Transformative Executive Coaching: The Drivers and Dynamics that Expedite Later Stage Leadership Development. This thesis illuminated key contributing factors in the shift from Achiever to Strategist.
In a multiple-case study (Yin, 2018) 12 senior executives were assessed and selected as participants based on their predominant Achiever stage profiles using a variation of the WUSCT (Loevinger & Wessler, 1970). They undertook a 12-month executive coaching program and were then re-assessed.
Contrary to expectation (Berger & Fitzgerald, 2002; Rooke & Torbert, 2005), all participants shifted a full stage in leadership capacity during the first year and two transformed twice to Strategist with a third very close-by. Their average aggregate postconventional profile (AAPP) increased from 12% to 46% and the AAPP of three of the participants rose to 88% three years later.
It was found that eight drivers balancing the individual and collective, self-awareness and enactment; eight shifts in perception; the dynamics of a spectrum stage shift; and the breadth, depth and height of the transformative coaching approach were key contributing factors.