We often get asked, “How do you measure the impact of coaching?” It’s a hard question, because the very nature of building strong leaders and coaching executives requires the participants to commit to positive, lasting change for themselves, and in setting and achieving goals – many of which become real over an extended period of time well beyond the coaching period.
Having said that, we need to set a foundation for a meaningful evaluation of ROI (impact) for executive coaching and for formal leadership development, so that you can see the impact of the developmental work in which you have invested.
The currency to measure coaching and leadership development outcomes includes:
- Setting and measuring specific outcomes pre- and then post-engagement
- Specific observable behavior changes by participants
- Setting and achieving goals
- Teams and individuals who build trust and confidence with their leaders as a result of the development
The methodologies we use to measure each engagement include:
Pre-engagement
key stakeholder input
- Conduct interviews with people surrounding the client
- Discuss current situation with the manager/key leader
- Hold formal kick-off with all parties
- Complete formal 360-degree evaluations
- Identify current state (e.g., On a scale of 1-10, where are you today?)
Engagement desired outcomes
- Identify 3-5 results/outcomes
- Include qualitative and quantitative measures
- Focus on behavior changes and task/productivity improvements
Participant self-assessments
- Participants identify their current strengths/weaknesses
- Build self-awareness of decision making, values, and behavior preferences
- Establish participant baseline
In-progress measures
- Note behavioral observations/changes/shifts
- Set and achieve goals during coaching/leadership development
- Complete formal check-ins with managers and key leaders
End-of-engagement measures
- Participants complete evaluations of experience
- Measure Net Promoter Score with clients
- Complete formal 360-degree evaluation (or circle back pre- and post-engagement)
- Catalog goals set and achieved throughout process
- Hold formal engagement debrief with manager or key leader
Long-term ROI measures
- Calculate the investment in coaching as compared to cost of recruiting, onboarding, and retaining employees
- Measure the increase in productivity in quantitative terms to show the value of the investment
Some questions to ask to identify outcomes:
- What outcome do you expect from the coaching?
- What will become possible when this outcome is achieved?
- Wave your magic wand. What ONE thing will be different as a result of our work together?
- What is this worth to you?
- What is it worth to the organization?
- What happens if you don’t fix the problem? What will that cost you and the organization?
Our commitment towards measuring the impact of leadership development and coaching:
In every engagement, the Springboard team will collaboratively identify the positive, long-term, measurable change in behavior needed for the people being developed. We will then tailor the engagement to ensure the biggest positive change for every participant. We will collaboratively imbed the appropriate impact measures throughout the engagement and hold ourselves and you accountable along the way.