Research: Want to Join an Executive Coaching Study?

Thanks, Dave, for the invitation. Could you say a little more about your project?

Thank you for your interest Francine.

This study is the first of its kind to validate a corporate coaching competency skill set.

Most proficiency and competency skill sets being used by coaching schools and certifying agencies are not yet validated.

The ICF is coming on board with a world wide study to do this with their 11 core competencies used for certifying coaches.

If coaching is to be taken seriously as a professional field, our skill sets must be thoroughly researched and validated.

Thank you again for your interest.

Dr. Dave Hale
http://www.HiPerCoaching.com

I would caution coaches about volunteering for this study at present. There is too little information about the study, the safeguards of data, the approval from the university, the methodology, and most importantly the literature the study is based on. There is nothing “cutting-edge” about it and the person who requested this may be unfamiliar with the dozens of studies and published works on the exact same topic: key skills for executive coaches. Don’t waste your time replying till research experts at the Coaching Commons have reviewed and approved this.

Thank you for your message Fran. To correct a few points, the message in this forum about my study was written and posted by those you mention who should review it.

I apologize on my end for any miscommunication or the brevity of information provided in the initial message. I have researched this area and probably every study completed in the past 15 years.

Again, I greatly appreciate your comments and input. I agree that the initial information was not adequate to develop a personal opinion of the content, means, and validity of the study. I have posted below more information concerning this.

Thank you again,

Dr. Dave Hale

Development of a Core Competency Skill Set for Executive Coaches

Purpose: You are invited to take part in a research study. The purpose of this study is to develop a core competency skill set for executive coaches. The information you provide will be matched with that of other participants. Those items found to reach like opinion, will be combined into a core competency skill set for executive coaches.

Procedure: If you agree to participate in this study, you will be asked to provide answers to demographic and coaching methodology questions. The questioning will consist of three rounds of surveys, with this survey, being the first. Surveys will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Potential Risks and Benefits: There are no known risks in this study. However, you may withdraw at any time and you may choose not to answer any question that you feel uncomfortable answering.

There are no direct benefits to you in participating in this research. No incentives are offered. However, your participation in this study will help the executive coaching industry know more about the knowledge, methods, and skills of top executive coaches.

Anonymity / Confidentiality: The personal information collected in this study is confidential. All data is coded such that your email address and name are not associated with them. In addition, the coded data are made available only to the researchers associated with this study.

Voluntary Nature of the Study: You have the right to withdraw from the study at any time without penalty. You may omit questions in any interview if you chose not to answer them.

Research Personnel: The following people are involved in this study and may be contacted at any time: Dr. David P. Hale, 803-788-0289 or via email at davidphale@yahoo.com; Dr. William Shriner, email wshriner@ncu.edu; or the Institutional Review Board, 10000 University Drive, Prescott Valley, AZ 86314, telephone 888-327-2877.

We would be happy to answer any questions you may have concerning the study. Please direct all questions to Dr. David P. Hale.

Thanks for the additional information, David. Your point about the lack of evidence re: coaching competencies, certification standards is well taken. This topic is of great interest. And, in my view, numerous studies will be required before there is a solid ground for the development of a substantive theory of what coaches really do need to know and be able to do.

A few years ago, I co-authored a paper on a related topic – Relational Flow: A Theoretical Model of the Intuitive Dance.
It is available for download from The Foundation of Coaching Research Repository http://repository.thefoundationofcoaching.org/research

Jeff Auerbach presented a paper a few years ago at an ICF Research Symposium on a study he had conducted re: coaching comptencies. The challenge is finding ways for the various groups and individuals exploring these questions to share information and results so that there is a multi-dimension and multi-faceted perspective on the issues of coaching competencies, coach training and certification/credentialing.

By the way, I’m a fellow faculty member at NCU.

We’d be willing to consider letting our members and subscribers know about this study. Many of them would be potentially eligible to participate. However, we have a research panel that reviews all requests for participation and they would have to approve the distribution of the request.

You can read our research guidelines at http://www.peer.ca/researchguides.html

The key element based on what you have already provided will be the literature review section. Our Panel places considerable emphasis on the relationship between the literature review and how it informs the current research question. They also place considerable emphasis on how well you make a case for the importance of the study. Would you be able to include this with your request to distribute your call for participants?

Rey Carr

Hi, all – I think this is a great use of The Coaching Commons: to post opportunities to participate in coaching-related academic research, and I have read with interest the comments. As Director of Research for The Foundation of Coaching (a sister project of The Coaching Commons), I want to help promote and support coaching-related research and make all such valid opportunities available to those who are interested, as well as supporting a community of coaching researchers to know and share what they are doing. So, the Commons seems ideal for this. I think we all share similar concerns about misuse of this opportunity (or, in fact, of any research!). Thanks, Dave and Francine, for your posts – and for raising this issue!