Measuring the Results of Executive Coaching

The presence of coaching in corporate America has grown tremendously since it came on the scene in the 1980’s. No longer considered a perk, leaders in every size company realize the power of having a personal advocate, thinking partner, strategist, and truth-teller to help drive professional growth.  

As a coaching client or a corporate sponsor of such programs, it is imperative your training dollars deliver a sound return on your investment by achieving clear business results.

Fortune Magazine reported this finding:

"Asked for a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from the coaching they got, these managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.”

How do you go about calculating the benefits of coaching?  Here is one approach that incorporates and distinguishes leadership development growth (soft skills) and a key business metric (hard skills).

• Leadership Development Goal – Choose a focus that the client sees as important, and one that has also been validated by upper level leaders and/or 360 feedback.

Example:  “Increase ability to develop my people.”  

Client progress is tracked by actions with direct reports such as:

• Consistent “one to one” sessions to discuss development apart from tactical or task oriented meetings

• Thoughtful assessment of each one’s performance

• Balanced and diplomatic feedback on strengths and improvement areas

• Co-created individual growth plan  

• Business Metric – Decide how the client’s growth in developing his/her people will significantly impact organizational performance. Be specific and choose a key business metric. Using the above example: By increasing “developing my people” the direct report’s performance will improve.  That would result in a customer service increase of 25% by year-end.

Using the discipline of setting informed developmental goals for the individual and tying that growth to a business metric, assures the coaching will facilitate meaningful growth for the learner and provide ROI to the organization.

—Elaine Morris

Elaine has been an Executive Coach for the past 25 years and is based in Dallas, Texas.  Elaine also partners with Dr. John Townsend in his Leadership Coaching Program, a biblically based, intensive small group curriculum, offered in Texas, California and Indiana.  To contact Elaine, call 214 244-2592 or visit her website at:  www.elainemorris.com.