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Executive coaching has become an accepted best practice in the field of leadership development.  My colleague Brian Underhill, Ph.D., outlines some of the reasons why in his book Executive Coaching for Results:

• The ever-increasing pace of change that forces organizations to develop leaders more quickly and more often on-the-job;
• An intensifying talent war to obtain and retain top leaders and performers; and
• The wide-spread use of 360-feedback which pushes leaders to cultivate their strengths and address their blind spots (critical, yet hard to do on one’s own).

Brian goes on to say that “many organizations are now making external coaching a high priority in their leadership development strategies.  Some are now five to ten years into an in-depth coaching implementation, serving hundreds – if not thousands – of their executives.”  These type of development programs for high-potential leaders (HIPOs) are where I spend much of my time as a coach and a trainer – including a Fortune 50 technology company and a Big 4 accounting firm.

As I said in my last post, coaching is a highly personalized, on-the-job development program that delivers real-time results that leaders can sustain over time. In terms of qualitative measures, these results show up in things like talent retention and improved job performance, including gains in: productivity, quality of work, customer service, work/life balance and job satisfaction.

The American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) estimates that large corporations spend over $2 billion a year on training.  Yet studies show repeatedly that the impact of traditional training can be notoriously short-lived due to: a) a lack of transference into the “real world”; b) a lack of reinforcement on-the-job; and/or c) a one-size-fits all approach.  So much of that spending literally never sees the light of day.

While attempts to quantify the ROI of coaching are still in their infancy, at least two studies found that the return on executive coaching is, on average, 5-6 times the dollar amount invested in coaching.  As great as that financial return can be for the company, the return for an individual leader is equally as powerful.   And sustainable – the leader carries these benefits forward, wherever they go in their work and their life.