Executive coaching has emerged as a successful leadership and executive development method. Companies make important investments to buy executive coaching services, hence the number of executive coaches has grown exponentially around the world. However, executive coaching is not the magic solution for all leadership and executive development needs of an organization. It is effective when a proven executive coaching process is followed and implemented to respond to executives' complex organizational, personal and professional situations, and when integrated into traditional methods of leadership and executive education.

The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership development defines leadership development as "expanding the collective capacity of organizational members to engage effectively in leadership roles and processes" by improving their individual-based knowledge, skills, values and abilities. This definition can easily be adapted to executive development as well. In order to compete in a global environment where rapid transformation is the norm, executive and leadership development programs play a vital role in the success or failure of organizations.

Despite the importance of leadership and executive development, organizations often struggle with developing and implementing successful programs in this area. For example, programs may lack suitable methods for identifying a leader's strengths and weaknesses as well as lack knowledge of appropriate interventions defined to develop the weaker areas. Therefore, there is a recognized need for customized development programs that individually address both strengths and weaknesses of executives and leaders.

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