Harvard Business Review – Executive Coaching Survey
Posted by Alchemy Exchange on February 8, 2009
According to the first ever survey of executive coaching by the Harvard Business Review, the top five reasons that businesses hire executive coaches are:
1. To develop the capabilities of a high-potential manager 28.1%
2. To facilitate a transition (in or up) 19.4%
3. To act as sounding board on organizational dynamics 13.0%
4. To act as sounding board on strategic matters 12.8%
5. To address a “derailing” behavior 12.4%
The survey also reported that the focus of coaching sessions typically shifts during the course of an engagement for reasons including the following:
“Over time the focus often becomes more strategic and discretionary rather than so immediate and results driven.”
“The more senior the executive, the more likely [it is] that the issues will shift as the engagements tend to last longer—partly because ‘it’s lonely at the top’ and there are many key issues where someone with absolutely no axe to grind can be of great help.”
“As trust and new skills take root, coaching often moves to address underlying beliefs and attitudes for deeper, more lasting change.”
“As the coachee becomes more self-aware and understands more clearly how his/her behaviors impact others, the focus of the work changes, and we work on more in-depth issues.”
“You are given a list of objectives that the sponsor of the program has discussed with the coachee and the coach. That becomes the roadmap. But coaching can have a lot of twists and turns.”
The whole report, The Realities of Executive Coaching, which was published in January 2009, can be downloaded at http://coachingreport.hbr.org
