Common factors influence on personality-based executive coaching from the coachees’ perspectives

Executive coaching aims to facilitate sustainable behavioural change in leaders, yet outcomes often appear to depend less on specific techniques than on common factors such as alliance and a credible change rationale. We interviewed nine leaders who received a personality-based executive coaching approach integrating a strong working alliance with a Big Five framework and structured feedback. Semi-structured interviews were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Four meta-themes captured participants’ experiences: (1) expectations shaped by prior coaching, (2) learning and applying a shared personality language, (3) trust in the coach and the method, and (4) post-coaching integration. Participants described an early relational bond that made it easier to engage with and internalise the personality framework. They emphasised the coach’s flexible and context-sensitive use of the Big Five – avoiding rigid categorisation – as central to developing self-awareness and sustaining change beyond the sessions. The findings suggest that common relational factors and an accepted psychological rationale may interact to support executive coaching outcomes, offering potential points of dialogue between coaching and psychotherapy research.