Coaching Conversations and Leader Self-Awareness

Abstract

Executive coaching is widely used to build self-awareness, yet little is known about which conversational moves help leaders see their own behaviour more clearly. We analysed 160 recorded coaching sessions and linked them to multi-source feedback collected before and after twelve months of coaching. Sessions in which coaches asked reflective questions, offered specific observations and checked the leader's interpretation were followed by the largest gains in self-other agreement. Advice-giving showed no such pattern. The findings suggest that coaching works best when it slows judgement and invites leaders to test their assumptions against evidence from colleagues.