For most organizations today, executive coaching serves as a common and widely employed leadership development and organizational performance improvement solution. The literature shows signs that executive coaching produces positive outcomes, yet far less is known about how these positive outcomes are produced, and in particular, little is known from the coachee's perspective.

This study organized what is known to date, as represented in the scholarly literature, about the multitude of constructs that have been reported to lead to effective executive coaching experiences, from the coachee's perspective. These known constructs for executive coaching effectiveness were used as the basis for the creation of this study's survey. The results of this quantitative study represent the voice of 171 coachees and indicated that effectiveness in executive coaching is the shared responsibility between the executive coach, the coachee, and the context (the coachee's organization). This study presents the top seven most commonly cited constructs, per construct area (coach, coachee, and organization/contextual), necessary for effectiveness in executive coaching. These top constructs are organized, by construct area, and represented visually in the Executive Coaching Effectiveness Taxonomy.

Study results detected statistically significant differences among female and male executive preferences across several executive coaching constructs. This data suggests a continued need for research to better understand the developmental needs between female and male executives. Most importantly, it calls for tailored executive coaching initiatives to meet the specific developmental needs of female executives.