Developing Leader Consciousness through Executive Coaching

There are limitations in the executive coaching literature, particularly in relation to ‘how’ coaching processes, that seek to work at a deeper more psychodynamic level, the unconscious, work. This paper presents the research findings from a qualitative study which explored the socially constructed lived experiences and understandings of senior leaders who had engaged in a particular executive coaching process. The aim of the research was to deepen understandings and reveal ‘what goes on’ when senior leaders engage in a psychodynamic executive coaching experience, to understand further the actual process(es), the ‘how’ of leader development.