| Even though there is limited empirical evidence to support executive coaching, it is one of the fastest growing options for the healthcare industry to address and improve executive performance. Although coaching can be provided for a group, executive coaching, for the purposes of this research study is defined as the one-to-one development of an organizational leader that includes one coach and one leader. There is also limited, inconclusive research on the effects of executive coaching on women executives and even a smaller fraction of empirical evidence on the effects of women executives in healthcare. This study used a qualitative methodology and a hermeneutic phenomenological research design including interviews of 11 women healthcare executives in the Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey regions that had experienced executive coaching. Six primary themes emerged from the data. They include positive coaching experiences, improved work relationships, forced coaching experiences, reflective awareness of self, identified coaching as a tool that improved their executive development, identified the relationship with their coach as a key to successful outcomes. Results from this research study attempted to provide a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the executive coaching experience and add to the empirical literature regarding the experiences of women healthcare executives who have received executive coaching. Based on this research study, the results have allowed the researcher to begin to understand the shared experiences of women healthcare executives who have undergone executive coaching and provide additional evidence for its use. |
