Leaders’ responsibilities grow as they progress in their careers. They must communicate with their team, manage conflicts, delegate tasks effectively, and be empathetic and collaborative.
While most leaders have mastered hard skills and gained experience, honing the soft skills necessary to lead and manage teams is an ongoing process. That’s why executive coaching has become so crucial.
Executive coaching involves training new leaders to become better executives and lead their teams to achieve individual and organizational goals. The organization understands the executive’s strengths and weaknesses and tailors the coaching to help them adapt to the new role. The leaders receive coaching to manage crises and conflicts efficiently and create a safe space for employees to thrive and grow. They are trained to handle stressful situations and develop emotional intelligence.
Executive coaching boosts empathy in leaders and improves their leadership skills. It also enables organizations to reduce churn and increase employee retention.
In fact, executive coaching has become so critical that, in 2019, 95% of organizations had planned to invest more in leadership training. While those numbers may vary post-pandemic, many organizations readily invest in executive coaching. According to a report, the executive coaching industry is expected to surpass $27 billion in valuation by 2032.
While this increased interest in executive coaching spells good news, McKinsey warns that most programs fail to generate desired results. That’s why it’s essential to measure the return on investment (ROI) of executive coaching regularly to understand its effectiveness.
The Different ROIs of Executive Coaching
According to a Forbes article, organizations can measure these three ROIs.
1. Qualitative ROI
Qualitative ROI measures the intangible outcomes of executive coaching — for example, improvement in communication and engagement between leaders and team members. These improvements will have an indirect impact on the organization’s growth.
Organizations can conduct surveys and interviews of direct team members to understand the impact of coaching the leaders.
2. Quantitative ROI
Quantitative ROI is easier to track than qualitative ROI as it directly impacts financial outcomes. For example, a study by Metrix Global shows that executive coaching can boost employee productivity and retention and improve the ROI by 788%.
Similarly, research by Sales Executive Council found that executive coaching of sales professionals led to an 8% performance improvement (equivalent to making one additional sale every month).
Organizations can measure and compare selected metrics to know if they have been able to save costs on employee turnover or generate revenue through increased productivity and customer satisfaction.
3. Consequences
According to the author of the above-mentioned Forbes article, organizations must also consider the consequences of not pursuing executive coaching while calculating the ROI.
For example, the author states that a lack of emotional intelligence in leaders could impact employee satisfaction. Even a 1% decrease could affect the team’s contribution to the organization’s P&L. Measuring the consequences will urge organizations to invest in executive coaching.
Going Beyond Metrics – The Business Impact of Executive Coaching
While discussing ROI measurement, it’s crucial to consider the business impact of executive coaching. It plays a pivotal role in contributing to an organization’s success and profits.
1. Improvement in Productivity and Performance
Regular coaching sessions help leaders tap into their full potential. They become self-aware of their strengths and weaknesses and develop the necessary skills to lead teams effectively. They learn to solve problems quickly, make better decisions, and communicate effectively.
These changes help them become better leaders, inspire their teams, and become more productive. It motivates them and their team to deliver stellar performances and achieve goals quickly. Moreover, good leaders make the teams happy, which, as studies show, can increase productivity by 13%.
2. Employee Retention and Stability
According to a Ten Spot survey, 46% of employees quit their jobs because of bad managers. Organizations cannot afford to lose talented employees in a fast-paced business environment with a widening skills gap. Replacing and training new employees is expensive and time-consuming.
Executive coaching can solve this problem by improving leadership skills and bringing stability to the team. Leaders who undergo executive coaching demonstrate higher emotional intelligence and exude confidence. They manage stressful situations better, connect deeply with their team members, and create a safe space for employees to thrive and grow. Executive coaching fosters a positive work culture and decreases employee churn.
3. Improvement in Customer Satisfaction
In a world that demands organizations to become customer-centric, unsatisfied customers could lead to customer churn, lost sales, and revenue loss.
Executive coaching has an indirect impact on customer satisfaction. It empowers leaders to become better executives. More importantly, it trains the leaders to set an example and foster a customer-centric culture in their teams.
Employees seek inspiration from their leaders. A good leader will inspire teams to be more accountable, communicate efficiently with customers, and make independent decisions to make customers happy. By developing a customer-centric mindset and creating a safe space for employees, leaders can deliver an exemplary customer experience and help the organization grow.
4. Increased Revenue
Executive coaching can help leaders improve revenue in several ways. It can help them become more productive, make better decisions, improve sales performance, and innovate.
Good leaders will lead by example and encourage their teams to become efficient, risk-takers, and results-oriented. These factors will eventually help the organization provide customers with a better experience and generate more revenue.
Unlock the True Value of Executive Coaching with Numly
Undoubtedly, executive coaching helps organizations generate both qualitative and quantitative ROI. However, a suitable tool is crucial to implement it.
Numly has built the world’s first AI-enabled coaching and connected leadership development platform called NumlyEngage™ to bridge skill gaps and help organizations create better leaders.
Based on MIT’s J-WEL Human Skills Matrix and Birkman’s Leadership Competency Development Frameworks, NumlyEngage™ provides structured coaching to empower leaders. Its comprehensive database of 400+ behaviors, critical skills, and coaching programs can help leaders become efficient and inspire team members. In fact, it aids leaders in cultivating a culture of coaching within teams to foster collaboration and improve business outcomes.
Organizations can also conduct pulse surveys of team members and use Numly’s patented Coaching-Network-based Skill Strength and Skill Gap Measurement and Analytics to gain real-time insights about the program’s effectiveness and make changes to maximize impact.
Try the 60-day pilot program of NumlyEngage™ to implement executive coaching and improve ROI.
