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Interest Group in Coaching Psychology

ISSN: 1750-2764

International Coaching Psychology ReviewVolume 9 No. 2 September 2014

International Coaching Psychology ReviewEditorial BoardCo-ordinating EditorsUnited Kingdom: Stephen Palmer, PhD, Coaching Psychology Unit, Department of Psychology, City University London, Northampton Square, London, UK.Australia: Sandy Gordon, PhD, University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia.Co-EditorsMichael Cavanagh, PhD, Coaching Psychology Unit, School of Psychology, Sydney University, Australia.Anthony M. Grant, PhD, Coaching Psychology Unit, School of Psychology, Sydney University, Australia.Travis Kemp, PhD, International Graduate School of Business, University of South Australia, Australia.David Lane, PhD, Middlesex University, London, UK.Alex Linley, PhD, School of Psychology, University of Leicester, UK.Alison Whybrow, PhD, Coaching Psychology Unit, City University London, UK.

SubscriptionsInternational Coaching Psychology Review (ICPR) is published in March and September. It is distributed free of charge to members ofthe British Psychological Society Special Group in Coaching Psychology and the Australian Psychological Society Interest Group inCoaching Psychology members. It is available to non-members (Individuals £50 per volume; Institutions £60 per volume; single copies£25) from: The British Psychological Society, SGCP, St. Andrews House, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 7DR. UK.

Abstracting and indexing: The ICPR is abstracted in psycINFO, Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts and Google Scholar. The ICPR is included Cabell's Directory of Publishing Opportunities in Educational Psychology and Administration and Cabell'sDirectory of Publishing Opportunities in Educational Curriculum and Methods.

Notes for ContributorsThe ICPR is an international publication with a focus on the theory, practice and research in the field of coaching psychology.Submission of academic articles, systematic reviews and other research reports which support evidence-based practice are welcomed.The ICPR may also publish conference reports and papers given at the British Psychological Society Special Group in CoachingPsychology (BPS SGCP) and Australian Psychological Society Interest Group in Coaching Psychology (APS IGCP) conferences, noticesand items of news relevant to the International Coaching Psychology Community.

Case studies and book reviews will be considered. The ICPR is published by the BPS SGCP in association with the APS IGCP.

1. CirculationThe circulation of the ICPR is worldwide. It is available in hardcopy and PDF format. Papers are invited and encouraged from authorsthroughout the world. It is available free in paper and PDF format to members of the BPS SGCP, and free in PDF format to APS IGCPmembers as a part of their annual membership.

2. LengthPapers should normally be no more than 6000 words, although the Co-Editors retain discretion to publish papers beyond this lengthin cases where the clear and concise expression of the scientific content requires greater length.

3. ReviewingThe publication operates a policy of anonymous peer review. Papers will normally be scrutinised and commented on by at least twoindependent expert referees (in addition to the relevant Co-Editor) although the Co-Editor may process a paper at his or herdiscretion. The referees will not be aware of the identity of the author. All information about authorship including personalacknowledgements and institutional affiliations should be confined to the title page (and the text should be free of such clues asidentifiable self-citations, e.g. ‘In our earlier work…’).

Continued on inside back cover.

International Editorial BoardHilary Armstrong, PhD, Institute of Executive Coaching,Sydney, Australia.Paul Atkins, PhD, Australian National University,Canberra, Australia.Tatiana Bachkirova, PhD, Oxford Brookes University, UK.John Bennett, PhD, Queen’s University of Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.Michael Carroll, PhD, University of Bristol, UK.Ian Cockerill, PhD, University of Birmingham, UK.Cary Cooper, PhD, Lancaster University, UK.Sarah Corrie, PhD, Middlesex University, London, UK.Paula Cruise, PhD, University of Cambridge, UK.Susan David, PhD, Melbourne University, Australia.Suzy Green, PhD, University of Wollongong, NSW Australia.Kate Hefferon PhD, University of East London, UK.

Stephen Joseph, PhD, University of Warwick, UK.Carol Kauffman, PhD, Harvard Medical School, USA.Roy Moodley, PhD, University of Toronto, Canada.Richard Nelson-Jones, PhD, Cognitive Humanistic Institute,Thailand.Lindsay Oades, PhD, University of Wollongong, Australia.Jonathan Passmore, PhD, Evora University, Portugal.James Pawelski, PhD, Positive Psychology Center,University of Pennsylvania, USA.Gordon Spence, PhD, University of Wollongong, NSW Australia.Ernesto Spinelli, PhD, Regent’s College, UK.Catherine Steele PhD, University of Worcester, UK.Reinhard Stelter, PhD, Coaching Psychology Unit,University of Copenhagen, Denmark.Lewis R. Stern, PhD, Harvard University Medical School, USA.Dianne Stober, PhD, Fielding University, USA.Mary Watts, PhD, City University, London, UK.

The British Psychological SocietySpecial Group in Coaching Psychology

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The Australian Psychological Society LtdInterest Group in Coaching Psychology

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InternationalCoaching Psychology Review

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Volume 9 No. 2 September 2014

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114 International Coaching Psychology Review l Vol. 9 No. 2 September 2014

The Congress is the culmination of a series of events to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the BritishPsychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology. There will be two days of impressivespeakers, exciting and new topics and a broad range of masterclasses, skills workshops and scientificpapers covering the following themes:

� Coaching Psychology: An international perspective, sponsored by ISCP� Leadership, Business and Executive Coaching Psychology, sponsored by Meyler Campbell� Coaching Psychology and Mental Health: Promoting psychological well-being through

coaching psychology interventions� Coachee satisfaction and beyond: Working with coaching relationships that matter� Emerging conversations� Individual development and coaching psychology� Positive and Coaching Psychology: Stress, resilience, health and well,being, sponsored by ISMA� Psychometric tools and their application to coaching psychology� Sport, performance and coaching psychology

Our mission is to inspire individuals, organisations and communities to engage and collaborate withthe wider world of people, practice, learning and research.

We have an impressive line-up of speakers who are delivering new and exciting topics to share ideasfor transforming lives and worlds in the broadest sense to include: Dr Tatiana Bachkirova, Professor Sarah Corrie, Dr Vicky Ellam-Dyson, Professor Sandy Gordon, Dr Kristina Gyllensten, Dr Sophia Jowett, Dr Almuth McDowall, Dr Alanna O’Broin, Dr Siobhain O’Riordan, Professor Stephen Palmer, Dr Celine Rojon, Ole Michael Spaten, Professor Reinhard Stelter, Mr Dave Tee, Professor Mary Watts and Donna Willis.

Fees (inclusive of VAT)2 Day – SGCP member £396 1 Day – SGCP member £1442 Day – BPS member £420 1 Day – BPS member £1502 Day – Non member £444 1 Day – Non member £1562 Day – Student Rate £306 1 Day – Student Rate £84

(2 day fees include one nights accommodation at the Holiday Inn and the conference dinner)

This event is being administered by KC Jones conference&events Ltd, 01332 227775

4th International Congress of Coaching Psychology 2014

Changing Lives, Changing Worlds – Inspiring Collaborations

11-12 December 2014, Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury

For further information on the Congress please visit: www.sgcp.eu

International Coaching Psychology Review l Vol. 9 No. 2 September 2014 115

Contents116 Editorial:

Sandy Gordon & Stephen PalmerPapers

118 A systematic review of coaching psychology: Focusing on the attributes of effectivecoaching psychologistsYi-Ling Lai & Almuth McDowall

135 Is Feedforward the way forward? A comparison of the effects of Feedforward coachingand FeedbackAlmuth McDowall, Katie Freeman & Suzanne Marshall

147 Self-regulation coaching to alleviate student procrastination: Addressing the likeability of studying behavioursCeri M. Sims

165 Negative effects of coaching for coaches: An explorative studyCarsten C. Schermuly

181 A step-wise process of intentional personality change coaching Lesley S. Martin, Lindsay G. Oades & Peter Caputi

196 Intentional personality change coaching: A randomised controlled trial of participantselected personality facet change using the Five-Factor Model of PersonalityLesley S. Martin, Lindsay G. Oades & Peter Caputi

Response

210 Who wants to change their personality and what do they want to change?A response to Allan, Leeson & MartinHugh McCredie

Rejoinder

212 Who wants to change their personality and what do they want to change?A response to Allan, Leeson & MartinJonathan A. Allan, Peter Leeson, Filip De Fruyt & Lesley S. Martin

Reports

216 Special Group in Coaching Psychology NewsSarah Corrie

219 Interest Group in Coaching Psychology News Nic Eddy

222 International Coaching Psychology Review – Volume index 2014

n our first paper Yi-Ling Lai andalmuth McDowall undertake a systematicreview (sr) of coaching psychology

focusing on the attributes of effectivecoaching psychologists. their sr found thatthe coaching relationship is a key focus ofcoaching research and practice, whereprofessional psychological training is neces-sary to comprehend and manage coachee’semotional reactions. the review also high-lighted that coaches’ attributes influence theeffectiveness of coaching process and results.the authors suggest that the attributes for aprofessional coach identified from their srcould be a basis for the further coachingpsychology study to develop and examine aCoaching a Coaching psychologist Compe-tency framework.

in our next paper almuth McDowall,Katie freeman and suzanne Marshall under-took a comparison of the effects of feedfor-ward coaching and feedback. the researchobjective was to investigate how the feedfor-ward interview (ffi) affects individualoutcomes compared to traditional feedbackas part of a coaching session. they under-took a quasi-experimental longitudinal studyallocating participants randomly to either affi or feedback-based coaching interven-tion. they found that self-efficacy signifi-cantly increased following ffi compared tofeedback. they concluded that that fficould be valid intervention to facilitate posi-tive psychological change as part of acoaching session.

our third paper will be of particularinterest to teachers and lecturers as Cerisims focuses on self-regulation coaching toalleviate student procrastination. a widerange of possible interventions arementioned in this article including mindful-ness, self-acceptance training, time limitingthe opening of emails, the rational emotivebehavioural aBC and cognitive-behavioural

spaCe models. a ‘likeability’ model for self-regulation coaching in managing academicprocrastination is discussed. it is based onfour factors: enjoyment, Consequence,ability, and Competition. However, theauthor concludes that it would be useful tohave further evidence that these factorsaccount for all examples of ineffectualprocrastination behaviour.

in our next paper, Carsten schermulyconsiders the negative effects of coaching forcoaches. so often research focuses on thebenefits of coaching for the coachee so thisexplorative study takes an interestingperspective. one of the findings was that inmore than 90 per cent of all recent coachingat least one negative effect was present andthe number of negative effects a coach wasconfronted with in the last coaching are asso-ciated with less psychological empowermentand with more emotional exhaustion andstress. Clearly this is an area that needs moreresearch and further exploration of strate-gies to reduce or prevent emotional exhaus-tion and stress of practitioners is important.

two papers on personality change coachingfollow and, in turn, are followed by aresponse and rejoinder on the topic. theuniversity of Wollongong group in australia,comprised of Lesley Martin, Lyndsay oadesand peter Caputi, introduced this topic in anearlier issue of ICPR (Martin, oades &Caputi, 2012, 7(2), 185–193). in the firstpaper in this issue they describe the develop-ment of a step-wise process of intentionalpersonality change coaching. Qualitativedata from interviews with a panel ofcoaching experts generated a menu of change interventions for each of the 30 neo pi-r facets (Big five model) and a10-step coaching sequence. encouragingresults from this pilot begged empirical vali-dation so in their second paper they reportan assessment of the effectiveness of a struc-

116 International Coaching Psychology Review l Vol. 9 No. 2 September 2014© The British Psychological Society – ISSN: 1750-2764

Editorial: Sandy Gordon & Stephen Palmer

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Editorial

tured step-wise personality change coachingprocess using a matched waitlist controlgroup design. results provide preliminarysupport for beneficial changes occurring inmotivated individuals, which is consistentwith other recent literature indicating thatdomain or trait personality factors areamenable to change. the authors have athird paper due to appear in a forthcomingissue that captures participants’ experiencesof the coaching process through inductivethematic analyses.

Hugh McCredie’s response article targetsclaims made previously by allan et al. (2014)and challenges specifically the evidence forthe effectiveness of personality changecoaching, the robustness of evidencedemonstrating change via biologicalmeasures, and given only moderate associa-tions between personality change coachingand both performance and behaviouralcompetencies, asks ‘why bother trying tochange personality?’ in their respectful andcomprehensive rejoinder Jonathan allan,peter Leeson, filip De fruyt and LesleyMartin address each of these three concernsboth by providing support for their ownevidence (recently published) and by citingresearch conducted by others. Hopefullydebates like this, related to choice of bothindependent and dependent measures inpersonality change coaching research, willcontinue. exploring applications fromneuroscience and the biological basis ofpersonality is very exciting. in future,however, in addition to minimising the like-lihood of incurring type i and ii error wemost certainly want to avoid type iii error –measuring the wrong thing, precisely!

We finish with reports from the BpssGCp Chair and aps iGCp Convenor.

We wish to remind readers of the nexttwo important events for the iGCp andsGCp and refer you to the announcementsin ICPR providing information about the 4th international Congress of Coachingpsychology 2014:l Coaching Excellence in Practice

Melbourne, 13–15 november 2014l Changing Lives, Changing Worlds –

Inspiring CollaborationsLondon, 11–12 December 2014

the sGCp Congress forms part of its 10 yearcelebrations. Both events have well knowninvited speakers and workshop trainers andwill help delegates to maintain their contin-uing professional development to a highstandard.

CorrespondenceSandy Gordonuniversity of Western australia, perth, australia.email: [email protected]

Stephen PalmerCoaching psychology unit,Department of psychology,City university London,northampton square,London, uK.email: [email protected]

Referenceallan, J.a., Leeson, p. & Martin, L.s. (2014).

Who wants to change their personality and whatdo they want to change? International CoachingPsychology Review, 9(1), 8–21.

Websitethe international Congress of Coachingpsychology events are listed on the groupwebsite. this site also includes informationabout the 2015 apa Division 13 congressbeing held in san Diego: www.coachingpsychologycongress.org

ooD Literature revieWs caninform us about current knowledge aswell as gaps therein (Gough et al.,

2012). However, we need systematic, explicitand accountable methods to produce reli-able and replicable results for answeringspecific review hypotheses/questions, suchas a systematic review (sr). sr has been usedprogressively in the social sciences (petti-crew & roberts, 2006); however, sr is stillrare in other fields such as in industrial/organisational psychology (rojon et al.,2011). this paper presents a sr of evidenceon coaching psychology, where particularfocus evolved on effective coaching psycho-logist’s attributes. We now outline the princi-ples of sr methodology, before introducing

the research questions, which we refined bymeans of a pilot study and expert consulta-tion, and then present our findings in detail.

What is a SR?sr is a specific methodology that locatesexisting studies, selects and evaluates contri-butions, analyses and synthesises data, andreports the evidence through a rigorous andtransparent way that shows reasonably clearconclusions to be reached about what is andwhat is not known (Denyer & tranfield,2011). a sr usually starts with a prior specificprotocol which includes the review topic,questions/hypotheses, inclusion criteria andreview methods to test just a single hypo-thesis or a series of related hypotheses.


Paper

A systematic review (SR) of coachingpsychology: Focusing on the attributes ofeffective coaching psychologistsYi-Ling Lai & Almuth McDowall

Objective: Whilst a number of narrative reviews on coaching exist, there is no systematic review (SR) yetsummarising the evidence base in a transparent way. To this extent, we undertook a SR of coachingpsychology evidence. Following the initial scoping and consultation phase, this focused on coachingpsychologists’ attributes, such as the required knowledge, attitudes and behaviours, associated with aconducive coaching relationship and subsequent coaching results.Design: The SR review process stipulates a priori protocol which specifies the review topic, questions/hypotheses, (refined through expert consultation and consultation of any existing reviews in the field, andreplicable review methods including data extraction logs).Methods: The initial search elicited 23,611 coaching papers using 58 search terms from eight electronicdatabases (e.g. PsyINFO). Following initial sifts, 140 studies were screened further using seven inclusioncriteria. Study results from the included papers were integrated through Narrative Synthesis. Conclusion: This SR highlighted that the coaching relationship is a key focus of coaching research andpractice, where professional psychological training /background is necessary to understand and managecoachee’s emotional reactions. The review also highlighted that coaches’ attributes have a significant influenceon the effectiveness of coaching process and results. The review concludes with a proposal for an initialCoaching Psychologist Competency Framework to underpin future studies, and notes the short comings ofexisting competency based frameworks for coaching practice.Keywords: Coaching psychology; coaching relationship; coaching psychologist attributes; systematic review;competency framework.

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although varied methods for synthesis havebeen applied to srs (such as meta-analysisand narrative synthesis), they depend on thenature and quality of the primary studies(petticrew & roberts, 2006). the overallreview process thus comprises scoping andplanning the review, searching andscreening the references, and evaluating andsynthesising the included studies.

The advantages of a SR methodthe advantages of srs have been widelydiscussed, some key points are summarisedin the following paragraph to defend therationale for conducting a sr in the contextof coaching psychology. traditional narrativeliterature reviews can represent excellentoverviews of wider literature and concepts,not just reviews of outcomes (petticrew &roberts, 2006). However, if any review is notconducted through a rigorous and trans-parent process, critical studies might beneglected, as inclusion criteria may be basedon the reviewer’s personal research interestsor the reviewer is unaware of relevant studies(Gough et al., 2012). Compared to tradi-tional literature reviews, sr method canquickly assimilate a large amount of infor-mation through the critical exploration,evaluation and synthesis. it separatesinsignificant and redundant studies, whichlack solid evidence to answer the researchquestion, from critical studies which do(Greenhalgh, 1998). in addition, the well-defined methodology of sr mitigatesresearch bias by explicitly identifying andrejecting studies using clearly defined a priorcriteria. Hence, a sr produces more reliableand accurate conclusions by synthesisingincluded studies than traditional methodsdo (Kitchenham & Charters, 2007).

Why is a SR of coaching psychologyneeded?Coaching has been fast advancing in theorganisational and leadership developmentfield. international Coach federation (iCf)Global Coaching study (2012) stated, thereare approximately 47,500 coaches worldwide

(Western europe, 37.5 per cent and northamerica, 33.2 per cent) and coaching hasbecome a $2 billion per-year global market.in the uK, the Chartered institute ofpersonnel Development (CipD) 2010annual report indicated that coaching isused in 82 per cent of the uK organisationsand it is rated as the most effective activitiesof the talent Management programmes(2012 CipD Learning and talent Develop-ment annual survey report).

Despite the growth in popularity, issuesremain which need to be addressed. firstly,there is an on-going debate between psychol-ogists and non-psychologists about whetherpsychological principles and training areaare core requirements for a professionalcoach. a global survey (newnham-Kanas etal., 2012) indicated a large percentage ofcoaches were with business backgroundsrather than psychological or behaviouralscience backgrounds (consultants 49.1 percent, formal educators, e.g. teachers andprofessors 20.8 per cent and helping profes-sionals, e.g. psychologists and counsellors15.6 per cent). Grant (2008) stated thatcontemporary professional coaching is across-disciplinary methodology, and not‘owned’ by a particular professional groupor association, which he considered both astrength and a liability. on the other hand,such diversity increases the difficulty todevelop a standardised coaching definition,focus, result evaluation method and coaches’selection and development scheme(sherman & freas, 2004). indeed, psycho-logists have increasingly and more publiclybecome involved in the coaching industry in1990s, because the aim of executive or lifecoaching is to facilitate sustained cognitive,emotional and behavioural change (Douglas& MacCauley, 1999). in addition, a numberof studies asserted that coaches withoutfundamental psychology knowledge may notbe able to recognise coaching clients’ mentalhealth issues and may cause harm tocoaching clients (Berglas, 2002; Cavanagh,2005; Kauffman & scoular, 2004; naughton,2002). therefore, to what extent a back-


A Systematic Review of coaching psychology

ground in psychology is an essential require-ment for a professional coach is still a pointof debate. We decided to conduct a researchwith rigorous process to determine ifpsychology plays a crucial role in coachingstudy and practice from existing relevantstudies.

secondly, the research focus in coachinghas shifted to the coaching relationship.traditionally, focus in the field of coachinghas been on specific models, approaches andtechniques, directed towards ultimate goalsfor people’s overall learning and develop-ment (de Haan & sills, 2012). However, ameta-analysis (de Haan, 2008) indicatedthere is no significant difference in effective-ness between different coaching techniques.Based on this ‘outcome equivalence’ (deHaan, 2008), the quality of the coachingrelationship as well as the coach and thecoachee’s role in the process were identifiedas the most effective common active ingredi-ents for a positive coaching result (de Haan,2008). a number of quantitative studies havealso indicated a positive correlation betweenthe coaching relationship and results, suchas coachees’ self-efficacy (Baron & Morin,2009; Boyce et al., 2010; de Haan & Duck-worth, 2012). as the main purpose ofcoaching engagement is to facilitatecoachee’s change and improvement, thecoachee’s reaction and response are themost important and influential factor in thecoaching process (de Haan, 2008). However,how the self of coach is used to establish andmaintain the coaching relationship is crucialas coaching relationship is viewed as aprofessional helping relationship. there-fore, people and interpersonal interactionsplay a key role in the coaching process(o’Broin & palmer, 2010a; palmer &McDowall, 2010). a survey study (de Haan etal., 2011) examined and identified the‘helpful’ coaches’ qualities and behavioursthat make the coaching journey effective tocoachees and how coachees ‘feel’ theirlearning and change through executivecoaching. the study results indicatedcoaches’ behaviours have a significant influ-

ence on coachees’ learning process, forexample listening, understanding andencouragement from the coaches wereviewed as the most helpful behaviours.therefore, this study implied that any coachhas the accountability to initiate and estab-lish a constructive relationship in thecoaching process. Given that the coach’s rolehas a certain degree of influence on theestablishment of coaching relationship; wedecided to investigate to what extent a back-ground in psychology facilitates a moreeffective coaching relationship.

in summary, the coach’s role in thecoaching process and effective attributes of asound coaching relationship have beenwidely discussed (Boyatzis et al., 2006; deHaan, 2008; Jones & spooner, 2006; oren-stein, 2006; palmer & McDowall, 2010).However, the existing evidence is notadequate to determine whether and what arespecific combinations of personality/attrib-utes produce greater effects of coaching rela-tionship (de Haan, 2008; passmore &fillery-travis, 2011). further, we also needmore rigorous studies to investigate on ifbackground in psychology for a professionalcoach benefits to establishing an effectivecoaching relationship. prior to any primaryresearch, it would be helpful however toreview the evidence in coaching psychologysystematically to determine how newresearch can fit to existing knowledge gapthrough a transparent and systematicprocess.

although some reviews (Bachkirova, 2008;Grant, 2001; passmore & fillery-travis, 2011;Whybrow, 2008) have highlighted a criticalrole for psychology in coaching study andpractice; these narrative literature reviews didnot spell out explicit reviews topics,hypotheses, study selection criteria or reviewmethods on which conclusions were based.Hence, these reviews may not be sufficientlyrobust. therefore, a sr to synthesise relevantstudies in the field based on a well-definedprotocol is needed to determine to whatextent psychology plays a crucial role incoaching study and practice, based on specific


Yi-Ling Lai & Almuth McDowall

review questions with focus on coach’s attrib-utes and the coaching relationship.

our overview process comprised threemain phases, which we summarise in table 1.



Table 1: A Systematic Review process.

Stages

Stage One

Stage Two

Stage Three

Purposes

Scoping the studies ofthe field and planningthe review.

Undertaking theliterature search andscreening thereferences.

Evaluating andsynthesising theincluded studies.

Methods

l The researcher searched through PsycINFO, BusinessSource Complete, Index to Theses in 2010 to ensurethere was no SR of coaching studies yet.

l 10 coaching experts were invited (either academics orpractitioners from international locations) to exploretheir perspectives on the review topic, review questionsand methods proposed by the researcher.

l Semi-structured interviews were conducted either bytelephone or face-to-face.

l 58 searching terms were identified and were searchedthrough 8 electronic databases (e.g. Individual differenc*and coaching).

l Inclusion criteria for reference screening:(1) written in English.(2) published after 1995 (including 1995)(3) empirical research (both quantitative and quality

studies) which set clear research methods, participants, measurements and outcomes.

(4) focused on life, personal, work and executive coaching.

(5) involved in any psychological interventions.(6) involved in any coach’s attributes (competences,

skills, attitudes and personality, etc.)(7) involved in any factors about coaching

relationship.

l The included studies in this SR were rated by adding upthe scores gained from three indicators, which are eachpaper’s research method, coaching result evaluationmethod and coaching interventions.

l Narrative synthesis:(1) Organising the descriptions of each study into

logical categories.(2) Analysing the findings within each of the

categories.l Synthesising the findings across all included studies.

(Kitchenham, 2004, and Denyer & Tranfield, 2011)

Step One: Scoping the studies of the field andplanning the reviewthe first step ascertained if a sr was neededand developed a comprehensive reviewprotocol including review topic, questions/hypotheses and methods.

firstly, a pilot literature search was under-taken through psycinfo, BusinessComplete, index to theses, Google scholarand Cochrane Library in 2010 to verify therewas no sr on coaching before commence-ment of this study. the searching terms usedincluded ‘coaching’, ‘review’ and ‘system-atic’. secondly, 10 coaching experts (bothacademics or practitioners) from interna-tional locations were identified fromcoaching-focused journals and handbooksand through consultation with uK coachingexperts and invited to participate as a reviewpanel. the review panel included ninepsychologists and one managementresearcher to ensure a thorough and unbi-ased review protocol. they had on averageten years experience in coaching practiceand all undertook research in some capacity(see table 2).

one-on-one interviews were conductedwith each review panel member to elicit theirperspectives on the key elements of coachingpsychology, the aspects of existing coachingresults evaluation methods and thecomments on the draft review protocol. theinterview schedule comprised three broadtopics which were: (i) definitions of coach-ing and coaching psychology respectively;(ii) perspectives on evaluation criteria andprocesses to determine coaching results and

effectiveness; and (iii) comments on theproposed review topic and questions, anddatabase to base eventual searches on.

Qualitative integration of the interviewresponses elicited that ‘coaching is a reflectiveprocess between coaches and coacheeswhich helps or facilitates coachees to experi-ence positive behavioural changes throughcontinuous dialogue and negotiations withcoaches to meet coachees’ personal or workgoals.’ on the other hand, ‘coachingpsychology aims to help or facilitate the non-clinical populations for sustained behaviouralchanges through psychological evidence-basedinterventions and process. these interventionswill help the coach to get deeper and richerpictures of coachees’ behaviours, motiva-tions, values and beliefs during the coachingprocess and facilitate coachees to achievetheir goals. in addition, coach, coachee andorganisational stakeholders all play criticalroles in the coaching process as the ultimategoals are to facilitate coachees’ developmentin the workplace through interactive communi-cations with coach. Moreover, the ‘coachingprocess and relationship’ was highlightedacross the interviews as being important, andmost panel members indicated coaches havethe responsibility to create a comfortableenvironment for enhancing an effectivecoaching relationship.

in summary, the sr panel’s expert viewshighlighted that applying psychologicalinterventions in the coaching process doesassist the coach to have a deeper under-standing of coachee’s behaviours and moti-vations for change. However, coaching



Table 2: The demographics of review panels.

Panel Gender Academic/ Educational LocationPractitioner Background

Total: 10 Male: 7 Both: 9 Psychology: 9 Austria: 1Female: 3 Practitioner: 1 Management: 1 Belgium: 1

Britain: 6Denmark: 1Germany: 1

content and evaluations are very diverse andthere is not enough existing empiricalresearch to examine any one specificcoaching framework, especially given thatmany coaches and studies adopted an inte-grative approach, rendering it difficult toelicit active ingredients in any one coachingorientation. thus, the sr panel highlightedthe shift to a relational coaching study andpractice as coaching process is based onpeople’s communications and interactions.the coach has the accountability to initiate acomfortable environment for the effectivecoaching relationship. following the pilotsearch and consultation with the sr panel,the focus of this sr topic was agreed to inves-tigate key successful factors for an effectivecoaching relationship, and to identify theessential attributes needed by a coachingpsychologist to enhance the coaching rela-tionship.

the finalised review questions were:1. How many and what kind of studies haveevaluated coaching psychologist’s attributes in arobust and systematic way?

2. What are the effective coaching psychologist’sattributes (required knowledge, attitudes andskills) in the coaching process to enhance thecoaching relationship?

Step Two: Undertaking the literature search andscreening the referencesthe second step elicited relevant papers andscreened the included studies for furtherreview. the researcher used 58 search terms(e.g. cogniti* and coaching) identified fromkey coaching psychology books (e.g. Hand-book of coachingpsychology) and the reviewpanels. these terms were searched througheight electronic databases (e.g. psycinfo)and 23,611 studied were retrieved. Consis-tent with sr methodology, seven prior inclu-sion criteria (see table 3) were adopted to

filter studies by reading abstracts and skim-ming the paper contents. a total of 140studies remained for further synthesis.

Step Three: Evaluating and synthesising theincluded studiesthis stage assessed study quality and inte-grated the evidence among the includedstudies to seek answers of the review ques-tions. the specific paper evaluation methodadopted in this review was to rate: (i) eachpaper’s research method; (ii) coaching inter-ventions; and (iii) coaching outcome evalua-tion scheme. table 4 outlines the criteria forpaper evaluation/rating including oneexample.

firstly, the ‘research methods’, ‘coachinginterventions’ and ‘results evaluationschemes’ of each included study wereassessed to assure these studies are adequatefor answering the research questions. eachpaper was rated by adding up the scoresgained from the three indicators mentionedabove (see table 4) ranging between 3 and13. the results from higher scored/ratedstudies were given higher priority whensynthesising the papers included in ourreview.

subsequently, a narrative synthesismethod (petticrew & roberts, 2006) wasadopted given that many included studieswere conducted using qualitative researchmethods. the study results of each paperwere outlined on the excel table. Cross-studysynthesis was undertaken throughcomparing the study results and selectingthe most rated/examined ones. the studyappraisal rate was considered while crosssynthesising the study results. for example,the study results from a quantitative study(e.g. an experiment) were given in thehigher priority than the ones in a casereport.





Table 3: Seven inclusion criteria.

Criterion

(1) Written in English.

(2) Published after 1995 (including 1995).

(3) Empirical research (quantitative and qualitative studies) which set clear research methods, participants, measurements and outcomes.

(4) Focused on life, personal, work and executive coaching.

(5) Involved in any psychological interventions.

(6) Involved in any coach attributes (competencies, skills, attitudes and personalities, etc.).

(7) Involved in any factors about coaching relationship.

Rationale

l The reviewer’s language limitation.

l According to Grant (2011), the firstrandomised controlled trial on coachingstudy was conducted in 1994 (Deviney) butthe first RCT on coaching with significantresults was conducted 1997 (Taylor). In order not to fail the significant studies,this review covers the papers published after1995 (including 1995).

l The review questions are relevant toeffectiveness of the interventions,experimental studies should be included.

l The review questions are about the processand meaning of interventions, such ascoaching relationship, qualitative (such asIPA) or quantitative (such as survey) studieshave to be covered (Petticrew & Roberts,2006).

l Referring to the definition from APS (2007),coaching psychology is the systematicapplication of behavioural science to theenhancement of life experience, workperformance and well-being forindividuals, groups and organisations whodo not have clinically significant mentalhealth issues or abnormal levels ofdistress.

l Referring to review question three: Whatare the most applied psychologicalinterventions impact on coachees’ changeas evident from current evaluation methods(including behaviours, performance,satisfaction, attitude and well-being)?

l Referring to review question two: What areeffective coaching psychologist’s attributes(competence, skills, personality andattitudes) in the coaching process?

l Referring to review question two: What areeffective coaching psychologist’s attributes(competence, skills, personality andattitudes) in the coaching process?



Table 4: The criteria and example of study appraisal/evaluation method.

Research Scores Evaluation Scores Coaching Scoresmethod methods interventions

Randomised 7 Organisational 4 Well-defined 2Controlled goal or frameworksTrials productivity (including

(profit, ROI, procedures)sales, or

quality, etc.)Within-subject 6 Coaching 3

studies clients’behavioural orperformancechanges

…etc. …etc. …etc. …etc. …etc.

Research + Evaluation + Coaching Totalmethod method intervention scoresscores scores scores

Paper Author Journal Research Evaluation Coachingtitle method method intervention

Cognitive- Green et al. Organisational Randomised (1) Personal (1) Cognitive-behavioural, (2006) goal or Controlled goals behaviouralsolution- productivity Trial questionnaire (2) Solution-focused (profit, ROI, (2) Subjective focused

life coaching: sales, or well-being life coachingEnhancing quality, etc.) (3) Scales ofgoal striving, psychologicalwell-being, and well-being

hope =Attitudechange

Total scores 13 7 2

FindingsPaper distributions and classificationsthe majority of the studies included in thefinal review (64 of 140 papers) based on theinclusion criteria had been published inpsychology focused journals (e.g. Interna-tional Coaching Psychology Review) and 40 werefrom business and management journals.these studies were sorted into four cate-gories according to their respective researchpurposes by reading through their abstracts.the table below summarises the overview ofwhat are the main coaching study focus up todate and presents one example.

Key factors for a positive coaching relationshipfive key factors that enhance the coachingrelationship were identified by synthesising15 relevant included studies which examinedthe relations between the coaching processand results and analysed factors influencingan effective coaching relationship (see table5). the researcher listed all included studyresults in a data extraction form (an excelspreadsheet) and outlined the most perti-nent effective factors for enhancing an effec-tive coaching process. subsequently, theseeffectiveness factors were ranked by consid-



Table 5: Distributions and classifications of the included studies.

Category Frequency Percentage

Examining effective psychological coaching interventions: 88 63%Evaluation method(1) Coachees’ feeling/satisfaction 5(2) Coachees’ self-evaluation/reflection attitude change 35(3) Coachee’s performance/behavioural change

(e.g. 360 degree evaluation) 39(4) Organisational goals (sales performance and

customer service improvement) 18

Examining effective psychometrics applied in the coaching 5 3%

Examining effective factors that facilitate the coaching relationship 15 11%

Identifying effective attributes for a professional coach 32 23%

Total 140 100%

Table 6: The overview of five key factors for a positive coaching relationship.

Research methods Frequency

Within-subject experiment 2Case study 6IPA/Semi-structured interview 3Survey/Questionnaire 4l Building trust, including rapport, engagement and credibility, etc.l Understanding and managing coachees’ emotional reactions and difficulties

and demonstrating empathyl Two-way communication, including listening, questioning, feedback,

and verbal and body language used, etc.l Facilitating and helping coachees’ learning and development to meet needs.l A clear contract and transparent process.

Total 15 studies

ering both the frequency they were examined/referred and the method used inthe study. for example, the effectivenessfactors examined/rated from a quantitativestudy were placed in a higher order than theones from a case study. table 6 summarisesthe research methods and most frequentlyexamined effectiveness factors:

Building trust: establishing and maintaining atrusting relationship was identified as one ofthe critical elements to enhance thecoaching process. three qualitative studies(one case study and two semi-structuredinterviews studies) indicated mutual trustbetween the coach and the coachee plays akey role to facilitate the coaching process. a case study (freedom & perry, 2010) thatcollected perspectives from one coach-coachee pair disclosed that the coacheewould not feel alone and with little supportuntil the coach is trustworthy and reliable.two qualitative studies (Gyllensten &palmer, 2007; o’Broin & palmer, 2010b) thatinvestigated effective factors for a positivecoaching relationship by interviewingcoaches and coachees also emphasised theimportance of trust in the coaching process.trust was most frequently discussed in theinterviews (o’Broin & palmer, 2010b), andnearly 92 per cent of participants (11 of 12interviewees) considered ‘trust’ is one of thecritical element to engage coachees. in addi-tion, trust was rated as the second importantvariable influencing the employee coachingrelationship in one survey study (Gregory &Levy, 2011). therefore, establishing trustwith coachees in the initial coaching processis a significant step for a constructivecoaching relationship.

Understanding and managing coachees’emotional difficulties: Coping with coachees’emotional reaction was recognised as a keyfactor in the coaching process as mostcoachees experienced anxiety, sadness andfrustration while seeking help from coaches(de Haan et al., 2008). three included

studies from this sr focused on the exami-nation of the correlation between coachees’emotions and coaching relationship. a casestudy conducted by freedman and perry(2010) identified ‘helping coachees tocontain and take the edge off the intensity oftheir emotions’ will enable an effectivecoaching relationship. another case report(Day, 2010) which investigated how uncon-scious organisation dynamics affect the effec-tiveness of coaching relationship highlightedwhether a coach possesses the emotionalmaturity and confidence to work with diffi-cult emotional material is a critical elementfor enhancing a positive coaching relation-ship. unconscious dynamics in organisationscan be understood as arising in a widerpsychosocial context (Lewin, 1952), which ismade up of the interplay of psychological,social, economic, power and politicalprocesses (Holti, 1997). in this study, thesubsequent exploration of the dynamics ofthe coaching relationship helped thecoachee to understand at a deeper level hisor her struggle in the organisation and totake up a different position in the organisa-tion dynamics. in addition, de Haan et al.(2008) undertook a qualitative research(ipa) into 28 experienced coaches’ criticalmoments in the coaching process. this studydemonstrated that coaches’ criticalmoments in the coaching process are highlyinfluenced by coachees’ emotions. thesecritical moments and emotional reactionscan be opportunities for insight and changein the coaching relationship. from thisstudy, coaches reported using supervision tohelp them to make sense of critical momentsand respond appropriately. in summary,coaches and coachees both undergo somecritical moments (emotional difficulties) inthe coaching process because coachees’anxiety and frustration have a strong influ-ence on coaches’ emotions. thus, managingthese emotions and transferring them intopositive insights for coachees to change is a crucial factor for an effective coaching relationship.



Two-way communication: effective communi-cation process was also considered as anessential ingredient for a harmoniouscoaching relationship from this sr. itincludes active listening and questioning,mutual feedback, space for story sharing andappropriate verbal and body language.Listening and appropriate feedback wererated and examined as a main dimension forevaluating a positive employee coachingrelationship in two survey studies (Gregory &Levy, 2010, 2011). a case study (robinson,2010) also investigated how to apply literarytechniques, such as using story-telling,analogy, and metaphors, to analyse andinterpret coaching conversations to enablesense-making and enhancement ofinsightful questioning, interpretation andreflective practice. this study indicated thereis a positive relationship between the appli-cation of literary techniques and coachingrelationship. from this sr, maintainingeffective communication process throughhighly developed listening, questioning,feedback and language-using skills willenhance the understanding between thecoach and the coachee and consequentlytheir relationship.

Facilitation and help: facilitating and helpingcoachees’ learning and development tomeet their needs was also highlighted as akey effectiveness factor for enhancing thecoaching relationship in our sr. accordingto Baron and Morin’s within-subject experi-mental study (2009) with 73 participantswho attended a leadership developmentprogramme, coach’s facilitating learningand results skills are positively associatedwith working alliance. facilitating develop-ment was also examined and confirmed as akey dimension for evaluating the effective-ness of coaching relationship in a quantita-tive study by Gregory and Levy (2010). in addition, half of the participants (six of 12interviewees) in a qualitative study (o’Broin& palmer, 2010b) emphasised that a two-wayrelationship (e.g. collaboration and facilita-tion) in the coaching process could help the

coach to have a better understanding ofcoachee’s needs and to develop a sharedgoal. this process will also facilitate coach toengage the coachee and establish a betterrelationship.

Clear contract and transparent process: Havinga clear contract and transparent coachingprocess was viewed as one key factor forestablishing a positive relationship at theinitial stage of the coaching engagement. a case study undertaken by freedman andperry (2010) indicated it was really helpfulfor establishing a trusting relationship afterthe coach explained the process, bothparties’ accountabilities, evaluation methodsand confidential issues. in addition, an ipastudy (Gyllensten & palmer, 2007) whichinvestigated nine participants’ experience ofcoaching demonstrated ‘transparency’ wasconsidered very positively associated with avaluable coaching relationship. for instance,the coachees felt included and engagedwhen the coach explained the process andtheories supporting the coaching interven-tions before any sessions commenced.

in summary, building trust, understandingand managing coachees’ emotional difficul-ties, having a two-way communicationprocess, facilitating coachees’ learning anddevelopment and having a clear contractand transparent process were identified asthe top five critical factors for enhancing thecoaching process when we synthesised theevidence for the sr reported here. thesefactors were also considered and integratedinto the next stage of our synthesis, whichaimed to analyse key attributes for a profes-sional coach to enhance the coaching rela-tionship.

An initial Coaching PsychologistCompetency Frameworka total of 32 included studies which investi-gated key coaches’ attributes to enhance aconstructive coaching relationship (seetable 5) were synthesised in this review. asdiscussed above, how the self of coach is used



to interact with coachee for an effectivecoaching relationship and positive results iscrucial (de Haan, 2008; o’Broin & palmer,2010a). a study (de Haan et al., 2011) iden-tified effective executive coaches’ behavioursthat benefit the coaching relationship fromcoachees’ views through questionnaires.this study indicated certain coaches’ knowl-edge/experience; behaviours and qualitiesare ‘helpful’ for enhancing an effective andconstructive coaching process. the studyresults provided an overview of whatcoachees consider and expect of a ‘helpful’coach; it also implied more research isneeded to examine specific aspects of effec-tive coaches’ attributes. prior to any primaryresearch, it is essential to examine theexisting evidence through a systematicprocess. the 32 included papers comprise12 quantitative, 11 qualitative and ninemixed methods studies (see table 7).

according to Bartram (2008), a compre-hensive person specification for any job roleincludes knowledge, skills, ability and othercharacteristics, such as such as personalityand attitudes. therefore, findings fromthese included papers were recorded inthree competency groups: (i) requiredknowledge and experiences; (ii) person-ality/attitudes; and (iii) skills and behaviours

to highlight effective coach attributes. thesewere ranked by considering both thefrequency with which they were examined/referred and the methods used in the study.top ranked attributes were integrated andoutlined as an initial Coaching psychologistCompetency framework (see table 8 over-leaf).

Required knowledge: this section outlines rele-vant knowledge/educational backgroundsrequired for a professional coach. three keyareas were identified after synthesising eightrelevant included papers: (i) psychologicalrelevant knowledge/educational back-grounds; (ii) psychological coaching frame-work/process; and (iii) leadership andorganisational management knowledge. a quantitative study (Wasylyshyn, 2003) with87 participants rated ‘graduate level trainingin psychology’ as the most important crite-rion (82 per cent) when they select a coach.six included studies which focused on theexamination of the relations betweencoachees’ emotions and coaching processalso disclosed coping with coachees’ reac-tions effectively is a key requirement for aprofessional coach. these two studies indi-cated that having an appropriate psycho-logical training/educational background



Table 7: The overview of coaches’ effective attributes studies.

Research methods Frequency

Quantitative study 12l Between-subject study 1l Within-subject study 2l Questionnaire 9

Qualitative study 11l Case study 2l Observation 1l Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) 4l Grounded theory 2l Thematic analysis 2

Mixed method 9(e.g. focus group, questionnaire and interview, etc.)

Total 32

will assist the coach to identify and manageemotional reactions and difficulties fromcoachees. this will also facilitate thecoaching process. in addition, a qualitativestudy by Maritz et al. (2009) emphasised aprofessional coach should be acquaintedwith certain level concepts of organisationalmanagement, leadership/people develop-ment and business acumen because most ofthe coachees’ issues were associated withtheir workplaces and colleagues. in summary,appropriate training in psychology and beingacquainted with most frequently used psycho-logical coaching interventions and certaindegree of organisational/leadership manage-ment concepts will provide a professionalcoach to have a fundamental knowledge baseto articulate an effective coaching process.

Personalities/Attitudes: this section summa-rises the effective attitudes/personalities aprofessional coach should possess to facili-tate their relationships with coachees. thefive most highlighted attitudes for a coachwere outlined after integrating results fromfour included studies (Maritz et al., 2009;passmore, 2010; stevens, 2005; Wasylyshyn,2003) which investigated both coaches’ andcoachees’ perspectives by interviews and

questionnaires. they are: (i) openness/honesty/authenticity; (ii) integrity/confi-dentiality; (iii) non-judgemental/objective;(iv) enthusiasm/passion; and (v) commit-ment/motivation to help.

Skills: three key skills were identified aftercross-analysing results from the 32 includedpapers that studied the critical competenciesfor a professional coach. first, communica-tion skills were rated and emphasised mostfrom coaches’, coachees’ and coachingpurchasers’ perspectives and expectations(Dagley, 2011; Longenecker & neubert,2005; Maritz et al., 2009; passmore, 2010).they include listening and reflecting backactively, powerful questioning, providingand seeking feedback and using appropriateverbal and body language. second, estab-lishing a constructive relationship withcoachees was highlighted from severalincluded studies (Longenecker & neubert,2005; Maritz et al., 2009). from the studyresults, demonstrating empathy andsupporting and engaging coachees wereemphasised as the effective behaviours for aprofessional coach to build a positivecoaching relationship. third, facilitatingcoachees’ learning and development was



Table 8: An Initial Coaching Psychologist Competency Framework.

Required knowledge Personality/Attitudes Skills/Behaviours

1. How to identify, support 1. openness/honesty/ 1. Communication skillsand transfer emotional authenticity 2. Building a relationshipdifficult clients 2. integrity/confidentiality 3. Facilitation

2. Key psychological coaching 3. non-judgemental/objectiveinterventions 4. enthusiasm/passion

3. Individual and group 5. commitment/motivationbehaviours to help

4. Diversity management5. Psychometric assessment

application6. Organisational

management7. Leadership practices8. Business acumens

also remarked by most participants in severalincluded studies (Griffiths & Campbell,2008; Longenecker & neubert, 2005; Maritzet al., 2009). the key behaviours includehelping to set the appropriate goals andactions and managing progress and account-ability.

in conclusion, the attributes for a profes-sional coach identified from this sr could bea basis for the further coaching psychologystudy to develop and examine a Coachingpsychologist Competency framework.

Discussionthis is the first sr in the coaching domainwhich examined the role of coachingpsychology in contemporary coaching studyand practice through a rigid and transparentprocess. the review results ascertained thatcoaching psychologists’ attributes (requiredknowledge, attitudes/personality and skills)have a significant influence on the effective-ness of coaching relationship and results.five key points were summarised from thereview findings which are also in response tothe review questions/hypotheses in theprotocol consulted with the review panels.

first, this sr confirmed that coachingprocesses and the coaching relationship arethe key foci of coaching research andpractice. one-third of the included studies(47 of 140 papers) highlighted the linkbetween the coaching relationship andcoaching results and investigated the effec-tive coaches’ attributes for facilitating aconstructive coaching relationship. thesestudies were mainly conducted using qualita-tive research methods (12 semi-structuredinterviews, seven case studies and one longi-tudinal observation report). the rest of thepapers comprise six experiments, 15 surveysand eight mix-methods studies.

second, in the papers reviewed here, theprofessional psychological training/profes-sional background was emphasised as anessential requirement for a professionalcoach. Coachees’ emotional reactions/moments were recognised as the key turning

points and opportunities to facilitatecoachees’ motivations for change. a coachwho is able to apply psychological interven-tions appropriately to identify and managecoachees’ emotional difficulties facilitates abetter relationship in the coaching process(Day, 2010; de Haan et al., 2008; freedman& perry, 2010; Gregory & Levry, 2011). inaddition, a quantitative study (Wasylyshyn,2003) with 87 participants rated ‘graduatelevel training in psychology’ as the mostimportant criterion (82 per cent) for aprofessional coach. as discussed above,coaching is still not a standardised andaccredited profession due to the diversity ofcoaches’ prior professional backgrounds.although a few traditional literature reviews(Bachkirova, 2008; Grant, 2001, passmore &fillery-travis, 2011; Whybrow, 2008) high-lighted the importance of applying psycho-logical interventions in the coaching field,this sr is the first review based on theexplicit search terms and well-defined reviewprocess to confirm having a background inpsychology will assist the coach to have adeeper understanding of coachees’ issuesand to facilitate their motivations to change.More precisely, psychological training is anessential requirement for a professionalcoach.

third, this sr highlighted that coaches’attributes have a significant influence on theeffectiveness of coaching process and results.five effectiveness factors, which are: (i)building trust; (ii) understanding andmanaging coachees’ emotional difficulties;(iii) having two-way communication process;(iv) facilitating coachees’ learning and devel-opment; and (v) having a clear contract andtransparent process for a constructivecoaching relationship outlined from this srare all associated with coaches’ attitudes andcompetencies. the initial Coaching psychol-ogist Competency framework summarisedfrom this sr also provides an overview ofwhat attributes a professional coach shouldacquire to facilitate an effective coachingprocess. these findings indicated thatcoaches’ attitudes and behaviours demon-



strated in the coaching process have a signif-icant impact on the coachees’ emotions andreactions. therefore, coaches have theaccountability to initiate and maintain aneffective relationship in the coachingprocess based on obsessing attitudes andskills outlined from the included studies.

nevertheless, this sr concluded thatmore rigorous empirical studies are requiredas most of the existing coaching studies(approximately 70 per cent) were under-taken by qualitative methods such as casestudies and interviews. in addition, 65 percent of the included studies evaluated thecoaching results solely based on coachees’personal satisfactions and attitude changesrather than tracking their behavioural orperformance improvement. therefore,future research should emphasise on theimprovement of research methods andcoaching result evaluation approaches toensure producing more rigorous and replic-able study results.

finally, this sr identified the futureresearch trends for the development ofcoaching psychology. the researchersummarised key attributes for a professionalcoach from the included studies, which willenhance the coaching relationship(including required knowledge, attrib-utes/personalities and skills). these attrib-utes and features were integrated into aninitial Coaching psychologist Competencyframework (see table 8) which also indi-cated further research trends in coachingpsychology field. as discussed above,coaches’ diverse backgrounds increase thedifficulty to develop a standardised coachingdefinition, focus, result evaluation methodand coaches’ selection and developmentscheme (sherman & freas, 2004). thisinitial draft for a framework which is basedon the existing evidence could be a founda-tion for the future coaching studies whichthen develop and validate a full competencyframework for professional coaches.

in conclusion, there is still considerabledebate about whether having a backgroundin psychology is an essential requirement for

a professional coach. previous narrativereviews also considered this issue,(Bachkirova 2008; Grant, 2001, passmore &fillery-travis, 2011; Whybrow 2008;) but didnot address explicitly how they consideredany primary studies or evidence for inclusion,which we endeavoured to address in ourreview. this sr is the first review for which theprotocol was based on consultation withcoaching experts from both psychologicaland non-psychological backgrounds. all rele-vant coaching studies were synthesisedthrough a standard and rigid process to inves-tigate the subsequent development trends forcoaching psychology. the review results high-lighted three key points of the developmentof coaching psychology: (i) coaching relation-ship is the key factor for enhancing the effec-tiveness of coaching results; (ii) the coach hasthe accountability to initiate and manage aneffective coaching process. Because fivecrucial ingredients (e.g. building trust andfacilitating the development and learning)for a constructive coaching relationshipoutlined from the included studies are allassociated with; (iii) having a psychologicalbackground to manage coachees’ emotionsand have a deeper understanding of theirissues was emphasised as the essential crite-rion for a professional coach. However, most(70 per cent) of the included studies were stillundertaken through qualitative researchmethods (e.g. case reports and interviews).therefore this sr concluded that futurecoaching psychology research shouldcontinue investigating effective attributes fora professional coach and what sorts of psycho-logical interventions/concepts should beincluded in a professional coaching trainingprogramme by drawing on rigorous researchmethods and processes.

The AuthorsYi-Ling Lai & Almuth McDowallschool of psychology, university of surrey.

CorrespondenceYi-Ling Laiemail: [email protected]




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trenGtH-BaseD psYCHoLoGiCaLapproaCHes are taking hold indiverse domains, including perform-

ance appraisals (Bouskila-Yam & Kluger,2011), employee selection and also coaching(Linley, Woolston & Bieswas-Diener, 2009;oades, Crowe & nguyen, 2009). such posi-tive approaches underpin a shift from being‘problem-focused [italics added] to potential-guided and solution-focused’ (Linley &Harrington, 2006). sharpe (2011) talksabout the ‘primacy of positivity’, arguing thatpositivity in coaching should always precedeother activities such as goal setting. We nowturn to a specific technique which encom-passes relevant principles. situated in a positive psychological paradigm, the feed-forward interview (ffi) (Kluger & nir,2006) is a structured conversation askingindividuals to focus on their strengths by

recounting a distinct positive experienceand exploring the conditions necessary forthis before turning to goal setting and actionplanning. the ffi thus encourages reflec-tion on positive experiences and strengths,to induce positive emotions and provides a‘safe’ context for information sharing andself-evaluation of current behaviours in rela-tion to one’s strengths. Whilst the individualffi components have a comprehensive theo-retical rationale and case studies providesome insight into potential ffi mechanisms,(Kluger & nir, 2006, 2010), concreteevidence about any positive effects derivingfrom ffi for individuals warrants furtherinvestigation taking a rigorous quasi-experi-mental field approach is still sparse. thisapparent need for more research is incontrast to the large body of research onfeedback processes which focus on past

International Coaching Psychology Review l Vol. 9 No. 2 September 2014 135© The British Psychological Society – ISSN: 1750-2764

Paper

Is FeedForward the way forward? A comparison of the effects ofFeedForward coaching and FeedbackAlmuth McDowall, Katie Freeman & Suzanne Marshall

Objectives: The FeedForward Interview (FFI) is a means of structuring conversations (Kluger & Nir, 2006),such as performance appraisals, or indeed coaching in organisations. Conceptually situated in a positivepsychological paradigm, FFI techniques build on appreciative inquiry (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987),positive psychology (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2002) and Feedback Intervention Theory (Kluger &DeNisi, 1996). The objective of this research was to investigate how FFI affects individual outcomes comparedto traditional feedback as part of a coaching session. Design: We conducted a quasi-experimental longitudinal study allocating 54 participants randomly to eithera FFI or Feedback-based coaching intervention.Methods: We measured self-efficacy, mood and strengths-confidence as well goal attainment before and aftereach intervention. Results: Self-efficacy significantly increased following FFI compared to feedback; participants were more likelyto obtain their goals in the FFI condition. There were no significant differences for mood; and no main effectsfor strengths-knowledge but a significant interaction by treatment condition. Conclusions: The results indicate that FFI appears a valid intervention to facilitate positive psychologicalchange as part of a coaching session. We discuss the potential for further research including the evaluationof transfer of learning arising from FFI in experimental paradigms as well as behavioural observations.Keywords: FeedForward; feedback; coaching; self-efficacy; mood; strengths-confidence.

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experience and information and learningand reflection based on these (McDowall &Millward, 2010). the limitations of feedbackhave long been noted, as have the complexi-ties of feedback processes (McDowall, 2012).the psychological evidence is inconclusiveabout which feedback conditions facilitiespositive outcomes, and potentially detri-mental effects (Kluger & Denisi, 1996). asthere appears to be a need to apply andstudy strengths-based and positive activities,we now introduce ffi compared to feed-back in some detail, offering our rationalefor studying its effectiveness as part of acoaching session.

What is FeedForward?Kluger and nir (2006) developed the feed-forward interview (ffi) from: (a) apprecia-tive inquiry, an organisational developmenttechnique to structure organisationalconversations around strengths (Cooper-rider & srivastva, 1987); and (b) feedback

intervention theory (Kluger & Denisi,1996) which spells out principles to explainfeedback effects. further theoretical consid-erations guiding the ffi approach are theutilisation of episodic memory for story elic-itation, active listening and cognitivecomparisons to facilitate motivation andchange, as well as goal setting. in essence,the ffi is a semi-structured interview tech-nique where the interviewer facilitates aloose script, where the interviewee is givenspace to share their story, through gentlequestioning and prompting. in sequence,the ffi focuses on: (a) elicitation of a keyevent during which the interviewee felt attheir best; (b) clarifying the conditionswhich allowed this event to happen; and (c)the ‘high point’ of this event and theemotional experience thereof and finallyfuture plans or actions. these principles areset out in table 1, and lend themselves to beused flexibly in interviews, appraisals andcoaching.

Almuth McDowall, Katie Freeman & Suzanne Marshall

Table 1: Key components of the FeedForward Interview (FFI).

Components Key Content Rationale

Eliciting a success story Description of (self-selected) Focus on positive emotions andstory when individual felt on episodic memory.‘at their best’.

The peak moment Focus on the ‘high point’ or Fostering of positive peak moment and experiences self-evaluation and emotions.at the time.

Clarifying the conditions Individuals describe the Clarification of optimalfacilitating conditions, such as conditions.the environment, the self and others.

Further conversation: Individuals consider the degree Use gap analysis and self-FeedForward to the future to which immediate plans are reflection to direct attention to

in line with conditions elicited. the future for self-motivatedTypically involves some type of change, recognition of potentialgap analysis comparing the discrepancy between currentstory to present conditions and plans and ‘just-discoveredaction plan for the future. optimal-performance’

conditions (Kluger & Nir, 2006).

in essence then, ffi sets out to facilitatelearning from the experience of past successthrough cognitive comparisons (Carver &scheier, 1981) by asking interviewees to notethe conditions and compare these to thepresent time, in order to initiate behaviouralchanges through the setting of goals (Kluger& nir, 2006).

FeedForward compared to Feedbackfeedforward clearly then has a future focus,where the onus rests with the interviewee toopen up and share their success story. feed-back in contrast is focused on informationfrom the past, and discussion thereof, andcan, although does not have to be, deficitand development need focused. so is ffibetter utilised instead of, or indeed beforeproviding any feedback to individuals?Kluger and nir (2006, 2010) propose justthis, stressing the positive effects of fficompared to potentially harmful feedback.Whilst the use of information as feedback ispart of self-regulation processes (Carver &scheier, 1981), literature has yielded variabledata about the consequences of feedback(see also McDowall & Millward, 2010).Kluger and Denisi’s (1996) meta-analysis of607 effect sizes and 22,663 observationsunravelled that feedback improves perform-ance moderately (d=.41), however, for one-third of observations there was adeterioration in performance, so individualswere in fact worse off having feedback thannot having any feedback at all. Clearly, feed-back processes are and remain complexdespite the considerable research evidence(McDowall, 2012). one common observa-tion appears to be that content matters,where positive feedback is recalled betterand accepted more favourably by recipientsthan negative information (snyder &Cowles, 1979) increases motivation to reacha desired goal, more so than negative feed-back (van-Dijk & Kluger, 2004). as individ-uals are overall motivated to see themselvesin a positive light (anseel & Lievens, 2006),there appears to be a case to generateevidence for positively focused and psycho-

logically safe interventions. We now turn tothe purported ‘active ingredients’ of ffi.

The ‘active ingredients’ of theFeedForward InterviewWith regards to the emotional valence,recalling a ‘full of life, at best’ experienceduring ffi is purported to foster positiveemotions (Kluger & nir, 2006. retcher(2009) compared ffi to other conditions orinterventions using a between-subjectsexperimental design involving; ffi, a neutralinterview and a no interview condition. theresults indicated that those who experiencedffi reported the most positive emotions.

ffi also focuses on internal discrepancybetween the standards identified fromdiscovering the conditions for success, andother internal information such as currentplans for the future in contrast to potentialdiscrepancies between external informationand external ideas and self-referent informa-tion derived from feedback (Kluger &Denisi, 1996). this internal comparison isthe essence of ffi, purportedly making itmore difficult to give up the internal stan-dards following recollection of success.Kluger and nir (2006) suggest that thesuccess story augments self-efficacy, inducespositive emotions and hence increases thelikelihood of behaviour change in light ofthe just-discovered conditions for success.

people’s strengths appear difficult todefine, as they areare potentially uncon-scious and not necessarily expressed in overtbehaviours (aspinwall & staudinger, 2003).thus, there is perhaps an overall need forfurther research as to how strengths can bemade conscious and salient, and ffi inte-grated into coaching may be one way ofdoing so. research to date indicates thatstrengths-use or knowledge can lead to avariety of positive outcomes including;heightened self-efficacy, self-esteem, well-being, goal-attainment, work-engagementand work performance (Govindji & Linley,2007; Harter et al., 2002; Linley et al., 2010;Minhas, 2010; proctor et al., 2009; smedley,2007).


TitleFeedForward coaching

as alluded to above, ffi’s appreciativecomponent, involving story-telling about apositive experience, has been suggested toevoke positive emotions and mood states, bybringing positive experiences to the fore-front (Hermans et al., 1992). the experi-ence of a positive mood state is linked to anumber of positive outcomes, includingincreased creativity and willingness to co-operate (fredrickson, 2001). participantsinduced in a good mood are also morewilling to accept negative feedback as shownin a laboratory experiment delivering eitherpositive or negative feedback aboutachieving life goals (trope & pomerantz,1998). in terms of potentially underlyingmechanisms, Barsade (2002) suggested thatpositive emotions, which are also facilitatedby ffi as discussed above, lead to anincreased openness to new information,through introspective reflection on individ-uals’ capabilities and their strengths.

Self-efficacy and goal attainmentself-efficacy is the belief in one’s own capa-bilities to execute an action in response to aprospective situation (Bandura, 1977, 1986).social cognitive theory holds that levels ofinfluences decisions to perform certainbehaviours, effort and persistence duringundesired situations, where a set of expecta-tions, based on past experiences, are carriedforward to future situations (schwarzer,1993; sherer et al., 1982). Whilst the litera-ture on ffi does not directly discuss self-effi-cacy overtly as a construct, ffi’s positive,internal and self-enhancing focus may allowindividuals to become more to likely tobecome aware of their strengths (Govindji &Linley, 2007) and thus strengthen self-beliefin their capabilities. the effects of feedbackappear to run counter positive effects. inparticularly predominantly negative feed-back may lower self-efficacy through thepotential discrepancy between the self-view(which may be positive) and ‘feedbackgivers’ view (which may be negative)(Bandura, 1986; Dweck, 1986: McDowall &Kurz, 2008).

Goals and their attainment are anothermotivational aspect, in addition toaugmented belief in capabilities. Goalsetting theory is cognitive in nature, andholds that the setting of goals direct atten-tion and provides motivational focus (Locke& Latham, 1990). Goals are a habitualelement of many coaching and feedbackprocesses, providing focus and a referentbenchmark for coach and coachee alike(McDowall & Millward, 2010) to map outaction plans and track what has and has notbeen achieved, and also where goals need tobe revised. Goals and an associated cognitivecomparison is also part of the ffi process,where individuals compare their currentstate and experience with any goals or futureplans. Whilst there are many studies on goalsetting, there remains a need to researchunder what conditions goals are bestachieved.

Study rationale and hypotheses in summary then, there appears someevidence for certain mechanisms of ffi, inthat it appears to raise positive emotions.However, the other ‘ingredients’ meritfurther experimental investigation to testout a predominantly theory-driven toolwhich is purported to reside in a strengths-focused and positive paradigm, to enableparticipants to work towards their goals. tothis extent, we set out to investigate to whatextent such a positively focused activity raisesstrengths-confidence and also facilitates goalachievement. as it is also purported that theffi works more effectively than a purelyfeedback based approach. However, theevidence base for feedback is in comparisonmuch larger but also more disparate; whilstfeedback remains a core activity in coaching(McDowall, 2012). to this extent, thecurrent study investigated to what extentcoaching sessions using feedback or ffiaffect strengths-confidence, mood and self-efficacy at two time intervals as compared toany observed effects for a feedback condi-tion. More specifically, our hypotheses were:


Author nameAlmuth McDowall, Katie Freeman & Suzanne Marshall

H1 participants will have higher self-efficacyfollowing ffi than following feedback.

H2 positive mood will increase morefollowing ffi than following feedback.

H3 strengths-confidence will increase morefollowing ffi than following feedback.

H4 there will be higher goal attainmentfollowing ffi than following feedback.

MethodParticipantsWe recruited 54 full-time employees across arange of job roles and organisations, (35female [64.8 per cent] and 19 male [35 percent]) with a mean age of 37.6 (SD=14.0, agerange: 20 to 67), 92 per cent declared them-selves as White British.

Designparticipants were randomly assigned toeither ffi (N=32) or feedback coaching(N=22) in using a between participantsdesign. We took measures before and aftereach coaching intervention, the dependentvariables were generalised self-efficacy, posi-tive mood, strengths-confidence measuredone week after participation, and goal attain-ment measured one month after participa-tion as outlined below.

MeasuresGeneralised Self-Efficacy. We used the Gener-alised self-efficacy scale (Gses; schwarzer &Jerusalem, in schwarzer, 1992); whichcontains 10 items rated on a four-point scale(1=not at all true, 2=hardly true, 3=moder-ately true, 4=exactly true), a sample item was‘i am certain i can accomplish my goals’.Coefficient alpha was consistent with α=.83before and after coaching.

Mood. We utilised the positive and negativeaffect schedule (panas; Watson et al.,(1988); measuring positive affect (pa) andnegative affect (na) respectively by partici-pant rating of 10 adjectives each using a five-point scale (1=very slightly or not at all, 2=a little, 3=moderately, 4=quite a bit,5=extremely). alphas varied somewhat, for

pa, the Cronbach alpha statistic was α=.53before coaching, and α=.85 after coaching,and for na α=.77 before coaching, andα=.76 after coaching.

Both Gses and Mood were measuredbefore and after coaching.

Strengths-confidence. We asked participants tolist their three key strengths to set a contextfor the subsequent discussion and facilitateratings of the strengths confidence items.participants listed a wide range of aspectssuch as organisation (10.6 per cent),commitment/determination (7.5 per cent),communication skills (5 per cent) and workethic (4 per cent). We then asked partici-pants to rate how confident they felt that thethree strengths listed were indeed their keystrengths; using an 11-point percentage scale(ranging from 0 per cent to 100 per centboth) before and after coaching. We alsowrote items specifically for this study, askingparticipants to rate five items tapping intostrengths-confidence using a five-point scale(1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neitherdisagree nor agree, 4=agree, 5=stronglyagree), at time interval two in questionnaire2 only (after coaching), an example item was‘the coaching session has helped me clarifywhat i think my strengths at work are’. Cron-bach alpha was recorded as α=.63.

Goal attainment. We used Goal attainmentscaling (Gas) which whilst initially devel-oped in the mental health field has applica-bility in coaching ton determine goal change(Kiresuk & sherman, 1968; ottenbacher &Cusick, 1990). participants first agreed aspecific goal during the respective sessionand discussed what attainment of this goalwould look like. at the time of the follow-upone month later, they then self-rated theirattainment using a five-point scale (+2=Muchmore than expected learning outcome,+1=somewhat more than expected learningoutcome, 0=expected level of learningoutcome, –1=somewhat less than expectedlearning outcome, –2=Much less thanexpected learning outcome.)




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finally, we included an open-ended itemto allow participants to share their percep-tions of the study experience.

The FFI and Feedback interventionsfollowing a favourable ethical opinion fromthe researchers’ institutions and partici-pants’ informed consent to participate, weagreed mutually times and locations for eachcoaching session, usually at the participants’place of work. the second and third author(Msc students at the time) were trained inthe respective coaching, feedback and ffitechniques and delivered the sessions. eachhad undertaken a five-lecture modulefocused on coaching, and was trained specif-ically in the technique by the first author. allresearchers had also trained in the certifi-cates of competence for both ability andpersonality assessments in the workplace (asregulated by the British psychologicalsociety) to equip them to deliver the feed-back sessions. following consent and alloca-tion to condition, we provided allparticipants with an information sheet aboutthe respective condition. each session tookabout 45 to 60 minutes, the ffi sessionsslightly longer than the feedback sessions onaverage; we counter balanced how manyfeedback and ffi sessions each researcherundertook. the feedback conditionconsisted of a structured career focuseddiscussion using the Career indepthpathfinder inventory statements (sHL, nD),discussing the participants’ career prefer-ences and plans. the ffi followed the scriptas outlined above, including the discussionof a ‘success story’, the conditions, therefore,the high point, and the emotional experi-ence and plans for the future. participantsrecounted a range of differing experiences,all from a work context, including successaround mastering a newly learned task orrole or interactions with others.

Resultsall variables were checked for normality andoutliers, and missing data for one participant

(who submitted a partially completed follow-up questionnaire) was substituted withmeans as appropriate.

testing H1, we conducted a mixedanova to address the 2 x 2 (condition: ffiand feedback, and time: pre- and post-coaching) mixed-research design. the meanscores for self-efficacy were higher aftercoaching (M=32.63, SD=3.7) compared tobefore coaching (M=31.5, SD=3.65), a statis-tically significant difference F(1,52)=5.40,p=.02, h²=.09. there was a highly significantinteraction between condition and timeF(1,52)=57.89, p<.001, h²=.24. figure 1 showsthat whilst self-efficacy increased for ffi, it decreased for feedback.

We compared self-efficacy post fficompared to feedback using an inde-pendent t-test, revealing that participantsreported greater generalised self-efficacyafter ffi coaching (M=33.81, SD=3.05)compared to feedback coaching (M=30.91,SD=3.95), with a significant differencet(52)=3.04, p=.004, d=.73.

testing H2, we conducted another mixedanova. the results of the main effect ofcondition revealed no overall significantdifference for mood F(1,52)=0.28, p=.129,h²= .001; there was also no significant maineffect for time F(1,52)=.00, p=.98, h²=.00 andno significant interaction effect, F(1,52)=.77,p=.77, h²=.02, we noted that positive affectincreased following ffi, but decreased afterfeedback.

testing H3, a third mixed anovaelicited no overall significant difference forstrengths confidence between ffi and feed-back conditions F(1,52)=.00, p=.99, h²=.00,or for time, F(1,52)=.621, p=.43, h²=.012.there was, however, a significant interactionF(1,52)=5.16, p=.027, h²=.09. figure 2 revealsthat whilst strengths-confidence increasedfor ffi, it dropped in the feedback condi-tion.

We then conducted an independentsamples t-test showing that whilst partici-pants reported somewhat greater strengths-




Figure 1: Self-efficacy before and after FFI and Feedback.

Figure 2: Strengths confidence following FFI and Feedback.

confidence following ffi (M=80 per cent,SD=13.68) compared to feedback coaching(M=77.27 per cent, SD=10.77), this was statis-tically not significant.

testing H4, we first explored the data. in the ffi condition, all 32 participants metor exceeded the goal they had set after onemonth, with five of them greatly exceedingthe achievement of the goal, by scoringthemselves as +2 in Goal attainment; 21participants scoring their goal attainment asa somewhat more than the expectedlearning outcome, and six participantsscoring themselves as having met theexpected level of learning outcome (0).

in the feedback condition, 13 partici-pants met or exceeded the goal they had setafter one month, with three participantshaving a somewhat higher than expectedlearning outcome and 10 participantsscoring themselves as having met theexpected level of learning outcome (0). incontrast to the ffi group, nine participantshad a somewhat less than expected learningoutcome after their coaching session (–1.)

We used an independent samples t-testto measure the difference in goal attain-ment. the results indicated a statisticallysignificant difference, with the ffi groupsignificantly achieving more goals (M=0.97,SD=0.59) than the feedback group (M=–0.27SD=0.70), T(52)=6.99, p=<0.005.

Discussionthis research set out to investigate to whatextent self-efficacy, positive mood, strengthsconfidence and goal attainment changefollowing ffi as compared to feedback aspart of a one off coaching session. to ourknowledge, this is the first quasi-experi-mental study comparing ffi to feedback. Wegathered support for H1, as taking part in ffiincreased self-efficacy more than for thefeedback condition, with a significant maineffect for time and significant interaction,where self-efficacy dropped in the feedbackcondition. Whilst there was an increase inpositive mood in the ffi condition, this wasnot significant statistically in either the main

or interaction effects; hence there was nodirect support for H2. With regards to H3,whilst participation in ffi did increasestrengths-confidence, the main effects fortime and condition were not significant,there was however a significant interaction,showing that strengths confidence droppedin the feedback condition. finally, partici-pants in the ffi condition were far morelikely to attain self-set goals than those whohad participated in feedback, lendingsupporting to H4.

taken together, our study provides quasi-experimental evidence that participation inffi may indeed facilitate positive psycho-logical change, and in particular affects indi-viduals’ belief in their respective capability aswell as positive goal change (Kluger & nir,2006). in other words, the findings indicatethat ffi might provide a valuable techniqueto facilitate goal attainment as well asincreased belief in one’s capability. it is likelythat the self-directed and positive focus offfi accounts for these effects. our findingsextend the coaching literature. Whilst aprevious study has shown that using one’sstrengths heighten levels of self-efficacy(Govindji & Linley, 2007), our findings showthat the mere discussion and reflection on suchstrengths and good experiences during ffialso glean positive effects. of course, it needsto be acknowledged that ffi may also play togeneral human preference, given that indi-viduals are motivated to view themselves as ina positive light (anseel & Lievens, 2006).

We observed no difference for positivemood following ffi or feedback. this issomewhat surprising given that the rationalefor ffi includes the deliberate induction ofpositive emotions (retcher, 2009). Wecontent that a potential explanation for isobservation is that there might be individualdifferences in the responses to ffi and inindividual capacity to gain immediate bene-fits from a single interview (Kluger & nir,2006). individuals may vary in their ‘fficurve’, where any effects may take longer forsome participants than for others. Given theexplorative nature of the current study, we



confined the process to one coaching studyin each condition, but future researchshould take a more longitudinal approach.additionally, there is the possibility thatextraneous factors may have influencedreported mood when measured one weekafter the coaching sessions, includingphysical, psychological, social, environ-mental, stress and demographic variables(Bolger et al., 1989; taenzer et al., 1985;teychenne, 2008), and we recognise thedifficult in accounting for these. indeed, wecannot discount that any effects of ffis mayhave diminished after that week, particularlywithout further support to assist transfer oflearning.

on average, participants did have greaterstrengths-e confidence after ffi; however,this was not statistically significant in thecomparison to feedback. again, this findingis surprising given that ffi focuses on andpositively reinforces the elicitation ofstrengths through active listening and facili-tating reflection. in the qualitativecomments, participants agreed that takingpart in ffi indeed helped to clarify theirrespective strengths at work. Whilst uncov-ering and reflecting on such strengths is acore component of the technique, improvedstrengths-confidence may require deeperreflection, and also embedding throughadditional coaching sessions.

participants attained significantly moregoals following ffi compared to feedback,and we endeavor here to offer an explana-tion for these effects. Kluger and Denisi(1996) argue that individual motivation isfacilitated when there is a discrepancybetween any goals and their current state,but that different responses can occur,depending on the route of highest benefitsand lowest cost. it is tenable, as feedback ismore externally driven than ffi, that partic-ipants may be more likely to agree with self-referenced information, resulting in a lowermotivational impetus. ffi directs attentionto the participant, and internal standardsand comparison processes (Kluger & nir,2006) and allowing increased control over

the coaching process. Given that the processis focused on eliciting a story of success, ffimay create a discrepancy between how theindividual currently feels about future plans,and their ideas of what conditions canenable success. reflection on this discrep-ancy reduces the chances of the participantrejecting or ‘escaping from’ their goals, and,therefore, it is more likely that behavior willchange as internal standards are renegoti-ated, as a result of the new internal knowl-edge.

We had not predicted the negativechanges in self-efficacy or strengths- confi-dence in the feedback condition, or indeedthe significant interactions. previous litera-ture has demonstrated lowered self-efficacyfollowing negative feedback, whereby theprocess may have induced a discrepancybetween the belief of the individual and thecontent of the feedback (Bandura, 1986;Dweck, 1986). our research pointed to dele-terious effects even for a positively framedfeedback intervention, and deleteriouseffects for perceived strengths, too. Whilstnot predicted as such, these results never-theless call for further discussion and explo-ration in subsequent studies, given also thatwe observed a clear impact on behaviour –feedback participants set fewer goals.

Research limitationsControlled experimental research includingthorough baseline measures in coaching isstill rare. We had deliberately used a longi-tudinal design, however, to test ourhypotheses. Whilst we offer our quasi-experi-mental approach as a contribution on apotentially interesting and relevant but stillrelatively sparsely researched technique, wealso acknowledge some of the methodolog-ical limitations. these include potentiallyfluctuating effects which our design may nothave captured at the follow-up interval.Whilst in an ideal world we may have wishedto take measurements at additional intervals,our participants volunteered their participa-tion, meaning that we did not want toimpose unduly on their time, and hence



kept the intervention groups to one sessioneach. We also recognise that that the feed-back group was somewhat smaller than theffi group, which, although outside ourcontrol, nevertheless impacted the power ofour design. finally, we cannot precludeexperimenter effects as it was not possible toconduct a double-blind experiment whenthe researchers themselves are involved indelivering the interventions. to renderfollow-up research more robust, we woulduse an external practitioner to deliver thesessions to minimise such effects.

Proposed future research Whilst we stress that researching onecoaching session at a time can provide valu-able insight, we recommend research intolong-term effects and learning transfer offfi in the workplace as a valuable next step,to investigate long term effects more fullyover time. the goal setting element in itselfalso merits further follow up. Whilst we knowthat more goals were obtained in ffi, itwould be helpful to ascertain how these maylink to overarching plans and changes, forinstance in relation to careers, well-being orother outcomes. in addition, furtherresearch adopting a formal measurement ofthe suggested ‘positive spiral’ (Kluger & nir,2006), perhaps even including observationaltechniques and subsequent coding ofbehaviour, would provide support for anypositive emotions unconsciously displayed bythe interviewee during ffi. such anapproach would allow additional insight intothe immediate effects of ffi, for instancefocused on emotion and mood experiences.Lastly, future research should also considercoach effects in more detail by obtainingdata from coachees to determine whichexact facilitation and questioning tech-niques (which ffi elements?) work bestfrom their point of view.

Implications for practiceour evidence shows that a positive andfuture focused approach, as in ffi, reapsbenefits for individuals in a coaching session.Whilst initially construed in an appraisalcontext, ffi is a simple, flexible and acces-sible technique which can be adapted forother contexts. research associates high self-efficacy with setting and achieving morechallenging goals, optimism, increasedeffort, persistence and recovery (schwarzeret al., 1996), our research showing that ffihas positive effects on self-efficacy, beliefs,and behaviour, as evident in goal attainment.

Conclusion We report controlled quasi-experimentalresearch showing that ffi affects self-efficacyand goal attainment, and an interaction forstrengths-confidence. the findings thus indi-cate that taking part in the ffi prompts posi-tive psychological change through astrengths-focused approach, whilst also indi-cating caution about the potentially delete-rious effects of solely feedback-basedinterventions. future research should focuson transfer of learning, consider coacheffects and more detailed data fromcoachees. We hope that practitioners andresearchers alike may adapt our approachand adopt ffi in their own contexts.

The AuthorsAlmuth McDowallschool of psychology, faculty of arts andHuman sciences, university of surrey.Katie Freemanschool of psychology, faculty of arts andHuman sciences, university of surrey.Suzanne Marshallschool of psychology, faculty of arts andHuman sciences, university of surrey.

CorrespondenceAlmuth McDowallemail: [email protected]




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FeedForward coaching

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THe CentraL tenet of tHis paperis to promote the development of acoaching framework for student

procrastination that is based on sound theo-retical argument. there is a strong case forsuch an objective: Higher education remainsa vital capital resource for nationsthroughout the world and with rising costs ofstudying at university, students are facingincreasing pressure to complete theirdegrees and achieve good grades (paulsen &st. John, 2002). nevertheless, procrastina-tion continues to present itself as an obstaclein this regard. procrastination in general is aubiquitous and relentless phenomenon ofhuman nature with examples dating as farback as 800 BC (cited by steel, 2007). Yet,there is a particular form of ‘academicprocrastination’ that is also internationallyrecognised (ferrari, o’Callaghan &newbegin, 2005) and can be defined asintentionally deferring or delaying work that

must be completed (schraw, Wadkins &olafson, 2007). its prevalence in the studentpopulation has been estimated as high as 95per cent (ellis & Knaus, 1997) and it is typi-cally manifested as putting off studying whenthere are more ‘lucrative’ distractions avail-able or as cramming in assignments at thelast minute (Lay & schouwenburg, 1993).

procrastination is frequently reported tohave adverse effects on academic work.routine procrastinators experience a notice-able performance detriment as a result ofdelaying action (Day, Mensink & o’sullivan,2000; Haycock, 1993; Micek, 1982; onwueg-buzie, 2000; solomon & rothblum, 1984).Moreover, susceptible students submit lateassignments, obtain lower grades and arealso more likely to withdraw from theircourses (Beswick, rothblum & Mann, 1988;Janssen & Carton, 1999; solomon & roth-blum, 1984; steel, 2007; synn, park & seo,2005; tice & Baumeister, 1997).


Paper

Self-regulation coaching to alleviatestudent procrastination: Addressing thelikeability of studying behavioursCeri M. Sims

Students who habitually procrastinate may be at risk of underachieving academically as well as puttingtheir health and well-being in jeopardy. The current review of research on procrastination leads to theidentification of four broad task likeability factors as encapsulating a range of procrastination patterns.These are: (1) perceived low level of task enjoyment; (2) anticipation of aversive outcomes; (3) estimatedinability to do the task; and (4) competing attractiveness of alternative tasks. Each of these low task likeabilityfactors can lead to procrastination when accompanied by particular self-regulation shortcomings, identifiedrespectively as intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, anxieties of performance evaluation, low self-efficacy ofperformance and weak attentional control of distracters. A self-regulation coaching framework is proposed as a comprehensive way to address academic

procrastination. After identifying the low task likeability areas that are involved when faced with anassignment, student coachees can be facilitated to raise self-awareness and develop necessary self-regulationstrategies to alleviate their procrastination patterns. The practical implications of this coaching approach arepotentially vast. Therefore, further research to evaluate its efficacy is recommended as the next step towardsthis endeavour.

Beyond academic output, being achronic procrastinator can involve substan-tial risks to students’ well-being. although,some people are able to use delay tacticsfunctionally (Corkin, Yu & Lindt, 2011) or as‘incubation’ periods of creativity (Gevers,Mohammed & Baytalskaya, 2013), there isabundant evidence to indicate that dysfunc-tional procrastination generally involves thepersonal state of what Keyes (2002) wouldrefer to as ‘languishing’ rather than ‘flour-ishing’. Given that the appeal of postponingwork is often due to the short-term benefitsit can bring in repairing mood (tice &Baumeister, 1997), this evidence first seemsto be paradoxical. However, research showsthat the longer-term outcome of postponingwork commonly involves affective experi-ences that are negative rather than positive(e.g. Burka & Yuen, 2008; Milgram,Marshevsky & sadeh, 1995). perfectionistprocrastinators may be particularly suscep-tible to troublesome emotional conse-quences as they judge and berate themselvesharshly (Kearns et al., 2008). there areextensive examples of acute anxiety and/ordepression being prevalent in chronicprocrastinators (ferrari, Johnson &McCown, 1995; Lay & schouwenburg, 1993;Lay & silverman, 1996; Martin et al., 1996;rothblum, solomon & Murakami, 1986;saddler & sacks, 1993; senécal, Koestner &vallerand, 1995; solomon & rothblum,1984; stöber & Joorman, 2001; van eerde,2003). furthermore, an increased pronenessto physical illness has been found in regularprocrastinators (tice & Baumeister, 1997).there is also evidence that most procrastina-tors would really like to procrastinate less ifthey could (o’Brien, 2002) and it has beencompared to other harmful forms of weakself-control, for example, obesity, gambling,and excessive debt (ellis & Knaus, 1977;Kachgal, Hansen & nutter, 2001; steel, 2007;van eerde, 2003).

recent studies have further examinedthe underlying processes involved in thereduced well-being of procrastinators. pooremotional intelligence (the ability to under-

stand and use emotions in a productive andhealthy way) has been shown to relate to theproblem (Chow, 2011; pychyl, 2009), and alack of ‘mindfulness’ (conscious engage-ment with the present moment) has beenfound to mediate the relationship betweenprocrastination and poor mental andphysical health (sirois & tosti, 2012).

With academic procrastination contin-uing to be a matter of ongoing concern, thepurpose of this paper is to propose acoaching framework for managing it thatgets to the crux of the problem. Beginningwith the assumption that people procrasti-nate for activities that they dislike in theirdesire for short-term mood elevation(ferrari & emmons, 1995), the first stepinvolves identifying the cognitive and moti-vational factors that influence task likeabilityjudgements. the author has identified fourcomprehensive factors that lead to low like-ability thoughts and these are discussed in the next section. although, manyresearchers now agree that poor self-regula-tion is at the heart of the problem (e.g. steel,2007, Wolters, 2003), the second section ofthis paper identifies the particular self-regu-latory processes associated with managingeach of the four areas of low task likeability.the third section then uses this model topresent a structured coaching approach forreducing procrastination. it discusses howthe coach can use this model to helpcoachees identify their low task likeabilitypattern and set corresponding areas of self-regulatory development as coaching goals.

Student procrastination due to poortask likeabilitysome researchers have used establishedpersonality profiles such as the Big 5(McCrae & Costa, 1987) to ascertain thecharacteristics of those who are most likely toprocrastinate as a stable pattern ofbehaviour. Conscientiousness has beenfrequently identified as having an inverserelationship to the predisposition to engagein procrastination (Johnson & Bloom, 1995;Lee, Kelly & edwards, 2006; Milgram &


Author nameCeri M.Sims

tenne, 2000; schouwenburg & Lay, 1995;van eerde, 2003). facets of neuroticism havealso been linked to self-reported dilatorybehaviour (Johnson & Bloom, 1995;schouwenburg & Lay, 1995) and extraver-sion has also been associated with procrasti-nation scores (schouwenburg & Lay, 1995).Whilst personality attributes are likely to gosome way in accounting for why certainpeople are more susceptible than others, thispaper adopts quite a different approach. itexamines instead the momentary thoughtsand emotions that convey messages aboutpoor task likeability leading a person to post-pone carrying out a task. four factors havebeen identified as influencing the content ofthese hastily made low task likeability reac-tions. these are Enjoyment, Consequence,Ability and Competition and each of thesefactors is discussed below:

Enjoyment: Do I like doing it?some researchers have focused on procrasti-nation as a function of task aversiveness:(Milgram et al., 1995; senécal, Lavoie &Koestner, 1997) and others have regardedthe problem as due to Low frustration tolerance(ellis & Knaus, 1977; Harrington, 2005).Both of these descriptions refer to theperceived noxious nature of the task itself asaccounting for one’s desire to avoid it. sowhat is it about certain academic tasks thatmake them unattractive to students?

students may find some academic tasksnon-gratifying and so they either resentdoing them or cannot be bothered to dothem. task aversion can be due to lack ofinterest in the topic, task difficulty (hardwork) or boredom (non-stimulating) (Blunt& pychyl, 2000; Lay, 1992).

Writing tasks have been reported to be themost common kinds of delayed assignments(Klassen, Krawchuk & rajani, 2008), presum-ably as they usually carry a heavy cognitiveload and require perseverance to complete.also, students who have conflicting feelingsabout the courses they are undertaking aremore likely to postpone doing the set assign-ments (senécal et al., 1995).

procrastination researchers oftenconflate task enjoyment with rewardingoutcomes when they discuss the ‘value’ aperson gives to a task (for example, steel,2007). However, an individual may find aparticular activity to be enjoyable to do per se,but still consider it to be aversive because ofanticipated risky consequences. a personmay love singing but decide not to performkaraoke if the audience is considered to bejudgmental. as task enjoyment and percep-tion of rewarding outcomes are differentfeatures of likeability, the model of procrasti-nation proposed here treats them as twoseparate factors.

Consequence cognitions: What will be the result? performance anxiety has been regarded as akey cause of procrastination by manyresearchers, who have focused either on Fear of failure (alexander & onwuegbuzie,2007; Haycock, McCarthy & skay, 1998;Milgram et al., 1995; onwuegbuzie & Jiao,2000; saddler & Buley, 1999; solomon &rothblum, 1984; steel, 2007; van eerde,2003); Fear of success (rorer, 1983); and/orPerfectionist thinking (Burka & Yuen, 2008;flett et al., 1992; flett, Hewitt & Martin,1995; seo, 2008). What these perspectivesactually share is a focus on procrastinationinvolving people’s anxieties about perform-ance scrutiny. in academic environments,where there is high concentration on regularassessment and grading of work, concernsabout being evaluated are particularlyapparent. in fact, tasks that get evaluatedand have the largest impact on students’final results have been shown to yield thehighest levels of academic procrastination(Kachgal et al., 2001; senécal et al., 1997).

perfectionist procrastinators are alsolikely to be self-critical, set high standards forthemselves and judge themselves harshlywhen failing to meet them (stainton, Lay &flett, 2000). they are also likely to feel guiltyor ashamed when they procrastinate (fee &tangney, 2000). reported self-discrepanciesbetween ‘actual-self’ and ‘ought-to-self’(Higgins, 1987) were the strongest predictor


TitleSelf-regulation coaching to alleviate student procrastination

of procrastination in one study involvingcollege student participants (orellana-Damacela, tindale & suárez-Balcázar, 2000).

although procrastination has been docu-mented as a characteristic of humanbehaviour throughout history and in all soci-eties, prevalence indicates an increasingtrend (Kachgal et al., 2001) as a reflection ofcultural expectations within achievementoriented industrialised societies. flett et al.(1992) found that academic procrastinationstems partly from anticipation of disapprovalfrom others though socially prescribedperfectionist standards. these are beliefsthat significant others place excessively highstandards on them and are putting pressureon them to be perfect.

one of the difficulties in breaking thehabit is that chronic procrastinators willoften go to great lengths to justify and ratio-nalise their behaviours. even those who seekhelp for their habit will say that they workbest under pressure (fernie & spada, 2008;tice & Baumeister, 1997). after a pooroutcome, procrastinators tend to preferdownward-counterfactuals (it could havebeen worse) rather than upward ones (i could have done better) (sirois, 2004).some studies have focused on self-handicap-ping behaviour, such as staying up late toparty the night before an exam so that thereis a back-up excuse to use in the event ofpoor exam performance (ferrari & tice,2000; rhodewalt & vohs, 2005). this excuse-making pattern is a strategic form of impres-sion management that helps evaluationanxiety procrastinators ‘save face.’

another factor that influences the rela-tionship of performance evaluation anxietyon procrastination probability is the dura-tion of the delay. performance ‘delay’ is atthe core of steel’s (2007) definition ofprocrastination, expressed within a formulaof task ‘utility’ that focuses on hyperbolictime discounting (ainslie, 1975). this timemodel highlights the probability of procras-tination being highest when the deadline isdistant because it can be discounted, and itslikelihood decreasing as the deadline

approaches and the reward of completionoverrides performance anxiety. However,some procrastinators may never make thedecision that it is the right time to act evenafter a delay. Distress levels are shown toeither increase (tice & Baumeister, 1997) orremain as high across the term (rice,richardson & Clark, 2012). therefore, withanxiety levels remaining so high, thesestudents are at risk of dropping out throughnever being able to confront and completetheir assignments even when their deadlinesare pending.

Ability: Am I able to do it?the third likeability factor for procrastina-tion relates to the person’s current judgmentof their capabilities to organise and executethe actions required to successfully completethe academic assignment.

students’ comfort levels about doingassignments and taking exams depend onhow competent they are feeling. somestudents may feel that they are not preparedadequately when they come to do the workand this can be due to poor strategic studypatterns. spacing an assignment acrossseveral sessions over a period of time hasbeen shown to be more effective than cram-ming in work at the last minute (Dempster &farris, 1990). one study showed that, whenstudents are given sequential sets of studymaterials with each new set being condi-tional upon completion of the one before it,they were less likely to cram at the end. theyalso did better on the final test. it is as ifbeing shown how to make studying moreevenly distributed made them feel prepared,such that they no longer felt the need for aperiod of high intensity studying close to thedeadline (perrin et al., 2011).

students have reported low energy and‘tiredness’ as a chief reason for putting offdoing a task (Gropel & steel, 2008;strongman & Burt, 2000). With wideningparticipation in Higher education, studentswho are the first generation in their familiesto enter university may feel most compelledto supplement their education with an



income (Bui, 2002) and in one study,academic procrastination has been found toincrease with lower socio-economic status(Chow, 2011). Juggling multiple demandson time may be a core reason why studentsfeel unable to cope with assignments andwhy they procrastinate. Burnout occurswhen students become exhausted inresponse to their study load. it is manifestedin a detached attitude toward one’s study, aswell as feeling incompetent as a student(schaufeli et al., 2002).

Task competition: Is there something better to do?Many procrastination writers focus on itbeing a form of Impulsive behaviour, withpeople’s need for immediate gratification(ferrari & emmons, 1995) and succumbingeasily to temptations (Dewitte & schouwen-burg, 2002) accounting for its pervasiveness.

the negative relationship shown betweenage and procrastination in meta-analyticreviews (steel, 2007, van eerde, 2002) and inresearch with unusually large samples(Gropel & steel, 2008), suggests thatyounger adults are more inclined tosurrender to procrastination than olderadults. the tendency of many students toprocrastinate may partly reflect post-modernattitudes of a student life that involves a lot ofsocialising. students value highly being ableto spontaneously decide the activities theywant to participate in (Dietz, Hofer & fries,2007).

therefore, it is no wonder that academicactivities lose out over more alluring andreadily available pursuits, such as onlinegaming, social networking and mobilephone text messaging that can bring imme-diate satisfaction all day long (Hedin, 2012).one research study found that student Facebook® users were more prone to distrac-tion and claimed that it prevented themfrom getting on with their work (Kirschner& Karpinski, 2010).

Self-regulation: The antithesis ofprocrastinationthere is good evidence that the commonunderlying factor accounting for procrasti-nation behaviour is poor self-regulation(ariely & Wertenbroch, 2002; Brownlow &reasinger, 2000; Chu & Choi, 2005; ferrari,2001; Howell & Watson, 2007; Klassen et al.,2008a; rabin, fogel & nutter-upham, 2011;senéchal et al., 1995; van eerde, 2000; vohs& Baumeister, 2004; Wolters, 2003). self-regulation refers to ‘thoughts, feelings andactions that are planned and cyclicallyadapted to the attainment of personal goals’(Zimmerman, 2000, p.14). they are other-wise referred to as executive functioningprocesses that are associated with activitiesoccurring in the prefrontal cortex (roth etal., 2006), that part of the brain that is themost recently evolved (Barkley, 2001).Damage to this area results in a loss of initia-tive, not unlike the task resistant behaviourwe see in procrastinators.

research has shown that poor self-regula-tion leads to procrastination behaviour.some studies have found that lacking anawareness of how to plan and monitor a task,along with having poor organisation strate-gies are common self-regulatory problemsexperienced by procrastinators (Howell &Watson, 2007; rabin et al., 2011; Wolters,2003).

there is evidence that self-regulationbecomes difficult when managing present-self emotional needs (sirois & pychyl, 2013).also, distressed people give short-term affectregulation priority over other self-regulatorygoals, in order to feel better (tice, Brat-slavsky & Baumeister, 2001).

What is required is further examinationof the mechanisms linking self-regulationprocesses to procrastination behaviour. thenext section does this by examining the rolethat different facets of self-regulation play inrelation to each of the four task likeabilityfactors of enjoyment, Consequences, abilityand Competition (table 1).



Enjoyment: Intrinsic/Extrinsic motivationresearch has found that intrinsic motivationaccounts for the ability to perform assign-ments in a timely fashion (senécal et al.,1995). intrinsic motivators are driven by theenjoyment of the learning process itself andthey approach activities with gusto andenthusiasm (Cameron & pierce, 1994; Deciet al., 1991; Henderlong & Lepper, 2002).students on an online programme who wereless intrinsically motivated showed higherlevels of procrastination (rakes & Dunn,2010). intrinsic motivators are driven by taskmastery rather than avoidance and such amastery goal orientation has been found toinversely predict procrastination behaviour(Howell & Watson, 2007).

furthermore, having personal choiceincreases people’s intrinsic motivation (Deci& ryan, 2000; patall, Cooper & robinson,2008), a finding consistent with self-determi-nation theory that emphasises the centralrole of autonomy in motivating people intheir striving towards personal growth (Deci& ryan, 2000).

people who use delays or incubationperiods of inactivity for functional taskmanagement have been shown to becompletely engaged when they get going,through a state of arousal and intense subjec-tive interest, known as ‘flow’ (Csikszentzmi-halyi, 1990; Kim & seo, 2013). By contrast,dysfunctional procrastinators who lack thislevel of motivation are often pressured whenworking after a delay. once, they finally getstarted on an assignment to a tight deadline,they are slower and less accurate, especiallywhen trying to manage a cognitivelydemanding task (ferrari, 2001).

students who are extrinsically motivatedare more likely to procrastinate thanintrinsic motivators (senécal et al., 1995).extrinsic motivation involves doing some-thing in order to obtain a reward for doing itand it is harder to persist with tasks wherethe rewards seem a long a way off. peoplewho lack intrinsic enjoyment in a task needto internalise it (Deci & ryan, 2000): theyneed to actively transform the extrinsic

motive into a personally endorsed value inorder to persist with it.

Consequence cognitions: Anxieties of performanceevaluation extrinsic motivation can lead to perform-ance-avoidance as a result of excessiveperformance evaluation anxiety (e.g.Wolters, 2003). this type of procrastinationis aggravated through high pressure to getgood grades and/or social approval, ratherthan through any desire to study as an end initself. this avoidance orientation has beenshown to predict maladaptive strategies andgiving up in the face of tough challenges.(e.g. pintrich, 2000).

procrastination to reduce anxiety is anexample of what Baumeister andHeatherton (1996) refer to as ‘misregula-tion,’ because it is a regulation of mood overself-regulation for pursuing long-term goals.it has been argued that emotion regulationtakes precedence when people are distressedas they strive to act in order to feel better(tice et al., 2001).

Moreover, deadlines seem to makematters worse for these students. Chronicprocrastinators have shown lower speed andaccuracy under time constraints ascompared with their speed and accuracywhen not under time constraints (ferrari,2001). overall, it seems that the self-regula-tion difficulties faced by overly anxiousprocrastinators appear to reflect the chal-lenges of being able to handle doing taskswhen working under pressure.

Ability: Self-efficacyself-efficacy refers to a person’s belief inone’s own ability to achieve in a particulararea (Bandura, 1997). Learners who showcompetence in self-regulation strategies inan academic domain are also likely to believethat they are capable of achieving success-fully in that domain (pintrich & De Groot,1990; schunk, 1991). according to Bandura(1982), self-efficacy determines ‘how mucheffort people will expend and how long theywill persist in the face of obstacles or aversive



experiences’ (p.123). therefore, it is notsurprising that several studies have found arelationship between low academic self-effi-cacy and procrastination (Burns et al., 2000;ferrari, parker & Ware, 1992; Haycock et al.,1998; Klassen et al., 2008a; seo, 2008; sirois,2004; steel, 2007; van eerde, 2003; Wolters,2003).

More recently, research has extendedthis argument to show that self-regulationaccounts for the predictive power of self-effi-cacy on procrastination and that it isstudents’ self-efficacy for self-regulatedlearning that matters (Klassen et al., 2008a;strunk & steel, 2011; tan, ang, Klassen, Yeo,Wong, Huan & Chong, 2008; Zimmerman,Bandura & Martinez-pons, 1992). studentswith learning disabilities have been shown toprocrastinate more than students withoutsuch disabilities and this is related to theirlow self-efficacy for using self-regulationstrategies (Klassen et al., 2008).

Many procrastinators have a ‘planningfallacy’: they underestimate task completiontimes (McCown, petzel & rupert, 1987;pychyl, Morin & salmon, 2001). oneobstacle for the poor planner is a weaknessin organisation skills, such that they need todevelop a more systematic and structuredapproach to studying (Howell & Watson,2007; Lay, 1986; steel, 2007). they may beinitiating action but in a haphazard way.thus, not surprisingly, procrastination hasbeen shown to relate negatively to self-reported learned resourcefulness, whichmeans lacking skills needed to use time effi-ciently in producing a complete assignment(Milgram, Dangour & ravi, 1992).

failure to self-regulate can also occur‘because people have limited resources forself-regulation and these become depletedin a manner akin to a muscle’s becomingfatigued’ (Muraven, Baumeister & tice,1999, p.447). High stress arousal can under-mine self-efficacy (Bandura, 1982) and feel-ings of efficacy or inefficacy have beenconsidered as the ‘third dimension’ ofburnout along with emotional exhaustionand depersonalisation (Bresó, salanova &

schaufeli, 2007). However, regular anddeliberate practice of self-regulation exer-cises results in improvements in self-regula-tion strength, such that people are less likelyto become exhausted when using thosestrategies in future (Baumeister et al., 2006).

Competing tasks: Distractibility some students may be inclined towards an‘intention-action gap’ when they postponeworking (Lay & schouwenberg, 1993). Here,the student may be estimating study timeaccurately, but is having trouble sticking tothe plan. these students may be moresusceptible to getting distracted when thereare temptations to lure them away from thetask. ‘effort regulation’ (pintrich et al.,1991) is a self-regulation strategy where oneis able to control one’s attention incompleting study goals even when faced withdistracting situations. students who cannotregulate the amount of effort they put intodoing a task due to a hedonic persuasiontowards seductive cues around them are atrisk of procrastinating even if they feel theyhave the skills to undertake the assignment.

Developing a self-regulation coachingframework for managing studentprocrastination.there are many reasons why coaching canbe an effective intervention for handlingacademic procrastination. firstly, attempts toalleviate procrastination have largely beendriven through therapy (e.g. ellis & Knaus,1977). Whilst therapists have an importantrole to play in helping clinical populations,coaches can support people who do not haveserious mental health problems (Bluckert,2005; Grant, 2006). Coaching is a time-limited and solution-oriented processwhereby the focus is on moving towards thecoachee’s goals (Grant, 2003). thus, foraddressing procrastination habits shown inotherwise healthy and resourceful adults,procrastination management could be acore coaching goal or one of the goals set bya student coachee who wants to focus onachieving academic success.



Moreover, the coaching relationship is acollaborative one where coachees areperceived to be autonomous learners whoare ready to develop through self-directedlearning (stöber & Grant, 2006). therefore,the role of the coach is ideally placed tosupport coachees in identifying and devel-oping the self-regulation shortcomings thatare responsible for their particular procrasti-nation pattern.

Cognitive-behavioural coaching (CBC;neenan & Dryden, 2002) has been recom-mended for working with procrastination(Karas & spada, 2009). CBC uses cognitive-behavioural techniques based on rational-emotive therapy and cognitive-behaviouraltherapy (ellis, 1997), but within the contextof coaching. essentially, the focus is onhelping coachees to gain an awareness ofhow their thoughts and beliefs about eventsinfluence how they feel and act. Karas andspada (2009) found that coaching interven-tion using CBC methods, led to a reductionin self-reported procrastination in a smallgroup of chronic procrastinators. However,the researchers claimed that it would ‘bevaluable to identify the key active compo-nents of this coaching approach as they arestill unclear at present’ (p.50).

the framework presented here offers atheoretically informed approach to coachingprocrastination that identifies four task like-ability factors accounting for task delay. inpinpointing precisely just those factorsaccounting for a coachee’s procrastinationpattern, i also advocate using an approachthat neenan and Dryden (2002) refer to as atwo-pronged attack: focusing on theemotional aspects of procrastination beforedealing with the problem-solving or practicalaspects. the emotional aspects are dealt withusing CBC and the practical aspects involvedeveloping self-regulation strategies that arematched to the particular low task likeabilitypatterns of the coachee.

the emotional reactions of procrastina-tors when faced with an academic assign-ment can range from mild frustration tomore serious anxieties. if task avoidance is

driven by the need to restore immediate feel-ings of pleasure or comfort, then this act issimultaneously preventing the individualfrom confronting the internal processes thattake place when those negative reactionsoccur. therefore, CBC serves to bring thecoachee directly to the moment when nega-tive thoughts and feelings occur so as todeliberately explore this discomfort phaseand bring awareness to it. the aBCDeapproach (ellis, 1997) is one method fordealing with relationships between beliefs,emotions and behaviour (neenan, 2008). a different model that i often use is thespaCe model (edgerton & palmer, 2005).this is a bio-psycho-social interactive systemsmodel dealing with interactions of socialContext, physiology, action, Cognition andemotion. spaCe is a tool to enable coacheesto imagine a typical or previous situation thatleads them to procrastinate (for example,being given an assignment to do) and thenencourages them to examine their thoughts,feelings, actions, bodily reactions and socialcontext in response to this situation.

in table 1, academic procrastination isdivided into the four areas of low task like-ability previously discussed. the coach canbegin by presenting this task likeabilitymodel as a psycho-educative process ofdemonstrating to the coachee that peopleprocrastinate to avoid unpleasant experi-ences, and that any combination of the fourfactors may be involved. some students maybe driven to procrastinate through a combi-nation of these factors. However, the benefitof teasing them apart is that each can beidentified and dealt with separately within acoaching context.

this rest of the paper addresses some ofthe ways that a coach could raise studentcoachees’ self-awareness and facilitate themin developing self-regulation strategies forhandling each of their low likeability areas.the particular tools chosen will depend onthe perspective and experience of the coachand thus, they serve as guidelines for coachesto consider when targeting each of the areasin a structured way.



Enjoyment: Addressing Intrinsic motivationif it is revealed that coachees are avoidingundertaking academic assignments becausethey are perceived as boring, uninterestingor too labour intensive, they can be helpedto improve their tolerance of those academictasks and to develop ways of making themmore rewarding.

in improving tolerance, they can beencouraged to reframe their negative beliefsinto more constructive ones in order toreduce or eliminate emotional reactions offrustration, irritability or anger. automaticnegative thoughts such as all-or-nonethinking (i always hate these exercises so i will hate this one), low frustration toler-ance (i cannot be bothered to do this now)or catastrophic thinking (i cannot bear to dothis now) need to be realised and chal-lenged. the coachee can then be assisted inbrainstorming and practising more construc-tive thoughts such as ‘i do not like doing thiswork but it is important and i will feel muchbetter when i get it finished.’

the coach can assess a coachee’s level ofautonomy towards doing an academic taskby asking, ‘What are your reasons for doingthis course/assignment?’ the coach can use

further questioning to reveal unhelpfulextrinsic motivational thoughts that areperpetuating coachees’ avoidance patterns,such as, ‘i have to do this as part of thecourse’. Deci and ryan (2000) have recog-nised different levels of extrinsic motivationand for tasks that simply are not enjoyable intheir own right, one can aim for ‘identifiedmotivation’. thoughts such as ‘i choose tostudy because it is important to me’, areidentified motivational thoughts.

research has shown that providing ratio-nales for doing a seemingly uninterestingactivity, such as a statistics assignment,increases engagement and learning instudents for those tasks (Jang, 2008). thiscould be encouraged in a coaching contextby asking the coachee to write a list of poten-tially useful skills that a particular academicassignment can provide for them in theirpersonal and future professional lives.

another approach is to help coacheesbrainstorm ways of making assignmentsmore interesting or enjoyable by focusing ontheir existing strengths and interests. forexample, further questioning could revealthat aversion to writing an essay may bemostly due to a dislike of spending time



Table 1: A ‘likeability’ model for self-regulation coaching in managing academic procrastination.

Task Self-regulation Coaching using CBC and self-regulation likeability shortcomings strategies

Enjoyment Intrinsic/Extrinsic motivation l Increase tolerance of tasksl Increasing intrinsic motivation for doing

the tasks

Consequence Performance evaluation l Reduce performance anxieties (realistic and anxieties self-compassionate thinking)

l Raise awareness of discrepancies between current and future states

Ability Low self-efficacy of l Increase mastery through: performance Planning/organisation strategies;

Energy cycle regulation strategies

Competition Weak attentional control l Time awareness and managementof distracters l Strategies for minimising processing of

distracter cues

sitting in a library or office. perhaps this indi-vidual could think about planning her studyroutine in ways that are more in tune withher natural preferences, for example,cycling to the park to read a journal articleoutdoors or audio-recording her ideasbefore writing them to reduce the overallperiod of writing. visual-spatial thinkerscould be helped to use non-verbalapproaches to planning assignments such asmind mapping (Buzan and Buzan, 1996).

Consequence cognitions: Managing performanceevaluation anxietiesfor the performance-avoidant student who isoverly concerned with being evaluated, theyare likely to have an aversion to doing tasksthat get graded. they will show performanceanxiety that is tied to ruminating thoughtsabout the social consequences of failing(everyone will think i am a failure), self-critical judgements for being less thanperfect (if i do not get a first grade, i amuseless) and/or beliefs about not being ableto cope with the consequences (if i pass thistest, i will be expected to pass the harderone). the initial aim here is to helpcoachees become aware of how their exag-gerated negative appraisal is influencingtheir anxiety levels, health and overallperformance. the self-regulatory goals willinvolve developing more realistic ways ofthinking about their assignments.

the spaCe model (edgerton & palmer,2005) is particularly useful with this kind ofprocrastinating student because it can beused to compare what a person is thinking,feeling and doing when they imagine a dead-line that is a long way off compared withtheir reactions when the deadline becomesimminent. it can also be a good idea toconduct a few models with the coachee toidentify the changes in his/her reactionsover different points in time between anassignment being set and the deadline.raising awareness of how patterns changeover time can be very revealing. forexample, they can see how deadline distantthoughts lead to procrastination behaviour,

whereas deadline imminent catastrophicbeliefs, such as ‘i can’t stand it, as this has tobe finished today’, elevate anxiety levels andthe tendency to cram in poor quality work.Coachees can also become aware of how thispattern is affecting their health by noticingchanges in their body. perhaps deadlinedistant reactions lead to ‘butterflies’ in thestomach, whereas close to deadline reactionslead to more serious physical effects such asheadaches, stomach cramps and poorsleeping patterns.

socratic questions are recommendedhere to provoke insightful thinking to helpthe coachee move forward. they encouragecoachees to question the rationality, evidenceand utility of their negative beliefs. examplesare, ‘How does failing this exam make you acomplete failure?’ ‘Might you be exagger-ating the importance of your concerns?’ or‘is your belief helping you achieve yourgoals?’ the homework for this student wouldbe to practise using more constructivethoughts in various contexts where they areprone to being performance-avoidant.

recent research is pointing to the rela-tionship between procrastination and self-compassion (sirois, 2013). therefore, thiscoachee could benefit from practisingcoaching tools for developing self-accept-ance (palmer, 1997) and learning to appre-ciate a more realistic view of pursuingexcellence over perfection. practising Mind-fulness could also be a way that coachees maybe shown to increase their levels of self-compassion (Birnie, speca & Carlson, 2010).Mindfulness can also be important forlowering stress (Brown & ryan, 2003) andpermits non-judgmental awareness ofdiscrepancies between current and desiredfuture states that can increase persistence(evans, Baer & segerstrom, 2009).

Ability: Increasing self-efficacy student coachees may express variousemotions if they lack confidence in theirability to complete assignments: they may befrustrated, angry and/or fearful. again,exploring the cognitions, particularly those



relating to judgments they have about them-selves, should clarify the reasons for low self-efficacy beliefs leading to procrastinationtendencies. Coaching strategies can then beselected that focus on those areas that areproviding obstacles to feeling competentabout a task. the aim is to increase thecoachee’s sense of mastery (Bandura, 1997)through identifying efficacy concerns andguiding them to handle those particularobstacles as action plans. setting ‘implemen-tation intentions’: goals that specify when,where and how the task is to be performed,have been shown to reduce procrastination(owens, Bowman & Dill, 2008); and low self-efficacy procrastinators are likely to makeimportant mastery gains from usingcoaching tools that encourage this.

Lacking self-efficacy for this coacheecould be related to poor planning andorganisational abilities. people will procrasti-nate less if they are thinking about difficulttasks on a more specific and concrete level(McCrea et al., 2008). Breaking a large taskdown into manageable sub-goals is shown toincrease mastery by providing incrementalgoals that can be achieved (Bandura &schunk, 1981). procrastination has beenshown to reduce when an academic task issub-divided into a number of specific prox-imal goals, such as the daily writing of goalsor regular quizzes (tuckman, 1998; Wesp,1986).

if the student expresses study detach-ment thoughts along with signs of beingoverly stressed and exhausted, the coach canexplore whether overwhelming feelings ofan inability to cope with workload are poten-tiating his/her problems. it is useful in thissituation to steer the coaching dialogue toraise awareness of how time is being spent,and to realistically estimate the most effi-cient ways of spending it. Questions to beasked here are ‘What time of day are youmore alert?’ and ‘Which tasks can you leaveto times of the day when you are not at yourbest?’ some research has shown that procras-tination relates to circadian rhythms, withlate evening owls being more vulnerable

than early rising larks (Hess, sherman &Goodman, 2000). a useful homework tool isto track performance graphically from plusfive to minus five every hour over the courseof a day to identify one’s energy cycle(Hindle, 1998). the aim here is to examinehow the student’s typical dietary, andpossibly exercise routine fits with energylevels across a typical day? any negative signs,such as energy dips after eating a heavylunch, for example, could be action plannedinto experimenting with changes in dietand/or mealtimes. Does the studentcoachee prefer to work for long periods ofuninterrupted concentration or does s/heprefer regular tea breaks and shorter burstsof study? the role of the coach here is tofacilitate coachees in recognising whichpatterns are peculiar to them for planningwork timetables to complement their ownnatural tendencies, whilst also recognisingways of changing certain unhelpful dailyhabits to optimise the resources they cangive to their studies.

ultimately, for students facing multipledemands on their time, the toughest chal-lenge may be to select which activities reallydo have to change. Can the student expectto achieve a good degree whilst committinglong hours to travelling and/or taking on ademanding job of work? What are the possi-bilities for converting to part-time or othermore flexible modes of study? Can thestudent consider moving home, or transfer-ring to a different university? these sorts ofquestions can be addressed for the procrasti-nator who believes that they are unable tocope with university life even after strategieshave been implemented to make more efficient use of their energy cycle.

Competing tasks: Minimise distractibility if getting distracted by more enticing activi-ties is a key problem, the emotional reactionhere is likely to be the relative pleasuregained from choosing the distractingpastime over doing the academic task. CBCcan be used to enable coachees to see thedifference between their reactions when




Author name

imagining carrying out their usual distrac-tion activities (for example, talking tofriends, online gaming) versus their reac-tions to imagining having to do the assign-ment instead. this can be useful for raisingawareness, particularly for the impulsiveprocrastinator who is just doing thingswithout giving much thought as to thereasons for those behaviours.

neenan (2008) discusses the ‘discomfortdisturbance’ beliefs of procrastinators whoare ‘dreamers’. typical beliefs here are, ‘i shouldn’t have to work hard to fulfill mydreams’. therefore, if the coachee expressesreactionary emotions to the thought ofbeing made to undertake the task, they canbe shown how angry thoughts are interferingwith their ability to shun distractions.

in one study, procrastination was foundto be negatively related to the use of timemanagement strategies, conceptualised asthe setting of goals and priorities (Lay &schouwenburg, 1993). therefore, distractedprocrastinators may benefit greatly fromcompleting a weekly (or longer) time-log ashomework, in order to capture a detailedunderstanding of how their time is beingspent. one might expect an impulsiveprocrastinator to be wasting time on thingsthat are more accessible and pleasurable todo rather than getting on with the academicassignment.

to minimise distraction, coaching cansupport new strategies so that the individualeither fails to encode competing cues orlimits their processing so that they are notfully valued. Coaching dialogue canencourage coachees to identify thedistracting cues diverting them and to brain-storm ways of minimising and/or replacingthem. an easily distracted student can behelped to create a ‘work space’ thatdecreases the cues for distraction: to put thetelephone onto voicemail and to limitopening emails to twice a day, for example.Burka and Yuen (2008) call this ‘going on alow-information diet (p.226)’ and theyprovide good advice for questioning whethera person really needs to check their ‘e-

clutter’, such as emails and news reportsseveral times daily.

it is likely that students who are suscep-tible to distraction will also need to committhemselves to a reasonable degree of disci-pline. However, coaching goals are bestaimed at reshuffling and prioritising socialengagements and events rather thancancelling them altogether. ‘relatedness’has been recognised as a basic psychologicalneed (Deci & ryan, 2000). in fact, daily fluc-tuations in emotional well-being areaccounted for by levels of satisfaction withactivities that involve feeling understood andappreciated, having meaningful conversa-tions, hanging out with others and doing funthings with them (reis et al., 2000). thecoachee can search for ways of finding abalance between making time for academicstudy and time for doing those valuablesocial activities that allow the individual toenjoy a fulfilling and happy life.

Conclusionone procrastination writer made the claimthat ‘procrastination is the college student’seternal bedfellow’ (Greenberg, 2010, p.79).the current paper discusses how the under-lying processes that potentiate procrastina-tion behaviour can be both recognised andalleviated through self-regulation coaching.a self-regulation coaching framework is anefficient way to address the four kinds of rashtask likeability decisions that lead a person tohabitually put things off. it allows a personalpattern to be both recognised and targetedin the goal of procrastination management.

persisting with changes to a moodchanging habit such as procrastination islikely to require considerable willpower.therefore, it is important that coachees arehelped to establish a long-term mindsetbefore they walk away. Dryden (2000, citedin neenan, 2008) provides examples of howa coach can support the coachee in devel-oping an anti-procrastination outlook thatenables lasting improvements once coachinggoals have been achieved.

Ceri M.Sims

Whilst scientific literature on procrastina-tion has informed the formulation of thefour-factor task likeability model discussed inthis paper (enjoyment, Consequence,ability, Competition), it would be useful tohave further evidence that these factors,either alone or in various combinations,account for all examples of ineffectualprocrastination behaviour. Moreover,evidence to support the efficacy of this self-regulation coaching approach for alleviatingacademic procrastination would help build amore solid foundation of its validity.

the self-regulation coaching modelcould be used to improve employee produc-tivity or other kinds of important goals thatpeople tend to postpone until it is too late,such as planning for retirement. However,this paper focuses on the widespreadproblem of academic procrastination. if itsuccessfully helps a diversity of students toexperience the benefits of proactive studyingand persistence during those importantyears that are spent in education, such anintervention could prove to be invaluable.

CorrespondenceDr Ceri M. Sims, CPsycholBuckinghamshire new university,faculty of society and Health,High Wycombe Campus,Queen alexandra road,High Wycombe,Buckinghamshire Hp11 2JZ.email: [email protected]


Self-regulation coaching to alleviate student procrastination

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CoaCH coaches a bank director.the bank director suspects that hiscolleague, who is a close friend, is

seriously cheating. together with the coachthe bank director wants to find a way how toconfront his friend with this suspicion.Different options are discussed as the mobiletelephone of the bank director is ringing.the friend has committed suicide with a gunsome moments ago. the bank directorbreaks down and starts to cry. the coachdescribes his feelings in this situation asfollows: ‘for a long moment i feel stuck withmy habitual role identity as an executivecoach: to know better than my coachees howto effectively cope with difficult situations.We have a new situation. and a differentquestion: How to effectively cope with thistragedy?’ (de Haan, 2008, p.118). surely, not

only the coachee had to cope with thistragedy but also the coach. the situationwith a crying coachee full of shame anddespair may strain the coach and result infurther problems (e.g. increased work stress,or emotional exhaustion). the coach thushas experienced negative effects as a resultof his work as a coach.

Business coaching is a special consulta-tion process between a coach and a coacheeto deal with work-related issues (feldman &Lankau; Greif, 2007). it ‘is a cross-discipli-nary methodology for fostering individualand organisational change’ (Grant, 2006,p.13). the idea of self-directed learning andcollaborative goal-setting are part of manydefinitions and coaching is an outcome-focused activity in the absence of seriouspsychological disorders of the client (Grant,

Paper

Negative effects of coaching for coaches:An explorative studyCarsten C. Schermuly

Objectives: There exists only scarce knowledge regarding what negative effects can occur to business coachesas a result of their work. Negative effects, defined as all harmful or unwanted results for coaches directlycaused by coaching that occur parallel to or following coaching, are theoretically inferred in this study.Additionally, negative effects are quantitatively explored and validated. Design: Negative effects of coaching for coaches were identified via structured expert interviews. Based onthe results of the interviews a new questionnaire was developed. Coaches were then surveyed online using thisquestionnaire. A sample of supervisors was also surveyed and compared to the coaches regarding importantwork-related variables.Methods: 104 German coaches were quantitively surveyed using a new questionnaire regarding the frequencyand intensity of negative effects in their most recent coaching and in their career. To validate the newquestionnaire and the results, relevant cognitions towards their work (psychological empowerment) and theaffective well-being of the coaches were also measured.Results: In more than 90 per cent of all recent coaching at least one negative effect was present. On average5.9 negative effects occurred per coaching. During their careers 99 per cent of the coaches were confronted atleast once with a negative effect. Negative effects are associated with the psychological empowerment andaffective well-being of coaches, which speaks for the validity of the new questionnaire and subsequent results.Conclusions: Negative effects for coaches as a result of their work occur very often and in a heterogeneous waybut these effects are of rather low intensity. The validity of these effects could be shown.

A

2006). similar to the job of psychotherapists,coaches have intense interpersonal contactto their coachees. they have to connectpersonally and care for their coachees. theyshould be open, honest and good listeners(passmore & Gibbes, 2007) and must controltheir emotions. in numerous studies (e.g.Baron & Morin, 2009, or o’Broin & palmer,2010), it was emphasised and shown that therelationship quality between coach andcoachee is an important predictor forcoaching success. Coaches are primarilyresponsible for the development of afavourable and professional working rela-tionship and adequate non-verbal behaviouris required from coaches to establish it(ianiro, schermuly & Kauffeld, 2013). thejob of a coach goes consequently along withhigh socio-emotional demands. socio-emotional demands in a relationshipbetween a professional and a client canresult in negative effects like emotionalexhaustion, cynicism and reduced accom-plishment (Maslach & Jackson, 1981).

there are a lot of studies dealing withnegative effects of psychotherapy for psycho-therapists. negative effects of coaching forcoachees have also recently been systemati-cally investigated (see schermuly et al.,2014). twenty-eight different negativeeffects for coachees such as the triggering ofin-depth problems that could not be dealtwith within the coaching, unwanted modifi-cation of coaching goals without coacheeapproval or experiencing a decreased senseof meaning towards work occurred inapproximately 60 per cent of businesscoaching for coachees but the intensity andduration of these effects are rather small(schermuly et al., 2014). similar studies andresults for coaches are not yet available,although such knowledge is needed in orderto train coaches and support them duringtheir work through supervision or formaland informal peer consulting.

this is why negative effects of coachingfor business-coaches are explored in thisstudy. negative effects are defined and theirpotential existence theoretically inferred.

the number and intensity of negative effectsare then quantitatively investigated using anew online questionnaire in a Germansample. this is done in an explorative way asto the knowledge of the author there existno systematic empirical results regardingnegative effects of coaching for coaches. thevalidity of the collected negative effects isthen explored. validity refers to the ‘degreeto which empirical evidence and theoreticalrationales support the adequacy and appro-priateness of interpretations and actionsbased on test scores or other modes of assess-ment ‘(Messick, 1990, p.1). the occurrenceof negative effects should be compared withexternal variables (criterions) collected atthe same time (concurrent validity): therelationships between the perceived negativeeffects and central cognitions towards work(psychological empowerment, spreitzer,1995) and the affective well-being (emo-tional exhaustion and perceived stress) ofcoaches are analysed. finally, work-relatedcognitions and affective well-being of thosebusiness coaches surveyed are comparedwith a sample of supervisors to better under-stand whether coaches experience morepositive or negative attitudes towards theirwork than their potential clients.

Definition of negative coaching effectsfor coachesschermuly et al. (2014, p.19) define negativecoaching effects for coachees as ‘all harmfulor unwanted results for coachees directlycaused by coaching that occur parallel to orafter coaching’. the roots of this definitionlie in the medical sciences namely in thedefinition of adverse drug reactions. threeelements are important in this definitionand transferable to a definition for negativeeffects of coaching for coaches: the effectsare unwanted, harmful, and there is a directconnection to a coaching process. unwantedimplies that a coach did not induce theeffect voluntarily. for example, coaches canvoluntarily pass on their fees (for example,the coachee is a long-term client with tempo-rary financial problems). the voluntary


Author nameCarsten C. Schermuly

renouncement would not be a negativeeffect. But if the coachees refuse to pay thefees without consent of the coach this wouldbe counted as a negative effect. Harmfulmeans that damage has to occur for thecoach. When coaches perceive a certainamount of stress in a coaching but experi-ence this situation as positively stimulatingthis is not a negative effect. However, itwould be a negative effect if the coach wasnegatively stressed because the coacheeattempts to change the coaching topicseveral times in one session. finally, theremust be a direct connection between thework as a coach and the occurrence of thenegative effect. a coach can feel emotionallyexhausted parallel to or following a coachingbut that must not necessarily be provoked bythe conducted coaching. He/she may, forexample, be in the middle of a challengingdivorce causing the emotional exhaustion.another such situation may present if stressis provoked by a difficult coaching processwith an unmotivated coachee.

all three conditions have to be fulfilledto determine an effect to be negative. there-fore, negative effects of coaching for a coachare defined here as all harmful or unwantedresults for coaches directly caused bycoaching that occur parallel to or followingcoaching. this definition is clearly concen-trated on the coach. negative effects for thecoachee due to coaching (e.g. a reducedwork motivation), for the organisation (e.g.the layoff of an employee after the coachingprocess) or for the social system of the coach(e.g. the spouse but not the coach is sadbecause he/she works a lot) are not coveredby this definition.

Arguments speaking for negative effectsof coaching for coachesthe social exchange theory (set) is one ofthe most influential theories to understandworkplace behaviour (Cropanzano &Mitchell, 2005). set postulates that peoplein close relationships exchange resourcessuch as services, goods, money, love/emotional support, information/advice, and

status (see foa & foa, 1980, for the descrip-tion of the six basic resource classes). theexchange of these resources is seen as a bidi-rectional transaction. the actions of oneinteraction partner are interdependent andcontingent on the actions of the other(Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). Coaching isa dyadic exchange relationship and bothinteraction partners have different desiredresources to give. Hence, not only coachesbut also coachees are provided withresources and, therefore, with power.Coaches offer a service and sometimesimportant information/advice as well asemotional support for their coachees. inreturn, the coaches receive money but alsostatus and sometimes love (appreciation andadmiration) from their coachees. accordingto set, high quality relationships do notoccur automatically and regularly (Cropan-zano & Mitchell, 2005) and not everyexchange relationship is fair, which existsonly when profits (rewards minus costs) ofthe interaction partners are equal (Cook &rice, 2006). set does not pathologise nega-tive effects in close interpersonal relation-ships but identifies them as both normal andintegral parts of these relationships (eby etal., 2004). positive and negative conse-quences lie within one dimension andpeople aim to experience many positive andfew negative effects in interactions with theirsocial partners (Homans, 1961). in light ofthese categories of social exchange theory,various negative effects of coaching forcoaches are imaginable.

as illustrated in the introduction, thecoaching job goes along with high socio-emotional demands and services. a socio-emotional service pressures providers to usetheir short resources leading to a downwardspiral of energy loss (Wilk & Moynihan,2005). in a German sample, 30 per cent ofpsychotherapists with a psychological back-ground and 50 per cent of psychotherapistswith a medical background reported thattheir job had negative consequences on theirhealth (reimer et al., 2005). americanpsychological psychotherapists experience


TitleNegative effects of coaching for coaches: An explorative study

significantly more emotional exhaustion,anxiety, and depression than psychologicalresearchers (radeke & Mahoney, 2000). in ameta-analysis (Lee et al., 2011), americanprofessionals offering counseling andpsychotherapy services were analysedregarding experienced burnout. especiallythose counsellors and psychotherapists witha high job involvement were at risk of expe-riencing high emotional exhaustion. it isthus conceivable that coaches might alsoexperience too much socio-emotionalinvolvement in their service resulting inemotional exhaustion or stress as anunwanted and harmful effect directly causedby the coaching.

the category of money is also a concern.according to set, repayment or reciprocityis one of the most important exchange rulesand a universal principle (Cropanzano &Mitchell, 2005). Distributive injustice hassevere consequences for both the perform-ance and attitudes of employees (Whitmanet al., 2012). nonetheless, there are indi-vidual differences in the handling andsubjective interpretation of this rule ofexchange (Murstein et al., 1977). Coachescan deliver their services but the coachee orcoachees’ organisation does not repay thecoach and the coachee thus refuses to paythe coaching fee. the coach is thus notcompensated for his/her work.

negative effects are also imaginablewithin the resource class of love. in closerelationships between coach and coach therisk for stalking behaviour is higher.psychotherapists, psychologist, and psychia-trists are over-represented in statisticsregarding victims of stalking behaviour. in the study by Krammer et al. (2007) nearly40 per cent of the 117 austrian participantsfrom these occupation groups had experi-enced stalking behaviour from clients. notonly the coachee but also the coach candevelop too much affection towards a client,which can either over the short-term or long-term develop into an unwanted and harmfulsituation for the coach. a shift towards the opposite pole of the love dimension

(hostility) can also be true. eby andMcMagnus (2004) show that 70 per cent oftheir surveyed mentors reported negativeexperience with their protégés. 15.1 per centof these experiences fit within the categoryof ‘dysfunctional relationship experience’.examples were exploitative or ego-centricprotégé behaviours on the part of theprotégé as well as malevolent deception,sabotage, or harassment towards the mentor.there are also examples within the coachingdomain. freedman and perry (2010) reportin a case study of a coaching in which thecoaching was non-voluntary and the coacheewas very skeptical. skepticism can lead toopen hostility. for example, Kilburg (2002,pp.283–286) describes a case, in which acoachee provokes (‘i want to know whether i should ever talk to you again’) and threats(‘You do that, but if i find out that you didtalk to nathan, you can forget the wholething’) the coach resulting in feelings ofanxiety on the part of the coach.

the status resource category could alsobe concerned. Kilburg (2002) refers to thisin a book chapter on failure and negativeoutcomes of coaching for coachees. Hereports effects such as career derailment,financial losses and poor mental health anddescribes a meeting with very experiencedcoaches. one coach confessed that ‘healways felt a certain sense of terror and fearof failure when he walked into a clientorganisation’ (Kilburg, 2002, p.288). in aGerman sample (schermuly et al., 2014),coaches perceived 28 different negativeeffects for coachees as a result of their work.Coaching failure can possibly jeopardise thestatus of coaches. as already described,coachees have access to different ressourcesand are not powerless. Coachees are ‘oftenpersonally and organisationally powerful…failure may mean an end to consultationcontracts, diminished professional reputa-tions, and adverse emotional and physicalreactions’ (Kilburg, 2002, p.288). the repu-tation in the community of costumers (e.g.the coach is not recommended) but also theone of other coaches (e.g. the coach that



takes over the coachee) can be derogated aswell as the status coaches attribute to them-selves may decrease as a result of coachingfailure. this internal status can be identifiedas the coach’s self-efficacy, which is the beliefof a person in their own capabilities toexecute actions to reach a desired outcome(Bandura, 1997). again for psychotherapiststhere is knowledge that the intense interper-sonal contact to clients is especiallydemanding without the compensation ofsuccess (Lee et al., 2011).

Aims of the study1. Identification and quantification of negativeeffects of business coaching for coachesaccording to set, negative effects areregular attributes of close interpersonal rela-tionships. as described above, differentnegative effects in different resource classesare conceivable. the first aim of this study isto identify and quantify negative effects ofbusiness-coaching for coaches. it should beclarified how often they occur and howintense they may be on average in onecoaching but also in the overall career ofcoaches in general.

2. Testing the validity of the explored negative effectsthe second aim is to analyse the validity ofthe explored negative effects. the percep-tion of negative effects in the work-contextfor jobholders should relate to central cogni-tions of the jobholders towards their workand well-being. spreitzer (1995) has concep-tualised the psychological empowermentconstruct with four work-related cognitions:Competence, meaning, self-determination,and impact. according to spreitzer (1995),competence is defined as the self-efficacy toperform a job well. Meaning is the experi-ence that the job position and its goalspossess a personal value. self-determinationrefers to the freedom or choice of an indi-vidual to initiate and execute job relatedtasks. impact is the experienced influenceon strategic, administrative or operative joboutcomes (spreitzer, 1995). in a meta-

analysis, substantial relationships betweenpsychological empowerment and importantwork-related variables could be inferred(seibert, Wang & Courtright, 2011). if theexplored negative effects do indeed matterthen it would be expected that they result inless psychological empowerment.

Warr (1994) identifies affective well-being as one of the core elements of mentalhealth. this is why emotional exhaustionand perceived stress are also measured inthis study to validate the negative effects.emotional exhaustion constitutes theburnout facet, which is most widely analysedand reported (Maslach & Leiter, 2008).emotional exhaustion is seen as a related butdifferent variable to stress (pakenham &stafford‐Brown, 2012). perceived stress is thecognitive interpretation of ‘objective’stressful events and thus a function ofdifferent factors such as the stressful eventbut also coping appraisals, coping strategiesand coping resources (Cohen, Kamarck &Mermelstein, 1983; pakenham & stafford-Brown, 2012). if the negative effects doindeed matter then they should be relatedwith emotional exhaustion and perceivedstress. Coaches confronted with significantnegative effects would be expected to expe-rience greater emotional exhaustion as wellas higher levels of stress.

3. Comparing business coaches with supervisorsthe third aim is to compare the empower-ment and the affective well-being of coacheswith another group of jobholders. supervi-sors were selected as the reference groupbecause, like coaches, they generally have ahigher age, a higher education level as well as a higher job level than ‘typical’employees. furthermore, it is important tocompare both groups because supervisorsare the primarily client group for businesscoaches. if coaches experience less psycho-logical empowerment or well-being thantheir clients, this could be problematic forthe coaching process. Coaches could loosetheir credibility if they feel less competent intheir job than their clients (or if they expe-



rience their work as less meaningful). forexample, there exists a relationship betweenhow employees perceive their supervisorsand their own empowerment (schermuly,Kikull & Kauffeld, 2012). the less empow-ered a supervisor is perceived the lessempowered the employee feels. the samemodel could be true for the relationshipbetween coaches and clients. furthermore,it may be difficult for coaches, who experi-ence greater stress and emotional exhaus-tion, to help their clients feel differently.this difference should be tested non-direc-tionally because individuals with high-leveljob positions possess greater protectiveresources (increased autonomy, greaterschedule control, less routine tasks) but alsoa greater number of stressors (more inter-personal conflicts, increased interferencebetween work and home) (schieman &reid, 2009).

MethodIdentification of negative effects and developmentof the instrumentas a result of the limited current state of theresearch, structured expert interviews wereconducted to identify negative effects ofcoaching for coaches. seventy Germanexperts were contacted and 20 coachesparticipated. on average, coaches were 51.5-years-old (SD=6.4) and had 13.4 years of jobexperience as a coach (SD=6.1). they spent48.3 per cent (SD=23.2) of their working timeon coaching. on average, the coaches hadconducted more than 600 coaching in theircareer. a structured interview was conductedvia telephone. Demographic information wasinitially collected. then the definition ofnegative effects was presented and coacheswere asked, which negative effects can resultdue to a coaching for the coach and whatcauses they see for the aforementioned nega-tive effects. seventeen different negativeeffects were specified by the experts andcould be integrated in the questionnaire(schermuly & Bohnardt, 2014).

in order to create a broad measure ofnegative effects, a review of the literature was

also conducted. De Haan (2008) reports thata coach can feel ‘unsettled by sexualadvances from the coachee’ (p.125) orbored by the coaching (‘the situation is notexciting enough for me’ p.126). furthermentioned negative effects are anxietyregarding the coach’s own role as a coach,pressure because of too much responsibilityor because of high expectations of the sideof the coachee. as already described, psycho-therapists, psychologist, and psychiatrists areoverrepresented in the group of stalkingvictims. therefore, stalking was also inte-grated in the questionnaire. such negativeevents can, however, also manifest in theopposite direction. a coach can fall in lovewith, or feel sexually attracted to, a coachee.furthermore, threats and insults asdescribed in the case from Kilburg (2002) aswell as the reaction (anger) towards aprovoking coachee were included. all nega-tive effects are listed in table 1.

Main studyCoach sample. six-hundred-and-fifty coacheswere invited to participate in the study. theywere contacted via two channels: Wecontacted professional business coaches whoprovided their contact details on a website forpotential coachees (www.coach-datenbank.de) and coaches who offer explicitbusiness coaching services in a social networkfor professionals in Germany (http://www.xing.de). finally, 104 German coachesparticipated. on average the 104 coacheswere 51.4-years-old (SD=7.9) and had 11.2years work experience as a coach (SD=6.9).fifty-six per cent were female. they spent 36.1per cent (SD=24.6) of their working time oncoaching. on average, the coaches hadconducted more than 390 coaching over thecourse of their career. 12.5 per cent of thecoaches had a phD, 73.1 per cent held auniversity degree, 6.7 per cent had a univer-sity entrance diploma, and 7.7 per cent grad-uated from a school without qualifying foruniversity. from the 104 coaches 87.5 per centhad completed an additional special coachingcertification programme.





Table 1: Negative effects of coaching for coaches.

During the coaching… Last coaching Career

% M SD % M SD

I was disappointed that I could not observe the long-terminfluences of the coaching

45.2 1.57 0.74 77.9 1.7 0.75

I was personally affected by the topics discussed during the coaching (those topics discussed had a direct relation to aspects of my own life that I find problematic or have

44.2 1.59 0.88 78.8 1.46 0.57

found to be problematic in the past)

I was scared that I would not fulfil my role as coach 40.4 1.26 0.67 71.2 1.38 0.61

I felt insecure 38.5 1.18 0.45 80.8 1.54 0.59

I was frustrated that the problems the coachee was facing could not be resolved

36.5 1.34 0.63 70.2 1.29 0.49

I felt underpaid 36.5 1.53 0.80 69.3 1.63 0.76

I found it difficult to be an effective communicator (e.g. active listening)

35.6 1.43 0.73 62.5 1.42 0.61

I felt under pressure as a result of high expectations 29.8 1.42 0.67 68.3 1.41 0.60

I was scared to do something wrong 28.8 1.43 0.86 71.2 1.38 0.61

I felt emotionally exhausted 26,9 1,29 0,6 74 1,45 0,60

I was disappointed that the coaching was ineffective 23.1 1.33 0.64 68.3 1.25 0.47

I felt a sense of guilt that I had not done enough for the coachee

23.1 1.58 0.83 60.6 1.4 0.69

I experienced anger towards the coachee 20.2 1.43 0.75 73.1 1.22 0.51

I felt stressed 20.2 1.33 0.73 61.5 1.28 0.45

I felt too much responsibility towards the coachee 19.2 1.35 0.59 55.8 1.33 0.54

I found it difficult to maintain personal boundaries with the coachee

17.3 1.5 0.99 43.3 1.27 0.54

I felt burdened by the extraordinary topics discussed during the coaching

15.4 1.44 0.89 48.1 1.24 0.43

I found it difficult to refrain from thinking about those topics discussed during coaching in my private life

15.4 1.5 0.82 44.2 1.24 0.52

As a result of the coaching process I had too little time for myself or my family

14.4 1.47 0.52 44.2 1.39 0.65

I felt bored 12.5 1.54 0.78 59.6 1.27 0.49

Following the coaching sessions I found it difficult to open up to those important to me

10.6 1.91 1.22 23.1 1.38 0.65

I felt overchallenged 10.4 1.45 0.93 64.4 1.3 0.52

I felt lonely 7.7 1.63 0.74 21.2 1.45 0.60

Those services provided were inappropriately or not compensated

6.7 1.14 0.38 26 1.11 0.42

I felt sexually attracted to the coachee 6.7 1.71 1.25 19.2 1.15 0.49

I felt feelings of love towards the coachee 3.8 1 0 6.7 1.14 0.38

The coachee made sexual advances on me 1.9 1 0 14.4 1 0

The coachee insulted me 1 2 0 9.6 1.2 0.42

The coachee stalked me 1 2 0 2.9 2 1.73

The coachee threatened me 1 2 0 1.9 2 1.41

Coachees. the coaches evaluated their lastcoaching session lasting for more than threehours with respect to occurrence of negativeeffects. at the time of the coaching the 104coachees were 41.8-years-old (SD=7.7) onaverage and 48.1 per cent were female.

Supervisor sample. the supervisor samplewas part of a yearly conducted survey ofGerman employees at the university of theauthor (total sample size: 592 employees).ninety-two supervisors participated in thestudy from which 28.3 per cent were female.on average the supervisors were 43.7-years-old (SD=11.4) and had 14.7 years work expe-rience (SD=10.7). 10.9 per cent of theparticipants had a phD, 55.5 per cent had auniversity degree, 12 per cent had a univer-sity entrance diploma, and 21.7 per centgraduated from a school without qualifyingfor university. they came from differentindustry sectors such as consulting, bankingand insurance, manufacturing, crafts andtrade, retail, tourism, transport and logistics,the health sector, the public sector and otherareas.

Procedure the coaches completed an online question-naire. first, they were asked to providedemographic information. second, they hadto respond to the following items: ‘if i hadthe chance to choose my job again i wouldagain choose a career in coaching’ and‘When you are conducting a coaching howregularly do you use supervision’. on thefollowing page, they were requested toanswer questions in reference to their mostrecently terminated business coachinglasting for more than three hours. thisprocedure was advantageous becausecoaches could not freely select the coaching(e.g. an especially pleasant or unpleasantcoaching) and they evaluated a coachingwhich they remembered well. only coachinglasting for more than three hours wereincluded because many effects need time(for example, feelings of boredom orexhaustion) to come into existence. Before

the evaluation began, the definition of nega-tive effects was presented so that coachesknew well what sorts of events they were toevaluate. each negative effect was intro-duced using the same words (‘During thecoaching process…’), followed by thespecific negative effect (e.g. ‘i felt emotion-ally exhausted’ or ‘the client threatenedme’). a five-point Likert scale was used with0=strongly disagree; 1=somewhat agree;2=moderately agree; 3=strongly agree; and4=completely agree. on the next page, thecoaches had to refer their answers to theirentire career as a business coach. the samenegative effects were now introduced withthe following words: ‘During the coachingduring my career…’ again, a five-pointLikert scale was used but with other wording:0=never; 1=rarely; 2=occasionally; 3=fre-quently; and 4=very frequently. finally, theitems for psychological empowerment,emotional exhaustion, and perceived stresswere presented. the coaches had to referthe items regarding emotional exhaustionand perceived stress to experiences withinthe past month.

Measures and psychometric properties Number and intensity of negative effects.if coaches assigned a 1 (somewhat agree) orhigher to an effect regarding their lastcoaching the answer was interpreted asevidence for an existing negative effect. thesame was done when a coach evaluated anegative effect as at least rarely (1) emergingin their career. for each coach the numberof negative effects in the last coaching and inthe entire career was determined insumming up all effects which were evaluated≥1. the intensity of an effect was calculatedas the mean of the ratings ≥1 per effect.Cronbach’s alpha for all 30 negative effectswas .89 (last coaching) and .92 (career).

Psychological empowerment. psychologicalempowerment was measured with the 12-item scale developed by spreitzer (1995).this questionnaire measures each facet withthree items such as ‘the work i do is mean-





ingful to me’ (meaning), ‘i am confidentabout my ability to do my job’ (compe-tence), ‘i can decide on my own how to goabout doing my work’ (self-determination),or ‘i have a great deal of control over whathappens in my field of work’ (impact). itemswere presented with a seven-point Likert-scale from 1=strongly disagree to 7=stronglyagree. the reliability for the total empower-ment score was α=.90 in the coach sampleand α=.95 in the supervisor sample.

Emotional exhaustion. emotional exhaus-tion was measured with three items from theMaslach Burnout inventory (Maslach &Jackson, 1981/German adaption fromBarth, 1985): ‘i feel i am working too hardon my job’, ‘i feel burned out from mywork’, and ‘i feel emotionally drained frommy work’. agreement was indicated on ascale with five levels from 1=never to 5=veryoften. participants had to relate theiranswers to the last month (‘When youconsider the past month to what extent arethe following statements correct?’). Cron-bach’s alpha for the three items was .75(coach sample) and .91 (supervisor sample).

Perceived stress. perceived stress was meas-ured with a short version of the perceivedstress scale (pss-4; Cohen, Kamarck &Mermelstein, 1983). the pss-4 has shown itscriterion validity with relationships to vari-ables like perceived health status in the lastthree months and actual anxiety or depres-sion (Leung, Lam & Chan, 2010). the pss-4measures stress with four items (two positiveand two negative) such as ‘in the last month,how often have you felt that things weregoing your way?’, or ‘in the last month, howoften have you felt difficulties were piling up

so high that you could not overcome them?’.accordingly, the questions had to be relatedon the past month and were rated on thesame scale from 1=never to 5=very often inthe same manner as emotional exhaustion.Cronbach’s alpha for the four items was .66(coach sample) and .73 (supervisor sample).

Resultsthe first aim was to quantify the occurrenceof negative effects for coaches. in 94.2 percent of all recent coaching at least one nega-tive effect was present (evaluation ≥1).1

on average, 5.9 (SD=4.7; Mdn=5.0) negativeeffects occurred per coaching. over thecourse of their careers, 99 per cent of thecoaches were at least confronted with onenegative effect. on average 14.7 (SD=6.7;Mdn=15.0) different negative effectsoccurred. Details regarding the intensity ofthe effects are provided below. When a nega-tive effect occurred in a coaching the meanof the intensity lies exactly between the firstand second of the four (note again that allzeros are excluded) remaining scale levels(M=1.48; SD=.26; Mdn=1.45). the same istrue for the value regarding their career. itlies between rarely (1) and occasionally (2)(M=1.38; SD=.23; Mdn=1.36).

in table 1 all negative effects aredisplayed. in the first column, the frequen-cies of negative effects for the last coachingare displayed. in the second column, themeans of the intensity are shown and in thethird the standard deviations are provided.all 30 negative effects occurred in at leastone coaching. the highest frequency existedfor the disappointment of coaches that theycould not observe the long-term influencesof their work. in nearly 50 per cent of allcoaching this effect was perceived by

1 the last recently terminated coaching lasted 14.3 hours on average. the following topics were addressed duringthe coaching (multiple topics could be chosen): reflection on one’s own work role (50 per cent), help duringtimes of change (49 per cent), personality development (39.4 per cent), leadership style (36.5 per cent), careerdevelopment (36.5 per cent), self-esteem issues (26.9 per cent), personal motivation (23.1 per cent), conflictswith supervisors (20.2 per cent), taking up a leadership position (20.2 per cent), conflicts within work team(19.2 per cent), conflicts with co-workers (18.3 per cent), personal problems (14.4 per cent), coping with stress(13.5 per cent), performance optimisation (11.5 per cent), conflicts between co-workers (same hierarchy level)(11.5 per cent), time management (11.5 per cent), burnout prevention (11.5 per cent) and others.


Author name

coaches. the two other effects within the topthree negative effects were coaches beingpersonally affected by the topics of thecoaching and a fear that they would not fulfiltheir role as a coach during coaching. fourother effects, which occurred during acoaching, had a frequency of over 30 percent. During their last coaching, businesscoaches felt insecure, underpaid, frustratedabout coaching failure or found it difficult tobe an effective communicator. Based ontheir experience regarding their wholecareer the numbers are higher. insecurity,being personally affected, disappointmentregarding missing knowledge regardinglong-term consequences of coaching,anxiety to not adequately fulfil the coachrole and frustration regarding coachingfailure are again the most frequentlyperceived effects of coaching for coaches(>70 per cent). Compared with the occur-rence of negative effects in the last coaching,emotional exhaustion and the anger towardsthe coachee were especially higher.

negative effects with a low frequency percoaching (<5 per cent) were feelings of lovetowards the coachee, sexual advances fromthe coachee as well as insults, threats orstalking from the side of the coachee. the

same five effects are the ones with the lowestfrequency over the career duration. 14.4 percent of the coaches were, however,confronted at least once with a coacheemaking sexual advances. 9.6 per cent were atleast once insulted by a coachee. regardingintensity, those negative effects which rely onless than 10 evaluations per recent coachingprove difficult to interpret. from theremaining topics, difficulties opening up toimportant members in the social context(1.91) had the highest intensity followed bybeing personally affected by a topic (1.59),guilt (1.58), disappointment because ofmissing information regarding long-termconsequences (1.57), and feelings ofboredom (1.54).

the second aim was to validate the occur-rence of the negative effects. table 2 displaysthe relationships between the number ofnegative effects in the last coaching, over thewhole career and the three variables psycho-logical empowerment, emotional exhaustion,and perceived stress. there were significantrelationships identified between the percep-tion of negative effects in the most recentcoaching and all three variables. the morenegative effects coaches perceived in the lastcoaching the less psychological empower-

Table 2: Correlations between negative effects, psychological empowerment, emotional exhaustion and perceived stress.

M/Mdn

SD 1 2 3 4 5

Number of negative effects (last coaching) (1) 5.94/5.0

4.74 – .63** –.50** .57** .42**

Number of negative effects (career) (2) 14.72/15.0

6.71 – –.46** .35** .40**

Psychological empowerment (3) 6.49/6.67

0.59 – –.35** –.43**

Emotional exhaustion (4) 1.87/1.67

0.72 – .43**

Perceived stress (5) 1.99/2.0

0.56 –

*p<.05, **p<.01, (two-tailed); all correlations were calculated with Spearman’s Rho.

Carsten C. Schermuly



ment and the more emotional exhaustionand stress were experienced in the last fourweeks. the highest correlation occurredbetween the number of negative effects andemotional exhaustion. a more detailed viewof the four empowerment facets revealed thatthe highest correlation occurred with thecompetence facet (ρ=–.54; p<.01; impact:ρ=–.44; p<.01; self-determination: ρ=–.34;p<.01; meaning: ρ=–.25; p<.05). all correla-tions were tested two-tailed and calculatedwith the spearman’s rho correlation coeffi-cient as variables were not normally distrib-uted. as shown in table 2, the relationshipswith the number of perceived negative effectsover the course of the whole career were alsosignificant but somewhat lower than the rela-tionships pertaining to the last coaching.furthermore, there was a significant negativecorrelation between the wish to start theircareer again as a business coach and thenumber of negative effects in the lastcoaching (ρ=–.27; p<.01) and in the career(ρ=–.24; p<.05).

the third aim of our study was tocompare the cognitions of the coachestowards their work as well as their affectivewell-being with a sample of supervisors.table 3 displays means, standard deviationsand the results of the t-test and the U-test aswell as the effect sizes. an additional non-parametric testing of the difference wasnecessary because the Kolmorgorov-smirnov-test revealed that the values in thetwo groups were not constantly normallydistributed. Coaches and supervisors experi-ence high levels of psychological empower-ment (note again that the scale ranged from1 to 7), but the values for the coaches weresignificantly higher. emotional exhaustionand stress in the last four weeks was ratherlow for both groups (note again that thescale ranged from 1 to 5). again, there aresignificant differences between coaches and supervisors. Coaches experience lessemotional exhaustion and stress than super-visors.

Table 3: Differences between coaches and supervisors regarding psychologicalempowerment, emotional exhaustion and perceived stress.

Coaches Supervisors

M/ SD M/ SD t-test U-test dMdn Mdn

Psychological empowerment 6.49/6.67

.59 6.05 1.07 t (138)=3.52** U=3379,0** .51

Emotional exhaustion 1.87/1.67

.72 2.20 1.03 t (160)=–2.59* U=4026,5† .37

Perceived stress 1.99/2.0

.56 2.27 .59 t (194)=–3.35* U=3460,5** .49

†p<.10, *p<.05, **p<.01, (two-tailed)

Discussiontheoretical arguments and the example inthe introduction have shown that it ispossible that coaches are confronted withnegative effects as a result of their work. acoachee is informed during a coaching thathis/her suspected colleague and friend hascommitted suicide. the coach was burdenedby this exceptional topic. this study hasshown that being burdened by a topicduring a coaching is not a single case. 15.4per cent of the surveyed coaches wereburdened by a topic during their lastcoaching (see table 1). 48.1 per cent wereacquainted with this negative effect in theircareer. on average, however, the intensity ofthis negative effect was rather low. only twoof the 16 coaches who were confronted witha burdening topic during the last coachingchose the highest or second highest intensitylevel. a very intense negative effect asdescribed in the introduction appears to bea rare event.

the results for this single negative effectare at least partially characteristic for thecomplete study. the first aim of our studywas to analyse the frequency and intensity ofnegative effects of coaching on businesscoaches. according to our results, negativeeffects of coaching for coaches seem to be aregular part of the work as a business coachin Germany. More than 90 per cent of thecoaches were confronted with at least onenegative effect in the last coaching. only oneparticipant declared that he/she had neverexperienced a negative effect in the career.this is in line with the set, which expectsthat in every close relationship not only posi-tive but also negative effects can occur.However, those very frequent negativeeffects were of considerably low intensity.

the second finding is that the effects arevery manifold. all 30 different effects, whichwere identified through structured expertinterviews or in the literature, wereperceived at least once by the coaches intheir last coaching as well as over the courseof their careers. Different resource classes,postulated in set, are considered. some

business coaches feel underpaid or inade-quately compensated for their service bycoachees (resource category money).Coaches are sometimes subjected to sexualadvances by coachees and at least one coachwas stalked by a coachee in the last coaching(resource category love). the opposite of‘love’ did also occur. 20.2 per cent of thecoaches felt anger towards their coachee inthe last coaching. over 70 per cent of thecoaches experienced this at least once intheir career. note, that the intensity, forexample, for the negative effect of anger wasrather low (M=1.43; SD=0.75). only threecoaches chose the highest or second highestlevel of the rating scale. the status categoryis, however, also affected. the self-efficacy ofa lot of coaches was negatively influenced bythe last coaching. Coaches were disap-pointed that the coaching was ineffective orthat they could not observe the long-termconsequences of their work. Coaches sufferalso under the consequences of deliveringtoo much interpersonal service. they arepersonally affected by the topics of thecoaching and thus experience stressed andexhausted (category service).

to summarise, negative effects ofcoaching for coaches occur very often and ina very heterogeneous way but they are ofrather low intensity. future studies shouldinvestigate what factors cause negativeeffects for coaches. Different classes of vari-ables are possible. one class are coach-related variables. Coaches with specialpersonality characteristics (for example highneuroticism or low agreeableness) couldexperience more negative effects thanothers. also, the vocational education or thegeneral conditions of coaching might influ-ence negative effects. for example, in thissample there existed a small negative rela-tionship between the amount of supervisionin the job and the perception of negativecoaching effects (ρ=–.16; p<.10). the moresupervision a coach receives the less negativeeffects are experienced in the last coaching.But coachee-related variables could alsocause negative effects. Coaches see, for



example, the following coachee-related vari-ables as responsible for the emergence ofnegative effects for coachees: little problemawareness of the coachee, incorrect expecta-tions, psychological disorders, or insufficientcoaching motivation (schermuly et al.,2014). these factors could also cause nega-tive effects for coaches. for example,coaches can become angry towards coacheesbecause the coachees are not motivated orthe coaches are confronted with strainingtopics because the coachee is mentally ill.finally, organisational variables could beimportant causal factors (for example,support from the organisation for thecoach). not only possible reasons for theemergence of negative effects should beexplored in future studies but also theirlong-term consequences. as shown in theresults section, there is a negative correlationbetween the number of experienced nega-tive effects and the wish to select thecoaching job again. the more negativeeffects are perceived the less the desire tochoose the coaching job again. other conse-quences might also result. especially impor-tant is the question what consequences donegative effects have on coaches that arise asa result of the coaching process? negativeeffects such as anger towards the coachee orthe anxiety to do something wrong mightput a strain on the relationship qualitybetween coach and coachee and may jeopar-dise the coaching success. furthermore, it isimportant to analyse whether negativeeffects for coaches are related to those nega-tive effects experienced by coachees.

the second aim of this study was toanalyse the validity of the explored negativeeffects. the explored negative effects are notindependent from important externalconstructs, which speaks for the concurrentvalidity of the explored negative effects.Coaches perceiving a lot of negative effectsin their last coaching or over the course oftheir career feel less empowered. particularlythe competence and impact facets of theempowerment construct show strong rela-tionships with the number of negative

effects. When coaches identify negativeeffects as a result of their work they feel bothincompetent and powerless. the confidencein one’s own competence and ability tocontrol the work decreases. furthermore,there are clear relationships betweenemotional exhaustion and the perceivedstress of the coaches. future research shouldexamine the direction of the relationships inlongitudinal studies. the experience ofmany negative effects can provoke emotionalexhaustion but a reverse relationship is alsopossible. emotional exhaustion might leadto the perception of a lot of negative effects.

the third reason for this study was tocompare coaches and supervisors as poten-tial coaching clients with regard to psycho-logical empowerment and affectivewell-being. Many negative coaching effectsmay be a risk factor for decreased psycholog-ical empowerment and affective well-being,however, compared to supervisors, coachesexperience higher psychological empower-ment and less emotional exhaustion andstress. in this sample, business coachespossess more positive work-related cogni-tions and are mentally healthier than theirpotential clients in supervisory positions.this could be important for the coachingprocess, for example, for the credibility andeffectiveness of a coach. future studiesshould compare the psychological empower-ment and the affective well-being of coacheswith large, representative samples of otherjob holders to better classify these results.

Practical implicationsas a result of their regular and heteroge-neous occurrence, negative effects ofcoaching for coaches could be an importantpart of the vocational training of coaches.the presented results can potentially behelpful for supervisions and intervisions butalso for the raising of awareness for this topicamong coaches. this awareness can supportcoaches to identify negative effects early andhelp them to adequately prevent or handlethem.



particularly important for the coachingpractice appears to be addressing the mostfrequent negative effects and ways in whichto prevent them. that is why special atten-tion should be given to those most frequenteffects. almost half of the coaches were frus-trated in their last coaching because theycould not observe the long-term conse-quences of their work. Hackman andoldham (1975) emphasise in their job char-acteristic model the task identity which is the‘degree to which the job requires comple-tion of a ‘whole’ and identifiable piece ofwork – that is, doing a job from beginning toend with a visible outcome’ (p.161). Coachesseem to lack this visible outcome. evalua-tions at the end of the coaching but alsofollow up questionnaires or meetings withex-coachees some month following coachingtermination could help coaches experiencegreater work satisfaction. the second mostfrequent negative effect was that a coach waspersonally affected by a topic. the coach hashad similar issues in his/her life and thecoaching can be hindered by this personalinvolvement. to prevent this effect increasedself-awareness might be helpful. if coachesknow ‘their difficult’ topics they can refuse acoaching or prepare themselves better whenthe difficult topic presents itself. thefollowing two negative effects appear to beinterrelated. 40 per cent of coaches wereafraid that they would not fulfil their role asa coach in their last coaching and/or feltinsecure during a coaching (28.8 per centwere scared to do something wrong).Coaches seem to question quite regularlytheir role and competencies. this could leadto mental strain and result in a self-fulfillingprophecy. Doubts regarding one’s own roleand competence could eventually bedispelled by detailed vocational training.the fifth and the sixth effect have the samefrequency (36.5 per cent): coaches are often-times frustrated that the problems of thecoachees could not be resolved and coachesfelt underpaid. Kilburg (2002) postulatesnumerous factors that contribute tocoaching failures. on the side of the coach

this could be insufficient empathy for thecoachee, a lack of expertise, underestima-tion of the severity of the coachees problems,or poor techniques for example. Many ofthese factors could again be attenuated byvocational training for coaches. the feelingof being underpaid could be a direct resultof the hard competition within the coachingmarket. as described above, the number ofcoaches increases every year because oflacking professional regulation to be desig-nated as a coach (smither, 2011).

Limitationsthe first limitation of this study concerns thegeneralisability of results. all participantscame from Germany and the results, there-fore, are only valid for the German coachingmarket. However, the demographic variablesbetween the given sample and the interna-tional coaching market seem to be quitesimilar. Liljenstrand and nebeker (2008)surveyed 2231 coaches worldwide with amean age of 48.1 (given study: 51.4) ofwhom 67.2 per cent (given study: 56 percent) were female and 18.8 per cent (givenstudy: 12.5 per cent) had a phD. a maindifference between this large internationalsample and the sample in this study is thework experience of the coaches. in this studythe work experience of the coaches (11.2years) were two times higher than in thestudy from Liljenstrand and nebeker (5.3years). the second limitation is that thestudy was conducted with one measurementpoint. therefore, no information can begiven about the duration of the negativeeffects. it cannot be said if, for example, thefrustration about unresolved problemslasted longer than the coaching process. thethird limitation is that only perceptions ofthe coaches and not objective data or datafrom different sources were collected. 23.1per cent of the coaches were at least a littledisappointed that their coaching was ineffec-tive. no information is available if thecoachees have experienced the coaching inthe same way. the fourth limitationconcerns the questionnaire measuring nega-





tive effects. While the measures for psycho-logical empowerment, emotional exhaustionand stress are well-established scales this isnot true for the negative effects question-naire. the reliability and validity must beverified in future studies.

Despite these limitations, the presentstudy demonstrated that negative effects forcoaches occur very often and in a variety ofways, although they are of rather low inten-sity. especially the number of negative effectsa coach was confronted with in the lastcoaching are associated with less psycholog-ical empowerment and with more emotionalexhaustion and stress. Coaches, however,perceive more empowerment and lessemotional exhaustion and stress as theirprimary client group (supervisors).

CorrespondenceProfessor Dr Carsten C. SchermulysrH university Berlin,ernst-reuter-platz 10,10587 Berlin, Germany.email:[email protected]

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THe use of CoaCHinG to supportintentional personality change is a rela-tively unexplored endeavour. for many

years, a dominant belief within coaching andpsychology was that personality traits(domains) were relatively resistant to changewithout longer-term intensive interventions(Hughes, 2002; McCrae & Costa, 2003).

in contrast with this view, however, morerecent literature suggests that individualschange in response to their day to day lives,and that personality may change over time inresponse to a range of interventions. in termsof day-to-day adjustment, current literaturesuggests that although individuals may exhibitrelative consistency of thoughts, feelings andbehaviours over the longer term, they never-theless adjust their personality in response totheir daily environments and circumstances(e.g. work events and social contexts) (seefleeson, 2009; Judge, 2013; robinson, 2009).While this suggests that both traits and situa-

tions influence us, it also suggests that, even inthe short term, we have the capacity to think,feel and act in different ways.

furthermore, a number of studies suggestthat personality may change in a moreenduring way in response to certain interven-tions. for example, in a study by piedmont(2001), significant changes were found oneach of the five personality domains assessed,over the course of a six-week intensive outpa-tient drug rehabilitation programme, withthree of the five domains maintaining signifi-cant change 15 months later. the authorconcluded that ‘durable personality changemay be obtained from psychotherapy’(p.516). furthermore, an 18-hour evidence-based emotional competence trainingprogramme with email follow-up (nelis et al.,2011) improved emotional functioning,which in turn lead to a long-term significantdecrease in the personality domain neuroti-cism (emotionality) and long-term increases


Paper

A step-wise process of intentionalpersonality change coaching Lesley S. Martin, Lindsay G. Oades & Peter Caputi

Objectives: This article discusses why personality change appears both possible and beneficial, and providesa step-wise process of intentional personality change coaching. Design: A qualitative single sample exploratory design was employed.Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a panel of coaches/psychologists (experts), in orderto develop coaching interventions to increase or decrease each of the 30 facets within the NEO PI-R. Furtherconsultation with a sub-group of this panel led to the development of a step-wise process of intentionalpersonality change coaching, designed to facilitate client chosen personality change goals. Results: A step-wise process of intentional personality change coaching was developed, and related coachtraining material. The step-wise process proposed that personality change coaching of individuals withoutmajor psychopathology be conducted in a coaching context. Prerequisites included client awareness of theirpersonality, and motivation to change one or more personality facets. The step-wise process incorporated a10-step coaching sequence to facilitate change in this context, and utilised a menu of unique changeinterventions for each of the 30 NEO PI-R facets.Conclusion: Personality change coaching appears both feasible and beneficial in a coaching context. The step-wise process discussed in this article informs coaching practice, and provides a foundation for empiricalexploration of this potential.

in both agreeableness and extraversion (i.e.six months after training). a 10-week lifecoaching pro-gramme (spence & Grant,2005), using both peer and professionalcoaches, found that while personalityremained relatively stable over the coachingperiod, change was achieved on the opennessto experience and extraversion domains, forthe peer coaching group.

in these studies, change was reported onpersonality domains, even though inten-tional personality change was not directlytargeted (i.e. research aims and interven-tions were not designed around changingclient chosen individual personality domainsor facets). spence and Grant (2007) notethat variables not specifically targeted withinterventions are less likely to change thanvariables that are specifically targeted.therefore, even stronger results may havebeen achieved on personality change inthese studies if interventions were moredirectly geared towards this. these findingssuggest that intentional targeted personalitychange may well be possible, and furtherclarification of this possibility would beuseful.

is personality change likely to lead to anysignificant benefits? a literature reviewconducted by ozer and Benet-Martinez(2006) suggests that personality has signifi-cant consequences across an extensive rangeof individual, relationship and community/institutional outcomes. the review foundthat personality dispositions were associatedwith ‘happiness, physical and psychologicalhealth, spirituality, and identity at an indi-vidual level; associated with the quality ofrelationships with peers, family, andromantic others at an interpersonal level;and associated with occupational choice,satisfaction, and performance, as well ascommunity involvement, criminal activity,and political ideology at a social institutionallevel’ (p.401). this suggests that if interven-tions could strengthen personality domainsin individuals who were motivated to change,then benefits may accrue across a wide rangeof life domains.

further support for the potential value ofpersonality change is provided by the well-being literature, which suggests that person-ality is arguably the largest single contributorto well-being and life satisfaction (Boyce,Wood & powdthavee, 2012; Diener & Lucas,1999; steel, schmidt & shultz, 2008). themeta-analysis by steel et al. concluded thatpersonality accounted for up to 39 per centof variance in subjective well-being (or 63per cent disattenuated). furthermore, onthe basis of a four-year study of over 8000australians, Boyce et al. found that person-ality was the strongest predictor of well-being, and that, ‘personality can change andthat such change is important and mean-ingful’. the authors proposed that efforts bedirected to identifying ways to enhancepersonality, as personality change contri-buted more to individual and national well-being than, for example, earning moremoney, finding employment or gettingmarried. these findings suggest that if inten-tional personality change can be facilitated,then it may well be beneficial. this in turnraises questions around what might be themost appropriate context to explore person-ality change.

Martin, oades and Caputi (2012) linkedthe above findings and proposed thatpersonality change appeared to be bothpossible and beneficial, and that coachingprovided a logical context to explore thispossibility in clients without majorpsychopathology. the logic of one-to-oneprofessional coaching as the preferredcontext was discussed. the authors proposedthat intentional personality change couldarguably fit within a coaching or coun-selling/therapy context, and discussedfactors that would influence the preferredcontext. However, they proposed that, ‘forclients without major psychopathology,personality change interventions may bemore consistent with coaching [thantherapy/counselling], and a coachingapproach may offer certain advantages’(p.189). the authors proposed thatcoaching is commonly associated with a


Author nameLesley S. Martin, Lindsay G. Oades & Peter Caputi

strong goal focus, a learning or personaldevelopment model, and a high degree ofcollaboration, all of which are likely to beimportant considerations in intentionalpersonality change.

Martin et al. (2012) further proposedthat a combination of factors (e.g. thecomplex, personal and sensitive nature ofpersonality profiles, and the need to focuson individual profiles and goals) suggestedthat one to one coaching, using profes-sionals trained in personality, and capable toworking with emotionality facets (e.g.anxiety, anger, depression) provided a saferand more appropriate environment thangroup or peer coaching.

in change coaching processes, considera-tion needs to be given to the number ofsessions required. as no literature exploringthe duration of interventions to changepersonality in clients without majorpsychopathology was found, attention wasdirected to clarifying the number ofcoaching sessions required to facilitate otherforms of change. although limited relevantliterature was identified, a number of studiesbased on 10 coaching sessions achieved goodchange outcomes (Green, Grant &rynsaardt, 2007; spence & Grant, 2005,2007). as personality change is sufficientlylike other change processes, then 10coaching sessions was considered an appro-priate ‘dose’ for exploring/facilitatingpersonality change. therefore, the step-wiseprocess outlined in the current articlesuggests that 10 one-to-one coachingsessions, conducted by suitably trainedprofessionals, would provide a suitablecontext for facilitating intentional person-ality change for clients without majorpsychopathology. it also incorporates meas-urement of personality at session five, so thatchange over time can be explored, andbetter understood.

Martin et al. (2012) suggested that inten-tional personality change, ‘would logicallyinvolve taking a measure of the client’spersonality traits and discussing the profilewith the client, with a view to identifying

problematic traits that the client wishes tochange’ (p.188). they suggested that areputable inventory, based on the five-factor Model of personality would be a suit-able assessment tool. they further proposedthat assessing personality at the moredetailed facet level would be more usefulthan assessing at the broader trait level, andwould better inform decisions on whatchanges the client may wish to target duringcoaching.

intentional change theory (Boyatzis,2006) posits that sustainable change in arange of contexts can most effectively beachieved through a sequence of repeatingdiscoveries or conditions as follows: (a)discovering the ideal self; (b) discovering thereal (current) self and contemplating howthe ideal self and real-self overlap and differ;(c) developing and implementing a plan tomove towards the ideal self, through experi-menting with new behaviours, thoughts orfeelings; (d) developing neural pathways tosupport this change through practice andmastery; and (e) engaging in trusting rela-tionships that help foster the ideal self.Boyatzis and akrivou (2006) proposes thatthe ideal self provides a driver for intrinsi-cally motivated change, through positiveaffect and psychological arousal associatedwith hope for a better future and optimalself.

the principles incorporated in inten-tional change theory can enhance both theamount of change, and the sustainability ofchange, in a range of contexts (Boyatzis,2006). Whereas a body of literature is devel-oping around application of intentionalchange theory in the context of enhancingemotional intelligence (Boyatzis, 2001,2006), no studies were identified thatexplored intentional change in a personalitycontext.

the client’s attitude toward change is acritical factor in change processes, and islikely to significantly impact on outcomes(e.g. Latham, 2007; rollnick, Mason &Butler, 1999). for example, if the client isambivalent about change, it is unlikely to


TitleA step-wise process of intentional personality change coaching


Author name

happen. rollnick, Mason and Butlerpropose that change outcomes can beenhanced by recognising and appropriatelymanaging motivational factors, and takinginto account the client’s confidence in abilityto change and the importance of change.intrinsic motivation, in particular, is viewedas a key consideration in change. in apersonality change context, internal motiva-tion is clearly an important pre-requisite.the interaction between internal andexternal motivation, however, requirescareful consideration. if there is a consensusbetween the client and relevant outsideparties that personality change would bedesirable (e.g. both the client and theirspouse agree that a reduction in the facetanger would be beneficial), then internaland external motivators can work hand inhand. Change goals derived from externalmotivation alone, however, should be viewedwith caution. it could be problematic if indi-viduals felt coerced to change their person-ality in a way they were not comfortable withbecause another party (e.g. an employer)preferred a different personality profile.used in that way, resistance to change wouldbe likely, and the credibility and ethicalintegrity of personality change processescould be bought into question.

as a corollary to their proposition thatpersonality change may be both possible andbeneficial, the authors of the current articleworked with a panel of experts to developpersonality change interventions for each ofthe 30 facets included in the neo pi-r. animportant objective in developing theseresources was to enable the empirical explo-ration of intentional personality changecoaching. the methods section that followsexplains how the personality change inter-ventions for each of the 30 facets and theoverall step-wise process of intentionalpersonality change were developed.

Methodthe method used to develop the step-wiseprocess involved two stages: (1) a qualitativesingle sample design, using an expert panel,to generate change interventions for each ofthe 30 facets; and (2) a consensual consulta-tion with a sub-group of the expert panel todevelop a step-wise process, incorporatingthe interventions developed in stage one.the methodology for each stage is discussedin turn. this multi-stage process was akin toa Delphi technique.

Stage One: Participants participants (experts)1 were four practicingpsychologists and one coach. there werethree males and two females, with a meanage of 46.2 years, and an average of 13.4years experience in coaching/psychology.all five participants were chosen based ontheir previous experience incorporatingpersonality change interventions in eithercoaching, therapy or training, and experi-ence working with the five-factor Model ofpersonality. to ensure that data had a strongpsychological focus, three of the five partici-pants were registered clinical psychologists(six years full time training in psychology),and a fourth participant was a provisionallyregistered clinical psychologists (five yearsfull time training in psychology). the coachhad trained and worked in counselling,mediation, and coaching for 10 years. allwere currently practicing psychologists orcoaches (in australia), four of the five hadworked as coaches, and two were currentlyworking as both academics and practi-tioners. the authors of the current studywere not participants.

Stage One: Sampling participants were chosen based on theirability to contribute to the development ofpersonality change steps and interventions.

Lesley S. Martin, Lindsay G. Oades & Peter Caputi

1 participants made up the expert panel.

Stage One: Procedureindividual, audio-recorded, semi-structuredinterviews were conducted with the partici-pants. according to Kruger (1998), semi-structured interviews balance the need tomaintain some degree of focus, whileallowing participants the flexibility to sharerelevant knowledge and experience. partici-pants were given a list of facets as outlined inthe neo pi-r, and definitions for each. theywere then asked (and provided with thewritten question): What intervention/swould you suggest for increasing (ordecreasing) (name and definition of facet)?the participant then outlined suggestedinterventions for changing each facet in turn.

Stage One: Data analysis and interpretationaudio recordings of interviews were tran-scribed. Manual coding of the data involvedgrouping relevant chunks of interview dataunder the 30 neo pi-r facet headings. atthe end of this process each facet had arange of change options (verbatim),provided by the participants. some facetshad one-directional change interventions,and some had two direction change inter-ventions. for example, participants consid-ered that it was unlikely that clients wouldwish to increase facet depression, so therange of change interventions provided forfacet depression were one-directional (i.e. alldesigned to reduce depression). similarly,the change interventions provided for someother facets were all designed to increasethem (e.g. facets positive emotions andcompetence). other facets had two direc-tional interventions (e.g. facets trust andexcitement seeking).

the following steps developed thesegrouped chunks of data into a trainingresource. if chunks of data were deemed tobe confusing or repetitive (e.g. the essenceof the change approach had already beencovered in another chunk of data) they wereomitted. Decisions to omit data were madein collaboration between two participantsand the lead author. Working with theremaining data, the first author then devel-

oped a more concise summary of theapproach and outcome suggested by eachremaining chunk of data in a column adja-cent to the quote. this was done to improvethe user-friendliness of the material. thesepaired columns of change interventionswere then formatted to form part of a coachtraining resources, along with definitions foreach facet, and circulated for comment tothree participants. selection for this role,from the original five participants from stageone, was based primarily on their time avail-ability. an extract from the facet changeintervention resources derived from thisprocess (including the facet definition)follows (see figure 1).

Stage Two: Participants for the second stage of the study, participantswere a sub-group of the above expert panel,made up of three clinical psychologists.there were two males and one female, with amean age of 43.3 years, and an average of18.3 years experience in coaching/psychology. these three participants werechosen from the five participants that devel-oped the facet change interventions, basedon their time availability.

Stage Two: Procedurethe development of the step-wise processbegan with the main author providing infor-mation to two of the participants (writtenand verbal) relating to literature that theymay not be well versed in, and that couldpotentially inform the development of thestep-wise process (e.g. intentional changetheory, the number of coaching sessionsassociated with successful change, readinessto change literature). these two participantsand the main researcher then consensuallyblended the following components into astep-wise process: (1) findings from relevantliterature; (2) well-established steps used inchange processes (e.g. goal setting andreviewing progress); and (3) facet changeinterventions developed in stage one.

the first author then developed thesesteps into a diagram, with supporting text,





Figure 1: Exemplar of facet change intervention for achievement striving.

Achievement striving: This is a facet within the domain of conscientiousness. In the interviews itwas defined as ‘the drive to get ahead, to hard work, being enterprising and persistent’. In theinterview extracts below (Column 2), coaches and therapists indicated how they might assist aclient to increase this facet.

Column 1: Summary of approach Column 2: Quotes from expert paneland rationale

Cognitive therapy to build self-esteem Looking at the thinking if there’s thinking that’sand overcome cognitive barriers undermining that [achievement striving.] I’d do a fairto achievement. bit of work with sort of self-esteem and…

the cognitive barriers that people have, you know, from getting to those goals and getting those achievements.

Goal setting, action plans and problem Around goal setting, looking at what they’re actuallysolving to help focus efforts and wanting to achieve, and then problem solving aroundovercome barriers. that if there are difficulties. Regarding the goals,

asking what that would look like, what’s the steps?

Link goals and achievement striving I think it might be again about why, so the values isto client values in order to increase ‘why would I do this’ because if the goal that they motivation. end up having is related to something that’s

intrinsically motivating, they’re much more likely to achieve it anyway. Once again that could be a goal setting type of approach, knowing what you want, making sure you are living by your values, and that it is of value to you, that it is a value that you want to strive towards. Yeah, generally that effective action stuff, putting that effective action into their life.Interviewer: Could you give me an example of that?Ah, you know things that are improving your quality of life, so making sure that all of your behaviours andactions that you do towards your achievements are benefiting your quality of life. Again I would come back to that sort of ACT thing of getting people to align their life with their values and, you know – if they are achieving towards their values then they are going to be more achievement striving.

and sought feedback from the two partici-pants involved in developing these steps.revisions were made based on feedback, andresubmitted for further feedback. thisprocess was repeated until a consensus wasreached on the step-wise process. the step-wise process that emerged was thensubmitted to the third participant (who had

not participated in developing the step-wiseprocess) in order to get a fresh, unbiasedperspective, and minor revisions were made.the step-wise process was further refinedbased on feedback from research supervisorsand reviewers. figure 2, and the discussionthat follows, represents the outcome of thisprocess.


Title

ResultsDescription of a step-wise process of inten-tional personality change (figure 2).

Step 1: Assess personality and client valuesa key focus of step 1 involves administering aquestionnaire to assess the client’s person-ality. an important consideration in inten-

tional personality change is deciding how toassess personality. Martin et al. (2012)proposed that a well validated questionnairereflecting the five-factor Model of person-ality, such as the neo pi-r (Costa & McCrae,1992), or a reputable proxy, would suit thispurpose. under the five-factor Model ofpersonality, the individual’s personality is

A step-wise process of intentional personality change coaching

Figure 2: A step-wise process of intentional personality change.

Step 1: Assess personality and client valuesl Complete personality inventory and develop report.l Complete values inventory.

Step 2: Discover the current selfl Explore what is positive and problematic in the client's life. l Review client values questionnaire findings.l Review personality report.

Step 3: Explore gaps between the current and ideal selfl Clarify client’s ideal self.l Reflect on how current and ideal personality differ.l Explore what facet changes could help narrow this gap.

Step 4: Choose personality facet change goalsl Shortlist facets targeted for change.l Review consistency of proposed changes with values.

Step 5: Assess attitudes towards changel Assess motivation, importance, confidence and timeliness.l Manage ambivalent attitudes and/or review change goals.l Finalise list of facets to target for change.

Step 6: Design and implement coaching planl Choose change intervention options for targeted facets.l Develop and implement a coaching plan.

Step 7: Re-assess personality and review progressl Re-administer personality inventory (session 5).l Review progress and revise coaching plan (if necessary).

Step 8: Implement remaining coaching sessionsl Implement remaining coaching sessions, incorporating coaching plan revisions.

Step 9: Re-assess, review and maintainl Re-administer personality inventory (session 10). l Review progress towards personality change goals.l Develop a maintenance plan for targeted sub-trait change.

Step 10: Follow-up, review and refinementl Re-administer personality inventory (three months later). l Refine maintenence strategies for targeted facet change.

assessed under five-well established broaddomains; (i.e. emotionality, extraversion,agreeableness, openness-to-experience andconscientiousness), and 30 facets. althoughthe current step-wise process is based arounduse of a self-report inventory, in somecontexts it may be useful to combine thiswith other methods (e.g. informant reports,behavioural assessments).

a number of five-factor Model of person-ality inventories are available, each with theirown reporting format, strengths and weak-nesses. an exemplar of one reporting formatdeveloped around the neo pi-r (Costa &McCrae, 1992) follows (figure 3).

this exemplar, based on a report writerdeveloped for an empirical study of inten-tional personality change coaching,discusses testing results for a hypotheticalclient, Joe snell, on one of the five domains,(i.e. conscientiousness, and its six facets). a full report would include coverage of thefour other domains and the 24 other facets.

similar reports, utilising both short andlong inventories, are currently available onpublic domain websites. ideally personalityprofiles will describe each of the five broaddomain and facets, and illustrate how theclient’s profile compares with other individ-uals, through provision of percentilesand/or ranges. in choosing an personalityinventory it is useful to consider the suit-ability of the report format for personalitycoaching (e.g. style of feedback), whetheritem level responses can be viewed after thereport is completed (useful, but difficultwith most online assessments), timingconsideration (e.g. time required to admin-ister and generate a report) and cost factors.

a values assessment is also undertaken, sothe coaching process can ensure that person-ality change decisions are consistent with theclient’s values. there is merit in choosing avalues inventory that differentiates the rela-tive importance of different life domains (e.g.family, health, work, etc.), and how consis-tently the client’s actions reflect this level ofimportant (e.g. Wilson, 2002). for example, if the client places a high value on physical

self-care, yet recent actions are not consistentwith this value, then this knowledge may helpinform decisions on which facets the clientmay wish to consider changing.

Step 2: Discover the current self the concept of current self relates to how theclient sees themselves now. Within the step-wise process of personality change, discov-ering the current self has three aspects to it:(a) reflection on positive and negative aspectsof the client’s current life; (b) consideringwhat the client values in life, and how consis-tently their current way of living and beingreflects these values; and (c) current person-ality profile. these are discussed in turn. thefirst aspect involves gathering information onwhat is working well in the client’s life, andwhat aspects of their life are experienced asproblematic. it includes exploring the dura-tion of problematic patterns, to help differen-tiate ‘states’ from ‘traits’, and to informsubsequent discussion of more helpful andless helpful personality facets.

the second aspect of understanding thecurrent self involves discussing the valuesquestionnaire findings (completed in step1), to help inform subsequent discussionsaround whether increasing or decreasingparticular personality facets would likelyhelp or hinder values consistent living. thisinformation is also useful in informingsubsequent steps, (e.g. clarifying the idealself, personality goal setting, etc.).

the third aspect of understanding thecurrent self involves reflecting upon each ofthe 30 facets contained within the person-ality profile, bearing in mind how helpfulthey are, and how consistent they are withthe client’s values. this requires the coach toprovide the client with a personality profile(completed in step 1), showing the client’sscores on each of five broad domains, and 30facets, relative to test norms. the coach thenraises personality self-awareness by exploringindividual facet links with (a) satisfaction/dissatisfaction with current and past lifepatterns; (b) what they hope to achieve inthe future; and (c) what they value.





Figure 3: Exemplar of personality report for facets within domain conscientiousness.

Conscientiousness measures the extent to which an individual is ambitious, hard working, organised and dependable. It refers to the sense that one is capable, sensible, prudent and effective. On this domain, overall Joe Snell scored in the very low range. Scores are represented on a five-point scale: very low, low, average, high, and very high.

Facets contributing to this domain Score Interpretation

Competence (C) Average You have an intermediate level of competenceThis facet assesses the sense that one and ability to deal with life and work issues.is capable, sensible, prudent, and You are somewhat efficient and moderately effective. This facet is most highly capable.associated with self-esteem and internal locus of control.

Order (O) Very You often feel disorganised, forgetful, untidy or Order refers to tendencies to be neat, low careless. You find getting organised difficult, tidy, and methodical. Carried to an and describe yourself as unmethodical.extreme, a high Order score might contribute to a Compulsive Personality Disorder.

Dutifulness (Du) Above You are in the above average range in terms ofThis is the facet of conscientiousness average reliability, dependability and moral principles.that most closely relates to ‘being Others may describe you as dutiful, dependable governed by conscience’. It is and ethical.associated with being dutiful, reliable, dependable and ethical.

Achievement Striving (As) Low You are not highly motivated to succeed and getThis facet describes ambition and the ahead in life. You are low in ambition and maydrive to get ahead, accompanied by a seem to lack a clear direction in life. However, commitment to hard work, enterprise you may be perfectly content with this lowerand persistence. level of achievement striving.

Self-discipline (Sd) Very You have limited self-discipline in beginning This facet refers to the ability to low and carrying through tasks to completion.begin tasks and carry them through You struggle with finding the motivation toto completion despite boredom and get the job done, and may procrastinate. other distractions. Very high scorers may invest too much in their work.

Deliberation (De) Low You may be hasty and may act or speak withoutThis facet assesses the tendency to considering the consequences. On the positive think carefully before acting or side, low scorers are spontaneous and able to speaking. make snap decisions when necessary. Others may

perceive you at times as being hasty, or ‘shooting from the hip’.

it is important to ascertain if the clientagrees with their profile, and if not to under-stand what has contributed to any apparentdiscrepancies. for example, if the client indi-cates that a facet description provided by areport writer doesn’t fit, then it is useful togo back to the individual items in the ques-tionnaire, and the client’s responses, anddiscuss with them why they scored within aparticular range.

providing feedback on personality is asensitive role, and requires well developedskills. as a coach, it is particularly importantto monitor the client’s reaction to feedback,and to be aware of, and effectively managediscomfort, should it arise. approaches tomanaging any such discomfort will vary fromclient to client, depending on what aspectsof their personality causes discomfort, andwhy. for example, if a client appears embar-rassed about aspects of their personality, itmay be useful to discourage them fromthinking about facet rankings as repre-senting good or bad personalities. instead itmay be helpful to assure them that all facetshave value, and that we are simply aiming toclarify whether having more or less of somefacets might work better for them.

Let’s explore how some of the keyconcepts in step 2 might play out in acoaching session, using the extract from Joesnell’s personality profile (see figure 3) as abasis for discussion. the coach would ask Joeto share his views on what was working well,and what was problematic in his life. Let’sassume that during this conversation, Joeindicates that disorganisation and poor self-discipline have created issues at work overmany years, and have hindered himmanaging his diabetes. Joe shares that hewould like to work on becoming more organ-ised and efficient at work, and he would liketo get better control over his health prob-lems. He also notes that he has been in hiscurrent job for many years, and has someinterest in looking at getting a better job.the coach and Joe would then collabora-tively explore whether increasing ordecreasing some facets could help with these

issues. for example, they may considerwhether increasing some of the facets withinthe domain conscientiousness might beuseful. in particular, it could include evalu-ating whether increasing the facets order(organisation), self-discipline (capacity toinitiate and complete tasks) and achieve-ment striving (drive to get ahead) would behelpful, as these are in the lower ranges, andseem relevant to Joe’s issues. Coachingwould also explore whether such changeswould be consistent with Joe’s values. if Joeplaces a high value on both physical self-careand work/career (identified on the valuesinventory completed by Joe), then he maydecide that he would like to increase facetsorder and self discipline (which would beconsistent with both changes he wants tomake, and his values). However he maychoose not to pursue increasing achieve-ment striving if he thinks that effortsdirected to getting ahead (e.g. seeking apromotion) may interfere with his health/self-care values. for example, the extra timeand effort required at work to get a promo-tion, and work at a more senior level, mayconflict with making time to go to the gym,plan his diet, and walk each day.

Step 3: Explore gaps between current and ideal selfthis step focuses on clarifying the client’sideal self, from a personality perspective.according to Boyatzis and akrivou (2006),the ideal self ‘is the core mechanism for self-regulation and intrinsic motivation. it ismanifest as a personal vision, or an image ofwhat kind of person one wishes to be, whatthe person hopes to accomplish in life andwork’ (p.625). Boyatzis and akrivou proposethat once the ideal self is activated, it guidesour actions and decisions towards achievinga meaningful and values consistent way ofliving, and being the type of person we wantto be. the conceptualisation of the ideal selfwithin a personality change context providesa unifying framework for change, andharnesses the motivational potential of ourdesired self. it includes reflecting on who the



client wants to be (in terms of thinkingstyles, actions and emotions), and what thatmight look like from a personality profileperspective. it also involves clarifying howtheir current personality profile differs fromtheir ideal personality profile. Hence, thisstep helps to identify a preliminary shortlistof facets the client may consider targetingfor change (i.e. increasing or decreasing). asit may be unrealistic to change more than afew facets (typically around three out of the30 possible facets) this step includes priori-tising which facets the client most wishes tochange, and in what direction. in the case ofJoe snell, this step may include clarifyingthat Joe’s ideal self would be more organ-ised, and more persistent in pursuing mean-ingful health and work goals. this wouldfurther confirm that his ideal self would behigher on facets order and self-discipline.step 3 generates a shortlist of facets, whichare then further evaluated and narroweddown into the final facet change goals insteps 4 and 5.

Step 4: Choose personality facet change goalsin step 4, the client narrows this shortlistdown to a realistic number of facets that theymay wish to increase or decrease, in order tomove closer to the ideal self (typically two orthree facets will remain). Consistency of theproposed changes with the client’s values isconsidered at this point (by reviewing facetchange goals against their values inventory).

Step 5: Assess attitudes towards changeBefore settling on a final list of facetstargeted for change, it is important to assessa number of attitudinal factors relating tochanging the chosen facets (i.e. intrinsic andextrinsic motivation to change, importanceof change, confidence in ability to change,and timeliness of change). these attitudinalfactors, and ways of managing them, wereincorporated in the coach training processesand resources. techniques drew heavily onmotivational interviewing, and overcomingbarriers to change (rollnick, Mason &Butler (1999). as an example, if Joe snell’s

internal motivation to increase order was low(e.g. 5 out of 10), then motivational inter-viewing, incorporating cost benefit analysisof not changing, could be conducted. if, onthe other hand, confidence in ability tochange facet self-discipline was low, thencoaching would explore why. Joe might havetried to improve personal organisation in thepast without success, eroding his confidence.if so, it would be important for the coach tounderstand what he had tried in the past,and why had it not worked (i.e. barriers tochange). identifying ways of overcomingsuch barriers might then be incorporated inthe coaching sessions.

if (a) low scores on attitudinal factorssuggest ambivalence about change (e.g.poor internal motivation), and (b) coachingstrategies (e.g. motivational interviewing) donot sufficiently address this ambivalence,then removing such facets may be prefer-able. increasing or decreasing the remaininglist of facets then becomes the unifyingframework for the 10 sessions of coaching.

Step 6: Design and implement a coaching planstep 6 involves implementing coachingstrategies designed to achieve the desiredpersonality change, using the facet changeinterventions developed (see figure 1 exemplar).

the facet change interventions devel-oped are eclectic, with cognitive, beha-vioural, positive psychology, solution focusedand acceptance and commitment influencesapparent. this eclectic approach was basedon the participant’s opinion that no onetheoretical model would be optimal forchanging each of these 30 facets, and thatdifferent practitioners and/or clients mayprefer different theoretical frameworks.Consequently, the interventions include aunique and flexible set of change strategiesfor each of the 30 facets incorporated in theneo pi-r (Costa & McCrae, 1992).

Step 7: Re-assess personality and review progressas session five, the client once againcompletes the personality inventory.



progress towards the desired personalitychange goals are evaluated, and thecoaching strategies are reviewed. if limitedprogress is being made on achieving thedesired change on a particular facet, thenpossible reasons for this could be explored(e.g. barriers to change), and ways ofmanaging barriers, or alternative changeinterventions options could be discussed.for example, if Joe snell had made littleprogress towards increasing order, it wouldbe useful to explore why. if a barrier to beingmore organised was an ineffective diarysystem, then coaching could explore optionsfor addressing this. it is also useful to discussthe client’s perception of the coachingprocess to date, and encourage them toexpress any ideas they may have to enhanceoutcomes of future coaching sessions.

Step 8: Implement the remaining sessions ofcoachingthe additional coaching sessions are thenimplemented, taking into account the reviewprocess at sessions five. for example, if theclient has ideas for enhancing the coaching,or if alternative change interventions havebeen discussed, these could be incorporatedin the remaining sessions.

Step 9: Review progress and develop maintenance planan end of coaching assessment of person-ality occurs at session 10, through re-admin-istering the chosen inventory. the results ofthe assessment are used to review progresstowards personality change goals, and assistwith developing maintenance strategies thatthe client can use post-coaching to furthersupport the desired personality change.

Step 10: Conduct three months follow-upa final follow-up session is conducted threemonths after the 10 sessions of coaching arecompleted, to once again review progress onpersonality change goals, and refine mainte-nance strategies as required.

DiscussionDoes the step-wise process work?the importance of empirically validatingcoaching processes is widely acknowledged inthe coaching literature (e.g. Grant et al.,2010). in recognition of this need, an pilotstudy of the step-wise process proposed in thecurrent article, utilising the change interven-tions and step wise process developed, wasundertaken. Data gathered during this studyfound that certain individuals were morelikely to engage in personality changecoaching (i.e. those higher in emotionalityand openness), and facets chosen for changewere most often within the domains ofemotionality and conscientiousness (allan,Leeson & Martin, 2014). the findings fromthis 54 participant study, incorporating both awaitlist control between subjects design, and awithin subjects design, are encouraging. thestudy found that participation in theprogramme was associated with significantpositive change in the targeted facets, andsuch gains were maintained three monthslater’ (Martin, oades & Caputi, 2014).

furthermore, preliminary findings froma qualitative study of clients’ perceptions ofpersonality change coaching were also posi-tive (Martin, oades & Caputi, in press). thestudy found that personality coaching: (a)promoted reflection, leading to greater self-awareness; (b) fostered an authentic self andvalues consistent way of living, without loss ofvalued identity; (c) produced tangible andpractical life benefits including enhancedconfidence and competence, and strength-ened ability to relate to others; and (d) mostclients viewed the structured personalitychange coaching programme as enjoyable,positive and beneficial.

Limitationsnevertheless, a number of limitations of thecurrent article should be acknowledged. first,this field of research is in its infancy, and theresources developed are relatively untested. itis likely that further refinement and develop-ment, based on practitioners experience andfuture research, will be beneficial. second,



the step-wise process rests on the assumptionthat personality change may be achievablewith short term interventions. this assump-tion is controversial, and is likely to remain sofor some time, as personality change iscomplex and challenging to objectivelymeasure. in the current study personalitychange is being explored within oneconstruct of personality (the five-factorModel of personality), and using onemeasure of that construct (neo pi-r selfreport inventory). it could be argued thatchange on this measure does not necessarilyequate with change in personality, or thatalternative measures and/or conceptualisa-tions of personality would better suit person-ality change processes (e.g. conceptualisingpersonality as a mix of person-situationcontingencies, as proposed by fleeson, 2004).

While acknowledging that no singlemeasure of personality can fully capture thecomplexity of personality, the authors of thecurrent article have nevertheless proposed awell respected and validated measure ofwhat is arguably the most widely recognisedmodel of normal personality currently avail-able (i.e. the five-factor Model of person-ality, assessed by the neo pi-r).nevertheless, it is acknowledged that the useof self report assessments can lead to validityproblems (e.g. coachees answering in waysthat put them in a good light, and/or areconsistent with the aims of the research).Hence, the current step-wise process (andfuture studies of intentional personalitychange) could benefit from exploration of awider range of assessment tools (e.g. inde-pendent observer ratings, behavioural assess-ments). it could also benefit fromexploration of change using other conceptu-alisations of personality (e.g. incorporatingintegrative perspectives on personality thatcapture trait-situation contingencies), andmeasuring maintenance of change overlonger periods of time.

finally, intentional personality changesits outside the usual parameters ofcoaching. as such it may be argued that itshould be explored within a counselling or

therapy context, rather than a coachingcontext. the positioning of these interven-tions within a coaching contexts wasexplored in Martin et al. (2012), and will beexplored further in additional paperscurrently being prepared by the authors ofthe current study. to avoid repetition, it isnot death with in any detail in the currentstudy. However it is acknowledged thatpersonality change interventions could sitwithin either a coaching or counselling/therapy context, and some practitioners maywell be opposed to it being conducted withina coaching context. Hence, further discus-sion of where intentional personality changecoaching could or should sit would be bene-ficial.

in combination, these limitations suggestthat the current paper should be viewed asrelatively tentative findings. nevertheless, itis hoped that the development of theseresources will provide: (a) a foundation forfuture exploration in this area; and (b) apreliminary step towards understanding ifintentional personality change is possible,how this can best be achieved.

Links with existing theories of changealthough development of the resources andsteps discussed in the current article werenot developed around any particular theo-retical model, the step-wise process thatemerged nevertheless mirrored severalcomponents inherent in intentional changetheory (Boyatzis, 2006; Boyatzis & akrivou,2006). for example, reflecting on the ques-tions of ‘who am i now?’ (the current self)and ‘who do i want to be?’(the ideal self),and how to work towards the latter (learningagenda/change strategies) are importantcomponents in both. Hence the literaturedeveloped by Boyatzis and colleagues offersuseful insights for the practitioner consid-ering intentional personality change inter-ventions.

Significance of the researchthe development of a step-wise process ofintentional personality change coaching




Author name

Boyatzis, r.e. (2001). How and why individuals areable to develop emotional intelligence. in C.Cherniss & D. Goleman (eds.), The emotionallyintelligent workplace: How to select for, measure, andimprove emotional intelligence in individuals, groups,and organisations (pp.234–253). san francisco:Jossey-Bass.

Boyatzis, r.e. (2006). an overview of intentionalchange from a complexity perspective. Journal ofManagement Development, 25, 607–623.

Boyatzis, r.e. & akrivou, K. (2006). the ideal self asthe driver of intentional change. Journal ofManagement Development, 25, 624–642.

Boyce, C.J., Wood, a.M. & powdthavee, n. (2012). ispersonality fixed? personality changes as much as‘variable’ economic factors and more strongypredicts changes to life satisfaction. SocialIndicators Research. retrieved 7 november 2012,from:http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11205–012–0006–z#page–1

Costa, p.t., Jr & McCrae, r.M. (1992). Revised NEOPersonality Inventory (NEO PI-R) and NEO Five-FactorInventory (NEO FFI). Lutz, fL: psychologicalassessment resources, inc.

Diener, e. & Lucas, r.e. (1999). personality andsubjective well-being. in D. Kahneman, e. Diener& n. schwarz (eds.), Well-being: The foundations ofhedonic psychology (pp.213–229). new York: russellsage foundation.

fleeson, W. (2004). Moving personality beyond theperson-situation debate. the challenge andopportunity of within-person variability. CurrentDirections, 13, 83–87.

fleeson, W. & noftle, e.e. (2009). the end of theperson-situation debate: an emerging synthesis inthe answer to the consistency question. Social andPersonality Psychology Compass, 2, 1667–1684.

Grant, a.M., passmore, J., Cavanagh, M.J. & parker, H.(2010). the state of play in coaching today: a comprehensive review of the field. InternationalReview of Industrial and Organisational Psychology,25, 125–167.

Green, L.s., Grant, a.M. & rynsaardt, J. (2007).evidence-based life coaching for senior highschool students: Building hardiness and hope.International Coaching Psychology Review, 2, 24–32.

Hughes, J.L. (2002). Adjusting the mirrow: Strategies forcoaching executives with narcissistic personality features.Doctoral dissertation, rutgers, the state universityof new Jersey, Graduate school of applied andprofessional psychology.

contributes to both practice and theory inthe fields of coaching, personality and inten-tional change. from the perspective ofcoaching, it provides a framework to poten-tially expand practice and research into anew arena (i.e. intentional personalitychange). it extends the current intentionalchange literature into a new area (i.e. person-ality), and provides both practitioners andresearchers with a step-by-step process ofintentional personality change. for the disci-pline of psychology, this research offers prac-titioners an opportunity to engage in apotentially unique role in coaching, based ontheir training in personality, psychometricsand skills in dealing with psychologicaldistress. furthermore, it provides researcherswith preliminary resources to explore thislargely uncharted, yet important topic.

in conclusion, the current articleprovides a framework for exploring inten-tional personality change, and the step-by-

step process outlined offers a foundation forfuture researchers and practitioners.

The AuthorsLesley S. Martinsydney Business school, university of Wollongong.Lindsay G. Oadesaustralian institute of Business Wellbeing,sydney Business school, university of Wollongong.Peter Caputischool of psychology, university of Wollongong.

CorrespondenceLesley Martinpo Box 5059,Wollongong nsW 2500,australia.email: [email protected]


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Martin, L.s., oades, L.G. & Caputi, p. (2012). What ispersonality change coaching and why is itimportant? International Coaching Psychology Review,7(2), 185–193.

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spence, G.B. & Grant, a.M. (2007). professional andpeer life coaching and the enhancement of goalstriving and well-being: an exploratory study. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2, 185–194.

steel, p., schmidt, J. & shultz, J. (2008). refining therelationship between personality and subjectivewell-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 138–161.

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THe assertion that individuals maybeneficially change their personalitythrough coaching is both challenging

and recent. Martin, oades and Caputi(2012) proposed that exploration of thispotential was warranted, based on an exten-sive body of literature suggesting thatpersonality domains (traits) had wideranging consequences. for example, a meta-analysis by ozer and Benet-Martinez (2006)found predictive relationships between Big 5(five-factor) personality domains andnumerous important life outcomes, at theindividual, relationship and organisational/community levels. four of the five Big 5domains were predominantly associated withpositive outcomes (i.e. conscientiousness,extraversion, agreeableness and openness),

while emotionality was predominantly associ-ated with negative outcomes. these findingssuggests that increasing or decreasingdomains in the direction associated withpositive outcomes may be beneficial.

some authors have proposed that as theliterature has now demonstrated thatpersonality domains are predictive of manylife outcomes, it would be useful if futureresearch explored how to change personalityin ways that are beneficial to the individual.for example, a four-year study of 8625australians (Boyce, Wood & powdthavee,2012) found that personality can changeover this period of time, and that thesechanges are both important and meaningful,as personality is the strongest and mostconsistent predictor of life-satisfaction.


Paper

Intentional personality change coaching: A randomised controlled trial ofparticipant selected personality facetchange using the Five-Factor Model ofPersonalityLesley S. Martin, Lindsay G. Oades & Peter Caputi

Objectives: Recent literature suggests that personality may be more amenable to change than was previouslythought, and that participant selected intentional personality change may be beneficial. The aim of thisstudy was to examine the effects of a 10-week structured intentional personality change coaching programmeon participant selected personality facets. Design: Participants were assigned to the personality coaching group or a waitlist control group using awaitlist control, matched, randomised procedure (personality coaching group, N=27; waitlist control group,N=27).Method: A structured coaching programme, designed to identify and modify a limited number of personalityfacets, chosen by the client, was employed.Results: Participation in the personality change coaching programme was associated with significant positivechange in participant selected facets, with gains maintained three months later. Neither age of participantnor number of facets targeted significantly affected change outcomes. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a structured personality change coaching programme may facilitatebeneficial personality change in motivated individuals.Keywords: Intentional personality change coaching.

He further proposed that there would besubstantial advantages in gaining a betterempirical understanding of how personalitydomains might be beneficially modified.

Cuijpers et al. (2010) suggested that theeconomic costs of high levels of domainemotionality were substantial in terms ofboth health care costs and unemployment.they found that individuals who had higherlevels of trait emotionality were more vulner-able to a wide range of mental health disor-ders (e.g. depression, anxiety disorders,schizophrenia, eating disorders and person-ality disorders) and physical disorders (e.g.medically unfounded physical complaints,cardiovascular disease, asthma, and irritablebowel syndrome). their research suggestedthat in addition to the human costs, highemotionality impacted heavily on the healthsystem. their analysis suggested that theincremental costs (per one million people)of the highest 25 per cent of scorers onemotionality resulted in us$1.393 billion inhealth care costs.

these findings led Cuijpers et al. (2010)to propose that ‘we should start thinkingabout interventions that focus not on each ofthe specific negative outcomes of neuroti-cism [emotionality], but rather on thestarting point itself’ (p.1086). similarly, in areview of the mechanisms by which person-ality domains predict consequentialoutcomes, Hampson (2012) proposed that‘as evidence has mounted for the importantrole played by personality domains in conse-quential life outcomes, there is increasinginterest in the possibility of using this knowl-edge to bring about beneficial personalitychange’ (p.333). the findings from thesestudies suggest that empirical exploration ofpersonality change interventions is bothwarranted and timely.

it is, therefore, useful to explore the liter-ature around whether personality changeappears to be possible, and how that mightbe achieved. Martin et al. (2012) clarifiedthat, whereas some literature had arguedthat personality was relatively resistant tochange without long-term intensive interven-

tions (e.g. McCrae & Costa, 1994, 2003),findings from more recent literature castdoubt on this assumption.

a number of intervention studies havesuggested that personality is amenable tochange. tang et al. (2009) found thatgreater personality changes occurred indepressed participants in two treatmentgroups (i.e. anti-depressant medication andcognitive therapy over 16 weeks), comparedto a placebo control group, even afterrecovery from depression was controlled for.this study measured personality using theneo five-factor inventory (Costa &McCrae, 1992). participants taking anti-depressant medication reported over threetimes as much change on domain extraver-sion and over six times as much change ondomain emotionality than the controlgroup, even when matched for improvementin depression. significantly greater changeon domain extraversion was also recorded inthe cognitive therapy group than theplacebo group, after being matched forimprovement in depression. these findingssuggest that interventions used to treatdepression can have an effect on personality(domain level change) separate from itseffect on depression (state level change),and that interventions can achieve signifi-cant changes in personality domains in aslittle as 16 weeks.

similarly, De fruyt et al. (2006) foundthat treatment with medication and therapywas associated with a substantial reduction inneuroticism, and minor gains on extraver-sion, openness, agreeableness, and conscien-tiousness. furthermore, a six-week broadbased multimodal outpatient programmefor substance abusers achieved significantshifts on all five personality domains , withchanges on three domains being maintained15 months later (i.e. reduced emotionalityand increased agreeableness and conscien-tiousness)(piedmont, 2001).

a number of studies have explored ifinterventions can change the personality ofindividuals not suffering from psychologicalproblems. for example, nelis et al. (2011)


TitleIntentional personality change coaching

found that 18 hours of emotional compe-tence training resulted in longer termchanges in three of the five Big 5 personalitydomains. six months after the emotionalcompetence interventions participants wereless emotional and more extraverted andagreeable, with effect size suggesting thatsuch change was meaningful.

a meta-analysis of 16 transcendentalmeditation studies (orme-Johnson &Barnes, 2013) found that individuals whosescores on facet anxiety placed them betweenthe 80th and the 100th percentile rangeachieved significant reductions in facetanxiety (down to between 53rd and 62ndpercentile range) from 20 minutes of tran-scendental meditation twice daily. further-more, meaningful benefits were achievedwithin the initial few weeks, and effects weresustained at three year follow up. similarly, a 16-week inductive reasoning trainingprogramme for older adults increased thedomain openness to new experience overthe 30-week assessment period (Jackson etal., 2012).

spence and Grant (2005) assessed theimpact of 10 life coaching sessions on Big 5 personality domains (using both peerand professional coaching groups). person-ality change was not targeted by thecoaching interventions in this study (i.e. itwas an incidental measure). nevertheless,significant change was achieved on two offive domains (i.e. increased extraversion andopenness to experience) in the peercoaching group. this study provided someevidence that aspects of personality may beamenable to change through coaching, evenwhen not targeted. spence and Grant (2007)note, not surprisingly, that constructs thatare targeted by coaching interventions aremore likely to change than constructs thatare not, implying that if personality change isbeing observed in the absence of targetedefforts, then even greater change is likely tooccur if coaching specifically targets suchchange.

in the above intervention studies thatevidenced personality change, participant

selected personality change was not specifi-cally targeted. this observation suggestedthat stronger personality change results maybe achievable if: (1) participants consciouslychoose to change aspects of their person-ality; (2) they had professional support to dothis; and (3) professionals had access toevidence-based resources specificallydesigned to facilitate participant selectedpersonality change.

nevertheless, some may argue that whatwe are seeing in many of these cited studiesis state rather than domain based change.this state based explanation is unlikely, as,firstly, personality inventory items typicallyencapsulate more enduring views of self (e.g.‘i often feel inferior to others’. secondly, theduration of the change noted in some ofthese studies was substantial, (e.g. nelis et al.[2011] was six months, piedmont [2001] was30 months and orme-Johnson and Barnes[2013] was three years). finally, tang et al.(2009) found significant domain levelchange from their interventions, even aftercontrolling for state level change. Hence, incombination the above findings providesupport for the concept of personality beingamenable to change.

Consistent with this view, Magidson et al.(2012) proposed that personality domains,such as conscientiousness, may be amenableto change through bottom up behaviouralinterventions, and provided both theoreticaldiscussion of this possibility, and a case studyillustrating this approach. Dweck (2008)proposed that beliefs are a major determi-nant of personality, that beliefs can bechanged, and when beliefs change, so toodoes personality.

Martin et al. (2012) proposed that clientselected personality change could be bothbeneficial and achievable, using resourcesspecifically designed for this purpose. theydid, however, emphasise the importance ofpersonality change goals being determinedby the client, and internally motivated.Martin et al. (2012) further suggested thatthe five-factor Model of personalityprovides a useful model for exploring




Title

personality change, and that working at themore detailed facet level would be morebeneficial than working at the broaderdomain level. they proposed that the neo pi-r (Costa & McCrae, 1992), or areputable proxy, could provide a suitablemeasure of personality. Whereas theyacknowledged that personality change couldbe explored within either a one to onecoaching or counselling/therapy context,they recommended that ‘for clients withoutmajor psychopathology, personality changeinterventions may be more consistent withcoaching, and a coaching approach mayoffer certain advantages’ (p.189).

ten coaching sessions were proposed asan appropriate duration over which toinitially explore intentional personalitychange, based on positive outcomesachieved by a number of 10-session coachingstudies (Green, Grant & rynsaardt, 2007;spence & Grant, 2005, 2007). one-to-onecoaching with an appropriately trainedprofessional was recommended, due to: (1)the sensitive personal nature of personalityprofile material; and (2) the importance ofsuch professionals being well versed inpsychometrics and personality, and compe-tent working with emotional distress.furthermore, Martin et al. (2012) encour-aged empirical research to further explorethese notions.

to this end, Martin, oades and Caputi(2014) developed a step-wise process ofintentional personality change, drawing oncoach training material developed in anearlier phase of their research. the currentstudy is designed to empirically explorewhether these resources, applied over 10sessions of coaching, can facilitate change onparticipant selected personality facets. it wasconsidered important that the studyreflected participant preferences of havingthe flexibility to choose which facets weretargeted, and how many. therefore,different participants choose different typesand numbers of facets. as it was necessary to

avoid participants who chose a high numberof facets having a disproportionate influenceon the results, an average of the targetedfacets was calculated for each participant ateach data collection time. reverse scoringwas used for facets that clients wished todecrease. this averaged score was thentermed average targeted facet score (atfs)1,and this became the personality constructexplored. for example, if a client chose toincrease two facets (e.g. self-discipline andassertiveness), and decrease one facet (e.g.anxiety) then the scores for self-disciplineand assertiveness would be added to areversed score for anxiety, and the totalwould be divided by three. the result wouldthen be the atfs for that data collectionpoint. therefore, it was hypothesised that,firstly, the intervention group will havesignificantly higher atfs when compared tothe control group, and secondly, that therewould be significant increases in atfs overthe coaching period.

Method Participantstotal participants were 54 adults agedbetween 18 and 64 years (M=42.18,SD=12.44). participants consisted of eightmales and 46 females without majorpsychopathology (see procedures for exclu-sions). three individuals were excludedprior to the study, due to axis ii disorders.the 54 participants were assigned to thepersonality coaching group or the waitlistcontrol group using a waitlist control,matched, randomised procedure (person-ality coaching group, N=27; waitlist controlgroup, N=27). participants were firstlymatched on sex (male/female) and then onage range (18 to 30, 31 to 50, 51+ years). thefirst author randomly assigned individualswithin each group to either the coachinggroup or the waitlist control group. theparticipants that withdrew (six in the waitlistgroup and none in the coaching group)were replaced by individuals matched by age

Intentional personality change coaching

1 atfs=average targeted facet score.


Author name

grouping and gender. all waitlist controlparticipants that completed the 10 sessionsof coaching completed a personality inven-tory three months later. one participantfrom the personality coaching group did notfurnish a three month follow up personalityinventory, but their data was included inanalysis up to end of coaching. the compo-sition of the 54 participants by age andgender is summarised in table 1.

Experimental designtable 2 illustrates the study design, includingdata collection timing for the neo pi-r andkey research stages for the two groups.(other inventories were completed to assistcoaching processes, but changes in thesewere not measured over time).


Table 1: Age and gender of participants.

Age Female – Female – Male – Male – TotalCoaching Waitlist Coaching WaitlistGroup Group Group Group

18–29 4 4 1 1 1030–49 10 11 2 2 2550+ 8 8 1 2 19

Total 22 23 4 5 54

Table 2: Experimental design of study and NEO PI-R data collection timing.

Note: PCG=personality coaching group. WCG=waitlist control group. A–F indicate data collecting points.

PCGdata

A B C F

10 week coaching period

Waitlist period

12 week follow-up period

12 week follow-up period10 week coaching period

A C D E F

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32

PCGstages

WCGdata

WCGstages

Week

Measuresthe 240 item neo pi-r (Costa & McCrae,1992), a well-established personality assess-ment tool, was used to assess participantspersonality domains and facets. it includesstatements such as ‘When i do things, i dothem vigorously’ (facet activity), ‘i often feeltense and jittery’ (facet anxiety) and ‘i’m notknow for my generosity’ (facet altruism).participants responded on a five-point scale(0=strongly disagree, 4=strongly agree). theneo assesses five broad domains based onthe five-factor Model of personality, (i.e.emotionality, extraversion, openness, agree-ableness and conscientiousness). these fivedomains provide a more general descriptionof personality, whilst 30 facets allow for amore detailed analysis.

the neo pi-r has been validated againsta variety of other personality assessmenttools, and has a acceptable level of alpha reli-abilities (ranging from .56 to .81 for facetsand .86 to .92 for domains), and test-retestreliability (between .70 and .80 for mostfacets and domains)(piedmont, 1998).

Procedure participants were recruited by an article in alocal newspaper, an invitation to participateposted on a university website, and word ofmouth from existing participants. the onlyinitial eligibility criteria was that respondentsbe 18 years or older. subsequently, majorpsychopathology was excluded by askingthose participants who had one or moreemotionality facets on the personality inven-tory (i.e. anxiety, anger, depression, vulnera-bility, impulsivity or self-conscientiousness)in the very high range to also complete aMillon MCMi-iii (Millon, Davis & Millon,1997), an inventory which assesses for DSM-IV diagnoses. those individuals withaxis ii disorders, significant current alcoholand drug abuse, active psychosis or bipolardisorder were excluded from the study, andreferred to other services. participants werethen randomly assigned to either the person-ality coaching group (and completed a 10-week personality coaching programme)

or the waitlist control group (and completeda 10-week waiting period, followed by a 10-week personality coaching programme).

Coaching programmethe step-wise process of intentional person-ality change coaching that provided thecoaching programme framework for thecurrent study will be discussed in detail in aseparate article (Martin et al., 2014).However, a brief overview of the step-wiseprocess applied is illustrated in figure 1(overleaf).

participants in the coaching programmecompleted a neo pi-r directly beforecoaching commenced, and completed addi-tional neo pi-rs at session five (week five),session 10 (week 10) and again three monthslater (week 22). participants in the waitlistcontrol group completed a neo pi-r 10weeks before coaching commenced, andcompleted additional neo pi-rs directlybefore session one (week 10), session five(week 15), session 10 (week 20) and againthree months later (week 32).

During the first coaching session, partici-pants were provided with their personalityprofile, which included a description andgraphing of five broad domains and 30 facetsagainst population norms, based on theneo pi-r (Costa & McCrae, 1992). thecoach facilitated discussion on whether theparticipant would like to increase ordecrease a limited number of facets. thisdiscussion took into account participantvalues, motivational factors, and considera-tion of how facets helped or hindered themin everyday life. if the participant chose toincrease or decrease one or more facets, theycontinued in the programme, and changingthose facets became the over-riding goal ofthe coaching. Changes on the neo pi-rscores on the participant selected facets, inthe direction chosen by the client, becamethe measure of change. a coaching manualprovided a structured step-by-step coachingprocess, and incorporated a unique set ofchange intervention options for each of the30 facets. the facet change interventions





Figure 1: A step-wise process of intentional personality change.

Step 1: Assess personality and client valuesl Complete personality inventory and develop report.l Complete values inventory.

Step 2: Discover the current selfl Explore what is positive and problematic in the client's life. l Review client values questionnaire findings.l Review personality report.

Step 3: Explore gaps between the current and ideal selfl Clarify client’s ideal self.l Reflect on how current and ideal personality differ.l Explore what facet changes could help narrow this gap.

Step 4: Choose personality facet change goalsl Shortlist facets targeted for change.l Review consistency of proposed changes with values.

Step 5: Assess attitudes towards changel Assess motivation, importance, confidence and timeliness.l Manage ambivalent attitudes and/or review change goals.l Finalise list of facets to target for change.

Step 6: Design and implement coaching planl Choose change intervention options for targeted facets.l Develop and implement a coaching plan.

Step 7: Re-assess personality and review progressl Re-administer personality inventory (session 5).l Review progress and revise coaching plan (if necessary).

Step 8: Implement remaining coaching sessionsl Implement remaining coaching sessions, incorporating coaching plan revisions.

Step 9: Re-assess, review and maintainl Re-administer personality inventory (session 10). l Review progress towards personality change goals.l Develop a maintenance plan for targeted sub-trait change.

Step 10: Follow-up, review and refinementl Re-administer personality inventory (three months later). l Refine maintenence strategies for targeted facet change.

primarily reflected an eclectic mix thefollowing approaches; solution focusedcoaching, positive psychology, acceptanceand commitment principles and cognitivebehavioural techniques. further informa-tion on these steps and specific change inter-ventions, how they were developed, a clientexample, and an extract from the coachingmanual are provided in ‘a step-wise process

of intentional personality change coaching’(Martin et al., 2014).

Coaching was conducted by two regis-tered and seven provisionally registeredpsychologists who received training inpersonality coaching by way of: (a) atten-dance at a one-day workshop; (b) provisionof a coach training manual, developed in aprevious phase of the research; (c) comple-

tion of a research fidelity checklist after eachcoaching session; and (d) weekly one-hourone-to-one supervision, which includedreview of videoed coaching sessions.training and supervision was provided by:(1) the lead researcher in the study, whoalso facilitated the development of the step-wise process of personality change. she was aregistered psychologist, coach and phDcandidate, with extensive prior experiencein training. (2) the Director of the univer-sity psychology Clinic where the coachingtook place, who was a Clinical psychologist,and a psychology Board of australiaapproved supervisor. the majority of thecoaches (seven) were Master’s level clinicalstudents at a regional australian university.four coaches were also phD candidates. theMaster’s level clinical students were in theirfifth year of full-time training in psychology,and had a minimum of 60 hours of priorface-to-face client contact.

ResultsMixed design analysis comparing waitlist tocoaching group on ATFS over 10 weeksa mixed design analysis of variance(anova) with Group (waitlist versuscoaching) as the between subjects factor andtime (week 1 versus week 10) as the withinsubjects factor indicated a significant maineffect for time, F(1,51)=13.90, p<.001,hp2=.21. there was a significant interactioneffect between Group and timeF(1,51)=11.27, p=.001, hp2=.18. simpleeffects were used to analyse the interactioneffect. at week 1, there was no significantdifference in atfs between the controlgroup (M=13.02, SD=3.58) and the coachinggroup (M=13.51, SD=3.58), F(1,51)=.23,p=.63, hp2=.005. at week 10, the coachinggroup had significantly higher atfs(M=17.14, SD=4.67) than the control group(M=13.21, SD=3.34), F(1,51)=11.95, p=.001,hp2=.19. there was no significant simpleeffect for time for the control group,F(1,51)=.07, p=.79. there was a significantsimple effect for time for the coachinggroup, F(1,51)=24.63, p<.001, hp2=.33.

a graphical representation of the means forthe coaching group and waitlist group atweek 1 and week 10 is presented in figure 2(overleaf).

Repeated measures analysis of change in ATFSover timeas the logistics of having participantscomplete personality inventories part waythrough a waitlist period were consideredimpractical, week 5 measures were not takenfor the waitlist group. However, measureswere taken at week 5 during the coachingperiod. Consequently, a repeated measuresanova was performed in order to provideadditional information regarding whenchange occurred during the coachingperiod.

assumption tests revealed no violationsof normality; however Mauchly’s test indi-cated that the assumption of sphericity hadbeen violated. Consequently a Greenhouse-Geisser correction was applied. the resultsof the analysis suggested that there was a significant difference in atfs betweentime points over the coaching period,F(1.72,86.2)=36.63, p<.001, hp2=.42. Withinsubject contrasts indicated a significantlinear effect for time, F(1,50)=52.90, p<.001,hp2=.51.

in order to determine whether therewere significant differences in atfs betweeneach specific time point during the coachingperiod, a series of dependent sample t-testswere performed using a Bonferroni adjustedsignificance level of .016 which was calcu-lated by dividing a significance level of .05 bythe number of analyses (3). the results indi-cated that atfs was significantly higher atweek 5 (M=15.40, SD=3.86) as compared toweek 1 (M=13.45, SD=3.50), t(50)=–3.98,p<.001, r=.49. it was also found that scores onatfs were significantly higher at week 10(M=17.83, SD=4.28) as compared to week 5(M=15.40, SD=3.86), t(50)=–5.70, p<.001,r=.62. similarly atfs was significantly higherat week 10 (M=17.83, SD=4.28) as comparedto week 1(M=13.45, SD=3.50), t(50)=–7.27,p<.001, r=.72.





Figure 2: Average targeted facet score (ATFS) for coaching versus control group over a10-week coaching period.

a dependent samples t-test was used todetermine whether there were significantdifferences between participants’ atfs at the12-week follow-up as compared to the end ofthe coaching period (week 10). the results ofthis analysis suggested that participantsscores on targeted personality facets had notsignificantly declined between week 10(M=17.72, SD=4.26) and the 12-week follow-up (M=17.79, SD=4.71), t(49)=–.25, p=.80.furthermore, a second dependent samples

t-test indicated that participants’ atfs scoreswere significantly higher at the 12-weekfollow-up when compared to pre-interven-tion scores, t(49)=6.70, p<.001, r=.67.

Influence of age, gender and number of facetstargeteda multiple regression analysis was used todetermine whether age, gender and numberof facets targeted significantly predictedchange in atfs over the intervention


Title

period. the results suggested that thesefactors accounted for 3.7 per cent of the vari-ance which was non-significant, R 2=.10,F(1,49)=1.65, p=.19. the results of theregression analysis are summarised in table3 below.

Discussionthe results support the hypothesis thatpersonality change coaching can facilitatesignificant change in participant selectedfacets, in the direction desired by the parti-cipant. the significant changes achievedbetween sessions 1 and 5, and again betweensession 5 and 10 suggest that meaningfulchanges occur relatively early in thecoaching process, and are further consoli-dated by additional sessions. the incre-mental pattern of these changes raises thequestion of whether further personalitychange would be achieved by additionalsessions of coaching.

the findings of significant change inpersonality are in contrast with some litera-ture that proposes that personality is relativelyresistant to change without long-term inten-sive interventions (e.g. McCrae & Costa, 1994,2003). However, the current study’s findingare consistent with other literature (predomi-nantly published in the last five years) thatsuggests that personality is more amenable tochange than was previously thought (Boyce etal., 2012; De fruyt et al., 2006; Dweck, 2008;Jackson et al., 2012; Martin et al., 2012; neliset al., 2011; orme-Johnson & Barnes, 2013;robinson, 2009; tang et al., 2009). from acoaching perspective, it provides further

support for spence and Grant’s (2005) tenta-tive findings that personality changes mayoccur during 10 weeks of coaching (evenwhen personality change is not the goal ofcoaching). the stronger findings in thecurrent study on personality change (relativeto spence and Grant’s findings) are likelyattributable to personality change beingtargeted with interventions designed for thispurpose (i.e. spence and Grant only foundchanges on two of five domains, and with peercoaching only).

the current study’s findings provideempirical support for the proposition thattargeted personality change coaching canfacilitate change on targeted facets, if theparticipant is motivated to change. it alsoprovides empirical support for the step-wiseprocess of intentional personality changeproposes by Martin, oades and Caputi(2014). in so doing, it affirms the value of astructured coaching process, using resourcesspecifically designed for this purpose.

the finding that gender does not affectpersonality change outcomes may have beeninfluenced by the small number of men(N=8) participating in the study, and furtherexploration of this question with larger malesamples would be useful. no participantsover 65 years enrolled in the study, leavingthis age group unexplored. However, in the18 to 64 years age range enrolled in thestudy, age did not significantly affect capacityto change. this is encouraging as it suggeststhat intentional personality change can beachieved by motivated individuals through-out most, if not all, of the adult lifespan.


Table 3: Influence of age, gender and number of facets targeted on change in Averaged Targeted Facet Score (ATFS).

Variable B SE B b� p

Constant 7.06 3.75Number of facets targeted .68 .39 .24 .09Age -.01 .05 –.02 .90Gender -2.43 1.63 –.21 .14

the number of facets targeted did notsignificantly predict change in atfs. this issomewhat surprising as it might be expectedthat focusing on just one or two facets over10 sessions would achieve greater averagechange on targeted facets than focusing onfive or six facets, as each targeted facet wouldhave a greater number of coaching hoursavailable to work on it. for example,targeting just one facet would mean that 10hours of coaching could be available to facil-itate change on it, whereas if five facets weretargeted each of these targeted facets wouldonly have two hours, on average, applied tochanging them. one possible explanationfor this result is that participants who areexperiencing greater dissatisfaction withtheir personality may well target more facets,but may also have more scope for movementon facets targeted. similarly, individuals whoare functioning well may only wish to makeminor changes to one or two facets. Hencethe beneficial effects of more hours ofcoaching per facet for participants with lessproblematic personalities may be offset by afloor/ceiling effect. this ties in with the find-ings of orme-Johnson and Barnes (2013)that those individuals with higher levels ofanxiety benefitted most from a meditationintervention.

an alternative possibility is that interven-tions that target one problematic facet mayalso trigger changes on other problematicfacets. for example, if someone is low onself-discipline and high on anxiety, thenincreasing self-discipline (e.g. throughenhancing planning and organisationalskills) may in turn reduce anxiety (e.g.through reducing distress around the conse-quences of procrastination). similarly, devel-opment of certain facet change skills (e.g.challenging unhelpful beliefs and assump-tions, and learning to think in a more posi-tive and realistic way) may beneficially affectmany facets. for example, cognitivebehavioural interventions designed toreduce facet depression may have a benefi-cial effect on other targeted facets (e.g.anxiety, gregariousness, assertiveness). this

possibility is supported by a number ofstudies that suggests that a range of inter-ventions (not specifically targeting person-ality change) nevertheless may have wideranging beneficial impacts on personality(nelis et al., 2011; piedmont, 2001; tang etal., 2009).

the findings of the current study arerelevant to the literature in a number ofareas. from a coaching perspective, itprovides preliminary empirical validation ofthe step-wise process outlined in Martin,oades and Caputi (2014) and suggests thatstructured coaching may be an effectivemechanism for facilitating beneficial person-ality change in motivated individuals. thepreliminary validation of coaching as aneffective personality change process hassignificant implications for the coachingprofession, as it extends coaching practiceand research into a new and potentiallyexciting arena. it also raises questions aboutthe skills needed to competently undertakethis work. training in personality, psycho-metrics, and coaching, plus the capacity towork competently with psychologicaldistress, are likely to be important skills.

the findings of this study also raise ques-tions around the circumstances in whichpersonality change interventions are appro-priate. it is the authors’ opinion that ifpersonality change coaching were to beconducted in the absence of participantmotivation to change aspects of their person-ality, it would likely be ineffectual, and couldbe ethically problematic. Hence furtherexploration of, and debate around, how andif personality change coaching fits within anorganisational coaching context would bebeneficial (e.g. where an organisations maybe concerned about problematic personalityfacets/domains in a staff member).

from the perspective of personality liter-ature, the current study provides furthersupport for the plasticity of personality, andpreliminary empirical support for partici-pant selected intentional personality change.the capacity to intentionally change person-ality has implications from a number of



perspectives. firstly, the strong relationshipbetween personality and well-being (Boyceet al., 2012) suggests that intentional person-ality change coaching may potentially alsohave a significant impact on well-being.future research directly exploring whetherintentional personality change coachingresults in changes in well-being wouldusefully inform both the personality andwell-being literature.

furthermore, the capacity to changepersonality suggests a host of potential bene-ficial implications at the individual, interper-sonal and organisational/community level.Based on the associations found betweenpersonality and consequential outcomes byozer and Benet-Martinez (2006), modifyingpersonality could potentially have a benefi-cial impact on the following: spirituality,physical and mental health, longevity, self-concept and identity at the individual level;peer, family and romantic relationships atthe interpersonal level; and a range of occu-pational and community outcomes. thecurrent research responds to a need,expressed in the literature, to move beyondunderstanding what the consequentialimpacts of personality are, to exploring ifand how beneficial personality change canbe facilitated (e.g. Boyce et al., 2012;Cuijpers et al., 2010; Hampson, 2012).

a number of limitations of the currentstudy should be considered when inter-preting the findings. this study is a prelimi-nary investigation, using a relatively smallsample size. strong claims cannot be madeon the basis of a single study of this size,suggesting further empirical studies of thisnature would be useful. furthermore, thisstudy is based on just one construct ofpersonality (the five-factor Model ofpersonality), and one measure (i.e. the neopi-r self report).

participants were self-selected, and maynot be representative of the general popula-tion. researchers, including the first author,are currently exploring the gender, age andpersonality of individuals who chose tochange their personality, and possible impli-

cations for the findings of the current study.for example, participants in the currentstudy were predominantly women, and thepossible impact of this on outcomes deservesfurther attention. future studies using amore gender balanced sample, or a maleonly sample, would be useful. analysis ofparticipant personalities at the commence-ment of coaching suggested that certaintypes of personalities chose to change theirpersonality (e.g. those high on openness andemotionality) (allan, Leeson & Martin,2014). this may suggest that the findings ofthis study are relevant to certain groups ofindividuals, rather than the general popula-tion.

furthermore, assessment of change waslimited to self-report inventories with theinherent risks of (e.g. faking good andresponses being influenced by the goals ofthe coaching). Whereas personality ratingsby others are informative and desirable inmany contexts, it was considered less rele-vant in the current study. the current studywas focused on changing facets consistentwith the participant’s desire for change,rather than meeting others’ perceptions of,or preference for, observable change.furthermore, it is difficult for others to accu-rately assess change on some facets (e.g.fantasy, ideas). nevertheless, this is a signifi-cant limitation, and one that would benefitfrom future studies incorporating additionalmeasures (e.g. informant reports andbehavioural assessments). it is furtheracknowledged that repeated administrationof a questionnaire may impact responses.

the current study followed participantsfor three months after completion of theresearch; hence longer-term outcomes arenot know. future research of intentionalpersonality change, with longer follow upperiods, would further inform the literature.finally, whereas it is useful to know if person-ality change was achieved based on inventoryscores, the current study does not link thesechanges to consequential tangible lifeoutcomes. Whereas associations betweenpersonality measures and a wide range of




Author name

consequential outcomes is well established(e.g. ozer & Benet-Martinez, 2006), it isunclear whether intentionally changingpersonality will lead to changes in theseoutcomes (i.e. at this stage cause and effect isnot clear). in combination, these limitationssuggest that the current study’s findingsshould be viewed as preliminary. Hence,future studies addressing these limitationswould be useful. researchers, including thefirst author, are currently exploring partici-pants’ experiences of personality coaching,including the tangible life impacts of inten-tional personality change coaching (Martinet al., in press).

in conclusion, the current study providespreliminary support for the proposition thatintentional personality change, facilitated bya structured step-wise coaching process, ispossible. as personality is predictive of awide range of life outcomes, exciting possi-bilities are evident in the potential of inten-tionally changing personality. these findingsprovide a novel and important contributionto literature in the fields of personality,coaching and intentional change. they alsoinform coaching practitioners, and sugges-tion new opportunities for coaches with rele-vant skills. it is hoped that the current studywill provide an important foundation forfuture exploration in this area, and a usefulbeginning in understanding if intentionalpersonality change is possible, and how itcan best be achieved.

The AuthorsLesley S. Martinsydney Business school, university of Wollongong.

Lindsay G. Oadesaustralian institute of Business Wellbeing,sydney Business school, university of Wollongong.

Peter Caputischool of psychology, university of Wollongong.

CorrespondenceLesley Martinpo Box 5059,Wollongong, nsW 2500,australia.email: [email protected]



Title

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References

n tHeir paper ‘Who wants to changetheir personality…’ allan et al. (2014),assert:this paper will discuss personality changewithin a coaching context. Martin, oadesand Caputi (2012) proposed that clientmotivated intentional personality changeinterventions could be beneficial.

However, they omit to mention my subse-quent challenge to Martin et al. (McCredie,2013) that the evidence on which they basedtheir proposed causal link between shortcoaching interventions and personalitychange was unconvincing. in fact, theauthors of the sole source of coachingevidence (spence & Grant, 2005) cited byMartin et al. commented: ‘the current dataset does not permit any strong claim to bemade about the ability of coaching to influ-ence personality per se.’

allan et al. then proceed to cite asfurther ‘evidence’ Martin et al. (2013a andb), both of which are referenced as ‘unpub-lished manuscripts’, presumably unavailablefor inspection and comment.

there is an established, and still accumu-lating, body of evidence which relates the Big5 personality traits to deep-rooted biologicalmechanisms. in particular, eysenck (1967)located differences in neuroticism (akaemotionality) in the arousability of the auto-

nomic nervous system (ans, aka visceral-nervous or involuntary-nervous system)which functions mainly unconsciously, andcontrols visceral functions such as heart rate,digestion and breathing rate. Gray (1971)postulated that such arousability was theresult of early conditioning to threat, so thatthose higher on neuroticism were likely to bemore threat-sensitive. if short series ofcoaching interventions really do changedimensions of personality, it needs to bedemonstrated that they have an effect on thestructure and/or functioning of the under-pinning biological mechanisms. it will notsuffice merely to show changed self-reportpsychometric scores following coachinginterventions, as the latter may simply serveto increase a, formerly naïve, client’s impres-sion management (i.e. faking) responses.such possibility is likely to be even greaterwhen the coaching targets ‘client-motivatedpersonality change’ such as is envisaged byallan et al.

until such time as robust peer-reviewedevidence to support the causal link betweencoaching and personality change has beenmade publicly available, i suggest thatcoaching psychologists and their clientswould be better served by focussing on theachievement of more behavioural orpersonal objectives for which there is some


Response

Who wants to change their personalityand what do they want to change?A response to Allan, Leeson & MartinHugh McCredie

This paper is a response to the assertion by Allan et al. (2014) that personality, as measured by the Big 5factors, is amenable to change by coaching interventions. It challenges the evidence on which the assertionis made, the robustness of further evidence cited and argues that convincing evidence will only be found inchanges to the biological structures underpinning the Big 5 factors and/or their functioning. It questionswhether coaching interventions might be more suitably directed at the achievement of personal and/orbehavioural objectives.

I


Title

support (e.g. spence & Grant, 2005). asidefrom this, personality scores have only amoderate association with both overallperformance and specific behaviouralcompetencies, whilst the latter can be muchmore strongly predictive of overall effective-ness (McCredie, 2012). so why bother tryingto change personality?

The AuthorHugh McCredieBsc(Hons) Msc phD(Manc) Cpsychol,Chartered fCipD, afBpss.independent researcher/writer.vice-Chair the psychometrics forum (uK).

CorrespondenceHugh McCredieemail: [email protected]

Who wants to change their personality and what do they want to change?,

allan, J.a., Leeson, p. & Martin, L. s. (2014). Whowants to change their personality and what dothey want to change? International CoachingPsychology Review, 9(1), 8–21.

eysenck, H.J. (1967). The biological basis of personality.springfield, iL: Charles C .thomas.

Gray, J.a. (1971, 1987). The psychology of fear and stress(2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge universitypress.

Martin, L.s., oades, L.G. & Caputi, p. (2012). What ispersonality change coaching and why is itimportant? International Coaching Psychology Review,7(2), 185–193.

Martin, L.s., oades, L.G. & Caputi, p. (2013a)Intentional personality change coaching: A randomisedcontrolled trial of client chosen personality facet changeusing the Five-Factor Model of Personality.unpublished manuscript.

Martin, L.s., oades, L.G. & Caputi, p. (2013b). Clients’experiences of personality change coaching.unpublished manuscript.

McCredie, H. (2012). relating personality, competen-cies and managerial performance, Assessment &Development Matters, 4(3), 6–8.

McCredie, H (2013). What is personality changecoaching and why is it important? a response toMartin, oades & Caputi. International CoachingPsychology Review, 8(1), 99–100.

spence, C.B. & Grant, a.M. (2005). individual andgroup life-coaching: initial findings from arandomised, controlled trial. in M.J. Cavanagh,a.M. Grant & t. Kemp (eds.), Evidence-basedcoaching (vol. 1, pp.143–158). Bowen Hills,australia: australian academic press.

References

We appreCiate McCredie’s (2014)response to our article. it is verypleasing to see that the question of

whether personality change can be achievedvia coaching is continuing to generatediscussion amongst coaching and person-ality researchers. Having said this, we wouldcontend that the arguments raised byMcCredie do not change the interpretationof our findings. thus, the followingrejoinder will address the three main pointsthat McCredie raised in his response to ourrecent article. (1) that, considering themoderate findings of spence and Grant(2005) and that Martin, oades and Caputi(2014) has yet to be published, there is a lackof evidence for the effectiveness of coachingin producing personality change; (2) that,due to confounding factors associated withself-report measures, change at a biologicallevel needs to be demonstrated in order toprove personality change has occurred; and(3) that personality is only moderatelypredictive of specific behavioral competen-cies and overall performance and thus ‘whybother?’ trying to change it.

Lack of evidence demonstratingefficacy of coaching in producingpersonality changeWe agree that the spence and Grant article(2005) does not provide strong evidence ofthe efficacy of coaching in producingpersonality change when considered in isola-tion. However, it is important to evaluate thisstudy in the context of our overall argument.

there have been multiple studies usingdifferent interventions (e.g. therapeutic,drug and training) that have producedsignificant changes on self-report measuresof personality (De fruyt et al., 2006; nelis etal., 2011; piedmont & Ciarrocchi, 1999;spence & Grant, 2005; tang et al., 2009).furthermore, coaching has been found to bean effective intervention for producingtargeted change and shares a number ofcommon elements with therapeutic inter-ventions (Cox, Bachkirova & Clutterbuck,2010; theeboom, Beersma & van vianen,2014). Consequently, we feel that thisevidence, combined with the finding ofspence and Grant, would justify the explo-ration of the question of whether personalitycan be changed via coaching. this wasexplored by Martin, oades and Caputi(2014) and significant changes in person-ality were found. the Martin, oades andCaputi paper has since been submitted tothe International Coaching Psychology Review.Consequently, we are hopeful that thisarticle will soon be available for review andcomment.

Demonstrating change via biologicalmeasuresthere is indeed a growing body of literaturethat indicates that personality domains arerelated to biological mechanisms. However,in order to use changes in biological mecha-nisms to prove changes in personality a clearunderstanding of the functional neuro-anatomy of personality and how it can be


Rejoinder

Who wants to change their personalityand what do they want to change?A response to Allan, Leeson & MartinJonathan A. Allan, Peter Leeson, Filip De Fruyt & Lesley S. Martin


Title

measured is required. We would argue thatat present personality neuroscience has notyet reached this point.

De Young (2010a) posits, in his review ofpersonality neuroscience, that until recentlythere have been a relatively small number ofstudies exploring personality’s biologicalbasis. He also indicates that there is signifi-cant inconsistency in the personality neuro-science literature. He suggests that this maybe due to small sample sizes, which increasethe possibility of type i and type ii errors.thus we would argue that neuroscience isstill in the process of discovering howpersonality is instantiated in the brain andconsequently demonstrating changes inbiological mechanisms or structures wouldnot necessarily prove changes in personality.

McCreedie (2014) refers to eysenck’s(1967) theory that neuroticism is related tothe arousability of the autonomic nervoussystem. However, the evidence for this rela-tionship is mixed. for example, schwebeland suls (1999) found no evidence forneuroticism influencing cardiovascular reac-tivity in response to emotional or psycholog-ical stressors. in contrast, reynaud et al.(2012) found that fear induced skin conduc-tance response explained 22.5 per cent ofthe variance in neuroticism. reynaud’sresearch, while interesting, still presents aproblem if attempting to use fear inducedsCr as a measure of personality, because thedegree of unexplained variance leaves anunreasonably high chance that change couldoccur without being detected.

other research has explored the biolog-ical structure of personality via neuralimaging techniques. De Young et al.(2010b), using structural magnetic reso-nance imaging (Mri), found significantassociations between the big five and thevolume of certain brain regions. forexample, neuroticism was associated withreduced volume in the posteriorhippocampus, a brain region that has beenlinked with the control of anxiety. However,while this research is both important and

interesting the authors explicitly state ‘ourfindings do not provide definitive evidenceto allow generalisations about the relation ofvolume to function’ (De Young et al., p.826).thus considering the authors appear tenta-tive about suggesting a definite relationship,it would seem that significantly moreresearch is required before neuro-imagingmethods are able to serve as accuratemeasures of personality.

However, while the evidence suggeststhat current biological measures are not ableto accurately measure personality,McCredie’s (2014) point that self-reportmeasures may be subject to bias remainsvalid (although not unique to this study).thus, we would like to make clear that thisresearch is a first, and necessary, step indemonstrating the efficacy of coaching inproducing personality change, and that weare currently in the process of developing astudy which will incorporate observerreports to address limitations associated withself-report measures.

Personality is only moderately predictive ofspecific behavioural competencies andoverall performance and thus ‘why bother’?this comment would be valid if the currentarticle argued that the importance ofpersonality change was that it was associatedwith specific behavioral competencies andoverall performance. However, the argu-ment made in the current article is thatpersonality change would be beneficial aspersonality is associated with broader bene-fits. that is, personality is predictive ofphysical health, mental health, relationshipsatisfaction, happiness, life satisfaction, worksatisfaction and work performance (Barrick& Mount 1991; Malouff, thorsteinsson &schutte, 2005; Malouff et al., 2010; ploubidis& Grundy, 2009; steel et al., 2008; thoresonet al., 2003). We feel that if there is the possi-bility that an intervention can have a positiveimpact on these important and varied lifedomains, then it is certainly worth thebother.

Who wants to change their personality and what do they want to change?


Author name

CorrespondenceJonathan Allanpo Box 5059,Wollongong, nsW 2500,australia.email: [email protected]

Jonathan A. Allan, Peter Leeson, Filip De Fruyt & Lesley S. Martin

allan, J.a., Leeson, p. & Martin, L.s. (2014). Whowants to change their personality and what dothey want to change? International CoachingPsychology Review, 9(1), 8–21.

Barrick, M. & Mount, M.K. (1991). the Big 5personality dimensions and job performance: a meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26.

Cox, e., Bachkirova, t. & Clutterbuck, D. (2010). The complete handbook of coaching. California: sage.

Danner, D.D., snowdon, D.a. & friesen, W.v. (2001).positive emotions in early life and longetivity:findings from the nun study. Journal of Personalityand Social Psychology, 80, 804–813.

De fruyt, f., van Leeuwen, K., Bagby, r.M., rolland,J.p. & rouillon, f. (2006). assessing andinterpreting personality change and continuity inpatients treated for major depression. PsychologicalAssessment, 18, 71–80.

DeYoung, C.G. (2010a). personality neuroscience andthe biology of traits. Social and Personality PsychologyCompass, 4, 1165–1180.

DeYoung, C.G., Hirsh, J.B., shane, M.s.,papademetris, X., rajeevan, n. & Gray, J.r.(2010b). testing predictions from personalityneuroscience: Brain structure and the Big 5.Psychological Science, 21, 820–828.

eysenck, H.J. (1967) The biological basis of personality.springfield, iL: Charles C. thomas.

Malouff, J.M., thorsteinsson, e.B. & schutte. n.s.(2005). the relationship between the five-factorModel of personality and symptoms of clinicaldisorders: a meta-analysis. Journal ofPsychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 27,101–114.

Malouff, J.M., thorsteinsson, e.B., schutte, n.s.,Bhullar, n. & rooke, s.e. (2010). the five–factorModel of personality and relationship satisfactionof intimate partners: a meta-analysis. Journal ofResearch in Personality, 44, 124–127.

Martin, L.s., oades, L. & Caputi, p. (2014). Intentionalpersonality change coaching: A randomised controlledtrial of client chosen personality facet change using theFive-Factor Model of Personality. Manuscriptsubmitted for publication.

McCredie, H. (2014). Who wants to change theirpersonality and what do they want to change? A responseto Allan, Leeson & Martin. Manuscript submittedfor publication.

McCrae, r.r. & John, o.p. (1992). an introduction tothe five-factor Model of personality and itsapplications. Journal of Personality, 60, 175–215.


norris, C.J., Larsen, J.t. & Cacioppo, J.t. (2007).neuroticism is associated with larger and moreprolonged electrodermal responses toemotionally evocative pictures. Psychophysiology, 44,823–826.

piedmont, r.L. & Ciarrocchi, J.W. (1999). the utilityof the revised neo personality inventory in anoutpatient, drug rehabilitation context. Psychologyof Addictive Behaviors, 13, 213–226.

ploubidis, G.B. & Grundy, e. (2009). personality andall cause mortality: evidence for indirect links.Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 203–208.

reynaud, e., el Khoury-Malhame, M., rossier, J., Blin,o. & Khalfa, s. (2012). neuroticism modifiespsychophysiological responses to fearful films.PLoS ONE, 7. e32413.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0032413.

spence, G.B. & Grant, a.M. (2005). individual andgroup life-coaching: initial findings from arandomised, controlled trial. in M. Cavanagh,a.M. Grant & t. Kemp (eds.), Evidence-basedcoaching (pp.143–158). Bowen Hills, australia:australian academic press.

schwebel, D.C. & suls, J. (1999). Cardiovascularreactivity and neuroticism: results from alaboratory and controlled ambulatory stressprotocol. Journal of Personality, 67, 67–92.

steel, p., schmidt, J. & shultz, J. (2008). refining therelationship between personality and subjectivewell-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 138–161.

tang, t.Z., Derubeis, r.J., Hollon, s.D., amsterdam,J., shelton, r. & schalet, B. (2009). personalitychange during depression treatment. Archives ofGeneral Psychiatry, 66, 1322–1330.

References


Title

theebom, t., Beersma, B. & van vianen, a.e.M.(2014). Does coaching work? a meta-analysis onthe effects of coaching on individual leveloutcomes in an organisational context. The Journalof Positive Psychology, 9, 1–18.

thoresen, C.J., Kaplan, s.a., Barsky, a.p., Warren, C.r.& de Chermont, K. (2003). the affectiveunderpinnings of job perceptions and attitudes:a meta-analytic review and integration. Psycho-logical Bulletin, 129, 914–945.

Who wants to change their personality and what do they want to change?


THe perioD since last i wrote has beena busy one for the sGCp on many levels.at the forefront of my mind are the

preparations for our annual conference inDecember. this event not only celebrates 10years of the sGCp but is also the 4th inter-national Congress of Coaching psychology.entitled ‘Changing Lives, ChangingWorlds – inspiring Collaborations’, it is anevent that we hope really will inspire collab-orations, between both individuals andprofessional communities, for the benefit ofall concerned. to ensure that the contentlives up to the challenge of this suitablyambitious Congress theme, the scientificBoard is organising a highly diverse range ofstreams that guarantee relevance and value,as well as the opportunity to connect withcolleagues working in similar areas. a tasteof what is planned includes:l positive and Coaching psychology:

stress, resilience, Health and Well-being.

l Leadership, Business and executiveCoaching psychology.

l individual Development and Coachingpsychology.

l sport, performance and Coachingpsychology.

l Coaching psychology and MentalHealth: promoting psychological Well-Being through Coachingpsychology interventions.

l psychometric tools and theirapplication to Coaching psychology

the international Congress enables us tocelebrate what has been achieved, and learnmore about the difference that our excitingand innovative field can make to all areas oflife and work. However, it is also importantstrategically. Whilst undoubtedly gaining

gravitas, coaching psychology is arguably yetto have achieved the recognition it deservesfrom all branches of applied psychology. theinternational Congress provides a vitalvehicle through which we can demonstrateboth the distinctive features of coachingpsychology and its relevance to ourcolleagues across the member networks aswell as more broadly. so please show yoursupport by attending and promote it widelyamongst your colleagues within and beyondthe society. for more information visit ourconference website at http://sgcp.eu. therewill also be frequent updates on twitter(#sGCpconf14), Linkedin and facebook.

the title of our congress has led me toreflect upon what it actually means to‘inspire collaborations’. it would seem thatthis is a timely topic, at least based on myown experiences over the last few months. in april, i was invited to attend the northernireland Branch’s annual Conference wherethere is a keen group of coaching psycholo-gists hoping to discover how to gain the mostfrom their sGCp membership. Work in this

Report

Special Group in Coaching Psychology NewsSarah Corrie

area is being led by alison Clarke, a niBpscommittee member and member of sGCp.there is a strong desire to build a coachingpsychology community in ireland and thisgrowing interest was reflected in the decisionto have a distinct coaching psychologystream as part of the full conferenceprogramme. i was invited to promote thesGCp as a guest speaker which gave me theopportunity to describe the benefits of sGCpmembership, share our vision for the futureof coaching psychology and learn moreabout the work of our colleagues.

a further invitation that ‘inspired collab-oration’ came from the international Coachfederation where i delivered a workshop fortheir one day professional developmentevent in May. this event, entitled ‘transfor-mation: to Boldly Go…’, was intended tocelebrate international Coaching Week bycreating a full-day international eventfocusing on ways in which coaching could betransformative, both for those receiving andthose delivering coaching interventions.During the vice president’s openingaddress, the sGCp was mentioned by nameas a very welcome guest, a reminder that thewider coaching community wishes to linkwith us and recognises the sGCp as distinctin its contribution.

these invitations are not only pleasingbut also important. strategically, whilstretaining a firm sense of identity as a branchof applied psychology, the spirit of inclusivitythat underpins both the values and the activ-ities of coaching psychology means that wewill always see active engagement with a widevariety of organisations as part of our remit.

Certainly, our ability to create links hasworked well in terms of recruitment to thesGCp committee. our last call for nomina-tions proved very successful. Within theexecutive Committee, it is a pleasure to beworking with so many new members whobring fresh energy and perspectives to theaims and objectives of the sGCp. ensuringcontinuity is a challenge for a transient workforce, and we always welcome expressions ofinterest. if you think you might be in a posi-

tion to join the sGCp committee please doget in touch or come and talk to us at theinternational Congress in December.

there are, of course, many ways in whichyou can support your member network. oneof these is to consider joining or establishinga peer practice Group. We currently haveeight active groups throughout the uK andthe sGCp committee remains extremelygrateful to the work of our dedicated hosts,who take the time to run (typically) four tofive quality events per year for theirmembers. at this time, however, we wouldlike to focus the spotlight on two of ournewer groups who are looking for members.the first in Lewes, east sussex, is hosted byesmoreit sleyster, and the second, inWorcester, has just been launched by tonyfusco. please visit the website to find outmore about the groups and contact therespective hosts and if you are interested intaking part do get in touch via the websitecontact form.

a further way of supporting the sGCp,whilst accessing quality professional develop-ment, is to ensure that you attend our eventsprogramme. the event in april, steveKillick’s, ‘What's the story? using Metaphorand stories in therapy, Counselling andCoaching’ was very well attended, as wasJuly’s event where David somerville andDebra Winterson delivered an event enti-tled, ‘Changing the effects of procrastina-tion, self-sabotage and Disorganisation onsolo/small Business owners’. GurcharnDhillon, also Honorary secretary of thesGCp, will be delivering a professionalpractice workshop on a solution-focusedapproach in october. please also rememberthat we welcome proposals for fresh topicsand if you would like to deliver an event forthe sGCp, we would be delighted to hearfrom you. (You can find details of how to put forward a proposal by visitinghttp://www.sgcp.org.uk/sgcp/events/proposal-for-an-event.cfm). this is not only ameans of sharing your work and engagingwith like-minded colleagues but also a way inwhich we can capture the range of applica-


TitleSpecial Group in Coaching Psychology News


Author name

tions of coaching psychology to all areas oflife and work.

at the aGM in December, i shall bepassing the role of Chair to Dasha Grajfoner,who has been Chair elect for the past twoyears. During this time, we have established aclose working relationship and i am lookingforward to continuing that relationship fromthe position of past Chair. We shall be callingfor nominations for a Chair elect in duecourse. in the meantime, i hope that you willwelcome her to the role as warmly as youhave welcomed me. in a former professionallife, i was a classical ballet dancer where itwas well-recognised that one should neverfeel too confident about taking on a newrole. any role worth accepting challenges,stretches and develops the role-bearer andso, arguably, will always be approached witha degree of anxiety as well as feelings ofexcitement. in the performing arts this isunderstood as not only inevitable but alsonecessary if you are to do the role justice. soi know that Dasha will be experiencing arange of emotions as she steps into the rolein December and will appreciate yoursupport and a very warm welcome!

as this is my last Chair’s report for ICPR,this is also my opportunity to express mysincere thanks to my colleagues on thecommittee and at the British psychologicalsociety who have supported me during my

tenure. if asked to explain what ‘inspiringcollaborations’ conjures up for me, it wouldhave to be the commitment, diligence,creativity and vision of those talented indi-viduals who, over the last two years, havejoined me around the board room table, andparticipated in email dialogues and telecon-ferences too numerous to count. this hasbeen a chapter of my life that has inspiredme on many levels, allowed for some incred-ible learning, and opened up connectionsthat i hope will endure for years to come.the role of Chair has been a privilege andhas enriched my life and career in ways i could never have imagined. to all of you, i thank you.

there is still much to do to ensure thatcoaching psychology claims its placeamongst the other, longer-establishedpsychological disciplines. at the same time itis rightly attracting an increasing amount ofpublic and professional interest. inDecember we come together to celebratethis and think about the next chapter of howwe can unite to ‘change lives and changeworlds’. Join us.

With all good wishes.

Sarah CorrieChair, Special Group in Coaching Psychology.

Sarah Corrie


Report

Interest Group in Coaching Psychology NewsNic Eddy

4th International Congress on Coaching PsychologyMelbourne, 13–15 November 2014

‘Coaching excellence in practice’

THe unDerLYinG struCture to theCongress programme reflects thestrategy of the national Committee of

contributing to improving the standards ofcoaching practice in australia by offeringinsight into and access to best practicecoaching psychology research and practice.

Congress participants. Who do we hopewill attend?those coaches, psychologists and non-psychologist alike, who have a professionalapproach to their coaching practice – whonaturally aspire to 4th quartile performanceon behalf of their clients – who intrinsicallyunderstand the importance of continuingprofessional development as a crucial discipline.

there is an important second group weneed to reach if we are to be effective incontributing positively to coaching stan-dards. these are the Hr professionals andexecutives responsible for purchasing andevaluating coaching programmes in both theprivate and public sectors. those seeking toidentify factors that influence coachingprogramme effectiveness and hence howthey assess coaching providers.

the Congress is an opportunity to influ-ence the purchasing behaviour of clients sothat the marketplace pushes coaches towardsbest practice coaching.

Congress programme designeach keynote, workshop and panel willcontribute to exploring the contribution ofpsychology through an underlying compe-tency framework reflecting the four majorstages of a coaching assignment:l Determining client needsl Designl implementationl evaluation of outcome.and we will do this by exploring this contri-bution in different coaching applications orstreams:l Leadershipl performancel Well-beingl What constitutes coaching excellence in

practice?l Determining client needs and evaluating

outcome – from the client’s perspective.i encourage you to explore the programmeand register at:www.groups.psychology.org.au/events/CpiGconference2014

i look forward to meeting you inMelbourne in november!


Author name

Additional professional developmentactivitiesin addition to state Committee-organisedlocal pD events, we have also conducted twonational road shows with attention to smaller(by membership) states with events hostedin adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra and perth.thanks to the generous and engaging workby Donna Karlin and Dr sunny stout-roston.

Pro bonoin 2013, the iGCp nsW Committee devel-oped and delivered a pro bono coachingprogramme for the not-for-profit organisa-tion, relationships australia.

forty iGCp members offered to partici-pate significantly exceeding the programmedemand for 25 coaches. the coachingprogramme had pre- and post-measures aspart of its design: results are currently beinganalysed.

Qualitative feedback from the manage-ment team at relationships australia hasbeen positive to the extent that they areseeking a national rollout of the programme.a second not-for-profit organisation has alsoapproached iGCp to discuss the possibilitiesof a similar programme.

i would like to acknowledge the work byour nsW Committee and in particularly byMichelle de vries robbé in undertaking thispilot programme. it has been an excellentexample of the contribution of evidence-based psychology.

once again, i look forward to seeing you inMelbourne in november.

Cheers.

Nic EddyNational ConvenerInterest Group on Coaching PsychologyAustralian Psychological SocietyEmail: [email protected]

Nic Eddy

THE YARRA RIVER, MELBOURNE


Title

4th International Congress on Coaching Psychology

Melbourne 13-15 November 2014

Coaching Excellence in practice

This conference will explore the essential contribution of psychology to best practice coaching, in terms of the compounding benefits to the client through the four major stages of the coaching process: determining client needs, design, implementation and evaluating outcomes.

Our mix of keynote speakers, workshops and panels will provide delegates with stimulating ideas and practical techniques to improve their coaching practice.

Keynotes include Dr Sven Hansen on resilience; Prof David Lane on strengths; Prof Sharon Parker on pro- eople to make things

Alex Haslam on leadership.

Major subject streams

- Leadership - Performance - Wellbeing - What constitutes coaching excellence in practice? - Determining client needs and evaluating outcomes

16 workshops exploring our subject streams including - view on the pros and cons of the contribution of coaching in leadership development; enablers and blockers to proactivity at work; neuro research and implications on leadership decision making; strengths based approach to skills

and many more.

Who should attend?

Coaches (psychologists and non-psychologists alike) aspiring to best practice; and HR professionals/purchasers of coaching.

For program details and to register, see

www.groups.psychology.org.au/events/CPIGconference2014

We look forward to meeting you in Melbourne in November!


International Coaching Psychology Review– Volume index 2014

Volume 9, No. 1, March 2014

4 Editorial: ChangesMichael Cavanagh & Stephen Palmer

Papers8 Who wants to change their personality and what do they want to change?

Jonathan Ash Allan, Peter Leeson & Lesley S. Martin

22 Cross-cultural adaptation of the Brazilian version of the Depression, Anxiety andStress Scale (DASS) Tamara Cristine Pereira, Amanda Ayres, Tamires Marinho Pessoa, Gisele Pereira Dias,Stephen Palmer, Adriana Cardoso Silva & Antonio Egidio Nardi

38 Three windows of development: A postprofessional perspective on supervisionDavid B. Drake

51 Third-generation coaching: Striving towards value-oriented and collaborative dialoguesReinhard Stelter

67 Coaching individuals with perfectionistic tendencies: When high standards help and hinder Sarah Corrie & Stephen Palmer

81 Back to basics III: On inquiry, the groundwork of coaching and consultingErik de Haan

92 Born to be me… who am I again? The development of Authentic Leadership usingEvidence-Based Leadership Coaching and MindfulnessLaura Kinsler

Reports106 Special Group in Coaching Psychology News

Sarah Corrie



Volume 9, No. 2, September 2014

116 Editorial: Sandy Gordon & Stephen Palmer

Papers







Response


Rejoinder


Reports





The Congress is the culmination of a series of events to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the BritishPsychological Society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology. There will be two days of impressivespeakers, exciting and new topics and a broad range of masterclasses, skills workshops and scientificpapers covering the following themes:

� Coaching Psychology: An international perspective, sponsored by ISCP� Leadership, Business and Executive Coaching Psychology, sponsored by Meyler Campbell� Coaching Psychology and Mental Health: Promoting psychological well-being through

coaching psychology interventions� Coachee satisfaction and beyond: Working with coaching relationships that matter� Emerging conversations� Individual development and coaching psychology� Positive and Coaching Psychology: Stress, resilience, health and well,being, sponsored by ISMA� Psychometric tools and their application to coaching psychology� Sport, performance and coaching psychology

Our mission is to inspire individuals, organisations and communities to engage and collaborate withthe wider world of people, practice, learning and research.

We have an impressive line-up of speakers who are delivering new and exciting topics to share ideasfor transforming lives and worlds in the broadest sense to include: Dr Tatiana Bachkirova, Professor Sarah Corrie, Dr Vicky Ellam-Dyson, Professor Sandy Gordon, Dr Kristina Gyllensten, Dr Sophia Jowett, Dr Almuth McDowall, Dr Alanna O’Broin, Dr Siobhain O’Riordan, Professor Stephen Palmer, Dr Celine Rojon, Ole Michael Spaten, Professor Reinhard Stelter, Mr Dave Tee, Professor Mary Watts and Donna Willis.

Fees (inclusive of VAT)2 Day – SGCP member £396 1 Day – SGCP member £1442 Day – BPS member £420 1 Day – BPS member £1502 Day – Non member £444 1 Day – Non member £1562 Day – Student Rate £306 1 Day – Student Rate £84

(2 day fees include one nights accommodation at the Holiday Inn and the conference dinner)

This event is being administered by KC Jones conference&events Ltd, 01332 227775

4th International Congress of Coaching Psychology 2014

Changing Lives, Changing Worlds – Inspiring Collaborations

11-12 December 2014, Holiday Inn London Bloomsbury

For further information on the Congress please visit: www.sgcp.eu

4. Online submission process(1) All manuscripts must be submitted to a Co-ordinating Editor by email to:

Stephen Palmer (UK): [email protected] Gordon (Australia): [email protected]

(2) The submission must include the following as separate files:l Title page consisting of manuscript title, authors’ full names and affiliations, name and address for corresponding author.l Abstract.l Full manuscript omitting authors’ names and affiliations. Figures and tables can be attached separately if necessary.

5. Manuscript requirementsl Contributions must be typed in double spacing with wide margins. All sheets must be numbered.l Tables should be typed in double spacing, each on a separate page with a self-explanatory title. Tables should be comprehensible

without reference to the text. They should be placed at the end of the manuscript with their approximate locations indicated inthe text.

l Figures can be included at the end of the document or attached as separate files, carefully labelled in initial capital/lower caselettering with symbols in a form consistent with text use. Unnecessary background patterns, lines and shading should be avoided.Captions should be listed on a separate page. The resolution of digital images must be at least 300 dpi.

l For articles containing original scientific research, a structured abstract of up to 250 words should be included with theheadings: Objectives, Design, Methods, Results, Conclusions. Review articles should use these headings: Purpose, Methods, Results,Conclusions.

l Overall, the presentation of papers should conform to the British Psychological Society’s Style Guide (available at www.bps.org.uk/publications/publications_home.cfm in PDF format). Non-discriminatory language should be used throughout. Spelling should beAnglicised when appropriate. Text should be concise and written for an international readership of applied psychologists.Sensationalist and unsubstantiated views are discouraged. Abbreviations, acronyms and unfamiliar specialist terms should beexplained in the text on first use.

l Particular care should be taken to ensure that references are accurate and complete. Give all journal titles in full. Referencingshould follow BPS formats. For example:Billington, T. (2000). Separating, losing and excluding children: Narratives of difference. London: Routledge/Falmer.Elliott, J.G. (2000). Dynamic assessment in educational contexts: Purpose and promise. In C. Lidz & J.G. Elliott (Eds.),

Dynamic assessment: Prevailing models and applications (pp.713–740). New York: J.A.I. Press.Palmer, S. & Whybrow, A. (2006). The coaching psychology movement and its development within the British Psychological

Society. International Coaching Psychology Review 1(1), 5–11.l SI units must be used for all measurements, rounded off to practical values if appropriate, with the Imperial equivalent in

parentheses.l In normal circumstances, effect size should be incorporated.l Authors are requested to avoid the use of sexist language.l Authors are responsible for acquiring written permission to publish lengthy quotations, illustrations, etc. for which they do not

own copyright.

6. Brief reportsThese should be limited to 1000 words and may include research studies and theoretical, critical or review comments whose essentialcontribution can be made briefly. A summary of not more than 50 words should be provided.7. Publication ethicsBPS Code of Conduct – Code of Conduct, Ethical Principles and Guidelines.Principles of Publishing – Principle of Publishing.

8. Supplementary dataSupplementary data too extensive for publication may be deposited with the British Library Document Supply Centre. Such materialincludes numerical data, computer programs, fuller details of case studies and experimental techniques. The material should besubmitted to the Editor together with the article, for simultaneous refereeing.

9. Post acceptancePDF page proofs are sent to authors via email for correction of typesetting but not for rewriting or the introduction of new material.Corrections at this stage in production due to errors made by an author may incur a fee payable by the author or their institution.

10. CopyrightTo protect authors and publications against unauthorised reproduction of articles, The British Psychological Society requires copyrightto be assigned to itself as publisher, on the express condition that authors may use their own material at any time withoutpermission. On acceptance of a paper, authors will be requested to sign an appropriate assignment of copyright form.

11. Checklist of requirementsl Abstract (100–200 words).l Title page (include title, authors’ names, affiliations, full contact details).l Full article text (double-spaced with numbered pages and anonymised).l References (see above). Authors are responsible for bibliographic accuracy and must check every reference in the manuscript and

proofread again in the page proofs.l Tables, figures, captions placed at the end of the article or attached as separate files.

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