This book refers to executive coaching as a practice that has grown and developed in Europe and has distinct cultural differences and approaches to the coaching that is prevalent in America and Canada. Frameworks and models, in this European mode of executive coaching, are helpful in understanding the essential processes within a contracted executive coaching relationship. Good examples of frameworks and models include those espoused by David Clutterbuck's lifelong research into coaching and mentoring effectiveness (see The Mentoring Life Cycle – Best Practice, by David Clutterbuck and Gill Lane, 2004) whereby a coaching session or coaching relationship can be outlined with the reference to key parts of that time spent together. Such frameworks include many of the common factors (constituent parts) in coaching such as building rapport, contracting, agreeing on action and the ways forward. The ethical guidelines, published in June 2021, which is a code regularly updated by the European Council for Coaching and Mentoring and the Association for Coaching, are also helpful in this respect as they outline, in great detail, the behaviours and approaches deemed to be compatible with a coach following professional standards. Yet these guidelines and frameworks reveal little about what exactly happens within a coaching relationship. The episodes, insights, puzzlements, curiosities and moments of revelations that colour many executive–coaching interactions often emerge from an apparent muddle of ideas and reflections. The skill of the coach, therefore, lies in precipitating an understanding (an awakening, perhaps) on the part of the client/coachee – creating a ‘space’ for deeper thought and a more significant reflection on behaviour (Passmore et al., 2017). Creative techniques and a multiplicity of art-based approaches allow the coach to change tactics and apply methods (both spontaneously and intuitively) to both challenge and support the client's journey of discovery and development. This also has resonance in the field of leadership development and how ‘facilitators of learning’ can help by using a variety of approaches and ideas (Turner, 2019b).

During the past decade of research and discovery, when I had been working in the field of executive coaching and developing development programmes for aspiring coaches and mentors, four main ways emerged in which coaches could begin to introduce alternative approaches.

The next five chapters, in second and third sections, are detailed accounts of techniques that outline some of my favourite alternative approaches to coaching. Section 2 highlights two very important and often-neglected topics in coaching: the use of silence and the role of playfulness and the use of humour in sessions with clients. Section 3 focuses on the more detailed treatments of specific techniques, that of walking, using finger puppets and the use of music, all presented briefly in Section 1. Inevitably, these techniques are presented as separate entities to focus on each one but the principles and permeating ideas, in each technique, often overlap. This overlapping and interweaving call for the practising coach to use these interventions not as a discreet consistent approach but in a way consistent with both flexibility and sharp attention (intuitive responses to what the client is offering) to that client at that particular moment. The use of metaphors in an ambient backdrop creates the potential for a narrative that is rich, diverse and transformational (Seto and Geithner, 2018). A lot more is waiting to be discovered in how these alternative approaches interface with more standard techniques as more and more practitioners adopt creative and unusual ways of engaging their clients in meaningful dialogue. The link between the models and more creative approaches can be summed up by exemplifying a modern jazz musician. These musicians spend a lot of time practising their scales in order to play their instrument in a way that is expressive and so that the player remains true to themselves with their musical integrity intact. In many ways, this also has links to the world of improvisation and stand-up comedy. The following chapters will shed light on how a variety of coaching activities can be called into action to augment the coach and their client(s) (Read, 2013).

Arthur undertook the initial research between 2009 and 2014 looking at how managers, at a pivotal part of their career, learnt about leadership. Arthur's thesis, entitled ‘How Middle Managers Learn about Leadership’, originally looked at managers in transit from the purer forms of administration and management to work in which there are more responsibilities and a real expectation of an understanding of the different (and complex) elements of leadership and more responsive management. Moreover, as part of this Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA), Arthur came across an emergent theme of creativity (alternative ways of engaging in learning and development) which persistently came into view and Arthur began to notice these alternative ways of learning for adults which he started to use in his own practice as an executive coach. These creative techniques have included the use of walking, the additions and deployment of mediating objects and the use of narrative and a focus on metaphors. During the research period, Arthur took a basically Social constructionist approach to the collecting of data and utilized the philosophy of phenomenology to observe what emerged from his observations of 75 participants (in various ‘middle-management’ positions) undertaking an Institute of Leadership and Management Level 5 Leadership course. In order to do that Arthur (and his very supportive colleagues) utilized a number of creative techniques of data collection and developed several unusual approaches of facilitation and working one-to-one throughout the initial 18 months of inquiry between 2010 and 2012.

These research techniques were deployed with three consecutive cohorts working in the Brecon Beacons in South Wales/De Cymru.

• 1. The philosophical idea of phenomenological bracketing (and accompanying challenging activities) whilst observing participants as they experience the realisation that what they are learning is not necessarily clear, obvious or linear in nature

• 2. A silent reflective space provided by being in an area of natural beauty

• 3. Walking as a means of supporting adult learning

• 4. The use of a freely available reflective video booth

• 5. The use of space, place and pace as ‘marker’ for design of interventions (for more detailed explanation of this, see Critical Leadership Heneberry, Turner and Pardey, 2019)

Between 2014 and the current time Arthur has been broadening his conceptual ideas around creativity in coaching practice and adult learning.

This chapter looks at techniques and ideas of creative coaching in more detail. The reader will have more ideas on how to become a successful musical coach.

Use of music with coaching clients or as part of the development of alternative coaching approaches, along with other topics in this book, such as walking coaching and mediating objects, is a little explored topic. In this chapter I explore a number of interrelated subjects that have been encountered such as music theory, jazz improvisation, duets and the use of musical interludes in both the training of coaching and the use of music within a coaching session. I will look at exercises that have worked in both coaching development programmes and recently with music-related approaches. I will also make links between theories of how the brain works and its connections with human emotions and the ways in which music can help to enhance engagement, build rapport, promote deeper thought and add to the growing field of creative coaching interventions.

This chapter provokes thinking, rethinking and reflection on the use of music in understanding the coaching process, linking to the co-emotional aspects of working with the challenges of personal development as well as giving some practical examples of types of music that could induce different client interactions

Previous chapters have focused on walking, use of silence and the use of historical and contemporary finger puppets (Turner, 2016: Turner, 2017: Turner, 2019a). These papers reflect my overall interest in creative techniques of learning within coaching relationships summed up in my 2019 article published by the Institute of Leadership and Management (Turner, 2019b). All these topics can be considered as sitting outside of the coaching mainstream with the articles examining, in detail, the complex creative theories and models emanating from neuroscience and psychology (Seto and Geithner, 2018). In addition, this chapter does reflect an interest in psychological and creative aspects of the coaching process (Cavanagh and Lane, 2012). In particular this chapter ponders on the early aspects of the coaching ‘life cycle’ (Clutterbuck and Lane, 2004) such as building rapport and linking to the emotions involved in the stimulation and curiosity of the client's mind and their own executive behaviours.

This is one of the least explored of coaching topics but is centred on some of the very real factors that separate humans from other primates. The ways in which we can utilize humour in our practice and can, as humans, be induced to be playful, experimental and ‘lighten’ in our approaches suggests that this topic is important in the work undertaken between two people through medium of coaching.

Over a decade ago, with my original research into the development of leadership in organizations, I started to discover the role play (although I couched it in slightly different terms believing the creativity and sets of different exercises and the use of objects was important) and playfulness have on the acquisition of new skills and ideas.

Here is an extract from my original thesis which highlights the use of artefacts and the ways in which playful stimuli can be introduced into formal developmental interventions.

I have been writing about the use of finger puppets for the past six years, based largely in the context of leadership development, group work and classroom sessions with colleagues in the field of executive coaching. More recently (Turner and Kempster, 2022), a recorded podcast has explored the use of finger puppets in the broader context of playfulness in leadership development. This development work has led to their use in one-to-one coaching (see Kempster et al., 2014, Turner, 2016). The use of these specific artefacts is discussed in this chapter and fits in well with the more general idea of creativity (Page et al., 2013), in general, in and around the evolving coaching relationship (Maisel, 2020).

The use of puppets is an unusual technique and represents a more keenly aesthetic and experimental approach to coaching practice and fits in with the whole idea of arming the coach with tools in the spirit of experiential variety (Nelson, Zaccoro and Herman 2010). That (arming the coach with tools) is the notion of an executive coach who utilizes a wide range of approaches and techniques in which to engage their clients to elicit reflection. In their use the puppets are a humanistic rather than a mechanical concept and is one of those tools that edges the coach towards the coaching maturity that David Clutterbuck has underlined in a move away from linear, model-focused coaching (Lowe, 2021, Clutterbuck and Megginson, 2011).

This approach of using types of finger puppets was partly the start but also the continuous thread in my investigation about coaching practice that has led to looking beyond models, official approaches and more structured instructions on ‘how-to-do-coaching’ to a more dynamic and emergent style that depends on techniques and props. The use of finger puppets is an age-old human tradition that acts as a catalyst for change in human behaviour and thinking.

Although there are many finger puppets on the market, mainly aimed at children, the finger puppets I have been using come from two sources. The basic idea is a simple one. The puppets are small enough to fit on an index finger (although there is no reason (other than bulk) to using hand-puppets, or puppets on strings, although I have never tried string-puppets as a technique).