This month, we launched our report and survey findings on the talent challenges facing smaller professional services organisations and their strategies to overcome them.
Only half of the survey participants had used executive coaching before, and this was heavily weighted toward larger organisations. For those who hadn’t, the reasons varied. However, for every organisation apprehensive about the cost, twice as many were more concerned about the potential return on investment in executive coaching - they were willing to pay for coaching for their leaders, but only if they knew it would work.
This is a very real challenge for anyone who wants to invest in executive coaching, but particularly for those new to the discipline. So, if you are thinking of undertaking coaching for someone in your organisation, how can you ensure the best possible chance of getting value in return?
Firstly, you need to know what you want the coaching to help with in specific terms.
What skills or behaviours do you want to see more of? What would others around them notice if they displayed these behaviours? How would they be feeling?
Try to be as specific as possible. Getting a vivid picture of how they want to be is motivational and gives a good indication of the underlying limiting beliefs and behaviours that may need to be addressed in the coaching programme. If they can’t be very specific yet, that’s OK. A good coach will help them get there in the first coaching session.
Once you are both clear on the specific behaviours, skills, and mindsets to address, you can begin measuring them. 360-degree feedback, both before and after the coaching, is helpful or undertake interviews with the coachee’s line manager and other stakeholders. This data is subjective, but with clearly worded questions, you can notice if there is a shift due to the coaching.
Secondly, you need to know what tangible results the organisation will see when the coachee modifies their behaviour.
This is the “so what” factor! There could be several impacts on the business, such as better retention of staff, increased business development opportunities, innovation or productivity and efficiency. What level of improvement would you and they like to see? Bear in mind that many factors will influence performance at the organisational level, so there isn’t a direct link between the coaching and the impact on the business. However, by measuring both the behaviour and the business impact, you should see some links.
What does this look like in practice?
Let’s take an organisation that is looking for coaching for one of its leaders on impact and confidence in business development conversations. From the first coaching session, the desired behaviour change is narrowed down to the leader being able to clearly articulate the value that they and their product can bring to a potential customer, feeling more confident approaching potential new clients through networking, and feeling confident enough to volunteer for speaking opportunities to bring their message to more potential clients.
This is measured by asking the coachee to self-score on a scale of 1-10 on how they feel about doing these three things at the moment. They are also asked to note the current number of monthly conversations they have with potential customers and the number of speaking engagements (which is currently zero).
After a conversation with the coachee and their line manager, it was agreed that the business impact of this change in behaviour would be a doubling in the number of qualified sales conversations that this leader would have or be able to pass on to someone else. An actual increase in sales was deemed inappropriate due to the significant number of factors outside of the coachee's control.
What else do organisations need to think about?
Two factors need to be considered when determining the return on investment of executive coaching. First, there needs to be transparency between the coachee, the organisation, and the coach. The coachee needs to want to change their behaviour and be willing to put in the effort. The organisation needs to provide any additional support or feedback that may be required.
Secondly, data collection and analysis take time, so organisations should consider the cost of measuring coaching success compared to the initial investment. Where data already exists or can be quickly assimilated, then use it!
Executive coaching works!
For organisations new to executive coaching, it may still feel like a leap of faith. However, be reassured that the research suggests that executive coaching does work! MetrixGlobal found that this return varied but could be up to 529% in some circumstances. The International Coaching Federation has found that executive coaching produces a 70% increase in individual performance, a 50% increase in team performance, and a 48% increase in organisational performance, though this includes non-financial measures.
In our survey, every respondent who had used executive coaching noticed benefits, with 44% seeing an increase in profitability.
If you want to learn more about how executive coaching can help you solve your organisational challenges and transform your organisation at the individual and collective levels, please get in touch. You can download a copy of the report here.