My attention in the last year working in the South African market has been drawn repeatedly to the focus on change and the lack of investment in getting people through the necessary transitions. The formal processes may be in place, however, helping people to move on and transform requires so much more.
I have also been surprised to find that business is slow to adopt coaching as a powerful method of supporting transition. Coaching is still seen as way of correcting bad behaviour or lack of performance. If the Harvard Business Review is anything to go by, we seem to be lagging behind our US and EU counterparts:
“Ten years ago, most companies engaged a coach to help fix toxic behavior at the top. Today, most coaching is about developing the capabilities of high-potential performers. The top three reasons for engaging a coach are:
Develop high potentials or facilitate transition – 48%
Act as a sounding board – 26%
Address derailing behaviour – 12%”
Harvard Business Review
Studies over the last ten years report the following return on investment (ROI) from coaching:
- Companies that offer training alone experience 22.4% increase in productivity, but when combined with coaching that figure rises to 88%. Gerald Olivero, Denise Bane & Richard Kopelman, Public Personnel Management.
- A conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from coaching, according to Fortune magazine, is that managers describe an average return of more than six times the cost of coaching.
- Companies who combine coaching with training increase employee productivity over 80%. Bureau of Justice statistics, June 2001.
- A Manchester, Inc. study in 2001 demonstrated a 7-fold return on investment from coaching.
View Source: https://www.mowbraybydesign.com/coaching-roi/
My reflections:
I am curious about the following:
- To what extend is coaching used to support leaders and employees’ transition through change?
- Is there a perception in business that coaching is used primarily to address ‘poor-performance ‘
and to correct unfavorable behavior? Or, is it viewed as a tool to access latent potential and stretch top performers?
- Is the ROI conversation in South Africa about the rand value return on investment in coaching or have we progressed to catch up with our global counterparts who measure the ROI by the Immeasurables (incapable of being measured broadly: indefinitely extensive)?
Some examples of Immeasurables related to coaching would include but not limited to the following :
- greater levels of trust and self-confidence which promotes a more collaborative approach and transparency
- increased engagement levels, greater presence and impact
- greater levels of comfort with delegation of responsibility
- conflict management
- greater comfort with the transition from a manger of self to manager of other (the managerial aspects of the role)
How do you measure the above in Rand value? Yet, the impact is far reaching for the organization and employee.
#humaninhumanresources
