High cultural intelligence (CQ) is an essential success factor in intercultural leadership coaching

In her doctoral thesis Advancing coaching for leadership development: Coaching as an enabler of learning and well-being in local and global organizations Natalia Fey has studied intercultural leadership coaching, an innovative coaching form, gaining traction in Finland and globally – where a coach and a coachee in a leadership position have different cultural backgrounds.

“In my dissertation, I have studied them in the greatly understudied contexts of INGOs and international development organizations, which is an additional benefit for the coaching field”, says Fey.

107 leaders from some of the largest and oldest UN agencies and INGOs, and their coaches, jointly representing 74 nationalities, took part in Fey’s study to examine the key success factors in intercultural leadership coaching.

“I found that the level of cultural intelligence, which is an ability to function effectively in diverse cultural settings, is an important factor in enabling coachee learning when the coach and coachee come from different cultural backgrounds. Especially, the coach’s high motivation and self-efficacy to work with coachees from different cultural backgrounds, and the coach’s awareness of their own cultural assumptions are essential in intercultural coaching interactions” Fey emphasizes.

You can read the whole thesis here: Coaching as an enabler of learning and well-being in local and global organizations

Natalia Fey will be defending her thesis at 12:00 noon on Tuesday, 14 November at Hanken School of Economics, Arkadiankatu 22, Helsinki, and on Teams. You can join the broadcast online using this link

Opponent: Professor Konstantin Korotov, ESMT

Custos: Professor Denise Salin, Hanken School of Economics

Further information:
Natalia Fey, phone: +358 456 416 899, email: natalia.fey@hanken.fi