Research has shown that executive coaching can have a range of positive impacts on an organization, such as improved productivity, higher levels of employee performance, lower expenses, revenue and sales growth, higher staff retention, and greater employee engagement. The two most common measures used to evaluate the success of coaching engagements are return on investment (ROI) and return on expectations (ROE). While ROI is still widely used, ROE is becoming increasingly popular due to the difficulty of accurately calculating a significant ROI. This is because ROI does not lend itself particularly well to many “soft skill” development initiatives. The growing popularity of ROE is due to its ability to measure certain outcomes in a specific way.
While it is not yet a perfect methodology, it is much more closely related to profitability measures than ROI and therefore has more credibility among corporate decision makers. One of the key differences between the two is that ROE allows organizations to measure the impact of leadership coaching through other metrics that are already being tracked. Leaders must begin a coaching commitment by being consistent in terms of the factors that will be measured and how those factors will be measured from commitment to commitment. For example, a 360-degree review conducted for an executive coaching client can be used to measure the effectiveness of the coaching. This review involves interviewing 15 stakeholders both before and after the coaching contract has been terminated. Globally, the most common approach to measuring the ROI of coaching is simply not to measure it at all.
However, a tactical coach can structure a task for themselves to measure it every time they contact stakeholders in an interdisciplinary way. This allows them to compare the opinions of interested parties and more easily determine if the leader's change is authentic. The benefits of executive coaching extend beyond just the leader themselves and will ultimately have a positive impact on the company's results. Training the leader to increase their strengths translates into greater retention among their team members, which is a powerful ROI multiplier. In addition, training them to increase their strengths translates into greater employee retention at all levels, which is another powerful ROI multiplier. The 360-degree evaluations performed before and after hiring are one of the most accurate ways to measure leadership competencies such as decision-making capacity, delegation, active listening, and effective feedback - all skills that executive coaching can cultivate.
With the help of an executive coach, repeated improvements and clear objectives will help companies track the progress of their investment in coaching. It illustrates how executive coaching develops leadership capacity that translates into ROI in multiple ways. Quality coaches also have other factors that set them apart from others.
