Articles about ROI on Business Coaching

Coaching enhances the impact of executives, increases their speed in becoming effective within the organization, and improves overall job satisfaction and retention. Coaching is one of the principal tools businesses have for developing their people. It is an especially useful tool at the executive level because busy executives have few others assisted means of continued development. In one study, training alone increased productivity by 22%, but when training was paired with coaching productivity increased by 88%

The Case for Executive Coaching by Andrew W. Talkington, Laurie, S. Voss & Pamela S. Wise. Business Magazine Chemistry Section November 2002.

A Fortune 500 firm and Pyramid Resource Group, a coaching services company, engaged Metrix Global LLC to determine the business benefits and return on investment for an executive coaching program. The bottom line states that coaching produced a 529% ROI and significant intangible benefits to the business, including the financial benefits from employee retention, boosting the overall ROI to 788%. The study provided powerful new insights into how to maximize the business impact from executive coaching.

Executive Briefing: Case Study on the Return on Investment of Executive Coaching. MetrixGlobal, LLC. Merrill .C. Anderson, PhD, November 2, 2001.

Coaching translates into doing. Doing translates into impacting the business. This impact can be quantified and maximized. Coaching programs fall into two broad categories: change-oriented, with an emphasis on supplementing and refocusing the coach’s skills; and growth-oriented, with an emphasis on accelerating the learning curve for recently promoted executives or high-potential executives. Coaching programs typically ranged from six to 12 months in duration.

Four guidelines to make coaching as effective as possible are:

1. Select coaches with care.
2. Provide strong organization support.
3. Measure and communicate the impact.
4. Make coaching more widely available.

Maximizing the Impact of Executive Coaching: Behavioral Change, Organizational Outcomes, and Return on Investment. By Joy McGovern, PhD., Michael Lindefmann, PhD., Monica Vergara, M.A., Stacey Murphy, Linda Barker; M.A., & Rodney Warrenfeltz, PhD.
The Manchester Review 2001 Volume 6 Number 1.

Human Resource Executive Magazine reports that Dell Computer Corporation in Austin , Texas has been measuring ROI for executive coaching for more than five years. Coaching has received more than a 90% satisfaction rate from company executives. Senior staff members who have received coaching also tend to be promoted more often than those who do not participate in one-on-one coaching conversations. About 6 out of 10 organizations currently offer coaching or other developmental counseling to their managers and executives. The top reason given for offering coaching or other developmental counseling include:

• To sharpen leadership skills of high-potential individuals (chosen by 86% of organizations).
• To correct management behavior problems (72%)
• To ensure the success of newly promoted managers (64%)
• To correct employee relation problems (59%)
• To provide technical people with management and leadership skills (58%)

What do you know about executive coaching ROI?
CoachThee.com. March 3, 2003.

Coaching is built on both awareness and practice. A coach will help you examine what you want to achieve and how you are going about it. When do you call a coach? The simple answer is any time you are willing to grow and learn. Here are some considerations:

• You get passed over for an important promotion.
• You are assigned to head an exciting new project.
• You excelled as an individual performer and now have a chance to lead others.
• You have a crisis of confidence in a new leadership role.
• You are reflecting on your life and career after a major life event-a divorce, the loss of a parent, a milestone birthday.

Executive Coaching: Are You Ready For Its Challenges? Paula Butterfield.
Business First of Columbus-March 24, 2003.

Who needs coaching? Perhaps the better question is who doesn’t? While the process has its roots in psychology, it should not be confused with therapy or counseling, since it deals with functional, not dysfunctional, people and emphasizes strengths and achievements rather than weaknesses and problems. Confidentiality is key as the coach leads the client through a three-step process. The first is a review of the executive’s career, strengths and shortcomings. Step two involves creating a comprehensive action plan. The final stage, the executive and coach test and implement the executive’s action plan. Companies such as Motorola and IBM offer coaching as a part of their executive development programs, paying as much as $750/Hr.

A Better Person Makes a Better Exec. By Don MacRae. Business Week Online. February 25, 2002.