Abstract
This study explores the influence of coaching on leaders’ emotions and organizational relationships. Emotionally charged workplace relationships are a significant source of leadership stress and commonly presented in coaching, yet they remain underexplored in coaching literature. Guided by social constructionism utilizing constructivist grounded theory, the study draws on semistructured interviews with 22 participants, revealing insights into 31 different coaching experiences. Findings show how coaching surfaces, contextualizes, and transforms emotional and relational dynamics. The study introduces the See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework, advancing coaching and leadership theory and positions coaching as an emotional and relational intervention.
Introduction
Leaders experience a profound range and intensity of emotions in their workplace relationships. Leaders’ emotions are not experienced in isolation; they are shaped by the complexity of workplace system and relationship dynamics, interpersonal tensions, and the personal challenges they navigate outside of work, which can surface in the coaching process (Roberts, 2023).
Scholars who study “affective” neuroscience, specifically, the effect of emotion in organizational behavior, have, for quite some time, characterized workplaces as “emotional arenas” (Fineman, 2000, p. 1), with relationships identified as a frequent cause of intense emotions (Waldron, 2000). Intense emotions at work can undermine performance and well-being (Ashkanasy, 2014). Reports on workplace health echo these concerns, identifying relationships, particularly with managers, as major contributors to stress and burnout (HSE, 2024; Wigert, 2018).
Managing relationships is among the most common reasons leaders seek coaching (ICF, 2017; Mann, 2016). Coaching is widely recognized as a reflective space for leaders, yet coaching research has received limited attention on how it supports leaders to navigate the emotional complexity of organizational relationships (Cox, 2016). This article builds on emotionally engaged coaching as fundamental to exploring how leaders make sense of their emotional experiences. Without emotional engagement in the coaching process, coaching risks being misaligned and remaining surface-level, limiting opportunities for emotional insight to emerge (Roberts, 2023).
The primary aim of this research was to explore how coaching influences the emotions leaders experience within their organizational relationships, particularly in the context of complex systemic and relational dynamics. Guided by a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) approach, the study was shaped by three objectives:
To review and critically appraise literature on emotion and affect in coaching, leadership, and organizational behavior. To explore, with leaders and coaches, the influence of coaching in the context of emotions that arise within organizational relationships. To develop new theory to support leaders and coaches working with emotions that arise in organizational relationships.
To provide clarity to the context in which the study and findings are situated, the following definitions apply.
Emotional dynamics are the experience of physiological and behavioral elements which constitute emotion(s) that present in patterns and regularities which fluctuate and change over time (Kuppens & Verduyn, 2017). Emotions are dynamic in their nature, in that emotions and affective states change rapidly from day to day and moment to moment (Ashkanasy, 2003, p. 18).
Definitions of relationship dynamics are largely derived from intimate or attachment-based relationship literature. This study adopts a context-specific approach to define organizational relationship dynamics grounded in leaders’ and coaches’ accounts and defines them as repetitive patterns of interaction that emerge between individuals operating within formal and informal organizational roles. These dynamics are shaped by systemic conditions such as hierarchy, performance pressure, and accountability structures, and manifest through patterns of power, control, dependency, and emotional exchange (Roberts, 2023). Unhealthy organizational relationship dynamics are defined as persistent power imbalances, loss of autonomy or agency, emotional triggering, and unmet relational needs that undermine an individual's sense of control, authenticity, and effectiveness within the relationship (Roberts, 2023).
In this study, emotional dynamics and organizational relationship dynamics are treated as distinct but interrelated constructs, each influencing how leaders experience, interpret, and respond to their organizational contexts.
The study also focuses on leaders as the recipients of coaching, with coaches working with them to explore their emotional and relational experiences. Drawing on leaders’ and coaches’ experiences, the study develops an informed understanding of how emotional insight, systemic awareness, and relational dynamics are navigated through coaching.
The See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework is introduced as a model grounded in leaders’ and coaches’ experiences, offering a conceptual lens for understanding how coaches and leaders engage with emotional and relational dynamics in coaching. The framework offers a systemic lens through which coaches and leaders can engage more deeply with the relational realities of organizational life.
The framework is introduced early to orient the reader to the study's core contribution, with the subsequent methodology, findings and analysis demonstrating how it is grounded in participants’ accounts, consistent with the CGT approach underpinning the study.
This article examines how leaders’ emotional and relational dynamics are surfaced, explored, and transformed through coaching. It begins with a review of relevant literature on emotion, organizational behavior, and coaching, engaged both prior to and during analysis in line with CGT. The methodology outlines the research design, data collection, and analytic procedures. The findings present emergent theoretical codes and key concepts relating to leaders’ emotional dynamics, organizational relationship dynamics, and emotional engagement within the coaching process, culminating in the See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework. The discussion examines how emotionally engaged coaching cultivates agency, authenticity, empathy, and emotional and relational shifts, before concluding with contributions, limitations, and implications for future research.
Literature Review
This study is grounded in and synthesizes relevant literature from affective neuroscience and coaching psychology, offering a lens for understanding the relational and systemic nature of emotional experience in organizations and coaching.
A critical theoretical influence underpinning this research is the Theory of Constructed Emotion (Feldman Barrett, 2017, 2020). It positions emotion as dynamic, predictive processes constructed by the brain in response to bodily sensations, filtered through past experiences and contextual meaning-making (Feldman Barrett, 2017). It also positions emotion as a cocreated experience (Feldman Barrett, 2020).
Ashkanasy's five-level model of emotions in organizations provides a complementary framework, mapping emotional experience across five levels: (1) intrapersonal, (2) differences between people, (3) interpersonal interaction, (4) groups and teams, and (5) organizational levels including culture (Ashkanasy & Humphrey, 2011). Emotions are not solely individual responses but are present in interpersonal interactions and organizational culture.
Organizations are increasingly recognized as emotional arenas (Fineman, 2000; Roberts, 2023), where relationships are both sources of emotional support and strain. Poor quality relationships with line managers, especially those marked by mistrust or conflict, contribute to stress, burnout, and impaired performance (Health and Safety Executive, 2020; Wigert, 2018).
This study distinguishes between emotional dynamics and organizational relationship dynamics, while recognizing their interdependence. Emotional dynamics refer to the lived, fluctuating patterns of emotional experience, regulation, and meaning-making that arise within leaders as they engage with their organizational environment. Organizational relationship dynamics refer to the recurring patterns of interaction, power, communication, and emotional exchange that characterize leaders’ relationships within organizational systems. While distinct, they are understood as mutually shaping, such that emotional experiences influence relational patterns and, in turn, relational contexts shape emotional experience.
Popular constructs like emotional intelligence (EI) have done much to increase awareness of the importance of emotion in leadership (Ashkanasy & Dasborough, 2021). However, scholarly critiques highlight their concerns with EI, such as inconsistent definitions, an overreliance on self-reporting, which overlooks systemic and relational nuance, measures that risk metricating emotion (Fineman, 2004), and a lack of empirical consensus regarding EI's validity (Dasborough et al., 2021).
In coaching literature, there is limited attention to how coaches work with emotion. Seminal studies by Bachkirova and Cox (2007), Cox and Bachkirova (2007), and Cremona (2010) reveal variation in coaches’ beliefs, attitudes, and confidence regarding emotional engagement. The authors found that coaches ranged from avoiding emotional engagement to actively embracing it as a critical factor in the development of the client. These studies also revealed that coaching education lacks sufficient emphasis on the psychological and physiological foundations of emotion, leaving many coaches unprepared for emotionally complex work.
More recent literature recognizes coaching's potential to influence leaders’ resilience, mindset, and performance (Lawton Smith, 2012; Theeboom et al., 2014). Coaching has been studied as a training intervention to enhance leaders’ EI (Grant, 2007; Schaap & Dippenaar, 2017), but they do not adequately examine the emotional and relational processes enacted within coaching itself. Coaching is often positioned as emotionally neutral, despite the reality that leaders bring emotionally charged relational challenges to coaching (ICF, 2017; Mann, 2016).
Although systemic coaching is well-established (Lawrence, 2021a, 2021b), there remains a notable gap in empirical research exploring its emotional dimension, particularly how coaching supports leaders in navigating the emotional impact of relational dynamics, systemic pressures, and organizational cultures. While systemic and psychodynamic approaches exist (Stokes et al., 2021), they offer little insight into how these are shaped through coaching.
Systemic and team coaching focus on surface-level behaviors such as task coordination or team effectiveness (Jones et al., 2016; Widdowson et al., 2020). In doing so, it overlooks deeper emotional needs, tensions, and psychological undercurrents that shape relationship dynamics (Bharwaney et al., 2019; Graves, 2020).
Coaching literature underplays the emotional complexity present within interpersonal relationships, limiting insight into emotional patterns and needs that coaches may need to engage with. Additionally, many coaching models, while effective for goal-setting, do not adequately address the emotional and relational complexity leaders navigate. As such, coaching literature risks privileging rationality and action over emotional exploration and relational sense-making.
In this study, emotional and relationship dynamics are treated as distinct yet interrelated constructs. Coaching is conceptualized as potentially influencing emotional dynamics through processes such as emotional awareness, regulation, meaning-making, and embodied sense-making (Roberts, 2024). In parallel, coaching is understood as potentially influencing relational dynamics by reshaping patterns of interaction, communication, boundaries, and perceived agency within leaders’ organizational relationships (Roberts, 2023).
While these concepts are examined separately for analytical clarity, the study recognizes that coaching often operates at their intersection, where shifts in emotional experience alter relational patterns and, conversely, changes in relational dynamics reshape emotional experience. These distinctions inform, but don’t constrain analysis.
Affective neuroscience and coaching research provide complementary foundations for understanding emotional experience in leadership. Affective neuroscience highlights the dynamic and relational nature of emotion. Coaching science illuminates attitudes and approaches toward emotional engagement and experiences in the coaching process. Integrating these perspectives provides a theoretical foundation for exploring the influence of coaching on leaders’ emotions and relationships.
The review reveals significant gaps in coaching and leadership research. The theory of constructed emotion has reshaped contemporary understanding of affect with regard to emotion and relationships. It is argued that it remains underutilized in coaching research and education. Additionally, much of the coaching literature pertaining to emotions is conceptual, anecdotal, or based solely on coach perspectives.
This study addresses this gap by centering leaders’ perspectives of how coaching influences emotional experience within organizational relationships, aligning with calls for psychologically informed and emotionally and contextually attuned coaching practice (Bachkirova, 2024; Bachkirova & Cox, 2007; Cox, 2016).
Methodology
Due to its complexity, emotion research must account for the contextual nature in which it emerges (Greenaway et al., 2018) and ways in which it manifests in the coaching process (Bachkirova & Noon, 2020; Charmaz, 2014). Qualitative research offers a powerful means of exploring it, providing rich, nuanced data, particularly the context in which relationship dynamics and emotion are experienced by leaders and coaches (De Haan, 2019).
Advancing the coaching profession requires a robust and objective approach to strengthening the evidence base that underpins its practice (Bachkirova, 2024; Passmore & Tee, 2020). However, in studying emotional dimensions of coaching in the context of leaders’ relationships, the aim was not to identify a single, objective truth. Emotional experiences are inherently subjective and influenced by interpersonal differences, personality traits, levels of EI (Ashkanasy & Dorris, 2017), and pre-existing emotional concepts (Feldman Barrett, 2017). Such variables are also present within the coach–leader relationship.
This study drew on the experiences and perspectives of both leaders and coaches who had engaged in coaching focused on organizational relationships within the 3 years preceding the study. Leaders were treated as the primary unit of analysis, reflecting the study's focus on emotional and relational experiences. Importantly, both leaders and coaches contributed insight into the coaching process itself. Coaches’ accounts provided perspectives on how coaching interactions were approached and navigated, while leaders’ accounts offered insight into how these processes were experienced, interpreted, and worked with in practice, including how coaches engaged with their emotional content.
This study was framed by a social constructionist ontology and a constructivist epistemology, well-suited to exploring how leaders’ emotions are constructed and cocreated through relational interactions (Feldman Barrett, 2020). Guided by CGT (Charmaz, 2014), the research embraces the subjectivity of the researcher as an active coconstructor of meaning, contrasting with the objectivist assumptions of early grounded theory. Charmaz (2014) further argues that engaging with existing literature before data collection enriches, rather than biases, conceptual framing.
Semistructured interviews were conducted via an online video platform. A purposive sampling approach was used to recruit participants with relevant emotional and relational experiences in coaching (Willig, 2013). This was followed by theoretical sampling to elaborate emerging categories and guide subsequent participant selection (Charmaz, 2014), until theoretical saturation was reached and no new insights emerged (Willig, 2013).
The study included 22 participants: 12 leaders and 10 coaches, offering perspectives on 31 distinct coaching experiences, a sample size that aligns well with CGT standards (Creswell, 1998). Participants were not drawn from matched coaching pairs (dyads). Many participants reflected on more than one coaching experience, accounting for the distinction between the number of participants (22) and the number of coaching experiences analyzed (31).
Constructivism emphasizes that knowledge and understanding are generated through interaction with, and the integration of, multiple perspectives on a given phenomenon (Charmaz, 2006). This study drew on participants occupying a range of professional roles within varied leadership and coaching contexts, including senior leaders and executives, as well as coaches with experience as supervisors, educators, and accreditation specialists (see Tables 1 to 3).
Leadership Experiences Represented in the Study (Leader- and Coach-Reported) and Leader Demographic Characteristics.
Coaches Demographics and Experience.
Coaches have more than one area of specialism.
Organizational Sectors Represented by Leadership Experiences.
Where coaches report on their coaching experiences, these accounts relate to leaders occupying specific organizational roles; leadership experiences are therefore represented through both leaders’ own accounts and coaches’ accounts of leaders, allowing experiences to be examined from multiple perspectives.
The inquiry was structured into two parts. Part one, the leaders’ context, which includes: what is going on for them, what is happening, how are they experiencing it, and emotions experienced.
Part two explores how the coach is engaging and working with the leader and their emotions and what influence this has (Figures 1 and 2).
Following principles of CGT, analysis commenced in iterative cycles of three to five participants, with coding and memo writing occurring in parallel, informed by constant comparison across all data (Charmaz, 2006). During the initial stages of analysis, codes such as “intense emotions,” “system and relationship dynamics,” and “emotional climate” emerged. As new data was gathered through theoretical sampling, these codes were refined and expanded. Modifications to interview questions enabled deeper exploration of emerging codes and categories (Charmaz, 2014). Utilizing NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software package, to store and sort data, meaning was attributed to segments of data, facilitating categorization and identifying patterns that supported theory development (Saldaña, 2021, p. 6).
Relationships and patterns emerged, forming theoretical codes (higher order categories) such as “varied emotional climates,” “complex system and relationship dynamics,” and “the emotional experience of leaders” which was driving their objectives for coaching, which culminated in the theoretical concept of “the leader's emotional ecosystem.
Data was also examined for evidence of shifts in emotional dynamics (e.g., changes in emotional awareness, emotional responses, or emotional regulation) and relational dynamics (such as changes in interactional patterns and relational positioning). Attention was also paid to accounts where dynamics were coconstitutive.
Table 4 displays the theoretical concepts, categories, codes, and subcodes that emerged underpinning the development of a new theory grounded in the data (Charmaz, 2014). The theoretical concepts are: “the significance of the leader's emotional ecosystem,” “creates the conditions for emotional engagement,” “shifting mindset and behavior,” “cultivates authenticity, emotional regulation and agency,” and “transforms relationships.”
Focused coding and categorizing also highlighted interdependencies (Saldaña, 2021). For example, creating the conditions for emotional engagement was integral to emotional authenticity, regulation, and agency, which were instrumental in relationship transformation.
To enhance methodological rigor, the analysis was guided by Suddaby's (2006) criteria for qualitative research, particularly the avoidance of premature theoretical closure and the imposition of a priori constructs. Consistent with these principles, coding remained inductive and iterative, with constant comparison used throughout analysis to ensure that categories were grounded in participants’ accounts rather than imposed frameworks. Memo-writing supported reflexivity and analytic decision-making, enabling emerging interpretations to be questioned, refined, and tested against the data as analysis progressed (Table 4).
Theoretical Concepts, Categories, and Codes.
Findings
Five interrelated themes emerge: The Leader's Emotional Ecosystem, within which is the emotional climate and the systemic and organizational relationship dynamics experienced by leaders, Creating the Conditions for Emotional Engagement, Shifting Mindset and Behavior, Cultivates Authenticity, Agency, and Empathy, and Transforms Relationships. These findings, grounded in leaders’ and coaches’ accounts, illustrate how coaching influences leaders’ emotional and relational experiences.
Coaches and leaders are treated as occupying distinct but interdependent roles within the coaching process. Leaders are positioned as the primary focus of analysis, describing their emotional experiences, sense-making, and relational agency within organizational relationships. References to emotionally and systemically attuned coaching refer to how coaches work in engaging with leaders’ emotions and their organizational context.
The findings distinguish between emotional dynamics (leaders’ emotional experiences, regulation, and meaning-making) and organizational relationship dynamics (patterns of interaction). While presented separately, the findings illustrate how coaching influences both dimensions and how shifts in emotional dynamics precipitate relational change. The themes are interrelated rather than discrete.
The findings are organized to show how participants’ accounts of coaching give rise to the See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework. Each theme represents an analytically distinct but interconnected aspect of the developmental process through which leaders came to recognize emotional and relational dynamics, take responsibility for their role within them, and enact shifts in mindset and behavior. These processes were iterative and overlapping in practice.
The Leader's Emotional Ecosystem
Leaders in this study operate within a complex emotional landscape, navigating intricate dynamics experienced in their organizational systems and relationships. The systemic challenges they faced included intense pressure to perform, dysfunctional leadership teams, and systemic individualization. Relationship dynamics involved issues of power and control, family-like patterns, emotional triangles, and emotional containment. Leaders also experienced, and at times contributed to, emotional climates, ranging from repressed and shaming to openly expressive, pressured, volatile, and toxic.
Emotional Climate
This theme reflects emotional dynamics experienced at a systemic level, shaping how leaders experience, express, suppress, or regulate emotion at work. Varying emotional climates were experienced, each influencing leaders’ behavior, relationships, and emotional experiences. Climates were shaped by organizational systems, relational dynamics, and the emotional state and beliefs of those present within the system. The climates varied from emotionally repressed to openly expressive, pressured, or toxic environments.
In emotionally repressed climates, emotional expression, particularly vulnerability, was culturally discouraged or viewed as weakness. Emotional needs were ignored or stifled by systemic norms and physical environments that inhibited openness. Our rooms are made of glass. You have to keep emotions hidden.
Shaming climates were reinforced by gender stereotypes. Emotional expression, especially from women, was labeled negatively, while anger expressed by men was legitimized as strength. Macho behaviour was normal; vulnerability was weakness. If women show anger, they are labelled and shamed as “emotional”. If men show it, they are authoritative.
Leaders described volatile and toxic climates. Emotional expression was unregulated. Behaviors such as shouting, bullying, and fear-based tactics were normalized. It was normal to shout at each other and express anger. Fear. During organisational change, I heard, “We don't owe people; if they're scared for their fate, they'll work harder.” It was shocking, toxic.
Some leaders described openly expressive and emotionally positive climates, where joy, connection, and emotional authenticity were encouraged. Emotion was recognized as vital to motivation, trust, and performance, especially in high-pressure, fast-paced environments.
System Dynamics
Three key organizational systemic dynamics emerged: pressure to perform, systemic individualization, and dysfunctional leadership. They illustrate the structural and organizational conditions that intensified leaders’ emotional experiences, influencing interactions and relationships.
Pressure to perform was evident in leaders’ accounts of working under sustained and intense performance expectations driven by organizational targets and business demands. Participants described the personal and emotional cost of these pressures, often framed in terms of exhaustion, compromised well-being, and a sense of unsustainable responsibility. As one leader reflected: I was working 80–90 hours a week. The pressure cost my physical and mental health.
Systemic individualization emerged through organizational structures that positioned leaders as individually accountable for outcomes, which went against collaboration. Leaders highlighted reward systems, performance metrics, and ranking mechanisms that reinforced competitive, self-protective behaviors rather than collective responsibility and collaboration. One participant explained: People operated for themselves; systems drove it. Managers ranked staff, bonuses rewarded individual success.
Accounts of dysfunctional leadership were articulated not as individual incompetence but as a systemic pattern. Participants described poor communication, lack of role clarity, inconsistent decision-making, and ego-driven, fear-based behaviors within senior teams. The executive team was dysfunctional.
These system dynamics were central to the emotional climates many leaders experienced.
Organizational Relationship Dynamics
This theme captures four recurring relational dynamics that shaped leaders’ emotional responses: power and control, positional power, family-type behavioral patterns, and emotional triangles.
Power and control emerged strongly across leaders’ accounts. Despite their seniority, many leaders described feeling a profound sense of loss of power and control in their roles. This stemmed from interactions marked by dominating, coercive, manipulative, or paranoid behaviors from senior colleagues, peers, or followers. I felt outmanned, they formed a coalition [against me]. I felt the raw emotion of not being trusted.
In some cases, power dynamics were underpinned by systemic patterns such as deference to older, long-standing, or highly influential leaders. He was older, more experienced and felt able to control me.
Power struggles were prominent during leadership transitions, such as joining the executive board, stepping into a new leadership role, or becoming the recipient of new leadership. Joining the Board as the pandemic hit was hard. An established executive made me anxious, he was dominating, making me feel really small.
These dynamics significantly impacted leaders’ sense of agency. Leaders reported feeling anxious, angry, rage, powerless, small, and emotionally vulnerable.
Positional power highlighted a different tension. Leaders talked about their struggle to influence and lead change effectively despite their formal authority. Both leaders and coaches highlighted the challenges of using positional authority to drive performance. Some leaders recognized that their style or use of power was a barrier, while others lacked this awareness, as one coach shared: The CEO had a “command and control style”, they couldn't see that “they” were the problem and why they weren’t getting the results.
Family-type relational patterns were also evident, such as patriarchal deference to senior figures, sibling-like rivalry, and parent–child interactions. These dynamics often played out in emotionally charged scenarios, such as new businesses being established, dissolving partnerships or navigating power imbalances in hierarchical organizations. They were likened to familial roles, for example, CEOs as dominant parental figures, conflict between executives described as “parents,” with team members positioned as “children.” We used this phrase “mustn't upset grandad, the CEO”. I felt like I was a little boy. He used to call me “young lad”!? I was 55. My team found it really hard to be around [us]. We were like parents arguing and they were hiding under the table. It felt like a divorce in the end.
Leaders described feeling infantilized, undermined, or emotionally trapped in these family-type relational patterns, which affected their sense of authority and agency. These dynamics also had a notable impact on wider team members.
Finally, emotional triangles were a recurring dynamic. Leaders described being “caught in the middle” of competing demands, toxic dynamics, or organizational tensions. Leaders also became emotional containers, absorbing stress, mediating conflict, shielding, and rescuing their teams from the conflict and/or pressure. She wasn't delegating. She was being a superhero, taking it all on. She took the weight for the team.
This manifested in mediating dysfunctional executive teams, navigating conflicting priorities, or managing the emotional impact of poorly handled decisions. Leaders found themselves acting as intermediaries between those generating emotional tension and those impacted by it. I felt like a cushion in between the board members and my team.
Leaders felt overwhelmed, emotionally drained and unable to break the cycle of these behavioral patterns. The organizational system and relationship dynamics combined with the emotional climate, form the emotional ecosystem in which leaders are operating, which influences their emotional experience.
Creating the Conditions for Emotional Engagement
This theme foregrounds creating the conditions for emotional engagement in coaching, which serves as an enabling mechanism for leaders’ emotional dynamics to surface, be expressed, and worked with. Leaders experienced a wide range of emotions within their emotional ecosystem, including anger, anxiety, frustration, loneliness, and loss of agency.
Leaders differed in their levels of emotional awareness and capacity for regulation; however, what united their experiences was a need for a safe space where their emotions could be expressed and contained and relationships explored safely and without judgment. Leaders described coaching as: There's nowhere I could be like that. Not at work, you had to be this big, tough leader. Not at home, my partner is heavily invested in my health. [Coaching] provided a space where I felt psychologically safe to be authentic.
Coaches invited leaders to sit with their feelings in a way that allowed emotions to be fully experienced and processed: I felt rage, she let me sit with that rage and understand what it meant for me.
Leaders felt witnessed, legitimized, and understood. This laid the foundational conditions for emotional regulation, making space for reflection and coherence to emerge.
Shifting Mindset
This theme represents a developmental shift in which changes in emotional experience begin to translate into altered meaning-making, self-positioning, and relational behavior. This process was organized around two interdependent categories: labeling and contextualizing, and personal responsibility in the cocreation of the dynamics.
Within labeling and contextualizing, leaders described how coaching enabled them to see and make sense of their emotional and relational experiences in ways they hadn’t previously accessed. Coaches used strategies such as labeling emotions, normalizing, and validating them in the context of their emotional ecosystem and past or present experiences. It helped me to label, normalise and validate what I was feeling and experiencing.
Coaches who were systemically attuned helped leaders recognize the systemic and relational contexts of their emotions, identifying dynamics and patterns that clarified the systems they were operating within. You had somebody who understood the system, the coach got it.
Emotions were contextualized, allowing for greater clarity and insight. This marked a shift in the emotional dynamics, from dysregulated emotional experience toward reflective emotional awareness.
Coaches helped leaders shift from awareness to ownership and taking personal responsibility. Coaches introduced practical and reflective tools such as metaphor, silence, mindfulness, and FEAR setting (False Evidence Appearing Real), helping leaders identify emotionally reactive patterns. Participants shared how leaders began to take responsibility for how their emotions impacted their mindset, behavior, and relationships.
Coaches also helped leaders confront how they might consciously or unconsciously be contributing to relational dynamics. They showed me how I was contributing to the dynamic.
This was not about blame. Coaches held up a mirror that reflected both emotional truth and relational patterns, enabling leaders to see themselves as active participants in the systems around them. Rather than collude with frustration or reinforce victim narratives, coaches challenged constructively and compassionately, helping leaders reframe their experiences.
This theme illustrates how leaders moved from awareness to responsibility, recognizing their role in cocreating emotional and relational dynamics.
Cultivates Authenticity and Agency
This theme illustrates how shifts in emotional experience and relational meaning-making cultivated authenticity, agency, and empathy. Within this phase of the coaching process, leaders began to question long-held assumptions that leadership required emotional suppression, instead embracing the belief that vulnerability and authenticity could be strengths. Leaders described the challenge of balancing emotional openness with the risk of judgment, misinterpretation, or reputational damage. We walk this authentic tightrope.
In this new context, authenticity functioned as a relational capacity, shaped by leaders’ emotional insight. I was in quite a toxic environment. I wanted to take steps to ensure that I stayed authentic to who I am.
Leaders described communicating more openly, acknowledging emotional realities in their teams, and letting go of the “leadership mask.” I’m leading at a time when men have become allowed to be more emotional, and be more open. […] admitting to mistakes they’ve made etc. That's really powerful.
As part of a developing agency, coaches helped leaders unpack unhelpful narratives, challenge internalized beliefs, and reconnect with their capacity to influence change. Coaching was described as a catalyst in the shift from feeling powerlessness or resignation to a renewed sense of personal power and agency. The coach framed it as an experiment… You're going to find something out here… you’ve got agency about finding out something.
With agency restored, leaders made intentional behavioral changes. They advocated for themselves, challenged dysfunctional dynamics, and stepped out of roles such as rescuer or victim. I realised I had power! I went into the meeting empowered, brave, courageous! I embraced my power. I stood my ground!
Leaders also developed empathy, which became a critical dimension of their emotional and relational growth. Coaches encouraged them to reframe, and shift their emotional narratives through emotionally resonant questions and reflective practices. These moments invited leaders to understand not only their own reactions, but how others might be experiencing the same dynamic. It helped me to understand what was going on from their perspective.
Across accounts, authenticity, agency, and empathy emerged as attributes that enabled leaders to engage differently in their organizational relationships.
Transforms Relationships
This theme captures the changes and transformations leaders described in their relationship dynamics. These included improved communication, boundary-setting, and shifts in power. Leaders moved from conflict, mistrust, or emotional entanglement to relationships characterized by regulated emotion, mutual respect, and healthier boundaries. Coaching has been transformational. There's a big shift. I now have the best working relationship I have ever had and more control, not less! [Coaching] changed my relationships. The CEO started to see me as more of an equal, we started having different conversations, he listened, I was more patient.
In several instances, leaders made the intentional decision to end or exit dysfunctional partnerships or leave organizations to preserve well-being, wider relationships and performance. He had to go, so we exited him out of the business with integrity.
Discussion
The discussion builds on the findings to interpret how coaching operates as an emotional and relational intervention, foregrounding the significance of leaders’ emotional ecosystems and the role of authenticity and agency in relational change. The See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework is introduced, showing how it emerged through constant comparison across participants’ accounts.
Coaching as an Emotional and Relational Intervention
The findings address a critical gap in coaching and leadership literature by grounding coaching as an emotional and relational intervention and a space for emotional processing and relational transformation.
The findings demonstrated a consistent shift in how leaders understood their emotional experience, with emotions such as anxiety, frustration, or anger initially described as personal or individual responses. Through coaching, these emotions became contextualized within wider systemic and relational dynamics.
At an emotional level, coaching supported leaders’ awareness, regulation, and meaning-making. At a relational level, it reshaped how leaders positioned themselves and engaged with others. This transition, from emotional distress to contextualized emotional, systemic, and relational insight, formed the basis of the “See It” phase of the framework.
The Significance of the Leader's Emotional Ecosystem
The emotional ecosystem offers a dynamic, nonlinear lens on leadership emotion, positioning leaders’ emotional experiences as cocreated through organizational systems, relational dynamics, and personal contexts rather than residing solely within the individual (Ashkanasy & Humphrey, 2011; Feldman Barrett, 2017). Coaches in this study helped leaders contextualize their emotions within this broader system, fostering greater self-awareness, emotional regulation, and relational insight.
Coaching emerged as a coconstructed, meaning-making process grounded in the leader's emotional ecosystem. This systemic approach stands in contrast to task or process-focused models where real systemic issues can be missed (Fatien Diochon et al., 2021; Stokes et al., 2021).
Constant comparison revealed that recognizing the emotional ecosystem alone was insufficient to generate change. A further shift occurred when leaders began to reflect on how they were participating in or sustaining these dynamics. This movement from contextual understanding to relational positioning marked the transition from “seeing” emotional and relational dynamics to “owning” one's role within them.
Cultivating Authenticity and Agency
Authenticity and agency emerged as key attributes central to developing relational capacity. Emotional authenticity was a central concern for leaders, as evidenced in their accounts of struggling to express vulnerability and “walking an authentic tight rope.” This reflects well-established fears of engaging with and expressing emotion in organizational contexts (Ashkanasy & Dorris, 2017; Cox, 2016), including concerns regarding negative judgment and reputational risk (Tsai & Clobert, 2016).
Coaching provided a psychologically safe space in which leaders could express vulnerability and reconnect with a more congruent sense of self in their leadership role. This aligns with existing leadership literature that positions authenticity as central to effective leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005), while also extending coaching research, where empirical exploration of authenticity as a developmental outcome remains limited (Susing et al., 2011). Consistent with Fusco et al. (2015), leaders described becoming more conscious, confident and authentic through the coaching process. I was in quite a toxic environment. I wanted to take steps to ensure that I stayed authentic to who I am.
While EI research demonstrates the importance of authenticity, emotional awareness, and regulation (Ashkanasy & Dasborough, 2021), the findings of this study show that coaching cultivates EI through relational and meaning-making processes, rather than decontextualized skills development. These findings extend existing EI and leadership theory by showing how authenticity and agency are developed through relational engagement with emotional and systemic contexts within coaching.
The findings from this research significantly expand and validate the limited existing research, affirming the considerable impact that coaching has on enhancing leaders’ authenticity. They also highlight how coaching supports leaders to deal with the emotional labor required in maintaining their role and balancing authenticity in complex organizational contexts (Hochschild, 2012).
Agency was another critical theme. Leaders described experiencing a loss of agency when embedded in unhealthy emotional climates and relationship dynamics. Leaders described coaching as the catalyst that restored their sense of agency.
Bandura (2006) asserts that individuals are not passive recipients of external influences, but intentional agents capable of shaping their thoughts, behaviors, and outcomes. Coaching was instrumental in supporting this mindset shift. These findings align with Bandura's conception of agency and extend this theory in the context of emotional and relational complexities of organizational life.
Introducing the See It, Own It, Shift It™ Framework
Constant comparison across leaders’ and coaches’ accounts revealed a developmental progression in which leaders were able to enact relational change after contextualizing their emotional experience and subsequently acknowledging their role in cocreating or sustaining relational dynamics. Behavioral and relational shifts became possible once authenticity, agency, and empathy were restored. The See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework has evolved as an empirically grounded explanatory model providing a structured approach to understanding how coaching transforms emotional and relational dynamics.
The “See It” phase reflects leaders’ accounts of becoming aware of emotional climates and recurring systemic and relational patterns that had previously felt confusing and overwhelming. The “Own It” phase is grounded in leaders’ descriptions of acknowledging their role within these dynamics, including recognizing patterns of over-responsibility, passivity, or emotional reactivity, and taking responsibility for emotional regulation and relational choice. The “Shift It” phase reflects reported mindset, behavioral and relational changes, such as setting clearer boundaries, altering communication patterns, or exiting unhealthy relational systems.
The framework integrates the study's core insights by linking emotional dynamics, relational responsibility and relational change. It builds on and extends existing systemic coaching traditions (Fatien Diochon et al., 2021; Lawrence, 2021a; Stokes et al., 2021) and the understanding of how emotions and relationship dynamics are cocreated (Feldman Barrett, 2017). It offers a simple yet powerful guide to working with emotional and relational dynamics, and operationalizing coaching as an emotional and relational intervention.
Although the See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework is grounded in both leaders’ and coaches’ accounts, it represents a leader-centered developmental process rather than a model of coach behavior or a set of leader skills. The framework integrates both perspectives while maintaining leaders as the primary agents of emotional and relational change (Table 5).
The See It, Own It, Shift It™ Framework.
Traditional coaching frameworks tend to emphasize goal-setting, problem-solving, and performance outcomes. While useful, these models often neglect the emotional and relational dimensions that underpin many leadership challenges (Cox et al., 2023; Roberts, 2023). By contrast, the See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework integrates systemic thinking (Stokes et al., 2021) and emotion theory (Ashkanasy & Dorris, 2017; Feldman Barrett, 2017). This approach also reflects emerging trends in coaching research that advocate for psychologically informed, contextually sensitive, and emotionally intelligent coaching practices (Cox, 2016; de Haan, 2019; Lawrence, 2021a).
The study demonstrates that coaching supports relational transformation, not by addressing emotions or relationships in isolation, but by supporting relational change over time.
Implications for Practice
These findings highlight the importance of coaches developing the capacity to work with emotional, relational, and systemic dimensions in order to facilitate transformational change. As such, emotional theory, systemic thinking, and relational dynamics warrant positioning as core components of coach education and practice (Cox, 2016; Roberts, 2023).
Limitations and Future Research Recommendations
While a qualitative study, based on a sample of 22 participants, this research is limited in its ability to offer statistical generalizability and by the demographic composition of the sample.
Future research could explore the applicability and impact of the See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework across a wider and more diverse range of organizational contexts, potentially using longitudinal or mixed-methods approaches to quantify its influence.
Contribution to Coaching and Leadership Theory and Practice
This research contributes to coaching and leadership theory by positioning coaching as an emotional and relational intervention grounded in emotional and systemic engagement, beyond models that privilege goal attainment and individual development. It introduces the leader's emotional ecosystem as a lens for understanding the emotional and relational terrain leaders navigate. The See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework offers a grounded theoretical contribution by explicating the process through which emotional and relational change occurs in coaching.
Conclusion
This study advances coaching and leadership theory by reframing coaching as an emotional–relational process through which leaders make sense of, take responsibility for, and shift emotional and relational dynamics. The See It, Own It, Shift It™ framework offers a theoretically grounded explanation of how emotional and relational change unfolds through coaching, challenging dominant goal-focused models that underplay the emotional and systemic conditions shaping leaders’ relationships. Therefore, the study contributes a new lens for understanding how coaching facilitates meaningful relational transformation in emotionally complex organizational contexts.
Exploring leader's context.
Exploring how the coach is engaging and working with leaders’.
Footnotes
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.