Description
Lessons from an Executive Coach is designed to help coaches, at any stage in their careers, to understand the realities of executive coaching. That is, to gain an insight into what it is like to sit down with a range of very different clients and work with each of them as their coaching journey unfolds and evolves.
Drawing on his own extensive experience, master coach Iain McCormick helps readers learn not by setting out the dry theories and processes of coaching, but by presenting a series of engaging, fictionalized case stories in a way that is designed to reveal the challenges, successes, failures and insights inherent in each. From Adam, a middle manager whose story reveals the enduring positivity at the heart of the coaching mindset, to Amanda, a young accountant whose story reveals how learning can still take place even if goals are not met. Lessons from an Executive Coach offers a colourful and accessible account of coaching in action from both the client’s and the coach’s perspective.
Audience
Lessons from an Executive Coach coaches (especially executive and leadership coaches), coach supervisors, executives, managers and leaders with an interest in coaches, learning and development professionals, people and culture managers, coach trainers, coach educators, academics; general readers with an interest in coaching and self-development.
Author
Iain McCormick is Founder of the Executive Coaching Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. After training in clinical psychology and completing a PhD on work stress in Antarctica, he moved into organizational consulting and
coaching, becoming a Partner in Deloitte and working in Canada and New Zealand. Moving to Hong Kong, he helped build a consulting firm that was sold to a US multinational.
Iain returned to New Zealand in 2000 and founded the Executive Coaching Centre. He coaches boards of directors, chief executives and senior managers. He has conducted many thousands of individual and team sessions, as well as publishing over 100 articles and book chapters and several books. He has received several awards including the Jamieson Award for significant contributions to organizational psychology in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Content
1. Introduction
2. The Story of Coaching and its Impact
3. The Bali Moment: The Client Finds Her Own Unique Solution
4. The Problem Isn’t That: Getting to the Heart of the Presenting Issue
5. What Questions: Using Provocative Inquiry to Facilitate Change
6. The Power of Reflection: Holding a Mirror for the Client
7. Constructive Yet Challenging: The Power of Empathic Confrontation
8. Reflective Feedback: The Reality as the Coach Sees It
9. Holding To Account: Collaborative Responsibility
10. When The Going Gets Tough: Keep Going
11. Changing The Lens: The Value of Reframing
12. Using Your Gut: Instinct as a Driver of Change
13. When Insight Is Enough: Sometimes Telling the Story is Sufficient
14. Schema Coaching: Letting Stress Go
15. Coaching Coaches and the Power of Deliberate Practice
16. When to Refer On: You Can’t Coach Everyone
17. You Cannot Win Them All: We All Fall Short Sometimes
Details
Publisher: Illuminate an imprint of Pavilion Publishing and Media Ltd
ISBN: 9781803885155
Expected publication date: April 2026
Jonathan Passmore, a globally recognised, multi-award winning thought leader in organisation and people development. Chartered psychologist and accredited coach and supervisor –
Approach this book with curiosity and courage. Executive coaching, at its best, is a disciplined dialogue in service of better leadership, but at its heart it’s just a conversation between two people. Iain is refreshingly realistic about that. This series of thought-provoking case studies by a very experienced professional will help coaches at the beginning of their career to understand the reality and complexity of their work, and for those in later stages it illustrates the breadth of approaches that can effectively be used.
Richard Boyatzis, PhD, Distinguished University Professor, Case Western Reserve University –
This is a marvellous integration of experienced practitioners’ practical wisdom in coaching. It shows how specific goals and fixation performance deters the process from effective change. The emphasis must be on the quality of the relationship with shared sense of purpose and caring.