Developing Adaptive Expertise in Executive Coaching

Abstract

Although the coaching industry appears to place great value on developing coaching effectiveness, absent from the discourse is coach decision-making. This study explored the construct of adaptive expertise judgement under uncertainty, in order to better understand ‘good coaching’. A case study approach, within an interpretative epistemology, entailed the separate videoing and debriefing of two coaching sessions. Findings suggest a need for coaches to create a framework for critiquing their own reasoning, with implications for coach education and research. One question that arises from this study is how we understand nonconscious drivers of coach decisions.