Life and personal coaching

Background: Obesity affects young adults, leading to future morbidity and mortality. Early behavioral intervention may promote long-term weight control. Mobile technology-based (mHealth) interventions may be particularly effective in young adults. We compared both an mHealth behavioral weight loss intervention and a personal coaching weight loss intervention to no intervention (and to each other) in overweight/obese young adults. Methods: We randomized 365 generally healthy adults age 18-35 years with BMI > 25 kg/m2 (overweight or obese) to 24-months of intervention delivered primarily via investigator-designed cell phone (CP) or intervention delivered primarily via in-person (6 weekly) and by phone (23 monthly) coaching (PC), compared to usual care control group (Control). Primary outcome was weight change from baseline to 24 months. This study was conducted as part of the Early Adult Reduction of weight through LifestYle (EARLY) cooperative trials. Results: Randomized participants (N=365) had mean BMI 35 kg/m2, mean age 29yrs, were 70% women, 36% African American, 6% Latino. Final weight was obtained in 86%; missing weight was multiply imputed. At 24 months, weight loss was not different in either PC or CP vs Control (see Figure). Weight loss in PC was significantly greater than Control at 6 months. From baseline to 24 months, clinically significant weight loss (> 3% per national guidelines) occurred in 40% of PC, 34% of CP, and 30% of Control. Conclusions: mHealth alone may not be sufficient for weight loss in young adults but mHealth-enhanced contact with an interventionist has a modest short-term effect. Future interventions should maximize the complementarity of mHealth and personal contact to achieve larger and more sustained effect.

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Storytelling, Personal Coaching, Humor, Role Plays, Men's Groups, and Other Useful Approaches for Treating Men

Working With Troubled Men ◽

10.4324/9781410613721-17 ◽

2006 ◽

pp. 137-155

Keyword(s):

Personal Coaching ◽

Men's Groups

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Learning to lead from outsiders

Journal of Management Development ◽

10.1108/jmd-05-2015-0076 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 34 (10) ◽

pp. 1262-1271 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Igor Kotlyar ◽

Julia Richardson ◽

Len Karakowsky

Keyword(s):

Leadership Development ◽

Qualitative Methodology ◽

Peer Coaching ◽

Development Program ◽

Development Programs ◽

Leadership Development Programs ◽

Content Type ◽

Personal Coaching ◽

Leadership Development Program ◽

Depth Interviews

Purpose – An increasingly popular method of facilitating employee and leadership development is via a career community (Parker et al., 2004), where individuals self-organize to obtain career support. This study was driven by the following research question: how do external peer coaching groups – which are a form of career community – impact leadership development? The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a research study that examined one such career community focussed on providing peer coaching for managers in business organizations. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with participants who attended a leadership development program that was based on harnessing a career community for the purpose of peer coaching. The authors report the results of the study and its implications for leadership development programs. Design/methodology/approach – The authors chose a qualitative methodology to conduct this exploratory examination, where the authors conducted in-depth interviews with participants in a unique leadership development program which involved peer group coaching supplemented by one-on-one personal coaching. A key reason for adopting a qualitative methodology was that the authors were looking for a deeper understanding of interviewees’ perceptions and experiences regarding peer coaching. The first component of the leadership program involved eight peer coaching sessions over a 12-month period. Participants met in small, exclusive groups – typically in cohorts of seven to eight peers, but as many as 12 peers – every six weeks to discuss a variety of topics relevant to their jobs and stage of career and to provide each other with peer coaching and advice. Each group was comprised of people from different organizations. Sessions were led by a facilitator and lasted three hours each. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 17 graduates of the program. The sample comprised 14 women and three men. Interviews were audio taped and transcribed verbatim and then analyzed using thematic analysis (King, 2004) to identify the key themes in interviewees’ experiences of the respective program. Findings – Thematic interpretation of participants’ responses yielded the following four major themes: first, the value of a learning community; second, the utility of a formal approach to peer coaching; third, the value of diversity and “externality”; and fourth, the value of an open learning environment (each fully described in the manuscript). The study revealed that external peer coaching and personal coaching deliver distinct types of value as part of a complete leadership development program. Research limitations/implications – This was a case study and specific to one leadership development program. Consequently, the authors cannot necessarily generalize the findings. Practical implications – The findings draw critical attention to the major contribution that learning communities can make toward leadership development. Although many leadership development programs assume that “leadership” is best learned from top leaders (e.g. Presidents and CEOs), organizations can acquire unique benefits by leveraging the concept of peer coaching, which can produce substantial results by having managers at the same organizational level learn from each other. In addition, the study underscores the potential value of external sources of peer coaching and leader development. Organizations may further maximize such benefits by sending their mid and senior-level managers to external peer coaching programs, which can deliver unique value in addition to any internal leadership development initiatives. Social implications – This study underscores the need to better bridge the gap between two literatures – careers and leadership development. Career scholars explore the activities involved in developing careers (e.g. career communities) and leadership development scholars explore activities involved in developing leaders. This study demonstrates the value of integrating knowledge from both these literatures to suggest that learning communities can impact leadership development in significant and positive ways. Originality/value – This study makes a novel contribution to the literature addressing leadership development. It draws attention to the use of career communities for leadership development – an issue which has largely been ignored. In addition, while much of the extant research has focussed on either academic or student participants, the study focussed on business professionals. Few studies have examined the use of peers from outside organizations to serve as coaches for leadership development.

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The Association Between Engagement and Weight Loss Through Personal Coaching and Cell Phone Interventions in Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial

JMIR mhealth and uhealth ◽

10.2196/10471 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (10) ◽

pp. e10471 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Pao-Hwa Lin ◽

Steven Grambow ◽

Stephen Intille ◽

John A Gallis ◽

Tony Lazenka ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Weight Loss ◽

Randomized Controlled Trial ◽

Young Adults ◽

Cell Phone ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Randomized Controlled ◽

Personal Coaching

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The Association Between Engagement and Weight Loss Through Personal Coaching and Cell Phone Interventions in Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.10471 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Pao-Hwa Lin ◽

Steven Grambow ◽

Stephen Intille ◽

John A Gallis ◽

Tony Lazenka ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Weight Loss ◽

Weight Change ◽

Cell Phone ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Effective Intervention ◽

Hypertension Status ◽

Participant Engagement ◽

Personal Coaching ◽

Weight Loss Interventions

BACKGROUND Understanding how engagement in mobile health (mHealth) weight loss interventions relates to weight change may help develop effective intervention strategies. OBJECTIVE This study aims to examine the (1) patterns of participant engagement overall and with key intervention components within each intervention arm in the Cell Phone Intervention For You (CITY) trial; (2) associations of engagement with weight change; and (3) participant characteristics related to engagement. METHODS The CITY trial tested two 24-month weight loss interventions. One was delivered with a smartphone app (cell phone) containing 24 components (weight tracking, etc) and included prompting by the app in predetermined frequency and forms. The other was delivered by a coach via monthly calls (personal coaching) supplemented with limited app components (18 overall) and without any prompting by the app. Engagement was assessed by calculating the percentage of days each app component was used and the frequency of use. Engagement was also examined across 4 weight change categories: gained (≥2%), stable (±2%), mild loss (≥2% to <5%), and greater loss (≥5%). RESULTS Data from 122 cell phone and 120 personal coaching participants were analyzed. Use of the app was the highest during month 1 for both arms; thereafter, use dropped substantially and continuously until the study end. During the first 6 months, the mean percentage of days that any app component was used was higher for the cell phone arm (74.2%, SD 20.1) than for the personal coaching arm (48.9%, SD 22.4). The cell phone arm used the apps an average of 5.3 times/day (SD 3.1), whereas the personal coaching participants used them 1.7 times/day (SD 1.2). Similarly, the former self-weighed more than the latter (57.1% days, SD 23.7 vs 32.9% days, SD 23.3). Furthermore, the percentage of days any app component was used, number of app uses per day, and percentage of days self-weighed all showed significant differences across the 4 weight categories for both arms. Pearson correlation showed a negative association between weight change and the percentage of days any app component was used (cell phone: r=−.213; personal coaching: r=−.319), number of apps use per day (cell phone: r=−.264; personal coaching: r=−.308), and percentage of days self-weighed (cell phone: r=−.297; personal coaching: r=−.354). None of the characteristics examined, including age, gender, race, education, income, energy expenditure, diet quality, and hypertension status, appeared to be related to engagement. CONCLUSIONS Engagement in CITY intervention was associated with weight loss during the first 6 months. Nevertheless, engagement dropped substantially early on for most intervention components. Prompting may be helpful initially. More flexible and less intrusive prompting strategies may be needed during different stages of an intervention to increase or sustain engagement. Future studies should explore the motivations for engagement and nonengagement to determine meaningful levels of engagement required for effective intervention. CLINICALTRIAL ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01092364; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01092364 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/72V8A4e5X)

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