from which the consultant deploys his or her attention and that of the client. Regardless of which zone a coaching session focuses on, the consultant consistently encourages and directs the client toward increased self- awareness and through that baseline strat- egy supports the steady growth that is pos- sible in a well-managed process of individual change.

When these concepts, methods, and techniques are applied systematically by consultants to the problems encountered with and created by the personalities and character structures of executives, it be- comes possible to stay on task, create a sense of security for the client to do some of the most difficult work possible for a human being, and actually facilitate true change where no one believed it to be possible. This is not to say that this rep- resents a sure-fire recipe for success. Ex- ecutive coaching is one of the most chal- lenging assignments for a consultant, and it is difficult at best. However, the cre- ative merger of evaluation methods, or- ganizational and managerial knowledge and skill, and approaches and techniques pioneered by mental health practitioners provides a working consultant with a flex- ible and strong structure within which coaching executive character can be ac- complished despite the difficulties and problems involved.

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