7) How common is it to measure the business outcome of coaching?

    “Fewer than one-fourth of the respondents said they provide any kind of quantitative data on business outcomes of the coaching.” The statement was made by David P. Peterson of Personnel Decisions International on the basis of a survey he conducted.*

    Few of the Fortune 500 companies consistently track the ROI of consulting engagements. Therefore it is not surprising that hardly any of them track the effectiveness of executive coaches. In general the information about their performance is scarce and unreliable. To benefit fully from investments in any kind of advisory services companies need to track the results. As companies are not doing this very much, and hardly at all for coaching, the coaches themselves tend not to measure the outcomes.

* David P. Peterson is a senior Vice-President and the leader of the executive coaching practice at Personnel Decisions International. The quote appears in the Harvard Business Review Research Report, “What Can Coaches Do for You?” by Diane Coutu and Carol Kaufman in January, 2009.

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