ESMT Coaching Colloquium

In cooperation with:

Whatever Works: Coaching and Beyond in Supporting Executives
Friday afternoon and Saturday, December 13-14, 2024 on ESMT Berlin Campus

We invite experienced coaches, coaching educators, academics, and leadership development and HR professionals to join us for our traditional ESMT Coaching Colloquium to explore how coaching evolves in response to the changing realities of today’s executives and the world around us. We want to shed light on the interplay between coaching and other methods of supporting leaders and to acknowledge the challenges associated with facing the need (or temptation) to go beyond coaching.

We originally designed the ESMT Coaching Colloquium to serve as an opportunity for academics, practicing leadership coaches, HR/L&D professionals, and management consultants to enhance their knowledge, skills, and networks through intensive collaboration and peer consultation on challenging or unusual cases in the practice of executive coaching. Throughout the years, we have explored hundreds of cases of tough coaching situations from the coach's perspective and experimented with our learning about coaches, coaching, and leadership. Each time we met, we situated our discussion within a broad topic of importance to society, organizations, or the coaching profession. Regardless of the topic, we always went beyond conventional wisdom and dared take risks in our discussions while trying to make it safe to talk about the not-so-easy things. The power of the Colloquium has always been in the willingness of the participants to bring their harrowing experiences to the analysis by the others and to bring themselves as tools for working on the questions of interest.

During the Colloquium we will be working with real cases presented by real coaches and commented upon by fellow professionals. We will continue building on our previous experience of creating a natural coaching development laboratory with an opportunity to learn and contribute to the learning of others. Participants are expected to maintain confidentiality of the content of the discussions. Registration for the Colloquium means the participant’s agreement with this principle.

To participate in the Colloquium, applicants must submit a short paper describing a challenging, exciting, or unusual leadership coaching case from their practice and a separate description of how they handle that particular situation. The “Whatever Works: Coaching and Beyond in Supporting Executives” theme allows the authors to reflect on their experience with questioning coaching methods, models, or accepted practices, enhancing coaching with other methods and approaches, or choosing to withdraw from the engagement due to methodological or ethical concerns. We invite cases that reflect the coach’s struggles, temptations, anxieties, hopes, and choices. As usual, we at ESMT are more interested in finding out what is taking place, rather than what some of our colleagues fantasize about.

Key points

Call for papers

To participate in the Colloquium, applicants must submit a short paper describing a challenging, exciting, or unusual leadership coaching case from their practice and a separate description of how they handle that particular situation. The “Whatever Works: Coaching and Beyond in Supporting Executives” theme allows the authors to reflect on their experience with questioning coaching methods, models, or accepted practices, enhancing coaching with other methods and approaches, or choosing to withdraw from the engagement due to methodological or ethical concerns. We invite cases that reflect the coach’s struggles, temptations, anxieties, hopes, and choices. As usual, we at ESMT are more interested in finding out what is taking place, rather than what some of our colleagues fantasize about. The paper should consist of two parts:

Part 1

In the first part of the paper, the authors are asked to describe the context of the leadership coaching intervention briefly, outline the challenge that they faced in working with the particular client, and put together the questions that they may have regarding this particular situation, and regarding their own feelings or behaviour in this situation. Obviously, the authors should take care of the necessary client identity protection measures while providing enough information for the colloquium participants to work with the situation. Let us emphasize once again: the case is NOT about the difficulties of the coachee, it is about the problems of the coach.

Part 1 should not exceed 2000 words.

Part 2

The second part of the paper should describe the steps taken by the coach and the outcome of those steps. Please make sure that part 2 covers the following aspects:

- What was the approach taken to handle the challenge?

- What could or couldn’t the coach deal/cope with?

- What are the questions that remain unresolved for the coach?

Part 2 should not exceed 1000 words.

All the submitted papers will be reviewed by the Colloquium Convenors for acceptance for discussion at the 14th ESMT Coaching Colloquium. Acceptance will be based on the perceived match of the submission with the topic of the Colloquium and the expected interest of those who attend it. Authors of the accepted papers may be asked to make additional revisions or edit their submissions for the presentation at the Colloquium. The Convenors reserve the right to reject submitted papers without explanation. Please note that the submission of the paper means the submitter’s willingness to have their case made available to other participants of the Colloquium and to have it discussed as part of the event.

Reference

For reference purposes, examples of cases presented in the past Colloquia can be found in:

Korotov, K., Bernhardt, A., & Radeke, J. (Eds.) (2021) Cases in Executive Coaching: From the Annals of the ESMT Coaching Colloquia. 2^nd Edition. Berlin. ISBN: 9798769553929

Korotov, K., Kets de Vries, M.F.R., Florent, E., & Bernhardt, A. (2012). Tricky Coaching: Difficult Cases in Leadership Coaching. New York: Palgrave McMillan. ISBN: 9780230280229.

To submit

NEW THIS YEAR: THE PAPER SHOULD BE SUBMITTED USING THE TEMPLATE AND FOLLOWING THE FORMATTING RULES SPECIFIED THEREIN.

You can download the Microsoft Word Template here.

Please submit your paper until September 1^st, 2024 via email to CoColl@esmt.org.

Authors of accepted papers will be able to register for the Colloquium at a reduced “Participant” fee. On the first evening of the Colloquium, attendees will be assigned several papers authored by other people. They will be asked to be prepared to discuss on how they would have handled the described situations.
Fee structure

Understanding the need for the professional development of coaches, ESMT Berlin establishes a minimal fee for participation in the event. Authors of the accepted papers are offered a heavily subsidized “Participant” fee of Euro 379 for participation in this event.

A very limited number of coaches, academics, consultants, HR and L&D professionals, as well as interested executives, may be accepted to the Colloquium as Observers. An “Observer” fee for taking part in the Colloquium is Euro 1700. To be considered for admission as an Observer, please send a request to CoColl@esmt.org
Travel and logistics

Participants will be responsible for their own travel arrangements. A contingent of rooms at preferential prices will be reserved at a nearby hotel. Participants will be responsible for making their own hotel bookings using a code provided after the binding registration.
Important dates
Final Deadline for Submission of Papers September 1, 2024

Notification of the Authors of Accepted Papers October 1, 2024

Submission of Final Accepted Papers (in case of requested revisions) October 31, 2024

Registration for the Colloquium Fall 2024, exact dates to be announced