Leadership and Organizational Coaching Flashcards

In executive coaching, what is the primary purpose of the 'tripartite contract'?

Answer: To clarify roles, expectations, and confidentiality among the coach, coachee, and sponsoring organization

The tripartite contract establishes mutual understanding of roles, expectations, and confidentiality boundaries among the coach, coachee, and the sponsoring organization.

What is the main distinction between coaching and mentoring in an organizational context?

Answer: Coaching draws out the coachee's own solutions while mentoring shares the mentor's expertise and advice

Coaching is a non-directive process that helps coachees discover their own solutions, whereas mentoring involves the mentor sharing their knowledge, experience, and guidance.

Which leadership model prescribes adapting leadership style to the developmental level of followers?

Answer: Situational Leadership

Situational Leadership, developed by Hersey and Blanchard, prescribes that leaders adapt their style (directing, coaching, supporting, delegating) to match the readiness level of their followers.

When a BCC coach is working with a senior leader who shows resistance to coaching, the most effective approach is to:

Answer: Explore the resistance with curiosity, treating it as important data about the leader's perspective

Resistance in coaching is treated as valuable information; exploring it with curiosity and empathy helps uncover underlying concerns and facilitates deeper engagement.

What does 'vertical development' refer to in leadership coaching?

Answer: Growth in a leader's complexity of thinking, perspective-taking, and meaning-making capacity

Vertical development refers to an expansion in how leaders think — increasing their capacity to hold complexity, take multiple perspectives, and operate from more sophisticated meaning-making frameworks.

In organizational coaching, 'psychological safety' is best defined as:

Answer: The belief that one can speak up, take risks, and make mistakes without fear of punishment or humiliation

Psychological safety, a concept popularized by Amy Edmondson, refers to a shared belief that the environment is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, which is foundational to team learning and innovation.

Which tool is most commonly used in executive coaching to gather multi-source feedback from colleagues, direct reports, and supervisors?

Answer: 360-degree feedback

360-degree feedback collects input from multiple sources surrounding an individual — supervisors, peers, and direct reports — providing a comprehensive view of leadership behaviors and their impact.