The Intentional Design of Stewardship: A Case Study

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Three publishers of professional coaching articles, William Bergquist and Suzi Pomerantz of the Library of Professional Coaching (LPC) and Garry Schleifer of choice magazine met to reflect on the value of the Executive Coaching Summit that ran during the first decade of the 21st Century. They wondered if it might be time to re-create (with some modifications) the spirit and processes of these early summits. A new executive coaching summit might be particularly timely (and particularly challenging) given the impact of COVID-19 on our entire society. What would such a summit look like and how could a new executive coaching summit (NECS) be created?

Those who initially envisioned NECS spoke about the need for a generative dialogue–rather than a debate, discussion or definition. The field does not need, at this time, polarizing sessions regarding what is the best coaching strategy or yet another attempt to define (and capture) the elusive process called “masterful coaching.” Extended dialogue is needed — not short-clipped sessions (as began to take place as the original summits). The sessions of NECS should be structured to do something more than and something other than demonstrating the cleverness of a specific facilitation design.

Consideration was also given to a NECS that incorporated Evidence-based dialogue (use of data from Survey Monkeys). Animated dialogue was also envisioned—with the provision in some sessions of intriguing, “edgy” topics that are often the “elephants” in the room and that reflect diverse, cross-cultural perspective.
Here is the final description that was created for the NECS:

The New Executive Coaching Summit (NECS) is related to stewardship of the field of professional coaching (and specifically the coaching of executives in organizational settings). NECS is an intimate, evidence-based, invitation-only conversation with experienced coaches to both reflect on the past 25 years of coaching and forecast the next 25 years of the industry. Preceded by a series of surveys regarding executive coaching and followed by multiple publications, NECS is a highly productive and consequential forum for stewardship of the professional coaching field (as were the initial Executive Coaching Summits). Those attending the NECS influence one another and bring their own new ideas and perspectives to the clients they serve as well as the other professional coaches with whom they interact (and whom they often mentor as senior practitioners in the field).

Because the new executive coaching summit was to take place in the midst of COVID-19, a virtual (digitally-mediated) version of this summit (V-NECS) was also described:

The Virtual New Executive Coaching Summit provides information regarding the ideas generated and perspective shared at the NECS, as well as providing a forum for sharing of ideas and perspectives among those attending the V-NECS as well as those attending NECS. As with the NECS, the V=NECS is a highly productive and consequential forum for stewardship of the professional coaching field (as were the initial Executive Coaching Summits). Those attending the V-NECS influence one another as well as participants in the NECS. The virtual participants bring their own new ideas and perspectives to the clients they serve as well as the other professional coaches with whom they interact (and whom they often mentor as senior practitioners in the field).