Today's business environment is undergoing many changes that are having a considerable impact on the quantity and quality of leadership talent. Businesses are faced with a large number of retirees, a lack of viable successors, diminishing leadership development budgets, and leadership development practices often focused on training rather than individualized accelerated development options, such as executive coaching.

When implemented correctly, executive coaching can have a significant effect on a leader's development as well as on the corporation as a whole. It's an expensive leadership development option, however, with costs often as high as $30,000 for a six-month coaching engagement. Effectively managing coaching engagements is crucial due to the potential for impact and associated costs. If the outcomes of coaching engagements are left to chance, there may be little to no return-on-investment for the organization.

Several challenges to implementing an effective executive coaching program include:

  • difficulty finding coaches that are a good fit with the organization
  • lack of focus and standards for the coaching engagements
  • problems aligning appropriate coaching resources with the executives
  • minimal involvement in the coaching engagement by members of the organization
  • inconsistent quality and outcomes of the coaching engagement
  • lack of accountability for results from participants involved in the coaching engagement (coaches, executives, managers, coaching staff)
  • no measurement or evaluation of the coaching engagement.

With those challenges in mind, how can organizations ensure executive coaching achieves its business impact? Creating and managing a program that uses a business coaching model will enable the coaching engagements to have business impact. This model typically includes

  • Consistent standards. Coach and coachee qualifications, coaching agreements, and cost model.
  • Assessment. 360-degree feedback, MBTI, and other assessments utilized by the business.
  • Feedback. Qualitative feedback from managers, peers, subordinates, and customers.
  • Individual development plans. Uniform development plan that is focused on business impact and agreed to by the executive, her manager, and the coaching program manager.
  • Coaching sessions. Meetings between the coach and the executive with a focus on targeted development goals.
  • Ongoing evaluation. Evaluation that starts at the beginning of the coaching engagement and concludes with an assessment of achievement of goals and targets.

Measuring and evaluating executive coaching

There are several steps involved in establishing a successful executive coaching program that will enable the measurement and evaluation of the coaching engagements.

Step 1: Align coaching with business strategy. Review the businesses strategic plans and determine the top priority goals and objectives for the business. Then align the coaching program with those goals and objectives. The objectives of the coaching program should support the business goals.

Step 2: Coachee selection. Based on the business strategy and the goals that need to be accomplished, determine the guidelines for who receives executive coaching and who does not.

Step 3: Coach selection. Determine the skills and competencies required of the coaches who will be selected. What is the best fit for the organization based on business strategy? In addition, determine the cost structure for coaching, including the hourly fees, and then adhere to that cost structure. Address the question of external versus internal coaches.

Step 4: Assessment and feedback. Select the best assessment tools for the organization. Focus on those that are easy to implement and allow the gathering of both pre- and post-data for the coaching engagement, such as 360-degree feedback. Collect both quantitative (assessment) and qualitative (feedback) data.

Step 5: Individual development plans. Design a development plan that provides strong linkages from the participant development actions to the desired business impact. The development plan below is focused on results and alignment with company and functional goals. The executive coaching sessions must focus on the development plan created.

Step 6: Ongoing evaluation. Design and implement a measurement and evaluation process along with a "coaching scorecard" that collects both quantitative and qualitative data and is based on the Five Levels of Evaluation:

  • Level 1: What was the participant reaction to the coaching engagement, including the effectiveness of the coach?
  • Level 2: What did the participant learn as a result of the coaching engagement?
  • Level 3: Which participant behaviors changed as a result of the coaching session and impact on participant performance?
  • Level 4: What was the impact to the business based on the participant's involvement in the coaching engagement?
  • Level 5: What metrics show the benefits and costs or return-on-investment?

Measurement and evaluation of the coaching engagement should take place midterm and at the conclusion of the engagement. Coaching program metrics may also need to be measured longer term, such as several months to a year or more after the coaching engagement ends, and may include metrics such as retention, promotions, or internal job fills.

The coaching scorecard is a data-collection tool that can be used to communicate the impact of the coaching engagement at all levels of measurement and evaluation. Both a micro- and macro-level scorecard can be created. The micro scorecard focuses on the evaluation results for each individual coaching engagement, and the macro scorecard focuses on the compiled results for the coaching program. Below is an example of a micro-coaching scorecard.

Step 7: Coaching agreements. Once the business coaching model is fully designed, it is time to create a consistent agreement that clearly states the roles of all involved parties, outlines the business coaching model, and explains the process that will be used to measure and evaluate the program. All participants must be briefed on the process and sign the coaching agreement.

Implementation of the seven-step process outlined above should enable an organization to design, develop, and implement an effective executive coaching program. An effective coaching program needs to accelerate the development of business leaders and have impact on the businesses goals and objectives. Ongoing measurement and evaluation of any coaching program is critical to continuously improve the program and ensure it has business impact.

Reference

The Leadership Scorecard by Jack J. Phillips and Lynn Schmidt