Coaching Has Come of Age Coaching has now come of age. Given the rapid and extensive growth of this industry, it is not surprising that there is confusion regarding the field of executive coaching among corporations, coaches, and the executives who seek a coach. There currently is no official voice of the corporate coaching industry. Thus there is a clear, unfilled need among corporate coaching practitioners for a definitive source on corporate coaching. Organizations worldwide are scrambling to make the most of this highly touted, yet somewhat mysterious, development intervention. What is coaching? What happens in coaching? How do you find good coaches? How do you know whether coaching has been successful? Why Now? Just within the past ten years the coaching industry has realized explosive growth. There are now an estimated 40,000 coaches worldwide,1 with an estimated $1-2 billion in yearly revenues. Many organizations are now making external coaching a high priority in their leader development strategies. Some are now five to ten years into an in-depth coaching implementation, serving hundreds--if not thousands--of their executives. Coaching has achieved a place as both a professional and a profitable business. A 2004 Harvard Business Review article2 coined the industry the Wild West of coaching, in response to the prevailing mood of the time. Major organizations sponsored several industry-wide research studies to get a better handle on this promising methodology. What explains this incredible growth? For one thing, the ever-increasing pace of change requires organizational leaders to develop quickly, and in the context of their current jobs. Traditional training programs are often set up to train or educate large numbers of people, but not to focus on a specific individual's development needs. Coaching offers an individualized development option without removing leaders from their work. Second, the war continues for leadership talent. As the hunt to find and retain talent intensifies, many companies have viewed coaching as a way to compete in the marketplace to attract and retain that talent. Several organizational leaders we met said they would not still be at their companies if they hadn't received coaching. Coaching in organizations grew with the rise of 360-degree feedback deployment in the early 1990s. Companies began offering one- or two-hour debrief sessions with an external coach to review the feedback. Organizations found that the feedback seemed to stick better, and leaders liked the opportunity to work with an unbiased external professional. More leaders, as well as many intact teams, found the process helpful for their development--and as leaders grew as executives, they recommended coaching to others. Gradually, the standard coaching offer expanded to several sessions, several months, and eventually to 6- to 12-month assignments, and beyond. Coaches were a mixture of consultants and trainers, psychologists, and former leaders inside industry. Organizations began to target coaching for high-potential or high-performing leaders, rather than those experiencing performance problems. Today, name-brand organizations such as Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Wal-Mart, and Unilever have large managed coaching programs serving countless executives and use pools of highly-screened coaches, in all parts of the world. Coach qualifications are now more consistently understood, and coaches operate in more countries than ever before. In addition to individual coaches, organized coaching networks, boutique firms, and large players serve the industry. Coaching is also moving internally, with many organizations training internal practitioners to coach leaders. This idea is popular primarily for expense purposes and with companies who view their organizational culture as highly unique. Internal coaching is most frequently being implemented at the mid-manager and first-line supervisor level. External coaches remain the most popular solution for executives. Coaching's rise in popularity impacts the use of traditional executive development methods. We found that in-house training, formal mentoring, and external education are at times being displaced by executive coaching. As a result, many trainers and consultants now deliver their specialized content with coaching included. For example, a time management class may now include follow-on coaching sessions. We are also seeing more organizations looking to create a coaching culture. Companies are training their leaders to better coach others in work-related situations. As more organizations understand the results of coaching, they are offering leader-as-coach training. The benefits include one-on-one focused development, specialized personal learning, confidentiality, and personal accountability for improvement. In addition, coaching provides leaders the opportunity to develop individual capabilities faster than most instructional programs can, and in areas where training programs do not exist. The main challenges for coaching remain its relatively high costs and difficulty in measuring results. Generally, senior leadership's support and enthusiasm for coaching is on the increase. This can easily vary from company to company, however. We also found a gap between leaders receiving coaching and those willing to publicly endorse coaching to others. Perhaps there is still a stigma attached to having a coach in some companies. Although coaching is still a rapidly growing field, many answers and best practices are now available to guide the development of the industry. The industry is not as out of control as some would suggest. The Wild West is being tamed (as it was in real life). The industry's growth is showing no signs of slowing down. A recent Hay Group survey3 of HR professionals found that more than 50 percent had established a coaching program in the past 18 months. Coaching was estimated to be growing at about 40 percent per year. Another survey by The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development4 found that 79 percent of responding companies were using coaching. In the following review of coaching, The Conference Board shares trends from its industry-leading conferences. Conference Trends in Executive Coachin Susan diamond The conference Board Executive coaching has become an accepted best practice in the field of executive and management development, evidenced by the fact that two conferences and two seminars staged by The Conference Board are dedicated exclusively to the topic of executive coaching. Begun in the early 2000's, the first coaching conferences attracted audiences seeking basic knowledge about an emerging field, which commonly focused on executives who needed fixing. As coaching evolved from a remedial intervention into a perk for C-suite and high-potential executives, knowledge and sophistication about coaching practices have increased. In response, The Conference Board added seminars and forums in 2004 to satisfy the interests of more senior-level practitioners. Corporate presenters, Advisory Board members, and attendees at these events engage in active dialogue. They represent such leading public, private, and government institutions as Morgan Stanley, Colgate Palmolive, Bank of America, Dell, Prudential, Getty Images, Pfizer, Prudential, 20th Century Fox, Johnson & Johnson, H. O. Penn Caterpillar, McGraw Hill, McKinsey, Pepsi Cola Bottling Group, NASA, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the United States Navy. New directions and trends in coaching best practices were striking in these exemplary recent presentations: * Intel--presented a study citing an ROI of its coaching program of more than600 percent; * Goldman Sachs--links coaching to specific business goals; * Weyerhaeuser--the key role played by coaching in a rapid transformation and new identity for the sales organization; * Wachovia--expects tight partnerships of internal HR and external coaching providers; * GE and American Family Insurance--developed an internal coaching cadre of HR and OD professionals; * MTV--increasingly recognizes the significance of adult learning and development theory in informing their coaching program; * Avon--as part of global talent management, it prefers only coaches whose work is results--guaranteed for high potentials; * Hasbro--links coaching to off--site executive development and strategy seminars held at Dartmouth; * Deloitte--now requires training in coaching skills for all of its partners; * ABN/AMRO--trains line managers from their business units in coaching skills. Going forward, seminars and forums will continue to keep pace with trends in the field of coaching. Themes frequently mentioned on evaluations include: * What are the best coaching models? What are the implications of adult learning theory? Is there a physiological basis for good coaching methodologies? What is the connection between coaching and psychology? * How do you effectively introduce a coaching program within a corporation, ensure consistency in global coaching programs, and create a coaching culture? * The critical link of coaching to leadership development, talent management, organization design, and business strategy. * Coaching credentials. * When should internal coaches be used? In what situations are external coaches more effective? * How do you match coach to coachee? How do you measure results, including ROI? What about the issue of confidentiality? * Do women leaders require different approaches to coaching? Are there diversity and generational implications in coaching? Based on our research, we know that executive coaching is not just a fad, but a permanent mainstay in the development marketplace. Sixty-three percent of organizations in this study expected to increase their use of coaching over the next five years. Nearly all the remaining companies plan to continue with their current spending, and only 2 percent plan to decrease their coaching budget. The most encouraging statistic came from the customers of the process--the leaders themselves. Ninety-two percent of leaders who have been coached indicate they would hire one again when the time is right. About the Book This book will serve as the definitive guide and should be required reading for anyone responsible for designing and/or managing a corporate coaching program. It is written for leadership development practitioners, strategic HR, the talent management group, internal and executive coaches, as well as for executives and leaders seeking to make the most of their coaching experiences. The vast majority of learnings and examples could be applied to any industry, company, or organization. Likewise, the examples and experiences could occur in large, mid-size, or small organizations; private or publicly held firms; government entities; or start-up or established companies. This book offers a robust 3--D view of the industry, depicting the similar and contradictory perspectives of organizations, coaches, and leaders. No other publication on the market today can make this claim. This information is invaluable in its contribution to a holistic approach to coaching and the evolution of the industry. Although the book approaches the coaching field from the viewpoint and experience of the three authors, it is influenced by the research study and participation of organizations that have contributed feedback, callouts, and insight into their company's practices. We invite you as the reader to join the author, coaches, and practitioners from leading Fortune 1000 and Global 500 organizations in a journey to understand the state of the art in executive coaching and extend its impact in the business world. Yes, coaching has clearly come of age. Excerpted from Executive Coaching for Results: The Definitive Guide to Developing Organizational Leaders by Brian O. Underhill, Kimcee McAnally, John J. Koriath All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
