What this image shows is that the people who are working with this Coach and completed the surveys, really enjoyed the process and found something that they liked about their Coach. It’s definitely an enjoyable experience and helps the business create a more caring environment. But is it really working? Are these intangible improvements actually making an impact on the Business and their customers. Are there tangible and measurable business improvements to prove a real ROI on the cost of Coaching?
As a top Leader or Business Executive, the key decision to be made when considering any expenditure should always be, will it be worth it from an ROI (Return On Investment) perspective. Moreover, what will success look like and how can we track it? With this in mind, “How much will a typical Coaching engagement cost us?” is not enough to make an informed decision. The correct questions should be “How much will it cost? Will it generate a tangible ROI and how can we measure that?”. Of course I Believe that Coaching can have a real impact on performance. But like everything else, it’s important to be able to identify clear expectations around what “real impact” will look like.We don’t hire people or services in any other setting without knowing what we expect in return.
All too often the Coaching Industry uses education sessions to explain the concepts and benefits, and then conducts surveys to show that people have an improved understanding. But Knowledge is NOT power, contrary to popular belief. However “Knowledge put into Action” can be. Knowing how to better ask for engagement can be reflected in a survey, but it won’t necessarily impact performance bottom lines. Well intended surveys with questions like “How would you rate Employee Engagement out of 100?”, asked before and after, may indicate that people feel it’s improved performance, but is it worth the investment? Will I be happy with the outcome from a business perspective? What are my expectations and how will I know they’ve been met? And great Coaches want this clarity too, because being able to measure success are the building blocks of their business too.
A top Coach will help you to identify measurable ROI’s that impact your bottom line. The gaps between where you are today (your “Here & Now”) and where you want to be in the future (your “Vision”). He will help you map out a plan to “Bridge the Gap” and help value the benefit to the business from a financial perspective. Then you can discuss if the project is worth the investment. So the Improvement question, instead of being measured by a survey that reflects sentiment, could be measured by the teams ability to come together and shorten a sales cycle. The value of which is that it frees up resources to make more sales and could be worth circa €xxx,xxx in year one and €xxx,xxx each year there after.
Rather than goals like”Improved Team Engagement” it’ll read “The Objective is to reduce the Average Sales Cycle from 12.8 weeks to 9.7 weeks. The Key Results we can expect to see are 1) Clients are now giving us clear criteria to win their business from the outset, & 2) They agree to buy should we meet this criteria. This could equate to 32% increase in sales capacity which has the potential to increase Revenue Sales from €3.58m to €4.73m per annum.”. Now you can properly evaluate the cost of coaching against the potential ROI?
If you do decide to engage a good Coach he will present a simple way to monitor and report progress. This is essential to aid motivation and maintain focus. This is how you can distinguish a “must have” coach and coaching methodology that will deliver a “real impact”, from a “nice to have” coach and coaching style that may deliver worthwhile intangible benefits to individuals, but may be weak on tangibles for the business.
Finally, it’s important to remember that any success is as a result of the Leaders & the Individuals on your Teams. It’s they who come up with solutions and action the plan. A good Coach will help facilitate and steer the project, but the success will be down to the employee’s primarily. In fact the key to a successful Teams & Leadership Coach, as in Sport, is to select committed and talented people. Coaches can help extract the Knowledge, but the power is in the Action and that comes from your team. Knowledge + Action = Improvement.
Damian Shields is a Performance Coach and the owner of Focus2Succeed. He works with Leaders & Teams to help them “Get their world in Focus & Design their future”. To find out more go to www.Focus2Succeed.ie. You can contact Damian @ Damian.Shields@Focus2Succeed.ie or on 00353 (86) 2512421
