Self-awareness is widely regarded as a central mechanism of change in executive coaching, yet a theoretically underexplained gap persists between insight and transformation in high-performing client populations. This paper introduces the concept of intellectual bypass to account for this gap: the process by which psychological insight is assimilated into an existing identity structure in service of its continuation rather than its transformation. The framework specifies the mechanism of this assimilation — the recruitment of reflective capacity by a high-investment identity structure as an extension of its organising logic — distinguishes intellectual bypass from three adjacent constructs, and derives conditions under which coaching interventions are more or less likely to interrupt it. Practitioner implications are developed, including a framework for recognising intellectual bypass in session and four concrete shifts in coaching orientation. The construct is derivable from adult developmental psychology, psychodynamic theory, and self-determination theory, and generates a tractable empirical research programme for coaching psychology.
Keywords: executive coaching, self-awareness, intellectual bypass, identity structure, constructive-developmental theory, behaviour change, reflective practice.