Acknowledgments

First, we would like to thank an early but pivotal contributor to the realization of this book. At the 2008 annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Richard Hackman gave a presentation about the dos and don’ts of producing a book based on topically focused discussions of a long-standing group of colleagues. We don’t know what other attendees at that session took away, but for us the messages were clear: Turning intentions and interesting points into tangible text requires the tyranny of a project manager, due dates, funds, and a professional editor. Just as in coaching, a solid process that puts ideas into action is a necessary condition for aspirations to become reality.

More immediately, we would like to thank our students, supervisees, and the organizational sponsors of coaching assignments connected with our courses. During our ten years of teaching executive coaching, their support and encouragement have provided us with the impetus to continually question, refine, and articulate our ideas about executive coaching. We would also like to thank our organizational clients, who have relied on us to support their internal coaching efforts, as well as our academic partners, Baruch College (CUNY) Zicklin Business School’s Management Department and the graduate programs of the New School University. In addition, we would like to thank our editor, Claire Wyckoff, who participated in innumerable “book” meetings, showing enormous patience in providing guidance on both the product and the process. We would also like to thank Christina Parisi, our Executive Editor at AMACOM, who supported our proposal and was decisive in helping us resolve key questions even as she nurtured her other projects. Finally, we would like to thank our families, who unflinchingly supported this extracurricular effort with their encouragement and flexibility.