The Duality Within

Abstract

Every executive coaching engagement is its own adventure involving the complex interplay of many factors. These factors include how the coaching was initiated, the executive’s interest in the coaching, his or her career aspirations, the company culture, and chemistry with the coach. This interplay is exponentially complicated when, as with this engagement, the coaching is focused explicitly on a struggling boss-subordinate relationship in a company where coaching had not been used at the senior executive level. In this case, an Asian American woman reported to a Frenchman in a male-dominated culture that placed little emphasis on leadership development.