"...believed to be the first major study to quantify the business impact of executive coaching. The study included 100 executives, mostly from Fortune 1000 companies, who received coaching...Half of the executives in the study held positions of vice president or higher (including division president, general manager, chief executive officer, chief financial officer, chief information officer, partner, principal, and practice leader). Almost six out of 10 (57%) executives who received coaching were ages 40 to 49, and one-third earned $200,000 or more per year.

The coaching programs that executives participated in were a mix of both change-oriented coaching -- which is aimed at changing certain behaviors or skills -- and growth-oriented coaching -- which is aimed at sharpening performance. The coaching programs typically lasted from six months to one year.

Among the results of the study: The coaching programs delivered an average return on investment of 5.7 times the initial investment in a typical executive coaching assignment -- or a return of more than $100,000 -- according to executives who estimated the monetary value of the results achieved through coaching.

Among the benefits to companies that provided coaching to executives were improvements in:

Among the benefits to executives who received coaching were improved:

"As a $100 million business second only to the IT industry in its US growth rate, coaching is the latest must-have lifestyle and business accessory - the solution to both workplace under-achievement and premature stress burnout." Vive ,2000

"Call it professional coaching, executive coaching, life coaching, or corporate coaching. Whatever the name, this new phenomenon is one of the hottest services in corporate America today. Some data show that the quality of the relationship between boss and subordinate is a major predictor of intentions to remain. Coaching--which can help managers talk with subordinates about their developmental needs--absolutely affects that relationship positively. And there's a big potential payoff."- says David A. Thomas, Fitzhugh professor of business administration at Harvard Business School. THE BUSINESS JOURNAL April , 2000

"Between 25 percent and 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies use executive coaches" - according to a recent survey by The Hay Group, an international human resources consultancy

"The leaders of organizations such as Alcoa, American Red Cross, AT&T, Ford, Northwestern Mutual Life, 3M, UPS, American Standard, the federal governments of the United States and Canada are convinced that coaching works to develop people and increase productivity." - Consulting to Management (Sept.2001)

"Coaching management is a hot trend at a growing number of FORTUNE 500 companies, from IBM and Dow Chemical to Marriott International and Glaxo Wellcome. Corporate coaches are in such demand that they can charge from $600 to $2,000 a month for three or four 30- to 60-minute conversations. Some charge as much as $400 an hour. So a lot of them are earning far more than psychologists or psychiatrists.

Coaches are everywhere these days. Companies hire them to shore up executives or, in some cases, to ship them out. Division heads hire them as change agents. Workers at all levels of the corporate ladder, fed up with a lack of advice from inside the company, are taking matters into their own hands and enlisting coaches for guidance on how to improve their performance, boost their profits, and make better decisions about everything from personnel to strategy. "- TIME Business News

"Coaching is needed today more than ever as a critical tool for organizational change... Change is essential for an organization to grow and adapt to today's rapidly shifting marketplace...In changing from old hierarchical models to relational models for leading and influencing, businesses are creating coaching cultures that encourage organizational learning. Coaching has emerged as the best way to help individuals learn to think and work together more effectively."- Georgetown University, Center for Professional Development. 2002

At Harvard Business School, Linda Hill, professor of business administration, says - she's inundated with requests to coach. "Coaching is becoming something of a heavy industry. It's amazing," - says Warren Bennis, professor of business administration at the University of Southern California's business school.

"If ever stressed-out corporate America could use a little couch-time, it's now. Trust in big companies is at an all-time low. Baby-boomers have been burned; Gen Xers aren't expecting the Corporation to take care of them. Under the circumstances, employees are much likelier to go outside and get independent advice to help them be better managers" - says Karen Cates, assistant professor of organizational behavior at Northwestern's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

"What's really driving the boom in coaching, is this, as we move from 30 miles an hour to 70 to 120 to 180...as we go from driving straight down the road to making right turns and left turns to abandoning cars and getting on motorcycles...the whole game changes, and a lot of people are trying to keep up, learn how, not fall off." - says John Kotter, professor of leadership at the Harvard Business School.

The demand for Executive Coaches has skyrocketed over the past 5 years... today’s executive coach (EC) is intended to help leaders and potential leaders across the rocky, wild, and challenging road of organizational growth in today’s dynamic and unstable work environment....As with most emerging professions, the rules and guidelines for how to make executive coaching work have been scanty at best. This gap has been felt by executives seeking help, their organizations, and the scores of people putting up shingles as EC’s. At the same time, a cadre of other types of coaches is trying to catch the coattails of the popularity of executive coaching." - The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology - American Psychological Association

Booz, Allen & Hamilton's Ed Cohen, Director for Professional Excellence says; "We hire outside certified coaches to help our executives fill in minor gaps that may not have shown up earlier in the person's career because those skills may not have been the ones that were needed to help them rise to their present level." - The Edge, 2002

"Coaching is the only cost-effective way to reinforce new behaviors and skills until a learner is through the dangerous results dip. Once through the dip, when the new skills bring results, they will become self-reinforcing." Training and Development Journal.

"We've done lots of research over the past three years, and we've found that leaders who have the best coaching skills have better business results." V.P. of Global Executive & Organizational Development at IBM.

"Corporations believe that coaching helps keep employees and that the dollar investment in it is far less than the cost of replacing an employee." Fitzhugh professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School —above two quotes from TIME Magazine (Sept 25, 2000) article about Executive Coaching

Workforce Trends

(COACHING SURVEY) According to the survey, senior-level managers need to pay more attention to, and focus more closely on, their people skills as companies decrease managerial levels and increase the number of employees each manager manages. The survey found the senior-level executives' top five management behavioral problems — or, problems with how they manage people — are:

Poor communications skills — both written and verbal, which 41% of survey respondents selected as the main top-level management problem in their organizations

1. Failure to develop subordinated-chosen by 32% of human resource managers
2. Rigid and flexible management behavior-29%
3. Indecisive and/or nonassertive management behavior — 20%
4. Not being a team player — 18%

The top five employee relations problems that senior-level executives most need to correct in order to work more effectively with others are:

1. Poor interpersonal skills, selected by 48% of survey respondents as the No. 1 top-level employee relations problem in their organizations

2. Disorganization — 31%

3. Demeaning attitude — 22%

4. Unpredictability – 21%

5. Arrogance — 21%

The survey concludes that progressive organizations are increasingly utilizing executive coaches for their managers and enrolling them in interpersonal skills-building courses. These methods have enhanced both the executive performance and team effectiveness of the organizations. - Manchester Executive Coaching Survey

"With the aggressive marketing of executive coaching by consultants, it is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain an objective view about what it is." This report has found "the reasons for the phenomenal growth in the use of executive coaching by employing organizations seem to include: a) the knock-on effects of the downsizing of the 1990s, resulting in ‘lonely’ and isolated senior managers who welcome support and challenge from someone external to their immediate work environment. b) The increasing demand by organizations for senior managers with key ‘soft skills’. Many business schools and in-company standard development programs have failed to embed the kinds of feedback-based approaches necessary for self-insight and the acquisition of soft skills, for managers when they were more junior. c) Some senior managers consider they have ‘made it’ and worry that being seen to undergo development may be perceived by others as admitting they have a weakness. The nature of the executive coaching relationship is private and avoids that public gaze. d) Attendance on whole-day courses or regular learning sets can seem an imposition into an already busy schedule. Sessions with executive coaches can be fitted around other diary commitments." -IES Research (a group of 30 of the UK’s leading employers) Report 379, April 2001.

"The Xerox Corporation carried out several studies, one of which showed that in the absence of follow-up coaching 87% of the skills change brought about by the program was lost. That’s 87 cents in the skills dollar. However good your skills training in the classroom, unless it’s followed up on the job, most of its effectiveness is lost without follow-up coaching. For example: Most sales people try out the new skills for a few calls, find that they feel awkward and the new method isn’t bringing instant results, so they go back to their old ways.

Coaching Case study: Qualitative survey across all key sectors with Senior HR and Operational Line Managers. "One person who had received coaching for a non-fixed period felt that the impact of this relationship was that she was able to add more than £15 million to the organisation through the interventions which she made possible.- British Psychological Society. Selection and Development Review. Vol 17, 1 February 2001

According to a study by F. Masterpasqua, PhD, (a clinical psychology professor at Widener University), business leaders increasingly realize that helping employees balance their work/family demands is part of getting a commercial competitive edge. "Believe me, I know Fortune 500 companies aren't driven by altruism," said Masterpasqua. "They're after that competitive edge." Masterpasqua, recently surveyed 56 executives--half of them chief executive officers, the other half human resources directors--and found that most considered work/family balance a major "issue for their company." Many also felt the pressure personally affected their productivity and quality of work. Corporate executives that he coaches have a common struggle: to manage work and family responsibilities and not let the stress of one arena spill into the other.

Case study: Deloitte Consulting UK: Summary Findings -"Don't make coaching a separate initiative - embody it in the culture. Senior management 'walking the talk' and being role models is important. Do it wholeheartedly and only use the best quality external support."

"A study featured in Public Personnel Management Journal reports that managers (31) that underwent a managerial training program showed an increased productivity of 22.4%. However, a second group was provided coaching following the training process and their productivity increased by 88%. Research does demonstrate that one-on-one executive coaching is of value." - by F. Turner, Ph.D. CEO Refresher 2001.

Some Executive Coaching Facts and Figures ...in the US

1. Executive/Business Coaches charge by the hour, by the month or by the project. Expect to pay the equivalent of a management consultant's fee. Rates run $150 to $375 per hour.

2. Most people who hire executive coaches are professional people whose average age is 41 and who have college or advanced degrees.

3. According to the ICF, clients report the following outcomes as a result of working with a coach:

• Self-awareness 67.6%
• Setting better goals 62.4%
• More balanced life 60.5%
• Lower stress levels 57.1%

The ICF currently estimates that 15,000 people call themselves business coaches in the United States.

Accenture's Alastair Robertson, manager of worldwide leadership development practice in Boston, says employers are shocked at how high their ROI numbers are for coaching. He recalls a large employer in the hospitality industry saved between $30 million and $60 million by coaching its top 200 executives.

IBM have hired 30 organizational psychologists to coach 300 top managers. It credits them with "creating a climate where everyone in the organization feels empowered and capable and committed," says Tanya Clemons, the IBM vice president overseeing executive development. "We can already see the results."

Motorola say they expect to spend "in the low millions" this year on executive coaching for their best middle managers.

Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate, has thirty coaches working in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa with 250 top managers.

Eastman Kodak's Charles Barrentine states "It boils down to caring." He oversees 4,000 employees and finds coaching "invaluable. It points out things people would not notice themselves and plays a big role in shaping behavior."

Abbott Laboratories Tony Latham, divisional V.P. for executive sourcing and development for World Wide sees executive coaching as a way to help valued employees evolve in a swiftly changing business environment and is starting up an in-house coaching program. "It's basic human nature," he says.

"People, rather than companies, do hire their own coaches -- some of whom charge as little as $50 an hour for phone or e-mail consultations. Companies pay up to $100,000 for yearlong engagements with CEOs, or $5,000 to $15,000 for a three-month engagement with senior managers." -May 28, 2001. The Associated Press

"Fees range dramatically. Business coaches can range from $150 to $1000 per hour, with $300 to $500 per hour being the more common range. Personal coaches rates are typically much less, with $75 to $100 per hour being usual." -HR.com

"..business coaching, a trend that's exploding among small businesses and entrepreneurs nationwide. It's estimated that up to 20% of American small businesses are using them, up from 4% just four years ago."- Chicago Business

"..the number of job coaches (career coaches) has grown from 5,300 nationwide in 1998 to approximately 10,000 in 2001. Job coaching has become a $250 million industry and shows no sign of slowing. And it is not just a U.S. phenomenon. It has been reported that there are currently over 15,000 job coaches active in China alone, with other countries also using coaches...For career changers in uncertain economic times, a job coach is someone who can help them advance in their careers and achieve their goals, can make the difference between a satisfying career path and ongoing unemployment." - (BUSINESS WIRE) -July 30, 2001