Most traditionalinterventiontechniquesfocusprimarily on the rational side of human behavior,neglectingthe non-rationalpatterns that are partand parcel of the human condition.'7 Many incom-prehensibleactivitiesin organizations("incompre-hensible" from a rational point of view, that is) arein fact indicators of what is really going on in theintrapsychicand interpersonalworld of the keyplayers, below the surface of their day-to-day rou-tines. This underlyingmental activity needs to beunderstoodin terms of how it resurfaces as fanta-sies, conflicts, defensivebehaviors, and anxieties.Thus, to be effective in leadershipgroup coaching,one must accept the notion that there is more tobehaviorin organizationsthan meets the eye, arealizationthat can be anathemato far too manytraditionalorganizationaldevelopmentpractitio-ners. People who deny the reality of unconsciousphenomena-whorefuse to take them into consid-eration-increasethe gap between organizationalrhetoricandreality.Onlythoseleadershipcoacheswho have had some training in psycho-logicaltechniquesand methods,in combinationwith intensiveexperienceof life in organizations,are equippedto be most effective in this domain.Those "coaches" who are lacking training andexperiencein thesetwo fundamentalareasarelikely to do more harm than good. It is often hard topredict how a coachingarrangementwill evolve.What starts as a simpleattempt to bring aboutdesiredchangesin specificcognitiveskills mayturn into somethingfar more complicated.Too of-ten, issuesthat executivespresentrequire morethan simple,surfaceinterventions.Thus leader-ship coaches are not trainers. By definition, a sim-ple training perspectiveis far removed from anyform of reflection and introspection.Most trainersdon't havethe expertiseto recognizethe oftendeeply rooted nature of specific problems. To illus-trate, a leadershipcoach who has not been ex-posedto the basicsof dynamicpsychotherapywould most likely not recognize the presenceof apsychologicalproblemunderlyinga complaintaboutleadershipstyle.Furthermore,ameretrainer would probably not recognizetransferen-tial issues (see sidebar), a critical dimension of thebipersonalfield (and a natural occurrence in anymeaningfulinterpersonalrelationship).'8 Becausethe leadershipcoachingprocessoften awakensdeep-seatedpsychologicalproblems of a charac-terologicalnature, raising issuesthat need muchmore than a simple coaching intervention, leader-ship coaches who do not have solid psychologicaltraining are woefullyunequipped.They may ig-nore the problem, assumingthat it has nothing todo with the workplace. Personality problems don'tsimply go away, however.A leadershipcoach'sinabilityto recognizesuch problems, or the ten-dency to downplaythem, can have detrimentalresults for individual and organization. Along withfailing to get the best out of an individual or exec-utive team-inthe process harming the companyand even potentiallydestroyingcareers-poorlytrained leadershipcoachesmay fail to recognizemental disorders,an omissionthat can be evenmore devastatingfor all concerned.
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