Anthony M Grant

• BA(Hons); MA; PhD
• Managing Director at The University of Sydney

Purpose This study aimed to examine how the effects of traditional tertiary education (lecture format) on various outcomes – including goal attainment, psychopathology (stress, anxiety and depression), resilience, solution-focused thinking and self-insight – compare to effects of traditional education supplemented by health coaching, delivered thro...

Both Coaching Psychology and Positive Psychology programs have been empirically shown to enhance various aspects of well-being. Perhaps surprisingly, no study to date has directly compared the two approaches along various outcomes in adults. We randomly assigned 393 M.B.A students to attend 13 weeks of lectures, with accompanying practical exercise...

Coaches are essentially in the business of facilitating change in others. Yet little is known about the changes that trainee coaches themselves go through as they learn coaching skills and theory. This study identifies some of the key inter- and intra-personal attributes that developed over a nine-month programme of coach-specific training, while c...

Positive psychology has produced useful research findings that can offer insights into the psychological factors that promote flourishing in peoples’ personal life and in workplace settings. However, there has been little work explicitly linking positive psychology constructs to the physical built workplace environment. This paper explores the noti...

If coaching is to continue to grow and develop, if we as coaches are to deliver coaching and coaching methodologies that are genuinely effective for our clients, then we need to be au fait with the coaching literature and the body of research that informs effective coaching practice. In short, we need to engage in evidence-based coaching. Not only...

Little is known about impact of different types of questions used in coaching. This study compares the relative impact of 1) SF with 2) PF coaching questions and with 3) a combined problem-focused and solution-focused (PF + SF) coaching questions condition. Despite much discussion about the impact of mental health issues in coaching, there has been...

Self-insight, the clarity of one’s understanding of one’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour, has long been thought to be an important factor in change methodologies. It has been assumed that higher levels of self-insight are related to self-regulation and solution-focused thinking which facilitates goal striving. There has been little to no research...

Zusammenfassung Im Artikel werden bekannte Theorien zur Zielfindung, -formulierung und -umsetzung beschrieben. Aus den beschriebenen Elementen wird ein integratives Modell zielorientierten Coachings entwickelt. Das Modell kann Coaches dabei unterstützen, ihren Coachees im Zielfindungs- und Umsetzungsprozess zu helfen. Ziele werden dabei nicht als m...

This paper explores the complex relationship between the workplace environment and the organisation’s and individual’s experience through the lens of positive psychology. Drawing on positive psychology concepts and research conducted at International Towers in Sydney, the paper introduces the concept of the positive built workplace environment (PBW...

Past research has found that solution-focused (SF) coaching questions led to more positive outcomes than problem-focused (PF) coaching questions. Another body of research (Broaden and Build Theory; Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2(3), 300–319) posits that positive emotions promote AQ2the di...

Der Beitrag diskutiert Kontroversen über das Ziel-Konzept im Coaching, stellt Zieldefinitionen vor und vielfältige Facetten aus einem großen Wissensfundus wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten über Ziele und Zielsetzung. Behandelt werden die Zielsetzungs- und Selbstbestimmungstheorie sowie proximale und distale Ergebnisziele, Leistungs- und Lernziele, Vermei...

The research suggests that solution-focused cognitive–behavioral (SFCB) coaching can enhance performance, reduce stress, and help build resilience. Thus, SFCB coaching may be a useful methodology for enhancing both performance and well-being while also serving as a preventative mechanism that can reduce the probability of stress-related fatigue and...

Purpose There is limited empirical literature on the effectiveness of leadership coaching in healthcare settings. The purpose of this paper is to explore the efficacy of leadership coaching for individuals implementing strategic change in the Australian public health system. Design/methodology/approach Using a within-subjects (pre-post) design, par...

Professional coaching can be considered an example of a postprofessional discipline—a discipline that transcends the traditional boundaries between professional clinical psychology and business consulting and coaching. Not surprisingly, a number of potential quagmires in relation to ethical, educational, and credentialing issues have arisen. Howeve...

Workplace coaching is increasingly used in organisations. Workplace coaching is conducted internally within an organisation for the purpose of helping employees, managers and leaders attain work-related goals. Workplace coaching methodologies have evolved over time. The first ‘generation’ (1990s) focused on performance management. A hallmark of the...

This study aimed to give insights into the dynamics underpinning different types of coaching questions by exploring the interactions between solution-focused (SF) and problem-focused (PF) coaching questions and approach/avoidance goals. Past research has found that SF coaching questions lead to more positive outcomes than PF questions. Another body...

This paper details material from 2 presentations given at the 2015 Society of Consulting Psychology Mid-Winter Conference in San Diego, California, which presented a summary of the coaching research conducted at the Coaching Psychology Unit (CPU) at the University of Sydney. The CPU was established in 1999 with a mission to enhance the performance,...

This large-scale study of executive coaching explores the perceived effectiveness of coaching from the perspectives of coach, coachee, and sponsor, and potential active ingredients including the coach–coachee working alliance, coachee self-efficacy, personality, and “personality match” between coach and coachee. Using a retrospective design, data w...

There has been an almost exponential growth in the amount of coaching-specific and coaching-related research over the past ten years. At the same time there has been considerable interest in the development of evidence-based approaches to coaching, and many coaching practitioners have incorporated the phrase into their terms of reference for their...

Content & Focus: This paper focuses on positive, coaching and counselling psychology. It argues that counselling psychologists are in an ideal role to deliver positive psychology and coaching psychology services. The tension between counselling psychology relying upon diagnosis within the medical context in contrast to the positive and coaching psy...

This paper discusses some myths and misconceptions that have emerged in relation to neuroscience and coaching, and explores the notion that neuroscience provides a foundational evidence-base for coaching, and that neurocoaching is a unique or original coaching methodology. It is found that much of the insights into coaching purported to be delivere...

Effective coaching skills are an essential part of contemporary leadership. All too frequently organisations invest significant resources into ‘Leader as Coach’ development programmes only to find that, despite initial enthusiasm, coaching skills are not applied back in the workplace. To facilitate such transfer of training we utilised and evaluate...

Central to many psychological schools of thought is the notion that self-reflection leads to self-insight which, in turn, leads to enhanced well-being. However, empirical research has found that although self-insight is typically associated with well-being, self-reflection is frequently not associated with self-insight or well-being. Past attempts...

Executive coaching is often used in times of organisational change to help executives develop the psychological and behavioural skills needed to focus on reaching their work-related goals whilst simultaneously dealing with the turbulence associated with organisational change. Despite its widespread use, little research has explored the impact of ex...

This article presents some practical insights, strategies and tips about how to help organisations embed leadership coaching skills in the workplace following participation by executives and managers in ‘Leader as Coach’ development programs. Given that organisations globally are increasingly using such programs as part of leadership development in...

The aim of the study is to shed light on the process by which life-coaching has become a thriving industry in Israel. By performing an Internet search followed by website analysis, document analysis and in-depth interviews with key people in the industry, we suggest that there is a distorted notion of life-coaching, both from a professional and an...

The role of the coach–coachee relationship in influencing coaching outcomes has emerged as an area of interest in research into the mechanics of effective coaching. Although extensively researched in the psychotherapeutic domain, exploration of the working alliance represents a new phase in executive and life coaching research. This paper presents...

Whilst scholarly interest in coaching has increased dramatically in the past decade, the further maturation of the field will continue to depend upon the degree to which knowledge is developed along both theoretical and empirical lines. In this chapter both domains are explored. After providing a brief introduction to coaching, the first section su...

Introduction Seek First to Understand Sounds Simple: So Coaching Should be Easy to Evaluate? Reviewing the Efficacy of Coaching is Complex, and the Literature is Disjointed Outcome Studies Two Key Case Studies Within-subject Outcome Research Between-subject and Randomized Controlled Studies Longitudinal Studies: Is Coaching Effective Over Time? Gau...

In this article, it is argued that financial return on investment (ROI) is an unreliable and insufficient measure of coaching outcomes, and that an over-emphasis on financial returns can restrict coaches’ and organisations’ awareness of the full range of positive outcomes possible through coaching. Furthermore, poorly targeted coaching intervention...

Solution-focused coaching and solution-focused therapy are strengths-based approaches which emphasize people's resources and resilience and how these can be used in the pursuit of purposeful, positive change. The Solution-focused Inventory (SFI) is a 12-item scale with three subscales: Problem Disengagement, Goal Orientation and Resource Activation...

This study compared the effects of problem-focused and solution-focused coaching questions on positive and negative affect, self-efficacy, goal approach, and action planning. A total of 225 participants were randomly assigned to either a problem-focused or solution-focused coaching condition. All participants described a real-life problem that they...

The past decade has seen the use of coaching in personal, health, workplace, and executive settings grow from being a novel and somewhat derided methodology to a mainstream activity in business organizations and health settings worldwide. This chapter takes stock of the current state of coaching research and practice, and then highlights how coachi...

Teachers are in a very real sense the embodiment of leadership, providing direction, guidance, and feedback to their students in addition to acting as role models. Teachers may well thus benefit from developmental coaching that draws on theories of leadership. This study was both an experimental (randomly assigned conditions) and a quasi-experiment...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the differential effects of problem-focused and solution-focused coaching questions by means of a literature overview and results of an exploratory pilot study. Design/methodology/approach – In a problem-focused coaching session 39 participants complete a range of measures assessing self-efficacy,...

Although many managers receive training in workplace coaching skills in order to enhance employees' performance and facilitate organizational change, little is known about managers' perceptions of the costs and benefits of adopting workplace coaching behaviors. This study explored the relationships between workplace coaching skills and the perceive...

Despite considerable organisational development research and practice suggesting that interventions in organisations should also be targeted at the group level, most organisational coaching is dyadic (one-to-one) and few models of group coaching have been developed. In Part I of this paper we present an introductory overview of group coaching and c...

Understanding CoachingSkills, Performance and developmental CoachingExecutive and Workplace CoachingThe Professional Status of Coaching: Accreditations and Industry OrganizationsCoaching Professionalization Parallels development in Other FieldsCoaching Psychology as an Emerging Psychological SubdisciplineCoaching ResearchOutcome StudiesRandomized C...

In this review, we draw on our past scholarship in this area (Grant & Cavanagh, 2007; Grant & Cavanagh, in press; Passmore & Gibbes, 2007) to provide an extensive overview of the state of play in relation to coaching research and practice. We review the professional status of coaching and the various bodies that seek to accredit and organise coache...

In a randomised controlled study, 41 executives in a public health agency received 360-degree feedback, a half-day leadership workshop, and four individual coaching sessions over 10 weeks. The coaching used a cognitive-behavioural solution-focused approach. Quantitative and qualitative measures were taken. This is the first published randomised con...

Coaching is widely used in the workplace to facilitate goal attainment and behavior change. Where coaching interventions are primarily used to enhance goal attainment, positive psychology interventions are primarily used as a means of enhancing well-being. However, despite the clear synergies between coaching and positive psychology there has been...

Coaching has attracted much attention from health professionals interested in collaborative, person-centred approaches to motivating behaviour change. Whilst initial research supports the efficacy of coaching in health contexts, more theoretical and empirical work is needed. Based on recent work demonstrating the important role that mindfulness pla...

The Australian coaching industry is undergoing an important period of maturation, with growing numbers of Australian Universities offering postgraduate degrees in coaching and mentoring. Australian commercial coach training organisations are also increasingly offering government accredited coach training (vocational) programs under the Australian Q...

Evidence-based approaches to coach training and education are vital if the coaching industry is to continue to mature. Drawing on past research on mandatory personal therapy for therapists-in-training, this paper reports a qualitative and quantitative within-subject exploration of the impact of compulsory participation in a personal life coaching p...

Objectives: To identify organisations who offer executive coach training and business coach training in Australia; assessment processes, cost and duration of courses; the delineation between coaching and counselling; marketing claims made; and the qualifications of the owners and trainers. Design: A qualitative process of emergent thematic coding u...

Coaching and coaching psychology offer a potential platform for an applied positive psychology and for facilitating individual, organisational and social change. Experts from around the world were invited to comment on the emerging discipline of coaching psychology and the commercial coaching industry. Several key themes emerged including the poten...

Few studies have investigated the impact of life coaching on self-regulated behavior and well-being. A limitation of past studies has been their reliance on peer rather than professional coaches. The present randomized controlled study compared peer with professional life coaching over a 10-week period with 63 participants. Results indicated that,...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of a long‐term (13‐week, spaced learning) with a short‐term (two‐day, block intensive) coaching skills training programme on participants' coaching skills and emotional intelligence. Design/methodology/approach In the study 23 participants completed a 13‐week coaching skills training cours...

There is empirical support for the transtheoretical model (TTM) of change within the health and psychopathology-related areas, but relatively little research into its applicability in relation to academic settings. The aim of the study was to investigate whether the TTM is applicable to the adoption of improved study skills. Participants were 148 f...

Objective: To extend the knowledge base on the use of life coaching as an applied positive psychology. Studies to date have utilised community samples with participants of varying ages and most research has used adult community samples. The present study is unusual in that it examined the efficacy of an evidence-based (cognitive-behavioural, soluti...

Goal-focused coaching is increasingly being used to help people set and reach personal and workplace goals. However, coaches' coaching skills are rarely measured. This exploratory study reports preliminary findings on the initial development and validation of a self-report measure, the Goal-focused Coaching Skills Questionnaire (GCSQ). Some partici...

This paper explores the potential of evidence-based executive coaching as an intervention for facilitating expatriate success. One-to-one professional coaching is proposed as a powerful supplement to two interventions that have traditionally been used to assist expatriate managers – training and mentoring. Coaching is likely to be effective with ex...

Objectives: The study had four major objectives: (1) to identify the types of qualifications,certifications and accreditations offered by Australian life coaching schools; (2) to provide an overview of the advertised content and cost of life coach training courses; (3) to identify how life coaching schools differentiate between life coaching and me...

Research is in its infancy in the newly emerging field of coaching psychology. This study examined the effects of a 10-week cognitive-behavioral, solution-focused life coaching group programme. Participants were randomly allocated to a life coaching group programme (n = 28) or a waitlist control group (n = 28). Participation in the life coaching gr...

Little has been reported about the skills, experience and training of coaches in the Australian context, yet these are critical factors in the ethical practice of coaching. Previous research and experience suggests that formal coach training varies considerably in terms of curricula and quality. At the same time, data is emerging that suggests a si...

THIS CHAPTER DRAWS on the goal-setting, self-determination, and person- ality literature from the behavioral sciences and presents an evidence- based, integrative goal-focused approach to executive and workplace coaching, and then relates that approach to the two case studies pre- sented in previous chapters. The process of coaching is essentially...

The knowledge base of coach-specific research detailing theories, techniques and outcomes of coaching is growing annually. However, little is known about coaches themselves. This paper reports on a large scale survey of coaches. A total of 2,529 coaches responded to an online survey conducted in 2003 amongst International Coach Federation (ICF) mem...

The coaching industry has reached a key important point in its maturation. This maturation is being driven by at least three interrelated forces: (1) accumulated coaching experience; (2) the increasing entry of professionals into coaching from a wide variety of prior backgrounds; and (3) the increasing sophistication of management and Human Resourc...

Coaches sometimes make the case that executive, workplace and personal (life) coaching are substantially different coaching applications. Exploring these issues it is concluded that there are indeed considerable overlaps between the personal and the professional in relation to executive coaching in organisations. To be truly effective, executive co...

Despite its high media profile and growing popularity there have been no empirical investigations of the impact of life coaching on goal attainment, metacognition or mental health. This exploratory study used life coaching as a means of exploring key metacognitive factors involved as individuals move towards goal attainment. In a within-subjects de...

Private self-consciousness and the subordinate constructs of self-reflection and insight are key factors in the self-regulatory process underpinning the creation of behavior change, both in clinical practice with clinical populations, and in performance enhancing coaching with nonclinical populations. This paper reports the construction and validat...

Private self-consciousness and the subordinate constructs of self-reflection and insight are key factors in the self-regulatory process underpinning the creation of behavior change, both in clinical practice with clinical populations, and in performance enhancing coaching with ...

Although the self-help and personal development genre has experienced phenomenal growth since the 1950s, there is a paucity of research assessing its empirical and conceptual validity. This is a serious issue because both consumers and psychologists are relatively uniformed as to the efficacy of these well-marketed programs. Anthony Robbins is a ma...

Transition to university involves adapting to a new academic and social environment. Recent research on this process indicates that a significant number of students experience at least some difficulties during this transition, but that this may be alleviated by various institutional measures designed to assist students with the transition, e.g. the...

Psychological mindedness (PM) has long been considered to be an important mediator of therapy outcome. However, to date, definitions of PM have been typified by linguistic imprecision and lack of conceptual clarity. Further, most definitions and measures of PM have approached the task from a psychodynamic perspective, thus limiting the use of this...

The use of an executive or life coach in order to enhance one's work performance or life experience is increasing in popularity. However, there is little empirical research attesting to the effectiveness of executive or life coaching, and there have been few attempts to outline a psychology of coaching. This paper reviews the empirical and theoreti...

The quality of students' initial induction to the university system plays a key role in their adaptation to university life. One factor that facilitates transition is the establishment of supportive social and study-related networks. Historically universities have not been proactive in fostering such networks, but in recent years the Faculty of Sci...

A number of reviews and meta-analyses in the past 30 years have described and evaluated interventions designed to enhance ocademic performance in university undergraduates. Reviewers’recommendations, however, have often remained unimplemented. This meta-review of reviews and meta-analyses of interventions published in the academic literature betwee...

This article discusses how positive psychology and evidence-based coaching can support youth service provision in order to promote cross fertilisation between these different domains of practice. The transition from adolescence to adulthood is difficult for many young people and there is growing recognition that there should be a greater emphasis o...