Mary Beth O'Neill's book, Executive Coaching with Backbone and Heart,details a systems approach to executive coaching.

O'Neill, an experienced executive coach, shares her methodology, emphasizing building a strong "signature presence" in the coach and fostering client responsibility for achieving business results.

The book explores concepts like interactional force fields and co-created patterns in coach-client relationships, advocating for a structured four-phase coaching process (contracting, planning, live-action coaching, and debriefing).

It also offers strategies for calculating the return on investment (ROI) of executive coaching and guidance for transitioning into a coaching role. Finally, the appendices provide self-assessment tools and further explain combining coaching with consulting.