Time to measure the benefits

by Mervin Straughan
January 2021

As the saying goes: "If it moves, measure it." Otherwise, why bother?

Businesses need to ensure that all expenditure translates into increased business performance. And life coaching for their people whether you call it corporate coaching, executive coaching or business life coaching is no exception.

Tangible benefits of coaching
Coaching offers true business benefits. In a study by the Association for Coaching, most participants reported that increased productivity and motivation came from the involvement of a life coach.

Those questioned said that improved people management skills resulted from 58 per cent of coaching programmes and 53 per cent of respondents reported increased job motivation. Improved work life balance arose from 48 per cent of programmes.

Coaching as an executive and employee development tool
The study concluded that coaching is being used to target specific development areas across organisations – specifically at senior level – and is regarded as an effective development intervention.

In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins claims that people don't give as much of themselves as they could – there's a staggering 40 per cent more "discretional energy" in most workplaces that could be tapped into through better leadership and management. Imagine the difference that would make to the bottom line.

A Gallup survey involving more than a million people concluded that people perform their best work when they use their talents and play to their strengths.

So, it might be useful for the emphasis of workplace coaching to be on encouraging individuals to recognise and harness their talents.