Welcome to the seventh annual Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey.
Contents
Here To Stay …………………..2
What Is Executive Coaching, Anyway? ……………..4
Who Gets An Executive Coach? ………………5
Why Spend Money On Coaching? ………….7
Coaching Skills And Team Coaching…………9
The Value And Credibility Of Coaching………..12
Putting It Out There: Service Delivery…………..15
Executive Coach And Business Coach…….18
Certification And Training For Coaches …….21
Standards Of Practice………………….25
Executive Coaching Processes……………………27
Licensing And Regulation …………………29
Trends In Training ………………..31
Length Of Engagement …………..33
Assessments In Coaching ………..35
With A Little Help From Our Friends ……………….37
Around The World, Around The Clock………………..38
What Is The Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey?……………..37
Methodology ……………………40
Who Responds To The Survey? …………………40
This report is a free service of Sherpa Coaching, a team of authors and educators based in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Our research is co-sponsored by:
- The University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education in Athens, Georgia, USA
- Miami’s Corporate & Community Institute, in West Chester, Ohio, USA, and
- Tandy Center for Executive Leadership at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas, USA
This year, as always, we have polled coaches, clients, HR and training professionals, purchasing agents, and a wider group of professionals with an interest in leadership development. Here are three themes that tell us executive coaching is here to stay.
Credibility
Executive coaching has arrived. It occupies a place as a permanent fixture in the modern organization. The perceived value and the credibility of coaching are at all-time highs. For the first time, we asked coaches about value and credibility, and came up with some interesting answers.
Creativity
One-to-one coaching has given rise to ‘coaching skills’ training for managers and executives, and a new surge in coaching-based programs for teams. This presents huge opportunities for curriculum designers and practitioners alike.
Calls for Coaching
Requests for coaching are on the rise. Three out of four see an increase in the demand for coaching in the coming year. This time around, HR and training professionals are just as optimistic as coaches themselves.
In this report, we also explore:
- regulation and licensing for coaches.
- a coming revolution in communication technology.
Executive Summary
It’s 2012. This is the seventh annual Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey. Here’s what we have for you:
HR, training and business professionals believe in coaching. It’s about value. More than nine in ten professionals see the value of coaching as ‘high’ or ‘very high’. It is also about credibility. Over eighty percent see the credibility of coaching as ‘high’ or ‘very high’.
More, more, more. Last year, most coaches were optimistic about demand for their services. This year, clients are joining in their optimism. Seven out of ten executive coaches and those who hire them say demand is going up. Life and personal coaches are optimistic, as well. In our survey sample, every buyer of coaching services sees demand going up in the next year.
The philosophy of coaching is spreading in scope and becoming part of many leadership training programs. In recent years, managers and executives have been learning coaching skills. One in three respondents already have significant programs in place to teach coaching skills to managers and executives, while almost as many have programs in startup or design mode. More than one in four offer coaching- based programs for teams, while others have programs on the way.
Two years ago, people being coached as part of routine leadership development constituted a majority for the very first time. The trend continues, as the majority of coaching is designed for improvement rather than correction or transition. Those who receive coaching for a specific problem or to ease a transition stand even, at around twenty percent each.
Four in ten coaches say they do not favor standards of practice for coaching, similar to the accounting or financial planning professions.” On the other hand, nine out of ten HR and training professionals say a standard process is ‘important’ or ‘absolutely essential’.
Only three in ten executive coaches follow a specific published process. Although dozens of processes are in use, two stand apart. CTI and Sherpa each have a twenty percent market share. No other process comes close.
In responses from around the world, not a single person is aware of licensing or regulations, nor plans for regulations. Even so, more than fifteen percent of executive coaches and twenty five percent across the board believe that executive coaching should be regulated.
With thanks to our university sponsors, the Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey is a research project now in its seventh year. In this report, we study executive coaching, the ultimate in leadership development. You will discover how to make the most of coaching as a service for your organization, or as a career for yourself.
Managers, executives, business and organizational leaders will find the first half of this report of particular interest, all the way through the sections on standards of practice and coaching processes.
Those in the coaching business will find that the second half of this report gives them what they need to know about their industry, from the inside out.
It’s not clear to everyone what executive coaching really is. Let’s draw some lines. There are three broad areas of coaching: sport, personal and business-related coaching.
In business, there are two general fields of endeavor, commonly termed ‘executive coaching’ and ‘business coaching’. At Sherpa Coaching, like many others, we work entirely in the realm of business behavior. We use the term ‘executive coaching’ to describe our work.
“Business coaching” has become a replacement term for consulting. For the first time this year, we created a new category for business coaches (working to develop client’s knowledge and skills) in addition to our category for executive coaches (working on business behavior). This allows us to produce our clearest distinction ever between executive coaches, HR and training, consulting and other professional positions.
Here’s our widely-accepted definition of executive coaching: “Executive coaching means regular meetings between a business leader and a trained facilitator, designed to produce positive changes in business behavior in a limited time frame.” *
This definition clarifies:
– who coaches are:
– what coaches do:
– when things happen:
trained facilitators
produce positive changes in business behavior on a set schedule within a limited time frame
2012 Sherpa Survey
What is Executive Coaching, Anyway?
With thanks to our university sponsors, the Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey is a research project now in its seventh year. In this report, we study executive coaching, the ultimate in leadership development. You will discover how to make the most of coaching as a service for your organization, or as a career for yourself.
Managers, executives, business and organizational leaders will find the first half of this report of particular interest, all the way through the sections on standards of practice and coaching processes.
Those in the coaching business will find that the second half of this report gives them what they need to know about their industry, from the inside out.
It’s not clear to everyone what executive coaching really is. Let’s draw some lines. There are three broad areas of coaching: sport, personal and business-related coaching.
In business, there are two general fields of endeavor, commonly termed ‘executive coaching’ and ‘business coaching’. At Sherpa Coaching, like many others, we work entirely in the realm of business behavior. We use the term ‘executive coaching’ to describe our work.
“Business coaching” has become a replacement term for consulting. For the first time this year, we created a new category for business coaches (working to develop client’s knowledge and skills) in addition to our category for executive coaches (working on business behavior). This allows us to produce our clearest distinction ever between executive coaches, HR and training, consulting and other professional positions.
Here’s our widely-accepted definition of executive coaching: “Executive coaching means regular meetings between a business leader and a trained facilitator, designed to produce positive changes in business behavior in a limited time frame.” *
* Definition from ‘The Sherpa Guide: Process-Driven Executive Coaching’ (Thomson/Cengage 2005), used by:
- Action Coach
- Coaching News
- European Foundation of Management Development
- Executive Coaching Summit Australia
- Leading Coaches Center
- Organization Development Journal
Who Gets an Executive Coach?
Executive coaching is here to stay. The industry
has come of age. For business leaders, having a
coach is often seen as a status symbol. It can be
the mark of someone being groomed for great
things.
With that in mind, decisions about who gets a coach are important ones. The Sherpa Coaching survey has asked about the application of coaching resources for seven years. Who gets a coach? Our research has shown massive changes from year to year. What’s going on in 2012?
Ideally, anyone in a leadership position would benefit from coaching and the improved business behavior it produces. Things aren’t always ideal. The state of the economy affects the ways coaching is purchased and used. Budgets will always limit the amount of money spent on coaching. Smaller budgets, fewer dollars. When money is tight, organizations start to reserve coaching for top-level and senior managers.
