Just got back from presenting at the annual Conference Board's Executive Coaching conference. Interesting to observe the wide range of topics and note who was drawn to what. There were once again sessions focused on calculating ROI designed to defend our value to leaders who I assume have never been coached. Early studies based on guesstimates by the coachee of the value of coaching averaged an ROI of 600% and were actually ratcheted down by the researchers (Manchester Group) before publishing because the numbers seemed unbelievable. I watched well-intentioned HR leaders searching for the right approach to justify what they intuitively know will bring value to their organizations. I spoke with a few of them on break and asked if they had asked their leaders which metrics would matter to them. They hadn't.
I spoke with some others who have, like we do, a fairly mature coaching program in place. The tone of our conversation was very different. We spoke about the value to our leaders during times of chaos to have time to reflect via coaching, the value of making mindful decisions during times of ambiguity guided by a coach's questions and the value of having a coach who cares truly listen. We noted that not one of the people we've coached asked for ROI data.
It's my dream that we will reach a tipping point in terms of numbers of people coached so that the futile effort to quantify the quality of an experience will simply fade away.
Jackie,
ReplyDeleteI share your dream that observable desired behaviors and results should be the ultimate test of the value of coaching. Following are excerpts from an article I wrote on the ROI of Coaching.
7. What are the benefits of credible metrics to value Coachee progress? Credible metrics are those that provide a line of sight between the coaching intervention and the resulting value or benefit(s) provided to the organization and stakeholders through the demonstrated use of the Coachee’s enhanced skills and behaviors. Ideally the line of sight should be linked directly to the achievement of a measurable organizational objective where the benefits of the Coachee’s newly honed skills and behaviors can be observed by stakeholders and quantified through estimation.
In the absence of a relevant organizational objective the line of sight should be linked to stakeholder feedback from a 360 assessment and the Coachee’s ability to act on that feedback in a timely matter. In this case valuing the benefits of the coaching intervention is more subjective and limited to observations and feedback by stakeholders on the Coachee’s developmental progress. Stakeholders will also value the intervention based on their perception of whether the Coachee’s use of his or her enhanced skills and behaviors is adding value to the organization.
8. Can ROI be used to measure the effectiveness of qualitative results, i.e., to value the effectiveness of an Executive Coaching intervention? I believe that the answer is yes provided the executive develops a command of the skills and behaviors in his or her development plan and provided the objectives of the development plan can be clearly tied to the achievement of a measurable organization objective.
For this purpose the modified ROI calculation should be: ROI = Estimated Gain – Cost of Coaching Intervention / Cost of Coaching Intervention; where the Estimated Gain reflects the subjective estimated dollar impact of the coaching intervention on the achievement of a measurable organization objective.
All quantitative change is attributable at least in part to qualitative efforts, i.e., the effective use of leadership skills and behaviors to manage people and processes, to achieve organization objectives. In other words results and skills and behaviors are inextricably linked – you cant’ have one without the effective application of the others.