Welcome

Can Coaching Effectiveness Be Measured?

Terry Bacon, Ph.D.
Anna Pool, M.A., OD

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 Session Objectives

• To learn how to measure the effectiveness of a coaching

intervention using empirical methods

• To learn how to apply Kirkpatrick’s four levels of

evaluation to coaching and how to assess the fifth level—
the return on investment

• To apply the results of empirical assessments of coaching

effectiveness to improve coaching methods and approaches

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 Informal Survey

• How many of you:

– Have tried to measure coaching effectiveness?
– Believe that your measures were valid and accurate?
– Believe you can accurately measure performance
improvement through coaching?
– Believe you can successfully measure ROI on coaching?
– Believe that you can truly determine if coaching is
worthwhile, based on these kinds of measures?

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International Coaching Federation Survey Results

Outcome Evaluation
– 36% of coaches surveyed follow up with their clients within
one month of completion of the engagement

– 36% of coaches surveyed follow up with their clients

between one to three months after completion of the
engagement

– 16% of coaches never follow up with their clients

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 Quote from ICF Findings

“In terms of client feedback, the majority of

participants indicated that they receive
effectiveness feedback from the coaching client
and that they never use ROI to evaluate their
effectiveness. Thus it appears that “effectiveness”
evaluations are mainly subjective in nature, and
not necessarily empirically valid measures of the
coach’s actual effectiveness.”
From: Coaching: Who, What, Where, When and How, Gale, Liljenstrand, and Pardieu (2002)

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The Case for Measuring Coaching Effectiveness

• Fiscal responsibility: a lot of money is being spent on coaching

but there are no hard proofs that it works

• Increasing scrutiny: tough economy, tougher decisions on

spending

• Some say coaching is just a trend: need to validate coaching’s

contribution to the bottom line

• Need a measure to separate effective coaching from ineffective

coaching

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But, can coaching effectiveness really be measured?

Yes, if.…

We will establish the criteria we believe to be

necessary to measure coaching effectiveness.

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 What is effective coaching?

In our view, effective coaching is coaching that

creates the right behavioral changes that lead to
improvement in the client’s ability to impact
bottom-line business results.

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 Mini-case One

Pat Jackson works at ABC, Inc., a Fortune 100 manufacturing company in

Greenville, SC. S/he worked as a very effective line manager for three years
before being promoted to direct a division one year ago. In the past year, there
have been numerous complaints from direct reports concerning his/her lack of
interpersonal skills and effectiveness. His/her boss is also concerned that Pat
doesn’t have the strategic planning and change management skills that s/he will
need in order to refocus his/her division’s sales channels and be successful in
this downturned economy. Pat’s boss has engaged an executive coach to support
Pat in making these changes over the next six months.

How should you measure the effectiveness of this coaching engagement?

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Criteria for Measuring Coaching Effectiveness

1. The client must be coachable.

2. The coach must fully use all the data in the
ecosystem.
3. The coach must identify the real problems.
4. Intangible but critical mindset shifts must be linked
to tangible and measurable behavioral shifts.

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 Coachability

Human change is a very complex process, and any

model is a simplification of reality. So, while it is
impossible to identify all of the factors that influence
how readily people change (or how much they resist
it), we can identify some of the key factors in
coachability.

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 Factors That Influence Coachability

• Openness to feedback
• The executive’s self-assessment of need, along with a
sense of urgency
• The executive’s perception of the value of the process and
the likely outcomes
• The strength of competing commitments (forces that drive
stasis or change)
• The executive’s fear of consequences if he or she does not
seek and accept help

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Lore’s 7-Point Coachability Scale

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The Needs compass

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 Establishing the Real Need

Too many coaching engagements fail because the coach fails to drill down
to the underlying coaching need. Often the presenting symptoms are not
the real problem. A process like this can help to establish the real need:

• The Change Need: Did that meeting go the way you wanted it to?
• The Current Situation: What’s working well? What’s not working?
• The Consequences: How important is it to change this? What will
happen if you don’t change?
• The Underlying Need: Do you think the problem could be xyz? What
I am hearing is….

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 Making Intangibles Tangible

One of the biggest challenges in measuring coaching

is that tangible, behavioral change is usually
linked to intangible mindsets and beliefs.
Effective measurement strategies require that
the coach drill down to identify the mindsets
that drive the critical behaviors and then make
those intangibles measurable.

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Making Intangibles Tangible

1. Describe current state

2. Define ideal future state
3. Quantify the Behavioral Change
Behavior
Feelings
External

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 Three Kinds of Measures

• Action Measures–behavioral
– How many times did meetings run over

• Feeling Measures–how you feel about meeting

– Every time you leave a meeting

• External Measures–number of call-backs

– Provides PDP information

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 Applying Kirkpatrick’s Model to Coaching
Measurement

• Level 1: Reactions. What did the coachee think of the

engagement?
• Level 2: Learning. What did the coachee learn during
the engagement?
• Level 3: Behavior. What learnings, skills, etc., did the
coachee apply on the job?
• Level 4: Results. What changes in results and
productivity have been observed on the job?

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Mini-case Two: Professional Services Firm

Ongoing leadership development engagement with 14 senior leaders, with a

group leadership assessment and individual coaching.

Individual results were compiled into office profiles.

Assessments included a customized leadership model, 360° survey, MBTI®,

and respondent interviews.

Average coaching engagement of 12 months.

Each coachee developed a personal development plan.

After the engagement, coaches conducted follow-up confidential interviews

and reviews of performance metrics.

After 6 years, seven clients have been advanced/promoted, one retired, four
remain in place, two involuntary separations.

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 Coachability Ratings:

Fourteen participants were evaluated on a scale of 0-6

Average coachability rating was 4.79
Four people were rated 6
Five people were rated 5
Four people were rated 4
No one was rated 3
One person was rated 2

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Mini-case Two Level One: Reactions

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Mini-case Two Level Two: Learning

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Mini-case Two Level Three: Behavior

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Mini-case Two Level Four: Results

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 How to Measure ROI

Find tangible evidence of the impacts of behavioral

change:

• Re-administer 360-degree surveys

• Average sales pre and post surveys
• Climate surveys
• Performance metrics
• Customer surveys
• Personal balanced scorecard

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 How to Measure ROI

Calculate the economic value of the change:

• Improvements in productivity
• Reductions in absenteeism and employee turnover
• Reductions in cycle time
• Improvements in quality/reduction in waste
• Increased customer satisfaction
• Increased value of opportunity pipeline

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 How to Measure ROI

Of course, many factors besides coaching effectiveness

may contribute to the economic effects of changed
behavior:
• General market conditions (a rising tide lifts all boats)
• New or changing products or technologies
• Competitors’ actions
• Social and political events (such as 9-11)
• Unpredicted changes in the coachee’s life
• The Hawthorne effect

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 Revisit Mini-case One
Pat Jackson works at ABC, Inc., a Fortune 100 manufacturing company in
Greenville, SC. S/he worked as a very effective line manager for three
years before being promoted to direct a division one year ago. In the past
year, there have been numerous complaints from direct reports concerning
his/her lack of interpersonal skills and effectiveness. His/her boss is also
concerned that Pat doesn’t have the strategic planning and change
management skills that s/he will need in order to refocus his/her division’s
sales channels and be successful in this downturned economy. Pat’s boss
has engaged an executive coach to support Pat in making these changes
over the next six months.

How would you measure this engagement now?

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 Pat’s Career Progression
• Focus on organization and people Group Leader
• Envision a compelling future
• Build alignment and innovation
• Promoted for leadership & results
• Build company brand

BU Manager

Team Leader

• Focus on tasks & get them right

• Manage resources efficiently
• Build capable teams
Engineer • Promoted for technical excellence
• Build personal brand

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 Pat’s Interpersonal Compass

Self Self-assessment using

balanced scorecard

Coach Others
Assessment during meetings Survey of Influence Effectiveness
Balanced scorecard Balanced scorecard

Performance Measures
Employee satisfaction survey

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 Pat’s Interpersonal Measures

Balanced Scorecard 1 2 3 4 5

1. Listening

2. Participative decisions

3. Engaging others

4. Sensitivity to others

5. Communicating

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 Pat’s Interpersonal Measures

Climate Survey
1. My manager listens to inputs 2.57 to 3.23
2. Satisfied with my manager 3.13 to 3.94
3. Satisfied with my team 3.58 to 4.12
4. I am inspired to do best 3.33 to 4.04
5. I feel involved in company 2.78 to 3.98
6. Overall 2.92 to 3.86

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 Pat’s Strategic Compass
Self Balanced scorecard
Time allocation

Coach Others
Assessment during meetings Balanced scorecard
Balanced scorecard Delegation of ops to deputy
Results of future task force
Completion of B school course

Performance Measures
Completion of division strategic plan
Review by B school professor

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 Pat’s Strategic Thinking Measures

Balanced Scorecard 1 2 3 4 5

1. Strategic focus

2. Effective delegation

3. Time on strategy

4. Visionary communication

Business school program completed. Future task force completed strategic

plan as scheduled. Rated 4 (of 5) with recommendations.

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 Pat’s Sales Focus Compass
Self Balanced scorecard
Time allocation

Coach Others
Assessment during meetings Balanced scorecard
Balanced scorecard Confidential interviews

Performance Sales process results: quality face time, strategic account

reviews, performance review criteria, key customer
Measures relationships, sales staff assessment, opportunity pipeline

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 Pat’s Sales Focus Measures

Balanced Scorecard 1 2 3 4 5

1. Mgmt focus on sales

2. Participation in sales

3. Development of sales staff

4. Quality of relationships

5. Quality of pipeline

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 Pat’s Sales Focus Measures

Sales Process Improvements

1. Quality face time 4 to 12 hours/week
2. Strategic account review 0 to 11 (of 15)
3. Performance review criteria 0 to 3
4. Key customer relationships 3 to 8 (senior levels)
5. Sales staff assessment/development 2.8 to 3.4 avg rating
6. Opportunity pipeline $245M to $318M

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 Pat’s Coaching ROI Calculations

Interpersonal Improvements
2 delayed hires (increases in productivity) $96,000
Reduced turnover from 21% to 15%) $252,000 >10x cost of
$348,000 coaching

Sales Focus Improvements

Change in opportunity pipeline value $73,000,000
Increased sales volume (6 month avg) $22,370,000

Sales increase percentage 8.27%

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 The Effectiveness of Pat’s Coaching

• Level 1: High satisfaction score on coaching

evaluation

• Level 2: Successful completion of strategic planning

program, task force, and strategic plan (applied
learning)

• Level 2: Successful focus on sales demonstrated by

action (applied learning)

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 The Effectiveness of Pat’s Coaching

• Level 3: Quantitative improvement on Pat’s

balanced scorecard (self, coach, and other ratings)

• Level 4: Demonstrated improvement in employee

climate survey ratings

• Level 4: Demonstrated improvement in sales

process, pipeline, and top-line revenue

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Coaching Effectiveness Can Be Measured, If….

1. The client must be coachable.

2. The coach must fully use all the data in the
ecosystem.

3. The coach must identify the real problems.

4. Intangible but critical mindset shifts must be

linked to tangible and measurable behavioral
shifts.

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 Questions and Implications

• What questions do you have about this

information?

• What are the implications of this

presentation?

• What are your key takeaways?

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