Client behavioural feedback for the executive coach

While executive coaches routinely give behavioural feedback to their clients, few ask them to reciprocate. Yet, theoretical investigations suggest that client feedback – if defined as the provision of information regarding effective behaviours observed during a coaching session – may improve the coach’s performance. However, existing scales may be inadequate to support such a process because they have not been built with clients. To contribute to knowledge and develop a client behavioural feedback instrument, the study was anchored in a pragmatic epistemology and in a coaching theoretical framework that I described as client-centred integrative. The development of the instrument followed a sequential exploratory design. It involved an international sample of executives. In the first qualitative strand (N=24), five focus groups of experienced clients developed a pool of executive coaching behaviours from a compilation of the literature. In the second quantitative strand, 107 executives were surveyed before and after a 3-4-month coaching intervention to develop and validate the instrument. A principal component analysis led to the Executive Coaching Behaviour Observation Scale. It contained 21 executive coaching behaviours loading on two components, indicative of a professional transformational learning process. Multiple regression analyses indicate that the instrument is significantly related to the strength of the relationship between the client and the coach and to the generation of new insights for the client. In their selection of behaviours, executives indicated their preference for being consulted about the coaching process rather than for passively accepting the coach’s preferred tools and techniques. At the same time, they expected their executive coach to deploy a range of influencing techniques to support the emergence of new insights. These techniques included informing behaviours, thus requiring the executive coach to showcase relevant business and organisational knowledge

The client as a provider of developmental feedback for the executive coach

Formative feedback is likely to improve performance, which has encouraged executive coaches to seek accreditation and supervision. However, many coaches do not consider their clients as suitable providers of formative feedback, due, in part, to a lack of shared knowledge about effective behaviours. The study addressed the issue by developing a client behavioural feedback instrument for the executive coach. The article summarises the key findings of the mixed-methods approach which informed the instrument, highlighting differences and similarities with scales developed by accrediting bodies and experts

On the Role of Nuclear Motion in Singlet Exciton Fission: The Case of Single-Crystal Pentacene

Singlet exciton fission (SF), the formation of two triplet excitons from one singlet exciton, involves electronic, nuclear, and spin degrees of freedom as well as their couplings. Despite almost 60 years of research on this process, a complete microscopic understanding is still missing. One important open question concerns the role of nuclear motion in SF. In this perspective, recent results on the exciton dynamics are related to the structural dynamics of single-crystal pentacene and how they provide insights into that open question is shown. To probe the electronic dynamics, orbital-resolved measurements of the electronic structure are carried out using time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. With femtosecond electron diffraction and with ab initio computations, the complementary nuclear dynamics is tracked. The results from both techniques are summarized, and how they relate to each other is discussed. Then, remaining open questions are outlined and potential routes are identified to tackle them, hopefully guiding future studies

Instantaneous coronary collateral function during supine bicycle exercise

Aims The instantaneous response of the collateral circulation to isometric physical exercise in patients with non-occlusive coronary artery disease (CAD) is not known. Methods and results Thirty patients (age 59 ± 9 years) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention because of stable CAD were included in the study. Collateral function was determined before and during the last minute of a 6 min protocol of supine bicycle exercise during radial artery access coronary angiography. Collateral flow index (CFI, no unit) was determined as the ratio of mean distal coronary occlusive to mean aortic pressure both subtracted by central venous pressure. To avoid confounding due to recruitment of coronary collaterals by repetitive balloon occlusions, patients were randomly assigned to a group ‘rest first' with CFI measurement during rest followed by CFI during exercise, and to a group ‘exercise first' with antecedent CFI measurement during exercise before CFI at rest. Simultaneously, coronary collateral conductance (occlusive myocardial blood flow per aorto-coronary pressure drop) was determined by myocardial contrast echocardiography in the last 10 consecutive patients. Overall, CFI increased from 0.168 ± 0.118 at rest to 0.262 ± 0.166 during exercise (P = 0.0002). The exercise-induced change in CFI did not differ statistically in the two study groups. Exercise-induced CFI reserve (CFI during exercise divided by CFI at rest) was 2.2 ± 1.8. Overall, rest to peak bicycle exercise change of coronary collateral conductance was from 0.010 ± 0.010 to 1.109 ± 0.139 mL/min/100 mmHg (P < 0.0001); the respective change was similar in both groups. Conclusion In patients with non-occlusive CAD, collateral flow instantaneously doubles during supine bicycle exercise as compared with the resting state. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0094705

Intrinsic energy flow in laser-excited 3d ferromagnets

Ultrafast magnetization dynamics are governed by energy flow between electronic, magnetic, and lattice degrees of freedom. A quantitative understanding of these dynamics must be based on a model that agrees with experimental results for all three subsystems. However, ultrafast dynamics of the lattice remain largely unexplored experimentally. Here we combine femtosecond electron diffraction experiments of the lattice dynamics with energy-conserving atomistic spin dynamics (ASD) simulations and ab initio calculations to study the intrinsic energy flow in the 3d ferromagnets cobalt (Co) and iron (Fe). The simulations yield a good description of experimental data, in particular an excellent description of our experimental results for the lattice dynamics. We find that the lattice dynamics are influenced significantly by the magnetization dynamics due to the energy cost of demagnetization. Our results highlight the role of the spin system as the dominant heat sink in the first hundreds of femtoseconds. Together with previous findings for nickel [Zahn et al., Phys. Rev. Research 3, 023032 (2021)], our work demonstrates that energy-conserving ASD simulations provide a general and consistent description of the laser-induced dynamics in all three elemental 3d ferromagnets

Observation of Multi-Directional Energy Transfer in a Hybrid Plasmonic–Excitonic Nanostructure

Hybrid plasmonic devices involve a nanostructured metal supporting localized surface plasmons to amplify light–matter interaction, and a non-plasmonic material to functionalize charge excitations. Application-relevant epitaxial heterostructures, however, give rise to ballistic ultrafast dynamics that challenge the conventional semiclassical understanding of unidirectional nanometal-to-substrate energy transfer. Epitaxial Au nanoislands are studied on WSe2 with time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and femtosecond electron diffraction: this combination of techniques resolves material, energy, and momentum of charge-carriers and phonons excited in the heterostructure. A strong non-linear plasmon–exciton interaction that transfers the energy of sub-bandgap photons very efficiently to the semiconductor is observed, leaving the metal cold until non-radiative exciton recombination heats the nanoparticles on hundreds of femtoseconds timescales. The results resolve a multi-directional energy exchange on timescales shorter than the electronic thermalization of the nanometal. Electron–phonon coupling and diffusive charge-transfer determine the subsequent energy flow. This complex dynamics opens perspectives for optoelectronic and photocatalytic applications, while providing a constraining experimental testbed for state-of-the-art modelling

Probing Crystallinity and Grain Structure of 2D Materials and 2D-Like Van der Waals Heterostructures by Low-Voltage Electron Diffraction

4D scanning transmission electron microscopy (4D-STEM) is a powerful method for characterizing electron-transparent samples with down to sub-Ångstrom spatial resolution. 4D-STEM can reveal local crystallinity, orientation, grain size, strain, and many more sample properties by rastering a convergent electron beam over a sample area and acquiring a transmission diffraction pattern (DP) at each scan position. These patterns are rich in information about the atomic structure of the probed volume, making this technique a potent tool to characterize even inhomogeneous samples. 4D-STEM can also be used in scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) by placing an electron-sensitive camera below the sample. 4D-STEM-in-SEMs is ideally suited to characterize 2D materials and 2D-like van der Waals heterostructures (vdWH) due to their inherent thickness of a few nanometers. The lower accelerating voltage of SEMs leads to strong scattering even from monolayers. The large field of view and down to sub-nm spatial resolution of SEMs are ideal to map properties of the different constituents of 2D-like vdWH by probing their combined sample volume. A unique 4D-STEM-in-SEM system is applied to reveal the single crystallinity of MoS2 exfoliated with gold-mediation as well as the crystal orientation and coverage of both components of a C60/MoS2 vdWH are determined

Lattice dynamics and ultrafast energy flow between electrons, spins, and phonons in a 3d ferromagnet

The ultrafast dynamics of magnetic order in a ferromagnet are governed by the interplay between electronic, magnetic, and lattice degrees of freedom. In order to obtain a microscopic understanding of ultrafast demagnetization, information on the response of all three subsystems is required. A consistent description of demagnetization and microscopic energy flow, however, is still missing. Here, we combine a femtosecond electron diffraction study of the ultrafast lattice response of nickel to laser excitation with ab initio calculations of the electron-phonon interaction and energy-conserving atomistic spin dynamics simulations. Our model is in agreement with the observed lattice dynamics and previously reported electron and magnetization dynamics. Our approach reveals that the spin system is the dominating heat sink in the initial few hundred femtoseconds and implies a transient nonthermal state of the spins. Our results provide a clear picture of the microscopic energy flow between electronic, magnetic, and lattice degrees of freedom on ultrafast timescales and constitute a foundation for theoretical descriptions of demagnetization that are consistent with the dynamics of all three subsystems