The first reference to bring scientifically proven approaches to the practice of personal and executive coaching The Evidence Based Coaching Handbook applies recent behavioral science research to executive and personal coaching, bringing multiple disciplines to bear on why and how coaching works. A groundbreaking resource for this burgeoning profession, this text presents several different coaching approaches along with the empirical and theoretical knowledge base supporting each. Recognizing the special character of coaching-that the coaching process is non-medical, collaborative, and highly contextual-the authors lay out an evidence-based coaching model that allows practitioners to integrate their own expertise and the needs of their individual clients with the best current knowledge. This gives coaches the ability to better understand and optimize their own coaching interventions, while not having to conform to a single, rigidly defined practice standard. The Evidence Based Coaching Handbook looks at various approaches and applies each to the same two case studies, demonstrating through this practical comparison the methods, assumptions, and concepts at work in the different approaches. The coverage includes: * An overview: a contextual model of coaching approaches * Systems and complexity theory * The behavioral perspective * The humanistic perspective * Cognitive coaching * Adult development theory * An integrative, goal-focused approach * Psychoanalytically informed coaching * Positive psychology * An adult learning approach * An adventure-based framework * Culture and coaching The first reference to bring scientifically proven approaches to the practice of personal and executive coaching The Evidence Based Coaching Handbook applies recent behavioral science research to executive and personal coaching, bringing multiple disciplines to bear on why and how coaching works. Introduction (A. Grant & D. Stober). PART I: SINGLE-THEORY PERSPECTIVES. Chapter 1. Coaching from the Humanistic Perspective (D. Stober). Chapter 2. People are Complex and the World is Messy: A Behaior-Based Approach to Executive Coaching (D. Peterson). Chapter 3. Adult Development Theory and Executive Coaching Practice (J. Berger). Chapter 4. Cognitive Coaching (J. Auerbach). Chapter 5. Psychoanalytically Informed Executive Coaching (S. Allcorn). PART II: INTEGRATIVE AND CROSS-THEORY APPROACHES. Chapter 6. An Integrative Goal-Focused Approach to Executive Coaching (A. Grant). Chapter 7. An Adult Learning Approach to Coaching (E. Cox). Chapter 8. Positive Psychology: The Science at the Heart of  Coaching (C. Kauffman & J. Pawelski). Chapter 9.Coaching from a Cultural Perspective (P. Rosinski & G. Abbott). Chapter 10. An Advanture Based Framework for Coaching (T. Kemp). Chapter 11. Systems and Complexity Theory in Coaching (M.  Cavanagh). Summary: A Contextual Model of Coaching Approaches (D. Stober & A. Grant).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Science