What is the role of the Appreciative Executive Coach?
The primary role of the Appreciative Executive Coach is to listen to the colleague and ask questions that promote reflection on personal and professional strengths, probe assumptions, and explore options, all within the context of the colleague’s organizational culture. To the colleague it may feel like a journey in uncharted (and confusing) territory, like a maze. The coach helps to guide the colleague into the maze, then accompanies and encourages the colleague on the journey through the maze, The coach does not map out or prescribe the quickest, most efficient path through the maze because the coach typically does not know that path in advance any more clearly than the colleague does. What the coach usually has to offer is a broad range of approaches that can help the colleague develop the skills, knowledge, insight, and motivation to embark upon and persist in the journey through the maze. The added value of this appreciative process comes from the additional outcomes beyond just “
