The Research Behind Our Leadership Coaching
Ways of Being’s executive coaching methodology is grounded in Integral Coaching® — developed over two decades by Integral Coaching Canada and recognized as the most comprehensive application of developmental science to the coaching profession.
Integral Coaching® is the only coaching methodology to receive formal endorsement from the Integral Institute, and its training program exceeds ICF Master-level standards with 202 accredited hours — nearly double what most coaching certifications require.
But credentials alone don’t create leadership transformation. What follows is the research that explains why this approach produces the lasting change that conventional leadership development rarely achieves.
Why This Page Exists
Most coaching websites ask you to trust their method on faith. We’d rather show you the evidence. This page explains the research foundations that make our approach to executive coaching different — and why it produces results that last beyond the coaching engagement.
Higher Standards, Deeper Training
The coaching profession has a quality problem. ICF certification — the industry standard — requires as few as 60 hours of training. Even the highest ICF credential (MCC) requires 200 hours. The Integral Coaching® Certification Program exceeds this with 202 hours of advanced training across three progressive modules — and that’s just the formal classroom component.
But the real difference isn’t hours. It’s depth.
Most coaching certifications teach conversational skills: how to ask good questions, how to listen actively, how to set goals. These are necessary but insufficient for the kind of leadership transformation that senior executives need.
Integral Coaching® trains coaches in:
- Adult development theory — understanding how leaders grow through stages of increasing complexity, not just acquire new skills
- AQAL framework — mapping a leader’s full system across mind, body, relationships, and context
- Somatic awareness — working with the body’s intelligence, not just cognitive insight
- Subject-object theory — helping leaders see the patterns they’re embedded in, rather than just the ones they can already name
- Practice design — creating targeted, between-session practices that produce lasting behavioral change
Why Most Leadership Development Fails
Before understanding why Integral Coaching works, it’s worth understanding why most approaches don’t:
- McKinsey (2014): Only 11% of organizations believe their leadership development programs produce meaningful results
- Beer, Finnström & Schrader (Harvard Business School, 2016): "Why Leadership Training Fails — and What to Do About It" — found that training without systemic support produces virtually no lasting behavioral change
- Center for Creative Leadership: 40% of new executives fail within 18 months, primarily due to relational and adaptive challenges — not skill gaps
- Kegan & Lahey (Harvard): Leaders carry "immunity to change" — hidden competing commitments that actively prevent the changes they say they want
The common thread: conventional approaches work on the wrong level. They add knowledge (horizontal development) without changing how the leader makes sense of complexity (vertical development).
Our methodology is designed specifically to address this gap.
Why Vertical Development Is the Key to Leadership Effectiveness
Research from the Center for Creative Leadership, the Vertical Development Institute, and Harvard’s Adult Development Lab has converged on a critical finding: the most effective leaders don’t just know more — they make sense of complexity differently.
This is the distinction between horizontal development (adding skills and knowledge) and vertical development (growing the capacity to handle greater complexity). Our coaching targets the vertical.
Leaders with greater vertical development consistently demonstrate:
- Higher tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty — they don’t need premature resolution
- Ability to hold multiple perspectives simultaneously — seeing the whole system, not just their part
- More effective decision-making under pressure — because they process more information with less distortion
- Stronger relational intelligence — they read the room, not just the spreadsheet
- Greater resilience through change — because their identity isn’t threatened by shifting contexts
Korn Ferry’s research (2018) found that leaders with higher levels of vertical development outperform their peers by 25% on organizational outcomes. The Center for Creative Leadership found that vertical development is the single strongest predictor of leadership effectiveness at senior levels.
This isn’t niche academic theory. It’s the empirical foundation for everything we do.
How Our Coaching Actually Creates This Kind of Growth
Integral Coaching® produces vertical development through four integrated mechanisms:
MAKING THE INVISIBLE VISIBLE
Using the AQAL framework (All Quadrants, All Levels), your coach maps your full leadership system — not just your behaviors, but the beliefs, emotions, physical patterns, and relational dynamics that drive them. This is how we help you see what you can’t see from inside your own system.
SUBJECT-TO-OBJECT SHIFT
Drawn from Kegan’s constructive-developmental theory: what you’re embedded in (subject) you can’t see or change. What you can observe (object) you can work with. Our coaching systematically moves your leadership patterns from subject to object — creating choice where there was only habit.
EMBODIED PRACTICE
Insight alone doesn’t create change. Research from the neuroscience of habit formation (Duhigg, 2012; Clear, 2018) shows that lasting behavioral change requires repeated, targeted practice in context. Every coaching engagement includes customized practices designed for your specific leadership challenges — practiced in your real-world leadership, not in a workshop.
THE COACHING RELATIONSHIP AS A DEVELOPMENTAL CONTAINER
Research on therapeutic and coaching alliance (Horvath & Symonds, 1991; de Haan et al., 2013) consistently shows that the quality of the relationship is the strongest predictor of coaching outcomes. Our coaching relationships are designed to provide the precise combination of challenge and support that development requires.
The Developmental Foundation
Our methodology is built on three pillars of research:
- CONSTRUCTIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY (Kegan, Harvard)
Adults develop through qualitatively different stages of meaning-making — each bringing greater capacity for complexity, self-awareness, and leadership. Most adults reach Stage 3 (socialized mind) or Stage 4 (self-authoring mind). The leaders who thrive in the most complex roles are developing toward Stage 5 (self-transforming mind). Our coaching is specifically designed to support this transition.
- INTEGRAL THEORY (Wilber)
Ken Wilber’s AQAL framework provides the most comprehensive map of human development available. It enables us to see leaders as whole systems — integrating cognitive, emotional, somatic, relational, and contextual dimensions. This is why our coaching produces change that holds: it doesn’t just address one dimension — it addresses the full system.
- EMBODIED COGNITION & SOMATIC RESEARCH (Varela, Damasio, Fogel)
Decades of neuroscience research confirm what contemplative traditions have known for millennia: the body isn’t separate from cognition — it’s integral to it. Your emotional responses, decision-making patterns, and leadership presence are all embodied phenomena. Our coaching works directly with this somatic intelligence.
Key Sources & Further Reading
NEW: Key Sources & Further Reading
- Kegan, R. (1994). In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life. Harvard University Press.
- Kegan, R. & Lahey, L. (2009). Immunity to Change. Harvard Business Press.
- Cook-Greuter, S. (2013). Nine Levels of Increasing Embrace in Ego Development.
- Wilber, K. (2000). Integral Psychology. Shambhala.
- Frost, L. (2022). “An Analysis of Integral Coaching Canada Across Eight Zones.”
- Torbert, W. (2004). Action Inquiry: The Secret of Timely and Transforming Leadership.
- Petrie, N. (2014). “Vertical Leadership Development.” Center for Creative Leadership.
- Beer, M., Finnström, M. & Schrader, D. (2016). “Why Leadership Training Fails.” Harvard Business Review.
- De Haan, E. et al. (2013). “A Large-Scale Study of Executive Coaching Outcome.” Consulting Psychology Journal.
- Damasio, A. (1994). Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.
- Silsbee, D. (2008). Presence-Based Coaching. Jossey-Bass.
- Cashman, K. (2017). Leadership from the Inside Out. 3rd ed. Berrett-Koehler.
- Korn Ferry (2018). Research on self-awareness and leadership outperformance.
- Laske, O. (2006). Measuring Hidden Dimensions of Human Systems.
While every coaching engagement is unique, leaders who complete our programs consistently report:
- Greater capacity to hold complexity without becoming overwhelmed or reactive
- Improved decision-making quality — especially under uncertainty and pressure
- Measurably improved team engagement and trust (several clients have documented 20-30 point improvements in engagement scores)
- Stronger executive presence — the kind that creates psychological safety and drives performance
- Sustainable energy and reduced burnout — leading from capacity rather than depletion
- Changes that last and deepen after coaching ends — because the development is structural, not behavioral
Explore the Research
in Practice
The best way to understand how this research translates into leadership transformation is to experience it.
Or explore our Method page to see how these principles come alive in our coaching engagements.