Articles About Coaching

Coaching - Business Coaching

Executive Briefing: Case Study on the Return on Investment of Executive Coaching
By Merrill C. Anderson, PHD., Metrixglobal, LLC, Nov. 2, 2001

Summary: A fortune 500 firm and a coaching services company, recently engaged MetrixGlobal LLC to determine the business benefits and return on investment for an executive coaching program. MetrixGlobal, LLC is a professional services firm specializing in performance measurement solutions that increase accountability for bottom-line business results.

Findings: Coaching produced a 529% Return On Investment (ROI) and significant intangible benefits to the business. The study provided powerful new insights into how to maximize the business impact from executive coaching.

Introduction

A Fortune 500 firm launched an innovative leadership development effort that was expected to accelerate the development of next generation leaders. The participants in this effort were drawn mostly from the ranks of middle managers and from many different business units and functional areas. Leadership development activities included group mentoring, individual assessments and development planning, a leadership workshop and work on strategic business projects.

Coaching was considered to be a key enabler for this approach to leadership development because the participants could work privately and individually with his or her coach to develop specific leadership competencies. The client organization engaged a coaching group to provide coaching to the leadership development participants. While participants spoke very highly of their experience with coaching it was decided to conduct a formal assessment of the effectiveness and business impact of coaching. It is intended that the results from this study be used to determine:

1. How coaching added value to the business and the return on investment.
2. How could coaching be best leveraged in the future, especially if coaching was to be expanded to other business regions?

Data Collection Procedures

It was decided that the best way to isolate and capture the effects of coaching on the business was through a questionnaire. This questionnaire had two parts. Part one was completed electronically via email and examined clients initial reaction to coaching, what they learned, how they applied what they learned and captured their initial assessment of business impact. Part two was conducted over the telephone with each respondent and probed more deeply into business impact and the financial return on investment.

The target population for the survey was 43 leadership development participants. These participants were drawn from two regions: Eastern United States (37) and Mexico (6). These participants represented a cross section of the business and included those in sales, operations, technology, finance and marketing. All had been identified as potential leaders and executives. Thirty of 43 leadership development participants returned their surveys for a 70% response rate.

Results

Coaching was a very effective developmental tool for the leadership development participants, producing financial and intangible benefits for the business. Coaching sessions were rich learning environments that enabled the learning to be applied to a variety of business situations. Decision-making, team performance and the motivation of others were enhanced. Many of these business applications contributed annualized financial benefits. Other applications created significant intangible benefits. Overall, the participants appreciated their coaching experiences and would highly recommend coaching to others.

Three-quarters (77%) of the 30 respondents indicated that coaching had significant or very significant impact on at least one of nine business measures. In-depth discussions were conducted over the telephone with each respondent to further explore the business impact of coaching. Sixty percent of the respondents were able to identify specific financial benefits that came as a result of their coaching.

Overall, productivity (60% favorable) and employee satisfaction (53%) were cited as the areas most significantly impacted by the coaching. Respondents defined productivity in this context as relating to their personal or to their work group productivity and half (50%) documented annualized financial benefits. Employee satisfaction was viewed both in terms of the respondents being personally more satisfied as a result of the coaching as well as being able to increase the employee satisfaction of their team members. The respondents could not quantify this benefit in financial terms. Employee satisfaction, then, was a significant source of intangible benefits. Customer satisfaction (53%) was also a significant source of intangible benefits.

The next most frequently cited as being significantly impacted by coaching were work output (30%) and work quality (40%). Twenty percent of the respondents identified financial benefits as a result of increased work output. Many respondents reported improvements in work quality; however, they were not able to quantify these improvements in terms of dollar benefits. Work quality improvements were considered an intangible benefit of the coaching.

Program costs were tabulated for all 43 leadership development participants in determining the return on investment. The coaching process (excluding the benefits from employee retention) produced a 529% return on investment. While those clients who had customer or people responsibilities produced proportionally greater financial benefits, the realization of benefits to the business was fairly widespread throughout the group involved in this study.

Recommendations were made to maximize the business benefits from executive coaching:

1. Manage the entire coaching process to ensure consistency and quality. Though the content of individual coaching sessions should always be confidential, the coaching process itself needs to be managed to ensure that the coaching clients and the coaches are following the appropriate process and leveraging best practices.
2. Prepare clients in advance for coaching and don't force coaching on anyone. Because coaching remains a relatively new development technique, people may not understand how the coaching process can help them become better business professionals. The sooner they understand the process, the sooner they will see results.
3. Offer clients the ability to select their coaches. Chemistry is important to build an effective coaching relationship. Provide prospective coaching clients with information about the coaches including biographies, education, coaching credentials, functional expertise, industry experience and other background information.
4. Provide coaching strong organizational support. Those being coached should receive encouragement and support from their immediate managers. Also, coaching should be conducted in the context of other developmental efforts such as competency development, assessments, mentoring and leadership workshops.
5. Ensure coaches are grounded in the company’s business and culture. Coaches are more effective when they can identify with and talk about the realities of their client's environment.
6. Allow each coaching relationship to follow its own path. A major difference between coaching and training is that coaching allows the individual to determine what works best for him or her at a very personal level. Coaches need wide latitude to work with “the whole person” and help each client be more effective as a person as well as to be more effective as a business leader.
7. Build performance measurement into the coaching process. Evaluation of coaching should be designed into the process from the beginning to better set performance expectations and open up new learning opportunities for making coaching more effective while the coaching is being conducted. For example, coaching can be refocused to deal with issues or to ensure that business priorities will be met. In this way, the evaluation of coaching becomes more than just a measuring stick – it becomes a structured approach to deepen the business value of coaching.

Put Me In, Coach
By Robin D. Schatz, BusinessWeek.com
Published October 11, 1999

It may sound touchy-feely, but a business coach can help you succeed in business — and as a person. Life and business rarely maintain their proper distance from each other. Work and family concerns compete for attention; there never seems to be enough time to do everything we want. And, often, our passions lurk just behind the office door -- or, in my case, in the top desk drawer of my cubicle. Sometimes when I forage there for a paper clip, a sparkly necklace or a stray earring spills out -- the jewelry creations of a hobby gone wild.

Why the confession? To explain why I spent part of my summer vacation with ''success'' coach Barbara McRae, owner of EnhancedLife Coaching in Colorado Springs, Colo. I've contacted her to learn why a growing number of entrepreneurs are hiring business coaches to help achieve their personal and business goals. And, I admit, I've been secretly wondering if coaching could help me turn my hobby into a bona fide business.

''It's not just helping the entrepreneur with hard-core business issues but also helping them with their personal issues,'' explains McRae, a former corporate human resources executive and one of about 10,000 coaches working worldwide, according to the International Coach Federation, a professional group. In practice, this holistic approach means McRae will help you write your business plan, but she'll also help you figure out how to take a day off.

When we meet, I note McRae is cheerily clad in shocking pink -- and has a perky personality to match. But most of her clients never meet her face to face. Instead, they get ''telecoached.'' Explains McRae: ''We don't get distracted by the visual cues. We're totally focused on the content.'' Clients pay her for weekly half-hour phone sessions, plus unlimited faxes and e-mail.

Many of McRae's clients are launching new ventures. Barbara F. Campbell, a successful but unfulfilled art gallery owner in Cleveland, sought McRae's help to start a new business, Basia Jewelry Designs. Over an eight-month period, McRae and Campbell talked weekly. McRae gave her exercises to define her goals and values; she helped Campbell overcome a creative block. Campbell, who calls coaching a ''turning point,'' now sells to Cleveland galleries and boutiques and hopes to hire her first employees shortly. McRae still coaches her occasionally. ''Even though my business is going well, I sometimes run into a little problem. She doesn't solve it. She sort of guides you and shows you that you have it within you to solve it,'' says Campbell.

Men tend to bring McRae more concrete business dilemmas. Jeffrey Hughes, CEO of Internet startup RezLogic Inc. in Colorado Springs, which sells a Web-based database program to manage prospective hires, got coached by McRae to improve his sales skills. In a helpful role-playing exercise, McRae had him imagine the customer as a ''real person with a family and a life,'' he says.

Now, I'll concede, coaching sounds awfully touchy-feely, and it's clearly not for everybody. During my sample coaching session with McRae, we talk about how I'm daunted at the prospect of making my jewelry business official. She tells me about setting up a Web site and registering a business -- pretty standard stuff. But then she zeroes in on what's really bothering me: ''Let's look at your recipe for dealing with fear. How do you do that?''

Okay, so this may sound hokey, but I actually do find it's a useful question. I tell McRae how I recently overcame jitters about appearing on TV by getting some on-camera training. Aha! I realize I don't yet feel competent in this unfamiliar industry and will need to educate myself. Profound insight? Perhaps not, but McRae's questions lead me to think more deeply about what's holding me back.

What next? She'd have me complete a mini-business plan, name and register my business -- in other words, just do it. ''Many times, the fear about whether this is going to be a viable business is because we haven't fully committed to the next step,'' she says.

And that's true. I have no plans to quit my day job, but I'm still thinking about that name. As for coaching, having someone to listen to you and encourage you, and break everything down into easy, concrete steps, is rather nice. It sure beats talking to the mirror.

Individuals often hire a coach to improve some of their workplace behaviors. Modifying these behaviors can help a person keep a job or increase their potential to make it to the next level in the organization.

Lisa came to coaching since she felt that she was reacting too strongly to individuals and situations in the office. Her reactive behavior was causing her and her coworkers unnecessary stress. She wanted to learn how to respond appropriately during office interactions.

One of the ideas that Lisa generated with her coach was to first respond via email or voice mail to co-workers whenever possible. This manner of responding allowed her to think before responding, edit her tone and give a more positive response. Lisa also came up with the idea to visualize a big stop sign when she felt herself start to react. It was a reminder that added some fun to the process.

Another way Lisa learned to interact with more ease was to work on her listening skills. By listening more and not jumping quickly into the conversation, she acknowledged and respected her employees and their input. The employees felt that she heard them and they could state their ideas without feeling ambushed.

As a result of the changes, Lisa began to relax, enjoy her job more, and realized a new sense of calm while interacting with others on the job. The other employees began to notice the change, which led to improved relations and trust among her co-workers. Lisa realized that her behavior had a huge impact on those who worked around and with her. She kept her new skills intact by utilizing affirmations that reinforced her new behavior.

John wanted to learn how to manage his time a little more wisely. He felt that the daily interruptions from his employees kept him from accomplishing the tasks he wanted and needed to complete. First, he had to learn to say no assertively and look at his belief system around his need to take care of everyone but himself. One of the structures that he decided to establish was to separate time for his own work and time for his staff. During the times that he truly could not be disturbed, unless it was an emergency, he put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on his office door.

John discussed his new policy with his employees and made it clear to the ones who came to him the most that he was still available but that he needed this new way of operating to accomplish his own tasks. As a result of these changes, John felt more in control, and completed his own work tasks in a more timely manner. His employees now had some guidelines and respected John’s need to accomplish his tasks without excessive interruptions.

Another area that John wanted to work on with his coach was learning to delegate. He knew that he had a big presentation coming soon and was feeling stressed about getting everything accomplished. Normally, he would spend a great deal of time preparing his PowerPoint presentation. After realizing that he could use his preparation time in better ways, he delegated the task to one of his employees. By letting go of the need to control that part of the process, John gave a much better presentation and understood that he could not and did not have to do it all.

In what ways would you like to improve your performance at work? Take an inventory of those categories and pick one to review. What changes can you put in place to help move it forward? Start today to make a difference in your work life.

Coaching - General

Male execs like female coaches
By Del Jones, USA TODAY, October 23, 2001

Men hold 94% of the highest corporate jobs, but they usually turn to women when they want the advice of an executive coach.

• InterCoach, an executive coaching company, kept one man on its eight-person staff — for awhile. "Nobody asked for him," so he resigned, says InterCoach President Laura Berman Fortgang, author of Take Yourself to the Top: The Secrets of America's #1 Career Coach.
• George Habel, vice president for Capitol Broadcasting, says the company offers coaching to its highest executives. The executives can choose the gender of the coach, but only one has selected a man. Many of Capitol's executives run minor league baseball teams, and all rate at least an 8 on "a macho scale to 10," Habel says."In their worklife, they're competing primarily with men. In the end, they're just more comfortable talking to a woman."
• When Cambria Consulting needed a partner to develop its strategic executive coaching practice, it chose Ellen Kumata, whose clients have included Deloitte & Touche, Fortis, Gap, J.P. Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, MetLife and Wachovia.

Not that men don't try. Twenty-five percent of 4,300 certified members of the International Coach Federation are men, and Coach U, the largest training school for executive coaches, with 6,000 graduates, says more than three in 10 graduates are men.

Good coaches are intuitive, good communicators and have done a lot of personal development work, says Sandy Vilas, a man and CEO of Coach U. "Generally speaking, that profile tends to fit women better," Vilas says. "CEOs are hard-charging, Jack Welch-type people. They recognize, in order to be balanced, they need a softer side."

"The fantasy is that women will listen better," says Susan Bloch, who heads the 120-person executive coaching practice at the Hay Group. "When a man is asked to coach another, they have a tendency to compete. Man to man, they have to show each other how great they are."

The glass ceiling has shown few cracks recently. Of the 53 CEO openings at Fortune 1000 companies in the first 6 months of 2001, one went to a woman, according to executive search firm Christian & Timbers.

Women fill 6.2% of the corporate "line" positions, those with profit-and-loss responsibility, according to Catalyst, a non-profit organization to advance women in business.

But coaches are showing that access to the top can come in other ways. The executive coaching profession is less than a decade old, but growing.

The first convention, in 1996, drew 250. Today, there are about 15,000 coaches, and that number is expanding by about 200 a month, according to the International Coach Federation.

Unlike consultants, coaches are not experts in the business and are not hired to give advice about the day-to-day operations of the company. They are trained listeners who help with goals and personal problems.

Coaches say they spend a lot of time on the personal lives of striving male executives, which are commonly a wreck. Executives often complain of bad marriages and the inability to make it to their children's ballgames.

Candice Carpenter, former CEO of the women's Web site iVillage, is now coaching entrepreneurs to make succession plans. She says she has had six clients, all men.

As a rising executive, Carpenter says she had two coaches. One was a woman, but the other was David Zelman, now Carpenter's partner.

But Carpenter apparently is an exception. Coaches say that while male executives usually want female coaches, female executives always want another female.

What is Coaching Worth?
By Molly Gordon, articlehub.com

As a professional coach and as a coaching client, I often reflect on how to place a dollar value on this work. How can we assess what coaching is worth, and how can we ground that assessment?

One way to establish the value of coaching is to look at potential performance results: increased productivity, more efficient use of time, better sales, greater information retention following training. These are typical outcomes of coaching, and it is relatively easy to determine a dollar value for them based on the financial benefit of these measurable changes. It's easy, but it misses 90% of what coaching delivers.

The other 90% resides in the space of possibilities that coaching opens for the client. Here's an example drawn from the coaching I've received in the past 30 days.

For almost two years my practice has been quite full, and I've been wondering about the next step for my business. Should I create a coaching company? (Do I have to give up my wonderful home office?) Write a book? (Won't I have time to travel or work with clients one on one?) Move into corporate coaching? (Do I have to wear shoes that hurt and learn to sleep on airplanes?)

No sooner would I formulate a possibility than it would be closed by an objection. I didn't have much basis for the objections, I just felt that these possibilities would all have higher personal costs than the professional gains they might generate.

Meanwhile, my passion for coaching and my appreciation for its value was growing daily. I was getting better and better at my work and I was getting to know other really good coaches. The gap between my enthusiasm for building a coaching community and my capacity to expand my coaching business was widening. Finally, this gap started to come up in sessions with my coaches. (I'm fortunate that I am working and learning in a community of coaches, and that I give and receive coaching with several colleagues.)

Long story short, in under five weeks, coaching has moved me from a place where growing my business felt like an impossible dream and a sure route to emotional and fiscal bankruptcy to a space of wonder at the possibilities available to me. I am still at the very beginning of growing my business; there is still much that I do not know. The difference is that now what I do not know is an emblem of what may be possible rather than a roadblock.

Today I am living a bigger adventure with bigger rewards than I was living a month ago. I'm not pretending that risk has vanished or that the path will be free of obstacles. The point is that I am on a path that wasn't open to me 30 days ago.

So, what's the value of the coaching that makes it possible for you to found a company? Write a book? Live a dream? Heal a friendship? Design a bigger life? Will you calculate the value of coaching by counting the steps it helps you take along a familiar road, or by looking at how much bigger your map is and how many new roads it makes available?

For me, there is no one-size-fits-all way to assess the value of coaching. However, I offer these questions to help you assess the right coaching investment for you.

Am I willing to be fundamentally transformed by coaching? (The more of yourself you bring to coaching, the more coaching can bring to you.) Am I willing to get lost, and is this coach someone that I trust enough to get lost with? (Unless you are willing to "get lost," your gains will be limited to incremental improvements in known areas.) What are the costs of remaining where I am? (When the status quo is keeping you from playing a bigger game, then coaching can have tremendous value.)

Coaching - An Adapting Tool For Attaining Fulfillment In The Global Economy
By Phillip Okrend, articlehub.com

At a time when the global economy is bringing innovation, new ideas and new opportunities into the marketplace, outsourcing and the elimination of white-collar jobs has left many of us feeling anxious and insecure about the future. It is increasingly apparent that the American worker can no longer look to the corporation for a sense of security, place, benefits or loyalty. As reliance on old structures is diminishing, the following ways of looking at work are emerging:

• People want work that gives them meaning and purpose.
• People want their work to be part of a balanced lifestyle.
• People will increasingly choose to create their own small businesses or work as freelancers, consultants, and independent contractors.

In the changing economic climate, people need to learn to trust their own intuition, talent and resources to both survive and thrive. In order to do this, they will need sustained motivation and self-awareness to recognize and pursue new opportunities that lead to meaningful work. This begs the question of how we can even recognize new opportunities, when we may feel more stressed and anxious than ever. Many of us may not even know what we want or where to look for it if we did know.

Fortunately, there is a powerful vehicle emerging to assist people in finding focus, purpose and fulfillment, and to keep them on track during these uncertain times and into the future. That vehicle is called Personal and Professional Coaching. Personal and Professional Coaching works through a dynamic partnership focused entirely on the client and the client's agenda. In coaching, the following are presumed:

• People are creative, resourceful and whole
• People are capable of finding their own answers to whatever challenges they face

All parts of peoples lives - careers, relationships, recreation, personal growth, finances, etc. are interrelated and impact life balance and fulfillment.

Coaching often starts by exploring what the person really wants. Even when people believe they know this, greater clarity and self-awareness emerge through coaching. And sometimes, people discover different aspirations, ones that make them look forward to getting out of bed each morning.

By using active listening skills and asking proactive questions, the coach gets the client to experience a deeper awareness of how they operate in life. Through activities such as values clarification, brainstorming and personal strategic planning, the coach will help their client to recognize and access options and possibilities they may have never noticed before. By holding the client responsible and accountable, the coach empowers the client to follow through on the commitments they make in the coaching. Subsequently, a momentum builds that results in a confidence that turns inspired ideas into tangible actions with real world results.

What we learn about ourselves through coaching will include our potential and unique talents, but also anything we have previously avoided. A coach will work with the client to uncover and release any negative and limiting beliefs that can stop them from achieving what they really want. All this is done in a relationship where trust, respect and acknowledgment are highly valued.

Coaching is an approach that enables people to fulfill their own greatest promise and to thrive regardless of the changing winds of the economy.

Coaching - Relationship Coaching

Ten Benefits of Having a Relationship Coach
Rinatta Paries, ArticleHub.com

As a Master Certified Relationship Coach, I work with singles to help them attract a great match and with couples to help put their relationships back on track. I hear great feedback from my clients about the value of coaching.

I think everyone can benefit from having a coach -- coaching can contribute that much to your life. Here is a list of the top ten benefits my clients say they have derived from having a relationship coach:

1. "I finally met my match." Clients repeatedly credit having a relationship coach for their ability to finally meet their match, a partner unlike any other they have had. In this relationship -- in addition to attraction -- there is true compatibility in values, interests, and desire for personal growth.
2. "I regained hope." Thanks to coaching, clients regained hope in love, regained hope in meeting the right partner, regained hope in getting married, perhaps even having children. They understand they can be loved and that there is a right partner for them.
3. "I never have to repeat that horrible pattern again." Relationship coaching has helped people free themselves from unhealthy relationship patterns. These are the kinds of patterns where you end up with the same partner, only with a different face, over and over again.
4. "I learned how to read people." Coaching has helped clients learn to understand their own and others' motivations. It helped them learn how to clearly see people for who they are.
5. "I finally know exactly how to date." Clients credit relationship coaching for their newfound clarity about what to do and not to do when dating. They no longer have to worry about whether they are doing the right thing. They can now relax and be themselves.
6. "I learned how to have great communication in a relationship." Clients have learned how to create an environment where great communication happens. More than that, they never have to hold back, put up with something, or stuff their feelings. And neither do their partners.
7. "I never have to worry about a broken heart out of the blue again." Clients say they have learned how to avoid heartbreaks. They also say they have learned how to establish relationships where problems are handled long before they lead to heartbreak.
8. "I learned how to deal with difficult situations in relationships." Clients say that now instead of being afraid their relationship will go south after the "honeymoon" period, they know how to handle a relationship no matter what stage it's in.
9. "I've seen an improvement in all my relationships." Relationship coaching has helped clients improve all their relationships -- from coworkers, employees and bosses, to parents, siblings and children. The improved relationships make for a better, easier, more fulfilled life, which in turn improves romantic relationships.
10. "I can stand up for myself." Clients say they have learned that personal strength, boundaries, and self respect make for better relationships. They have learned how to say no, mean it, and have the relationship be ok.

You deserve to have all of the above benefits. Although you can have any or even all of them without a coach, with the right relationship coach you can have them much faster and easier than you would otherwise.