The Center for Executive Coaching

The Center for Executive Coaching (CEC) was first established as a charter organization of The Coaching Alliance and The Professional School of Psychology in 1988. Its founders, William Bergquist and Ken Merritt, wished to provide advanced level training and education for those accomplished human service professionals who work with men and women in organizations faced with the daunting task of making decisions (the “executive” function of leadership) within a postmodern context of complexity, unpredictability and turbulence. Making use of an appreciative approach to coaching and a wide range of coaching strategies (including reflective coaching, instrumented coaching and observational coaching), CEC prepares executive coaches to confront a wide variety of organizational challenges that are being faced by the 21 st Century leaders they are coaching.

 

Since 1988, CEC has provided training to more than 400 executive coaches from North America and Asia, and has provided a foundation for the publication of five books on executive coaching—including Executive Coaching: An Appreciative Approach (Bergquist, Merritt and Phillips, 2004 –Revised Edition), Organizational Coaching: Resource Book 2005 (Bergquist) and Ten Themes and Variations for Postmodern Leaders and Their Coaches (Bergquist and Mura, 2005). In addition, CEC has awarded executive coaching certifications to more than 100 program participants, by authority of the Department of Consumer Affairs, State of California, and has conducted in-house peer-based coach training programs within both public and private organizations located in the United States, Canada and Taiwan.