Maximising ROI and your coaching investment

Coaching is an investment. And like any investment you need to do your research, not ‘set and forget’, and track your performance.

In our first two articles, we looked at why today’s world needs adaptive leaders and how coaching can help address the needs and potential of these people.

But how do you pick the right coach for your people and your business? How can you set up a coaching assignment to have the best chance of success? And what should you expect from a coach, in terms of delivery, timeframes and results?

Here’s some useful advice from two experienced coaches that you can use if you’re thinking about enlisting an external business or leadership coach for your organisation:

Be clear on purpose and needs.

All too often, coaching clients don’t think hard enough about the type of coaching skills their people need, as individuals and as groups within the organisation. Are they looking for a coach with specific skills around business development and practice building? Is there a particular need for coaching on management and inter-personal skills? Does the coach need to be a mentoring figure, with a broad skill-set that can cover some aspects of ‘life’ coaching?

Consider personalities and fit

Will your coach’s personality and approach complement the way your people worknd communicate? And interact with each other, and the culture of the business? Will the coach clash with all these things (and is that a bad thing in itself?)

Check on their approach.

A good coach will work to a documented process, and use established tools and IP, ideally from an accredited source. Coaching is not about “making it all up as we go”!

Set and agree expectations with everyone

Coaching works best if everyone – the coach, the coachee, People & Culture , the sponsor and anyone else with a stake in the process – is very clear about what they’re trying to achieve with coaching, and what’s at stake if it does (and doesn’t) succeed. Set measures and metrics, and make sure these are reviewed at agreed periods during the coaching engagement.

Don’t ‘set and forget’

Related to the above point, make sure there are regular check-ins with the coachee and coach. Do both sides feel that they are making progress?

Are objectives and metrics being met? A good coach should specify check-ins with management at least every three months, and a proper review at least every six months and/or at the end of the engagement.

Don’t expect instant changes

Coaching does produce results, but not overnight. Depending on the type of coaching and the objectives behind it, positive changes can happen quickly, but think months rather than weeks for most behavioural change.

Do consider re-engagement

But with limits. Most coaching assignments should run for a set period – in our experience, around six months for an initial block. Coachees might need another round with a coach to help with further changes or developments, but again, these should be clearly scoped with the coach, and subject to set metrics and a set finish and review date.

So when you are making the investment, be sure to put in place the appropriate measures to maximise your ROI.

This article has been co-authored by Amanda Fong at Intent Advisory and David Lennane at POC Consulting. Through our respective businesses, we coach individuals and teams in high performing professional services firms to become better leaders and business builders.