Career coaching: practice, training, professional, and ethical issues.

The authors address the practice, training, professional, and ethical issues of career coaching and propose recommendations regarding the professional organization, training, certification, code of ethics, research, and multicultural issues related to the field.

**********

Referred to as "consulting for the '90s" (Bell, 1996,p. ID), career coaching is a relatively new practice that increasingly is being used by managers and employees in a variety of work settings. It combines the concepts of career counseling, organizational consulting, and employee development. There are currently an estimated 10,000 full-time personal and career coaches in the United States, a large increase from the 1,000 in 1995 (Coach University, 1999). In the near future, career coaches are expected to be as much a part of life as personal fitness trainers (Coach University, 1999).

Despite its increasing popularity, the concept of career coaching has been addressed only sparsely in the career development literature. Consequently, the relationship between career coaching and career counseling and the various issues related to the development of career coaching as a profession have not been adequately addressed in the current literature. The purpose of this article is to discuss the practice, training, professional, and ethical issues of career coaching. Several recommendations are offered for the professionalization of career coaching.

Practice of Career Coaching

Definitions

The general goal of career coaching is to assist clients' personal development within the context of work and career so that clients can (a) better identify their skills, (b) make better career choices, and (c) be more productive and valuable workers (Hube, 1996). Career coaches serve as personal consultants for any work-related concerns such as balancing home and work, learning interviewing skills, developing better managerial skills, executive personal and career development, and even managerial training to help managers become career coaches to their employees. Career coaches help their clients get more of what they want out of life, whether it be business success, financial independence, academic excellence, personal success, physical health, interpersonal relationships, or career planning. Therefore, career coaches have been described as sounding boards, support systems, cheerleaders, and teammates combined into one (Bell, 1996) and as "consultants who mentor their clients through career challenges and motivate them to achieve realistic goals" (Strempel, 1999,p. 5). Because the practice of career coaching overlaps with two other specialties that deal with career planning and adjustment, we discuss in the following sections the relations between career coaches and (a) career counselors and (b) career development facilitators (CDFs).

Career counselors. There is substantial overlap between career coaching and career counseling. In fact, career coaches have been accused of practicing career counseling without a license. Both deal with career planning, implementation of career choice, career adjustment, and the interplay between personal and career issues. However, the two specialties also differ in some significant ways. First, career counselors are trained as professional counselors with a specialization in career interventions. There are nationally recognized bodies that accredit counselor training programs (e.g., Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs), national certificates or state licenses for counselors or counseling psychologists (e.g., National Board of Certified Counselors), and relevant professional codes of ethics (e.g., American Counseling Association [ACA], 1995; American Psychological Association, 1992; National Career Development Association [NCDA], 1997). On the other hand, the field of career coaching is largely unregulated, with only a few coaching institutes that offer their own certificates and ethical codes. Consequently, many counseling professionals do not consider career coaching a profession.

Second, although both career coaches and career counselors work with clients in a confidential work relationship, career coaching is largely task and problem solving oriented, whereas career counseling often uses psychological interventions in addition to problem solving (Crockett, 1996). Counselors work with clients to achieve self-understanding and awareness in career planning and may use professional instruments to assess personality traits to aid in the awareness process. Career coaching, on the other hand, generally does not delve into a person's past as much as some counseling approaches do (Bell, 1996; Strempel, 1999). Career coaches who have not been trained as counselors or psychologists generally do not have the skills or credentials to use professional assessment instruments and to work with mental health issues such as abuse, clinical depression, or addiction (Jackson, 1996).

Third, career coaches are less restricted by traditional boundaries and may assume a more active role in providing assistance. They may interact with their clients in the clients' homes, places of employment, or over the telephone or Internet and may participate in the clients' work activities in order to observe, provide instant feedback, and implement career plans with the clients. Counselors, on the other hand, are more likely to structure their interactions with their clients in face-to-face meetings in their counseling offices and tend to take on a facilitative rather than participatory role when providing interventions.

Fourth, career coaching differs from traditional career counseling in that career coaches often make a longer term commitment to their clients, usually 3 months to 5 years (Leonard, 1999). Career counseling, on the other hand, tends to use a short-term approach to treatment.

Fifth, although career counselors help clients find success in their careers, they do not typically work with clients on how to better run a business (Eng, 1996). Career coaches, on the other hand, tend to work with employers and employees who want to improve job performance and productivity through focus and strategy (Crockett, 1996). Although a number of career counselors do provide consultation to employers and managers, such services are usually not labeled "career counseling."

One additional way that career coaches differ from career counselors is that career coaches often hire "mentor coaches" to help guide them along their own career path. These mentors help the coach with everything from building and marketing a successful coaching practice, to highlighting and building personal strengths in order to work more successfully with clients, to being a support system and sounding board for the coach. This "coaching of coaching" relationship is not often found among career counselors.

Because of the similarities between career coaching and career counseling, career coaches sometimes are described as "part therapist, part business buddy, and part career consultant" (Crockett, 1996, p. F1). Haverkamp and Moore (1993) suggested that "targeted coaching" is representative of the integration of career and personal counseling. In their case example, a coach/counselor worked with a manager to facilitate reaching business and personal goals. The coaching/counseling process involved assessment, goal setting, and counseling using cognitive restructuring, anxiety reduction, and communication skills. In this example, effective career coaching reflected aspects of career counseling that involved assessment, action planning and implementation, evaluation, and building a collaborative relationship with the client. This example demonstrates combined practice of career coaching and counseling; however, such integrated practice requires that the career coach has received training as a counselor.

CDFs. Career coaches and CDFs are similar because in neither case is a master's degree in counseling required. On the other hand, they are different in two major aspects. First, the services provided by CDFs are more limited, focusing on (a) the provision of information such as career resources and labor market, (b) career assessment under supervision, (c) job search strategies, and (d) career theory application (Splete & Hoppin, 2000). Career coaches, on the other hand, deal with career adjustment and the enhancement of job performance, in addition to the services provided by CDFs. Second, CDFs are regulated by a nationally recognized credentialing body: the Center for Credentialing and Education, a subsidiary of the National Board for Certified Counselors. This credential includes requirements such as career development experience based on level of education, 120 training or approved contact hours, and adherence to the CDF Code of Ethics. No required national credentialing or unified code of ethics exists for career coaching.

Past and Current Practice

At first, career coaching was an expansion of the role of managers to act as coaches to their employees (Jones, Kaye, & Taylor, 1981; Randolph, 1981; Rich, 1998; Sturman, 1990), an idea that continues to grow in popularity (Tyler, 1997). In the past, managers often did not recognize career development as a crucial aspect of employee development, and such attitudes were difficult to change (Randolph, 1981). The idea of incorporating career development into the process of employee development slowly began to take hold. New concepts of both the career development process and the people who would play key roles in this process emerged in the business setting. The role of managers in the career development of employees continues to increase. Employees with issues such as career transitions and how to increase sales ability are relying more and more on their managers for advice and coaching ("Career Coaching Comes Out," 1991; Rich, 1998). The teamwork approach between managers and employees may be the best means to facilitate motivated and productive employees. Human resources personnel were often charged to train managers to become career coaches to their employees (Jones et al., 1981). Several steps are important in the manager-as-career-coach concept. These include building a trusting relationship with employees, providing information, identifying best potential options for the employee, action planning, reviewing results, and modifying plans ("Career Coaching Comes Out," 1991).

Gabriel (1996) discussed the reasons for the increasing popularity of career coaching from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. The reduction in the number of middle managers of corporations has left high-level managers and executives in charge of managing new territory and having to use more interpersonal skills. The diversity of ethnic, gender, and other cultural factors in the workplace may also strain the "old school" style of management and call for updated training to manage better in today's multicultural workforce. Pressures to be competitive economically and the hectic pace of today's lifestyle are other reasons that career coaching has been rising in popularity. Coaching has become so popular that it has been called the "profession of the '90s" (Green, 1996, p. 1D).

With rising demands for career coaching services, managers are no longer the primary source of coaching. Professional career coaches began to emerge to assist employees in dealing with career decisions, adjustment, and advancements, as well as to achieve balance between career and personal lives. Several common reasons an individual might hire a career coach include company downsizing, hitting a career plateau, lack of decision-making skills, leadership issues, difficulties coping with stress and problematic situations, being passed over for promotion, or receiving poor performance reviews (Eng, 1996). Furthermore, managers themselves also employ career coaches to help them improve on their management style, as well as assisting with strategic planning on production and organizational development.

Career coaches perform a variety of services, depending on the needs of the clients (Bell, 1996). These services may include building job skills, business planning, balancing personal and work life, helping clients achieve project implementation and completion, decision making and strategic planning, prioritizing, leadership and managerial training, generating sales increases, and problem solving. Career coaches may make long-term commitments to work with clients as the clients move through job and life transitions, acting as an adviser during the transitions and helping clients reach full career potential (Myers, 1996). Like career counselors, career coaches stress having a confidential work relationship with their clients. Many career coaches work with clients by telephone or via the Internet (Leonard, 1999); others still prefer one-to-one personal contact with their clients.

One special form of career coaching is called "executive coaching." It is defined as

     a helping relationship formed between a client who has managerial
     authority and responsibility in an organization and a consultant
     who uses a wide variety of behavioral techniques and methods to
     help the client achieve a mutually identified set of goals to
     improve his or her professional performance and personal
     satisfaction and, consequently, to improve the effectiveness of the
     client's organization within a formally defined coaching agreement.
     (Kilburg, 1996b, p. 142)

Although executive coaching, like career coaching, is used to develop an employee personally and professionally, it seems to differ from career coaching in that it deals primarily with high-ranking professionals and is often carried out by trained psychologists. Executive coaches can be "internal," that is, hired from within the organization (Hall, Otazo, & Hollenbeck, 1999), and may include such personnel as human resources managers or sales managers (Rich, 1998). Executive coaches may also be "external," that is, hired from outside the company. In this case, the executive is the client rather than the organization or management being the client (Hall et al., 1999). Eng (1996) suggested that coaching relationships with executives might last an average of 3 years, with a range of 3 months to 10 years. However, others (e.g., Hall et al., 1999) have suggested that executive coaching is a relatively short-term service with concrete, specific, problem-solving goals in mind.

A special 1996 issue of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research (Kilburg, 1996a) provided extensive discussion of executive coaching, which often involves a series of steps including data gathering (interview or extensive psychological testing), evaluation from peers and co-workers, feedback, goal setting, action planning and implementation, and evaluation and continued development (Kiel, Rimmer, Williams, & Dolye, 1996). Executive coaching may include such methods as systems-based approaches (Kiel et al., 1996; Tobias, 1996), multimodal therapy approaches (Richard, 1999), or iterative approaches using a 360-degree feedback loop (Diedrich, 1996). Laske (1999) suggested using an integrative model of developmental coaching as the optimal method.

Although coaching is controversial among counseling and mental health professionals, many helping professionals are interested in leaving their counseling practices to move into the business of coaching. One reason is that career coaching is not affected by managed care (Coach University, 1999). Another advantage is that career coaching is often done over the Internet and telephone, which allows an individual to build and maintain a national or even international practice (Dean, 1998; Leonard, 1999). Career coaching can be a lucrative career, with earnings ranging from $75 to $300 per hour, averaging $125 per hour (Coach U, 2000). Over-head costs, necessary for a counselor to fund an office and staff, are no longer necessary in career coaching via the Internet or telephone.

Currently, career coaching is marketed widely on the Internet and by word of mouth (Leonard, 1999). There are at least 97 Web sites and 347,294 Web pages on career coaching services. A survey showed the average age of career coaches to be 46.6 years old, ranging from 30 to 70 years; female coaches (57%) slightly outnumbered male coaches (Coach University, 1999). Also, there have been many newspaper articles discussing the career of "career coaching," as well as multitudes of press releases from the training center Coach U. Marketing for career coaching is strong, and there is a great deal of information currently on the Internet. Therefore, culling through such a huge amount of information in search of a career coach may be daunting, especially because credentials are not required to practice as a career coach. Clients in search of a good coach may likely find themselves confused as to what to look for when in need of career coaching. It is necessary to exercise caution and be selective when searching for a career coach (Anonymous, 1997).

Training of Career Coaches

Currently, there is no regulation for the education or training requirements for becoming a career or executive coach. Approximately 90% of all career coaches hold at least a bachelor's degree, whereas more than 50% hold a graduate degree (Leonard, 1999). Career coaches' vocational backgrounds might include having been accountants, clergy, psychologists, business executive officers, theater directors, or homemakers (Eng, 1996). Thomas Leonard, founder of Coach U (formerly known as Coach University), was a Certified Financial Planner and accountant who found himself "listening" to his clients who needed lifestyle advice. He began practicing coaching in the early 1980s and later founded a training program, Coach University, in Texas (Coach University, 1999).

There are several training programs for career coaches in the United States, none of which is accredited by a nationally recognized accreditation body. In addition, training programs may not screen applicants for relevant educational background (Crockett, 1996). Coach U, a major training program, combines course work and mentored "clinical" hours and offers certification as a Master Coach. MentorCoach also offers training and certification for career coaches and targets its training toward therapists, therapists-in-training, and other credentialed helping professionals who wish to integrate coaching into their practice. The MentorCoach training program is unique in its approval by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists (MentorCoach, 2003a). The 6-month program involves 22 hours of classes that are conducted by telephone and focuses both on coaching skills and on marketing strategies designed to build a successful coaching practice (MentorCoach, 2003b).

Professional and Ethical Issues

There are several professional and ethical issues inherent in the current practice of career coaching: (a) There is no nationally recognized professional organization that stipulates required guidelines for the training and practice of career coaches, (b) training of career coaches is not standardized or required, (c) no license or certificate is needed to practice, (d) there is no unified code of ethics by which career coaches are required to abide, (e) there is a lack of empirical research to substantiate the effectiveness of career coaching, and (f) career coaches face a challenge to serve multicultural populations. These issues are discussed in the following sections.

Professional Organization

Professional organizations serve the purpose of advancing the development of professions regarding education, training, certification, practice, ethics, and research. Although there are associations, such as the International Coaching Federation, that are beginning to emerge in this field, currently there is no professional organization of career coaching that is nationally recognized and endorsed. Consequently, this growing industry is totally unregulated. Consumers of career coaching and people aspiring to be career coaches have no nationally recognized agency to which they can inquire about services or training. No organized effort is made regarding the advocacy of the professionalization and regulation of career coaches, nor to the promotion of research and networking of career coaches.

Training

In the absence of professional and legal regulation, anyone can practice career coaching without training. Considering the numerous and often advanced skills needed to provide competent service as a career development professional, the lack of training requirements for career coaches is alarming. Although some institutes do offer training, their programs are not nationally standardized or accredited. Different training programs likely will have graduates with different levels of competency across different skill areas. Many career coaches do not have proper training for dealing with psychological issues such as depression (Driscoll, 1996). These coaches may encounter crisis situations that they are not equipped to handle, especially when practicing over the telephone or Internet.

In the case of executive coaching, which requires more psychological and consultation skills, there are many who are practicing without any psychological training background. Brotman, Liberi, and Wasylyshyn (1998) called for standards of competence for the profession of executive coaching and posited that psychologists are the best qualified to practice executive coaching when the goal is behavioral change. Levinson (1996) further suggested that an effective executive coach should have a broad knowledge base of business and government, as well as an understanding of adult development and psychological dynamics.

Certification

Because career coaching is a specialized service, licensing or certification seems essential to ensure that the individuals who practice career coaching possess adequate training and competency. Although some credentials are currently offered (e.g., through the International Coach Federation and Coach U), such credentials are not required for practice, nor are they widely endorsed by career development professionals.

Ethics

There is no nationally recognized ethical code for career coaching, although there are several institutes that offer guidelines for ethical practice. For example, Coach U offers a set of ethical guidelines for its students (Coach U, 2000). These guidelines cover the areas of client and coach relationship (upholding clients' values, respect for clients, putting clients' needs before the coach's own), confidentiality (which states the coach will not release information about the client without expressed permission), professional conduct (practicing only in those areas in which the coach has expertise), and professional development (which delineates the minimum requirement of continuing education per year). Similarly, the International Coach Federation also has its ethical codes; however, these standards are relatively simple, and all career coaches are not required to follow them.

The lack of enforceable ethical standards in the career coaching industry is an area with which psychological, counseling, and career development professionals might take issue. Although career coaches stress that they are not counselors, the line that they draw when practicing may seem quite thin at times. The NCDA (2000) has stated that career counseling may include such services as dissemination of career information and resources; assessment and identification of occupational interests, abilities, and/or values; and assistance with resumes. Career counseling also involves a more in-depth counseling relationship with the client and working toward resolving deeper career concerns than does typical career planning. Career counseling, as defined by NCDA, seems quite similar to the services currently being provided by career coaches. This again creates murky ethical issues when there is no clear distinction about who may advertise himself or herself as a career coach and when there is no set of ethical guidelines to steer the profession of career coaching.

Levinson (1996) cautioned that career coaching and psychotherapy must be kept distinct from each other. Even psychologists who practice career and executive coaching have suggested that they make clear the distinction between therapy and coaching (Leonard, 1999); however, it is unclear whether these psychologists practice by the American Psychological Association (1992) code of ethics when working as career coaches.

Another major ethical issue is confidentiality. Trust between client and coach is a critical element--and a multifaceted one (Hall et al., 1999). Whether internally or externally hired, executive coaches may ultimately be required to report coaching and assessment information to upper management, which poses confidentiality concerns. Another complex issue pertains to the delivery of services. Many career coaching services are provided over the Internet and via the telephone, without a unified code of ethics that offers distinctions about what type of computer or telephone security is necessary to protect confidentiality concerns. Another critical issue is the management of clients' crises from a long distance. Although this issue is currently being explored and addressed in the counseling and psychology professions, the lack of training of career coaches in dealing with difficult and potentially dangerous situations may leave both coaches and their clients at a grave disadvantage, especially when working long distance or via the Internet. This lack of training may also leave many clients without the help they need when facing depression and other disorders. Career coaches may not have a referral network for clients, nor may they know when to make referrals. Therefore, it is important to establish a set of guidelines to ensure trained and ethical delivery of services.

Research

Although career coaching has become a highly popular industry, there is limited empirical research to support the effectiveness of such practice (Kilburg, 1996b). The results of one field study (Maurer, Solamon, & Troxtel, 1998) suggested that interview coaching is related to higher interview performance. More studies are needed to demonstrate effectiveness of the practice of career coaching.

Multicultural Issues

As the U.S. population becomes more culturally diverse and career coaches are marketing their services to a global community via the Internet, multicultural sensitivity and competence seem to be of vital importance in the training and practice of career coaches. Although a common goal of career coaching is to facilitate personal success and life satisfaction, career coaches need to be sensitive to the values, beliefs, and cultural practices of people from various cultural backgrounds. The meaning and importance of work, the roles of family and significant others in an individual's career decision making, the valuing of individual career development versus the organization's development, and collaborative versus competitive work atmosphere are only a few issues that are relevant to career coaching with various cultural groups.

Recommendations

In light of the preceding discussion on professional and ethical issues, we offer the following recommendations for the professional advancement of career coaching.

1. Professional organization. The lack of regulation in training, certification, and code of ethics is partly due to an absence of a nationally recognized professional organization for career coaching. Because the practice of career coaching is consistent with the mission of NCDA, we suggest that NCDA formally include career coaching in its policies, guidelines, advocacy, services, and training. This inclusion will allow NCDA to better manage the various career services provided by different career professionals and will facilitate clients in receiving quality professional services.

2. Training. We recommend that training of career coaches be required and standardized. An accreditation body should be formed to establish training standards as well as to evaluate and issue accreditation to training programs. The training model most likely will include courses in interpersonal skills, theories of career development and counseling, assessment, job search strategies, professional ethics, and a supervised practicum. The NCDA is encouraged to coordinate efforts toward the goals of the standardization and accreditation of training.

3. Certification. With career coaching being increasingly a national and international practice because of advances in information technology, we recommend that a national or even international agency be formed to award certificates to individuals qualified to practice career coaching. Such certification will likely involve evidence of completing an accredited training program, supervised experience, passing a certification test, and continuing education. This certification may be modeled after the certification required to be a CDF or NCDA's master career counselors and master career development professionals.

4. Code of ethics. It is important to create a code of ethics specifically for the practice of career coaching. Such guidelines may be built on existing relevant codes of ethics. Because the practices of career counselors and career coaches overlap substantially, we recommend that career coaches abide by relevant sections of the ACA's (1995) Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. With increasing use of the Internet as a medium for service, career coaches are also advised to follow the Ethical Standards for Internet Online Counseling (ACA, 1999) and Guidelines for the Use of the Internet for Provision of Career Information and Planning Services (NCDA, 1997).

5. Research. For scientific, ethical, and accountability reasons, empirical research is needed to develop and evaluate career coaching practices. There is a wide range of research topics in this area, such as efficacy of training programs, interventions for increasing productivity, and management consultation. Because the tasks of coaching vary a great deal depending on the needs of individual clients, single case research methods (Kazdin, 1982) may be particularly helpful in this line of research.

6. Multicultural issues. Consulting psychologists have suggested that career coaches should be careful when giving career and work advice to clients and that a coach must be familiar with the culture of the client's company (Gabriel, 1996). We recommend that multicultural sensitivity be included in all career coach training programs and certification criteria. Furthermore, career coaches need to assess their multicultural competency when working with culturally diverse clients and to make appropriate referrals when needed.

In this article, we have reviewed the practice, training, professional, and ethical issues of career coaching. We have offered some recommendations as a first step in promoting professionalism in the practice of career coaching and for uniting this profession with other career service professionals. It is time that career development professionals take charge to ensure ethical and quality career services for all consumers.

References

American Counseling Association. (1995). Code of ethics and standards of practice.

Alexandria, VA: Author.

American Counseling Association. (1999). Ethical standards for Internet online counseling. Retrieved November 3, 2003, from http://aca.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=resources_internet

American Psychological Association. (1992). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. American Psychologist, 47, 1597-1611.

Anonymous. (1997, December). How to hire an ace career coach. Money, 26, 94.

Bell, P. (1996, March 18). Business coaches: Consultants for the '90's. Las Vegas Sun, p. ID.

Brotman, L. E., Liberi, W. P., & Wasylyshyn, K. M. (1998). Executive coaching: The need for standards of competence. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 50, 40-46.

Career coaching comes out of the closet. (1991). Personnel, 68(2), 4.

Coach U. (2000). The coach training program. Retrieved November 3, 2003, from http://www.coachinc.com/coachu/programs%20and%20services/default.asp?s=1

Coach University. (1999). Coach University electronic media kit. Retrieved September 7, 1999, from http://[e-mail] [No longer accessible. Document available from Y. Barry Chung: [e-mail]]

Crockett, R. (1996, May 19). New players in the corporate game. The Oregonian, p. F1.

Dean, B. (1998). The psychologist as virtual coach. The Independent Practitioner, 18, 188-189.

Diedrich, R. C. (1996). An iterative approach to executive coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48, 61-66.

Driscoll, K. (1996). A new kind of helper: Coaches sell selves as mentor, friend, consultant. Tampa Tribune Times.

Eng, S. (1996, March 13). Do you need an executive coach? San Jose Mercury, p. 6G.

Gabriel, T. (1996, April 28). Personal trainers to buff the boss's people skills. The New York Times, Section 3, p. 1.

Green, M. (1996, March 18). Personal coaches bring goals into focus. Las Vegas Review-Journal, p. ID.

Hall, D. T., Otazo, K. L., & Hollenbeck, G. P. (1999). Behind closed doors: What really happens in executive coaching. Organisational Dynamics, 27, 39-53.

Haverkamp, B. E., & Moore, D. (1993). The career-personal dichotomy: Perceptual reality, practical illusion, and workplace integration. The Career Development Quarterly, 42, 154-160.

Hube, K. (1996, December). A coach may be the guardian angel you need to rev up your career. Money, 25, 43-46.

Jackson, T. (1996, April 28). Send me in, coach! Tampa Tribune Times, p. Baylife 1.

Jones, P. R., Kaye, B., & Taylor, H. R. (1981). You want me to do what? Training and Development Journal, 35(7), 56-62.

Kazdin, A. E. (1982). Single-case research designs: Methods for clinical and applied settings. New York: Oxford University Press.

Kiel, F., Rimmer, E., Williams, K., & Dolye, M. (1996). Coaching at the top. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48, 67-77.

Kilburg, R. R. (Ed.). (1996a). Executive coaching [Special issue]. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48(2).

Killburg, R. R. (1996b). Toward a conceptual understanding and definition of executive coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48, 134-144.

Laske, O. E. (1999). An integrated model of developmental coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 51, 139-159.

Leonard, T. J. (1999). Becoming a coach: The Coach U approach. Steamboat Springs, CO: Coach U Press.

Levinson, H. (1996). Executive coaching. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48, 115-123.

Maurer, T., Solamon, J., & Troxtel, D. (1998). Relationship of coaching with performance in situational employment interviews. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 128-136.

MentorCoach. (2003a). Continuing education for clinicians. Retrieved November 4, 2003, from http://www.mentorcoach.com/ceu.html

MentorCoach. (2003b). The MentorCoach training program. Retrieved November 4, 2003, from http://mentorcoach.com/description/index/htm

Myers, W. S. (1996). Finding a career coach. Women in Business, 48(6), 24-28.

National Career Development Association. (1997). NCDA guidelines for the use of the Internet for provision of career information and planning services. Retrieved November 3, 2003, from http://www.ncda.org/about/polnet.html.

National Career Development Association. (2000). Career development facilitators. Retrieved November 3, 2003, from http://209.235.208.145/cgi-bin/WebSuite tcsAssnWebSuite.pl?Action=DisplayTemplate&Page=AWS_NCDA_CDF_CAREER.html&AssnID=NCDA&DBCode=130285

Randolph, A. B. (1981). Managerial career coaching. Training and Development Journal, 35(7), 54-55.

Rich, G. A. (1998). The constructs of scales coaching: Supervisory feedback, role modeling and trust. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 18, 53-63.

Richard, J. T. (1999). Multimodal therapy: A useful model for the executive coach. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 51, 24-36.

Splete, H. H., & Hoppin, J. M. (2000). The emergence of career development facilitators. The Career Development Quarterly, 48, 340-347.

Strempel, D. (1999). Career coach can answer age-old questions about life. Fairfield County Business Journal, 38(35), 5.

Sturman, G. M. (1990). The supervisor as career "coach." Supervisory Management, 35(11), 6.

Tobias, L. L. (1996). Coaching executives. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 48, 87-95.

Tyler, K. (1997, June). Prepare managers to become career coaches. HR Magazine, 42, 98-101.

Y. Barry Chung, Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, Georgia State University; M. Coleman Allen Gfroerer, Faculty Staff Assistance Program, Emory University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Y. Barry Chung, Department of Counseling and Psychological Services, MSC 6A915, Georgia State University, 33 Gilmer Street SE Unit 6, Atlanta, GA 30303-3086 (e-mail: [e-mail]).