This is the supporting documentation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by publication. The research issues addressed were the extent to which the four Vs of vision, values, value-added and vitality are pre-requisites for an individual to be able to step up successfully into demanding leadership roles, and at times of major change, what are the key requirements that enable an individual to continue to step up into demanding, leadership roles successfully and sustain that success? The proposition which has been tested in a wide range of contexts is that leaders step up successfully if they apply a balance of the four Vs of vision, values, value-added and vitality. The research concluded that continuing to step up successfully and sustaining that success involves a clear focus on coherence, context, courage and co-creation. It is the active interplay between these two sets of requirements which determine whether a leader is able to cope successfully with demanding leadership challenges in a sustained way. This relationship is illustrated in the diagram below. The research was based on an exploratory approach which was inductive whereby the perspectives of a wide range of senior leaders were sought both in terms of their experiences and what was observed. The research also included an element of auto-ethnography. The approach of the four Vs was published in the book, “The Four Vs of Leadership: vision, values, value-added and vitality”. This framework was tested with a wide range of senior level leaders in different sectors. The rigorous use of this framework was then applied to develop clarity of thinking in areas such as career choices, decision-making, business coaching and the taking on of new opportunities which were set out in a sequence of subsequent books. The interplay of the four Vs and four Cs has contributed to the leadership impact of a range of senior leaders at times when they have been handling rapid change. The work furthers understanding about sustaining leadership effectively through times of turbulence.

The subject of this text is the management of talent development. The aim of a dissertation was to identify what skills abilities are supposed from Talents in organizations what is suitable to develop in trainings by talents what method of development is most effective for talents and what we should consider hen we set up talent management in organization. The history of talent management manners and current interpretation of keywords are analysed in theoretical part. The hypotheses were set up to current problems and were verified by standard manners in organizations and at the university. The hypotheses have passed successful only for typical circumstances where the talents usually are. The most important knowledge are two new trends in talent management. The first is business coaching like combined method of development for talents is most effective manner of talent development. The second knowledge says that talent management set up of talent management depends on level of systematic work in organization.

This research study focused on the coaching practices of five internal Regional Learning and Development Managers in a multimedia organisation from 2009 to 2011. Twelve written narratives were initially used to gather information from both coaches and clients about their perceptions and experiences during a coaching session. Survey questionnaires were sent to all 135 managers who had completed the Coaching Programme since its inception in 2009, to supplement the information established from the narrative stage. Three problems were identified: employed Learning and Development Managers were expected to deliver a coaching programme in the workplace for which they were ill-equipped, unqualified and inexperienced; there was a lack of tangible benchmarks to demonstrate the success of the clients’ development; and an inconsistent standard of coaching was delivered potentially compromising ethical coaching practices and behaviour. Coaching is a specialised field of people development, which can have a noticeable impact on both employee performance and on achieving business aims. ‘Internal coaching’ has evolved from a necessity to develop people within the workplace using internal resources and a limited budget. The study reflects on an example of internal coaching and discusses the successes and failures of such a practice. According to the narratives and survey it is the coach who is the key to the success of coaching and a successful coach must be trustworthy with confidential matters; objective and able to understand the culture and operations of the company; have business credibility; is independent of the person being coached and, therefore, is not their line manager. A customised blend of appropriate styles including mentoring, instruction and coaching is recommended to achieve the best results in coaching.

Zu möglichen Coaching-relevanten Persönlichkeits-Unterschieden bzw. zu Wirksamkeits-Vergleichen bei obersten bis mittleren Managern aus großen Wirtschaftsunternehmen liegen in der bisherigen Coaching-Forschung kaum empirische Daten vor. Mit der vorliegenden nicht-experimentellen Feldstudie wurden deshalb zwei Zielsetzungen verfolgt: Erstens wurden umfangreich Persönlichkeitsmerkmale von Managern der drei obersten Hierarchieebenen erhoben und mit Referenzstichproben sowie innerhalb der Zielgruppe verglichen. Weitere Vergleiche bezogen sich auf mögliche Unterschiede in den Coaching-Themen der drei untersuchten Zielgruppen zu zwei untersuchten Zeitpunkten im Verlauf des Coachings. Zweitens wurde die Wirksamkeit der durchgeführten Coachings sowie die Kompetenz der Coaches nach verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten evaluiert. Die Studie war als naturalistische Feldstudie mit schließlich N = 49 Managern (Top-, Senior- und Mittelmanagement) aus großen Wirtschaftsunternehmen angelegt, die über keine Coaching-Vorerfahrung verfügten. Die Persönlichkeitsmerkmale wurden mit sechs standardisierten psychometrischen Tests (NEO-PI-R, LMI, PID, AVEM, SAM, SWE) erhoben. Die Coaching-Themen sowie die Evaluation der Coachings erfolgten mit Hilfe von selbst entwickelten Fragebögen. Die Auswertung der Ergebnisse erfolgte anhand von vier Kriterien multimethodal mit Hilfe von inferenzstatistischen Verfahren (t-Tests, Varianzanalyse, Korrelationsanalyse) sowie mittels deskriptiver Analysen. Die Ergebnisse: Die Manager unterschieden sich in rollenadäquater Weise von den vorliegenden Referenzstichproben, z.B. durch höhere Persönlichkeits-Werte der Extraversion und Gewissenhaftigkeit sowie durch geringere Neurotizismus- und Verträglichkeits-Werte. Auch zeigten sich Unterschiede in verschiedenen Dimensionen der Leistungsmotivation und des arbeitsbezogenen Verhaltens und Erlebens. Die Gesamtstichprobe zeigte sich zwar überwiegend homogen bzgl. ihrer Persönlichkeit, wies aber einzelne prägnante Unterschiede v.a. zwischen Top- und Mittelmanagern auf. Für die im Coaching behandelten Themen ließen sich neben den auf allen Ebenen verbreiteten Themen auch typische ebenenbezogene Unterschiede identifizieren: z.B. Unternehmens- und Machtfragen bei Topmanagern vs. verschiedene Themen der Persönlichkeitsentwicklung bei Mittelmanagern. Die ebenenbezogenen Business-Coachings wiesen einen hohen Zielerreichungsgrad (86%) und eine sehr hohe bis hohe Zufriedenheit auf. Die Bewertung des Transfers war konsistent mittelmäßig. Herauszustellen ist, dass die Allgemeine Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung signifikant anstieg im Verlauf des Coachings. Die durchführenden Coaches wurden als sehr kompetent bis kompetent eingeschätzt. Die Ergebnisse sprechen für eine stärkere ebenenspezifische Differenzierung des Coaching-Vorgehens bei Managern. Vorschläge für die künftige Forschung an größeren Stichproben sowie Anregungen für die Praxis des Business-Coachings werden vorgenommen.