The world of the executive can be lonely. The higher up the corporate ladder they climb, the more executives find themselves faced with difficult decisions and fewer colleagues around them to offer advice.

Not many employees are in a position to challenge the decisions of a chief executive or a company director, or indeed to offer support. That is where executive coaching comes in, according to Peter Bluckert, business coach and founding member of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.

"Oftentimes senior executives and others who occupy senior positions just keep it all in. The executive coach sometimes can be the only person that individual can spend time with to reflect on issues within work and challenge their decisions and provide advice," says Bluckert, who will bring his way of thinking to Dublin this September when, in conjunction with the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, he launches Ireland's first post-graduate business coaching programme - the Advanced Management Diploma in Business and Executive Coaching.

There are 16 places available on the programme, which is geared towards executives, HR managers and existing business coaches who desire a professional post-grad qualification.

Participants will learn the theory and principles behind effective coaching as part of the eight month course, which will be run over six workshops. But the big emphasis is on interactive group work where participants practice what they learn and receive feedback from their fellow students on a continuous basis.

But what exactly is executive coaching - a world many still regard with scepticism - all about? According to Bluckert, the central belief behind executive coaching is that improving the performance of senior managers and executives is an effective and powerful way of improving overall performance in an organisation. "It's about improving the individual performance of a person at a high level and that filters down throughout the organisation."

Bluckert says the key change fundamental to business coaching is the move away from the top-down, manager makes the decisions model, to the collaborative approach, where the manager or employer seeks to tap into the talents of his or her employees.

"Getting employees to come up with their own solutions rather than just telling them what to do is a good example of management coaching in action. Executives in the programme learn how to empower people to find the solutions for themselves. It's based on the principle that people know the answers themselves. It's more about asking the employee 'what do you think you should do?'

"There is an important link between personal development and organisational benefit, of which organisations are becoming increasingly aware. If employees feel valued more, if their talents are being used, they are happier and are more inclined to work to their potential and that's important for business."

According to director of executive education at the Smurfit Graduate Business School, Phillip Matthews, its decision to launch the programme bears testament to the growing importance of coaching in the corporate world.

"Coaching services are very popular now within industry and are seen as indispensable at the higher levels of management and middle management. The perspective a coach can offer is something very different from that of anyone else working in a company. Coaches can support individuals in management to help themselves to be as good as they can be and to reach their potential."

Bluckert was the natural choice, because "there are simply no individuals in Ireland with his breath of experience in coaching coaches," Matthews says.