Casting a Critical Eye on Coaching

Compared with other development tools such as on-the-job training, workshops, formal courses, stretch assignments and functional training, coaching delivers a measurable business impact more often than other initiatives 35 percent of the time, according to AMA Enterprise research. Respondents also said coaching has impact as often as other initiatives 37 percent of the time. Only 28 percent said it delivered impact less often (Figure 2).

The most common difficulties involved with coaching are conflicting priorities and time constraints, lack of sponsor/manager support, lack of resources to provide the coaching and difficulty assessing its effectiveness.

Underhill said another common derailer is that coaching may not be for everyone. “Executive coaching can’t succeed when it is pushed on an individual as a last resort to save someone who already has one foot out the door,” he said. “I once had a boss suggest to me “let’s throw a coach at the problem and see if that will work.” Well, in short — it doesn’t. As coaches, we make good leaders even better and accelerate their development and contribution. We don’t save poor leaders.

“When the person being coached starts to argue with you and defend themselves, it’s clear that they aren’t buying into this and that the true reasons for the engagement were not articulated nor understood.”

Coaching likely will continue to expand as a preferred leadership development practice. It will remain an essential initiative to develop and retain scarce talent, and companies will continue to leverage coaching to compete in the global marketplace.