Outcomes of mindfulness-based coaching for managers

Abstract

ABSTRACT The integration of mindfulness into the field of executive coaching is unsurprising, given growing interest in mindfulness in the workplace. At present, the literature linking mindfulness with coaching tends to focus on the potential afforded by mindfulness techniques, while empirical assessments remain limited. The objectives of the current research are to establish preliminary understandings regarding perceived outcomes of coaching processes incorporating mindfulness techniques, and to assess the perceived outcomes of mindfulness-based coaching processes across different points of time. This study analyses the assessments of 14 Israeli professional managers, working in the education system and in the high-tech industry, of a 12-session coaching process incorporating mindfulness practices. The coachees recorded their perceptions of the coaching outcomes from each session, contemporaneously, in personal journals. In addition, coachees were interviewed twice – at the end of the coaching sessions, and two years later. The study’s findings show the benefits of mindfulness-based coaching for individuals across various domains of their lives, and its implications for coachees’ well-being and performance at work. They also show that these benefits emerge even after very short interventions, and that these benefits continue to be perceived as valuable two years after the intervention.