Business Psychology @ Work I CART
Feel free to call us: +61 7 3010 9735
My research activities has centered around strength-based leadership, high performing teams and climate change leadership. I conducted the largest controlled trial done to date on the impact of strength-based leadership coaching on transformational leadership. I have also published on talent management, evaluation, positive leadership, team coaching and readiness for change. I am currently researching the critical components of effective climate change leadership in organisations and have completed a chapter on a strength-based approach to sustainability leadership. I published the Handbook of Climate Change Leadership in Organisations in 2024.
This chapter traces the evolution of strength-based leadership within the broader context of positive psychology, identifying three distinct developmental phases. Initially focused on identifying and amplifying positive traits and states, strength-based leadership matured through recognition of the risks of overuse, limited context sensitivity, and excessive individualism. The second wave introduced balance by integrating negative emotions, meaning, and context, while the third wave foregrounds situational, ethical, and planetary concerns. Strengths are now increasingly assessed and developed not only for individual efficacy but also for team, organizational, and systemic impact. The entry reviews the psychometric and methodological implications of strengths assessment, the nuanced relationship between strengths and leadership outcomes, and the shifting purpose of strengths use towards self-transcendence and sustainability. Limitations and research gaps are identified, particularly around context-sensitivity, measurement validity, and the need for systemic outcome indicators.
Conventional leadership has failed in its responsibility to mitigate the adverse environmental impact of corporations and organizations. This chapter discusses the evolution of a post-conventional models of leadership, specifically climate change leadership, that are designed to transform the purpose of business into a sustainable and regenerative planetary enterprise that benefits all stakeholders, including the biosphere. The psychological determinants of climate change leadership are reviewed with a particular focus on the pro-environmental aspects of behavior, cognition, and emotion. The chapter also discusses some of the barriers to the implementation of climate change leadership including the tensions and polarities that are impeding progress. Some suggestions for the management of these polarities are discussed before the chapter concludes with a review of the research and challenges of developing climate change leaders for the age of sustainability.
Human activity is causing climate change, resource depletion and environmental degradation at an unprecedented rate. Organisations including corporations are responsible for a for significant proportion of direct and indirect emissions that are contributing to anthropogenic global warming (AGW), biodiversity loss and environmental pollution. Corporate leadership has spectacularly failed to address these issues and now requires a fundamental repurposing for the age of sustainability. This chapter introduces the foundations, transitions and progressions necessary for effective climate change leadership in organisations. Corporations are both a significant source of anthropogenic global warming and the repositories of significant resources and talent that can be repurposed to address the existential issue of climate change. Biases that have for so long protected business leaders from the long-term, glacial and perceptual challenging consequences of our consumption are breaking down in the face of incontestable evidence of adverse and potentially catastrophic planetary impact. Business can be both a significant cause of climate change and instrumental in the transformations necessary to mitigate the adverse social and environmental impact of corporate activity and promote sustainable flourishing and planetary regeneration.
Developing climate change leadership (CCL) in organisations has become of critical importance in closing the gap between the impact and intent of current corporate sustainability. However, whilst the qualities of effective climate change leadership remain relatively under-researched, it is challenging to know which capabilities and competencies to prioritise in terms of development. This chapter focuses on the current research in this area and outlines the foundational and complimentary skills necessary for both individuals, teams and organisations in their quest to develop the necessary leadership structures and capabilities for a thriving and responsible corporation in the context of a healthy and regenerative planetary environment. In addition, developing CCL’s will be discussed at both the individual and programmatic level and the balance between inner development (mindsets, values, and worldviews) and external development (purpose, structure, and governance) will be discussed in pursuit of a business sector that actively promotes and aligns with the sustainable development goals (SDG’s).
Positive leadership development offers access to a range of new theoretical and evidence-based approaches that have the potential to refine and enhance how leaders and leadership are developed in organisations. To date there is no grand unifying theory of leadership, studies on leadership development vary significantly in their efficacy (Avolio, Reichard & Hannah et al, 2009) and the evidence base continues to lag behind practitioner applications (Aguinis & Cascio, 2008). Leadership development consumes an estimated $50 billion annually (Bolden, 2007) in the US alone and yet many programs lack a substantial evidence base or coherent theoretical rationale (Brinner, 2012). This review aims to outline some of the potential contributions that the emerging field of positive leadership development can make to enhancing leadership development effectiveness.
Buy from this website or download a sample chapter here.
Objectives: The objective of this research was to investigate the use of multisource feedback in assessing the effectiveness of a strength-based coaching methodology in enhancing elements of the full range leadership model. It also investigated the effects of self-other rater alignment on leadership outcomes after coaching.
Design: A between-subject non-equivalent control group design was used to explore the impact of strength-based coaching on transformational leadership behaviours measured in a 360-degree feedback process. Thirty-one executives and senior managers from a large not-for-profit organisation were non-randomly assigned to either a coaching or waitlist cohort.
Methods: The coaching cohort received six sessions of leadership coaching involving feedback on leadership and strengths, goal setting and strengths development. After 6 sessions of coaching over three months, cohorts then switched roles.
Results: The results showed that participants experienced statistically significant increases in their transformational leadership behaviour after coaching and this difference was perceived differentially at all levels within the organisation but not by the participants themselves. Raters at higher levels in the organisation were the most sensitive to change. The results also showed that self-other rater alignment was a significant factor in self-ratings of change over time with those participants who initially over-rated themselves, reducing their ratings over time as a consequence.
Conclusion: The results suggest that changes in coachee transformational leadership behaviour after leadership coaching are perceived differentially by rater level within an organisation and that self-other rater alignment is an important moderator of self-ratings over time.
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract; This evaluation survey was conducted following a leadership coaching program in which 37 senior leaders and managers participated. The survey aimed to examine the impact of the leadership coaching program in terms of both formative evaluation or how the program was delivered and summative evaluation or the broader impact of the program. A total of 105/250 individuals responded to the survey giving a response rate of 42%. Quantitative analysis showed that respondents were extremely positive about the relevance of the program to developing leaders at their organisation and the level of the intervention. In terms of effective elements of the program, the coaching relationship received the highest scoring responses. Respondents reported perceiving significant positive change at the individual, team and organisational level and these changes were attributed to the coaching program. For changes at the individual and team level, there was a significant trend for participants and raters to perceive greater changes than other employees. This trend was also apparent when the results were analysed by level with those higher in the organisation perceiving the greatest change. A conservative calculation on the return on the investment (ROI) gave a figure of 856%. Specific recommendations from the program in relation to how the program could be run more effectively and how the leadership coaching could be more effectively integrated into the organisation are discussed.
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract: This study investigates the impact of coachee readiness for change and core personality traits as both criteria and predictors of outcomes after strength-based leadership coaching. Specifically this study examined developmental readiness, change readiness and core self-evaluations (CSEs; locus of control, neuroticism, self-efficacy and self-esteem), in the coachee to measure both their capacity to predict changes in transformational leadership and to act as outcome criteria in themselves after coaching. Thirty executives and senior managers from a large not-for-profit organisation were assigned to either a coaching or waitlist cohort using a between-subjects non-equivalent control group design. The coaching cohort received six sessions of leadership coaching involving feedback on leadership and strengths, goal setting and strengths development. After six sessions of coaching over three months, cohorts then switched roles. The results showed that participants in the waitlist first group declined in both developmental and coaching readiness whilst waiting for coaching. For the coaching first group their CSEs increased significantly over time but this was not the case for the waitlist first group. Only change readiness at Time 1 and CSEs at Time 2 were significant predictors of enhanced leadership effectiveness after coaching. The results suggest that these coachee variables are potential outcome criteria and predictors of change after leadership coaching.
Click the link below to view.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can view the content. Click HERE to login.’] VIEW [/usersultra_protect_content]
Summary: This chapter describes the theory and practice of taking a strength-based approach to leadership coaching.
Click the link below to view.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can view the content. Click HERE to login.’] VIEW [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract: This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of a strength-based coaching methodology in enhancing elements of the full range leadership model, especially transformational leadership. Transformational leadership is the process whereby leaders engage and influence their followers towards attaining a shared vision through their capacity to inspire, innovate and personalize their attention. A between-subject non-equivalent control group design was used to explore the impact of strength -based coaching on transformational and transactional leadership behaviors measured in a 360-degree feedback process. Thirty-seven executives and senior managers from a large not-for-profit organization were non-randomly assigned to either a coaching or waitlist cohort. The coaching cohort received six sessions of leadership coaching involving feedback on leadership and strengths, goal setting and strengths development. The coaching protocol was manualized to ensure some methodological consistency between the 11 executive coaches providing the intervention. This involved providing a written manual to each coach and coachee that outlined the required coaching process for each session. After 6 sessions of coaching over three months, cohorts then switched roles. The results showed that participants experienced highly statistically significant increases in their transformational leadership behavior after coaching and this difference was perceived at all levels within the organization but not by the participants themselves. Adherence to the strength-based protocol was also a significant predictor of ultimate degree of change in transformational leadership behavior. The results suggest that strength-based coaching may be effective in the development of transformational leaders.
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract: To date there have been no universally accepted criteria for what constitutes a successful outcome in executive coaching. This has been partly a function of the range of activities undertaken within the coaching medium and partly the fact that commercial realities mitigate against controlled trials teasing out mediating and moderating variables. Consequently we may need to look elsewhere for some inspiration in how to assess outcome in executive coaching. Both the training and psychotherapy literature have a long history in addressing the problem of evaluating outcomes in their respective domains. The Kirkpatrick model of four-stage evaluation is now nearly 50 years old and suggests key criteria for the effective evaluation of training and management development interventions. The psychotherapy literature has by necessity advocated controlled trials of different therapies and established key process and outcome variables that predict an effective intervention. Incorporating some of their key insights and findings on evaluation should help to accelerate the executive coaching evidence base.
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract: The strengths assessment protocol included the peak experiences interview and self- report data from Realise 2 Inventory. The Realise 2 Inventory also provided a useful model for the coaching process as it separates coachee behaviour into four quadrants; realized strengths (those that were known and utilized), unrealized strengths (those that were known but underutilized), learned behaviors (those that were competent but not energizing), and weaknesses (where both competence and energy were low). Crucially this study also included the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) 360 which provided transformational leadership data beyond the level of self-report. Strengths were then developed through a four stage process of identification, pairing with other strengths, alignment with business goals and utilisation to check for over or underuse. Adherence to this protocol was predictive of subsequent increases in transformational leadership behavior.
The impact of this approach was evident beyond the individual: we found highly significant increases in both transformational leadership and leadership outcomes (effectiveness, satisfaction and extra effort) as reported by all raters in the 360 assessment. These changes are perceived differentially throughout the organization: managers were the most sensitive to leader‘s change in behaviour followed by peers and direct reports. Importantly participants themselves did not report significant changes in their own leadership perceptions after coaching, possibly due to their overestimation of their ratings at the start of the program when compared to all other raters.
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract: Strength-based approaches in leadership development are increasingly popular among leaders and practitioners alike, but the evidence base for this approach lags behind the enthusiasm. Interest in positive forms of leadership development, including strength-based leadership coaching, is growing but what exactly is it, does it work, and how do practitioners develop capacity in this area?
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract: Executive coaching is the medium of choice for many executives and directors looking for a bespoke and tailored approach to their professional and leadership development. Increasingly, boards and senior leadership teams are realising the key benefits of having an external and objective coaching resource to facilitate the board through the key transitions and challenges every high-performing team faces. In this article, we attempt to map out these challenges into five key areas and show how executive coaching can facilitate each transition.
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Abstract: The author examines the impact of leadership derailment, that is, when leaders do not realize the high potential displayed in an earlier career. The classification and numerous causes of derailment behaviors are explored. Several suggestions for the successful management of leadership derailment at the individual and organizational levels are presented.
Click the link below to download the paper.
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can download the paper. Click HERE to login.’] DOWNLOAD [/usersultra_protect_content]
Association for Coaching Practice Editor of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research & Practice (Click the link below to see the reviews)
[usersultra_protect_content display_rule=’logged_in_based’ custom_message_loggedin=’Only Logged in users can view the content. Click HERE to login.’] CLICK HERE [/usersultra_protect_content]
Editorial Board Member of Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research & Practice
Editorial Board Member of International Journal of Coaching and Mentoring
Editorial Board Member of International Coaching Psychology Review