Leadership coaching works. It helps leaders become better communicators. It improves employee engagement and retention. It helps create better organizational outcomes on many levels. Organizations that had coaching engagements saw outstanding ROI on their investments.

“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities.” – Bob Nardelli. 

People hold more power and creativity in themselves than they know. Sometimes, all it takes for that wave of positive energy to bubble to the surface is a little direction, encouragement, and support. Leadership coaching can deliver the necessary direction and more.

Coaching helps leaders maximize their potential. 

The Power and Benefits of Leadership Coaching

Successful leaders may believe they don’t need encouragement, support, and direction. Proudly contemplating the world from the peaks of their success exposes such leaders to complacency and causes them to miss further opportunities for growth. By dismissing the power of leadership coaching, they set artificial limits on themselves and their impacts as leaders.

Here’s a quick look at the benefits executive coaching can deliver to all leaders:

• Improved leadership performance, translating to better employee engagement, job satisfaction, and productivity.
• Better leadership skills, meaning better communication, decision-making, and strategic thinking.
• Improved employee engagement and retention.
• Higher self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and confidence.
• An improved ability to direct teams.
• A positive return on investment.

These are the theories, but does practice support them?

Statistics and Studies Supporting the Benefits of Executive Coaching

Business coaching professionals insist on measuring and assessing results. To successfully scale an organization, one must know how certain measures move the needle and by how much.

The same is true of executive coaching. Coaches and clients must know how their efforts translate into leadership abilities and attitudes that move the needles in their organizations.

Return on Investment

A study called “Maximizing the Impact of Executive Coaching: Behavioral Change, Organizational Outcomes, and Return on Investment” conducted several case reviews. Researchers Merrill C. Anderson, Kristin Cullen-Lester, and Suzanne Rousseau concluded that companies that invested in executive coaching registered an average ROI of 7x.

Another review polled Fortune 1000 executives about their executive coaching ROIs. The ROIs these organizations realized on their coaching engagements were six times the original investments.

In addition to the directly measurable material benefits, executive coaching also yields behavioral benefits that are impossible to measure or assess quantitatively.

Improved Team Leadership

A study focusing on the effects of executive coaching on individuals called “Coaching in Organizations – A Meta-Analytic Review of Individual Level Effects” drew interesting conclusions about team-related variables. The researchers who performed the study also noted the positive effects coaching can have on individuals within teams.

Productivity and Employee Satisfaction

77% of responders at a Fortune 500 company saw coaching have positive impacts on various business indicators. 

Merrill C. Anderson’s executive briefing study focused on a Fortune 500 company in an effort to assess the impact of leadership coaching. Most responders in that organization thought coaching had a significant impact on employee satisfaction and productivity. The positive impact rippled through to customer satisfaction and annualized financial results among other key indicators.

Coaching improves productivity and financial results.

The Attractiveness of Executive Coaching for Organizations

Organizations that experienced the benefits of executive coaching wouldn’t think twice about securing the services of a coach again. Per a recent review, 96% of these organizations would jump at the chance to repeat the coaching processes.

99% of organizations that experienced coaching have been satisfied with the outcomes it helped create. More than 70% of individuals who had coaches believe they benefited from the process in the form of improved communication, better work performances, and improved abilities to build meaningful relationships.

The statistics are clear; people and organizations need and appreciate coaching. The theoretical benefits listed at the beginning of this article translate to practice surprisingly well.

Leadership coaching helps and is beneficial for organizations and individuals. We can measure and assess many of its benefits, and it’s impossible to put a number on how it impacts and changes the lives of leaders.

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