The Coaching Kaleidoscope: Insights from the Inside

"Once again Kets de Vries and the INSEAD team deliver a fantastic book. Beautifully written and accessible, they take complex, cutting-edge concepts and translate them into compelling, usable information and interventions. This book is inspiring, theoretically sound and a great read." u Carol Kauffman PhD, ABPP PCC, Director, Institute of Coaching, Assistant Clinical Professor, Harvard Medical School

"This marvellous book is brought to you by some of the greatest minds in coaching. It contains the essential ingredients for a must read coaching book u and so much more. Research based, provocative, and pragmatic, it is written in such a splendidly immediate style that it seems one has been invited into a thoughtful and highly enjoyable discussion on the why and how of outstanding coaching. You cannot help but emerge a stronger coach and implementer of coaching interventions from reading it." u Susan David PhD, Co-director, Institute of Coaching, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Research Affiliate, Yale University; Director of Evidence Based Psychology

"Manfred Kets de Vries, a pioneer of the clinical study of leadership and organizations, takes us once again under the surface of a popular corporate phenomenon u executive coaching. Drawing on their unique approach and vast experience, Kets de Vries and his colleagues from the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre lift the veil on what good coaching is, how it works, and how it enhances individual and organizational performance. The volume is packed with insight from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this field. Whether you are already involved in coaching or considering it, you'll find this book both useful and inspiring." u Gianpiero Petriglieri, Affiliate Professor in Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD

"At INSEAD Manfred Kets de Vries runs inspired coaching and consulting courses that have no parallel at any other business school or university. When it comes to writing, he has a track record of producing extraordinary, incisive books that create ripples in the worlds of business and academia. In The Coaching Kaleidoscope he brings these aspects together: coaches and scholars of international standing, many of whom work with him at INSEAD, have u under his editorship u written this wonderful and thoughtful book. If any confirmation were needed, this volume reminds us why Kets de Vries occupies such a unique position in the coaching field."u Professor Mark Stein, Chair in Leadership and Management, University of Leicester

This book deals with how coaching interventions can drive a journey of transformational change at individual, team, and organizational levels. As a result, coaching interventions serve to create more reflective people, who in turn create better organizations. The group coaching methodology, used by the INSEAD Global Leadership Center (IGLC) and adopted by the Center for Leadership Development Research (CLDR) at the European School of Technology and Management (ESMT), Berlin, is the basis for developing the theoretical assumptions behind the chapters. Through sharing research methodologies, and describing intervention and change techniques used in the leadership development and education of executive coaches, the book sheds light on how the "magic" of coaching works, what coaches actually do, and how their clients respond.

This book is a joint project between the IGLC and the CLDR. In compiling it, we have involved academics who conduct research, teach, and consult; leadership development coaches; change consultants; and executives who adopted IGLC methods for reflection on leadership development opportunities and challenges. We have also included people who have experienced IGLC methods in the process of their developmental journeys. They have collaborated, consulted their research and practice notes, analyzed data from inquiry projects, and shared their personal experiences in individual chapters.

Manfred Kets de Vries is The Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development and the Clinical Professor of Leadership at INSEAD, France, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi. He is also the Distinguished Professor of Leadership at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin (ESMT), Germany.

Laura Guitten is Assistant Professor at ESMT, European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, Germany, as of September 2010. Prior to joining ESMT, she was the recipient of a Marie Curie IntraEuropean Fellowship for post-doctoral studies from the European Commission (2008-1010), during which she conducted research at INSEAD.

Konstantin Korotov is Associate Professor at ESMT, European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, Germany, and a senior researcher fellow and executive coach with the INSEAD Global Leadership Center in Fontainebleau, France.

Elizabeth Florent-Treacy is the Associate Director for Research at the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre