Developing More Effective and Adaptive U.S. Governmental Healthcare Leaders

Abstract

With the enormous number of deaths and hospitalizations related to COVID-19, the need for public health government leaders that are responsive and effective has never been more important. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of 20 government supervisors who experienced executive coaching to illuminate patterns of effective and agile coaching practices by drawing from theories of experimental and interdisciplinary learning and transformational leadership models. This study proposes executive coaching as a potentially effective and functional methodology to solve this problem, and supports the government in understanding the practical and theoretical dimensions of executive coaching as a developmental method in U.S. government healthcare organizations. This research shows that coaching can be a useful tool to help in the development of more effective healthcare managers, many of which have only been extensively trained in clinical areas.