Newswise — Executive coaching is largely an unregulated industry and it is difficult to determine its effectiveness.
Yet, executive coaching has exploded in recent years with American companies spending more than $1 billion annually, according to a Harvard Business Review article. A recent survey of 328 companies by Philadelphia-based Manpower Consultants found that more than half of the organizations provided coaching for managers, executives and high potential employees.
For companies employing executive coaching it is often a case of "buyer beware." And there is not a great deal of research to help them find reliable coaches and approaches to coaching or how to measure the success of coaching.
Alec Levenson, a scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, is one researcher who has been studying the impact of coaching.
He will be talking about his research on measuring and maximizing the impact of executive coaching at a leadership consortium this week (Oct. 28-29) at the Westin Hotel in St. Louis. The consortium is being sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, whose members bring science to a wide range of workplace issues.
Most executive coaches are from outside the company and bring an unbiased and objective view. They provide their clients with candid and unvarnished assessments, often based upon information from those who work closely with the individual, of their weaknesses and strengths. These assessments are used to shape a person's interpersonal behaviors and help mesh more closely with corporate goals and values.
Levenson says coaching programs can make a significant difference in overall organizational effectiveness by improving teamwork and ability to execute strategy. "Coaching is particularly effective when it is focused on driving behavioral change rather than cultural change and when the emphasis is upon positive performance outcomes rather than remedial issues."
That's the good news.
However, most organizations are still in the early stages of learning to use coaching in a systematic way and may not be realizing its full value.
Coaching in and of itself is limited in its ability to improve an organization, Levenson says. The impact of coaching can be diminished by other factors, including low employee morale, a weak organizational culture or conflict about company values.
Rather the maximum benefits of coaching occur when coaching is used in targeted, limited ways, throughout an organization, with the primary intention to improve performance rather than merely correct problems.
"To get the most out of their investments, companies will need to take a much more thoughtful approach to deploying coaching as one element in a broader portfolio of leadership development tools," he says. His research shows that most companies lack a disciplined approach to managing the coaching process and measuring outcomes. They
often do not have a precise understanding of the benefits of coaching or even what to expect from a coaching assignment, he says.
And, he adds, too often coaching is selected simply to respond to the needs of one individual executive. Coaching needs to go beyond that and help the individual complement corporate goals and practice.
In fact, says Levenson, there are no acknowledged standards across the coaching profession of what value it brings to an organization.
However, he sees that changing as coaching matures and organizations, seeking to justify their investments in coaching, develop more systematic ways of applying coaching within the company as well as defining goals and measuring results.
Companies will demand that coaches be certified and focus on a defined set of goals. Only those who can deliver positive results and show measurable success will survive.
Fortunately, the steps used to make coaching effective are easily achieved, according to Levenson. Visible leadership from the top, defining behavioral objectives and measuring success and centralized management of coaches will result in desired results.
The ultimate benefit will be leaders who are better equipped to drive organizational performance, more skilled at working with peers and subordinates and who are better attuned to learning and adapting throughout their careers.
He will be one of several speakers analyzing a variety of leadership issues at the "Leadership at the Top" consortium Oct. 28-29 at the Westin Hotel in St. Louis. To see more about the conference, including the speakers and their topics, go to http://www.siop.org and click on the fall consortium homepage.
The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) is an international group of 6,000 industrial-organizational psychologists whose members study and apply scientific principles concerning people in the workplace. For more information about SIOP, including Media Resources, which lists nearly 2,000 experts in more than 100 topic areas, visit http://www.siop.org
RSS