Coaching As A Bottom Line Business Strategy
The practice of hiring coaches to improve an individual’s performance and impact revenue is a concept that has been successfully used in the business world since the 1930’s. Originally an intervention strategy to correct underperformance, coaching is now a tool used to enhance the abilities of top producers. A recent survey on the value of executive coaching conducted by the Work Foundation cites the following benefits to the individual and the organization:
- Improvement in my performance, targets and goals - 84%
- Allows fuller use of the individual’s talents/potential - 79%
- Higher organizational performance and productivity - 69%
- Increased openness to personal learning - 60%
- Helps identify solutions to specific work issues - 58%
- Fosters greater ownership and responsibility - 52%
Studies show that organizations utilizing coaching as a strategic initiative realize a high ROI when coaching is based on clearly stated expectations for personal and business impacts.
Example of a clearly stated coaching goal:
‘Increase by 10% the emerging leaders ready for promotion.’
In the 2010 economy, utilizing coaching to improve your organization’s performance is probably not on the list of strategies you have considered to meet your operational goals. But perhaps it should be.