Individual coaching engagements require significant investments of time and money, so it’s important to ensure the individual receiving coaching and the sponsoring organization realize worthwhile returns. In our book, Coaching that Counts, we looked at the ROI data from individual coaching engagements to determine just that; when does coaching deliver the highest return? We discovered there are decent monetary returns for addressing some of the low hanging fruit coaching traditionally addresses, such as helping people get more organized, communicate more effectively, and let go of limiting habits. The greatest returns came when coaching was used to support people to push the edge in their development and learn new ways to make more significant contributions. When coaching focused on helping people acquire more complex, outcome-oriented goals, such as effectively influencing larger groups to embrace change, or bringing diverse stakeholders together to accomplish a challenging task, coaching paid the greatest dividends. Unfortunately, it is common for coaching to stop short of taking on these more ambitious goals. Often coaching is only offered to people who “have problems” and concludes when the person has learned to fit in and play nice. This happens because coaches lack the skill or the training to support clients in acquiring more complex outcomes, or coaching budgets are limited so coaching stops too soon. The underlying issue is one of perspective. When people think that coaching is only for addressing problems their expectations are limited to these kinds of outcomes. When we expect more from coaching, it delivers more value. In my experience, coaching delivers the greatest value when the client is motivated to learn. There are certain times in a person’s career when the kind of intensive development coaching provides is particularly valuable, such as: Transitioning into a new level of leadership, or getting ready to transition, such as … [Read more...]
