Download Article 1K ClubCOACH PRACTITIONERS
• Compared with 2015, the proportion of coach practitioners who identify Business Coaching (i.e., coach practitioners who
identified their main area of coaching as Leadership Coaching, Executive Coaching, Business/Organization Coaching or
Small Business Coaching) as their main specialty increased by three percentage points, up from 62% in 2016 to 65% in
2019. The change was driven by the rise in the proportion of coaches citing Leadership Coaching as their main specialty, up
from 25% in 2015 to 30% in 2019.
• Male coach practitioners are more likely to have a business specialty (74% compared with 61% of female coach practitioners).
• A little under one in five coach practitioners (17%) work as both an internal and external coach practitioner. On average, they
devote a higher proportion of their time to their internal coaching practice (54%).
• Almost all coach practitioners (94%) offer services in addition to coaching. Most frequently, coach practitioners also offer
consulting (60%), training (60%) and/or facilitation services (54%).
• The overall mix of clients served by coach practitioners has remained broadly unchanged since 2015. A little over one
in two coach practitioners said their clients are mostly managers (27%) or executives (25%); the combined total of 52% is
identical to the position in 2015. Similarly, the proportion coaching personal clients was unchanged at 19%.
• The mix of clients varies with coach practitioners’ attributes, including: the region in which they live, their main area of
coaching, coaching experience, age, gender and whether they work as an external or internal coach practitioner.
• The split between primary and sponsored clients is strongly related to the number of years coaching. The sponsored share
ranges from 25% among coach practitioners with less than one year of experience to 64% for coach practitioners with ten
or more years of experience.
• Among coach practitioners with a business specialty, 40% of engagements are typically for seven or more months,
compared with 28% for coach practitioners with a non-business specialty.
• The typical coaching client is between 35 and 44 years old (37%). A little under one in three clients (30%) are in the 45–54
age range. Around one in four (24%) are under 35 years old.
• Coach practitioners most frequently engage with their clients in person. Almost one in four (24%) always engage on that
basis while close to one in two (48%) do so frequently. The use of audio-video platforms has doubled in the past four years,
from 24% in 2015 to 48% in 2019.
• The revenue/income received from coaching is linked to a variety of factors, including attributes of the coach practitioner,
the range and mix of services offered, and client attributes. Years of experience continues to be the most important
predictor of a coach’s income/revenue from coaching.MANAGERS AND LEADERS USING
COACHING SKILLS
• The majority of managers/leaders using coaching skills (61%) have a third-level (i.e., master’s or doctoral) education, one in
three (34%) are educated to secondary level (i.e., bachelor’s degree).
• There has been a sharp rise among managers/leaders using coaching skills in the strength of agreement that clients expect
their coaches to be certified/credentialed. The proportion of respondents who strongly agree rose from 37% in 2015 to 55%
in 2019.
• The proportion of managers/leaders with 200 or more hours of coach training varies widely by region, from 39% in Latin
America and the Caribbean to 14% in the Middle East and Asia.
• Almost three in four managers/leaders (74%) said they plan to enroll in additional coach-specific training in the next 12 months.
• Among those planning to enroll in additional training, a little over one in two (52%) said they wanted to enhance their
coaching skills. The remaining 48% said they wanted to become a coach practitioner, with most intending to become a
hybrid external and internal coach practitioner.
• Almost one in two managers/leaders (48%) are members of professional organizations.
• Perspectives on coaching differ across the regions. Almost two in three (65%) managers/leaders in Western Europe and the
Middle East and Africa consider coaching to be a skillset. In Latin America and the Caribbean, 43% view coaching as a profession.
• Survey respondents were asked what they perceive to be the top three potential obstacles to building a strong coaching
culture inside an organization. The top three obstacles identified were:
• Limited support from senior leaders (50%).
• Inability to measure impact of coaching (42%).
• Lack of budget for coaching activities (38%).
• There was a considerable degree of consensus across all main demographics and by region regarding the top three obstacles.
Rey Carr
September 13, 2020 at 5:57 pm
This survey provides valuable guidance about trends in the coaching industry. I, for one, am glad the ICF continued to distribute this survey to document the direction of trends and issues over time. Having said that, I caution readers about generalizing from the results for two significant scientific reasons. (1) The ICF once again fails to state or elaborate on the scientific limitations of online surveys regarding generalizing the results. This is particularly a glaring error given that the survey was online only, thus building-in to the survey well-known limitations.
(2) One of the most glaring errors in this survey is a missing statistic. The ICF boldly and proudly claims that 22.5K surveys were returned. At the same time they rightly detail who was notified about the survey. However, what’s missing is a key statistic on how many people were notified about the survey. For example, was the notice sent to 100,000 people? 200,00 people? 500,000 people? This stat is essential for determining the “rate of return.”
We can assume that at least 100,000 people were notified of this survey. And given the number of organizations that sent notices to all their members, the number is probably higher. But for my purposes I’ll use the 100,000 figure. This means that less an 25% of those notified returned the survey. Bypassing what that meant to the 75% who didn’t return the survey, the most important thing is that statistically a low return rate of 25% of a non-randomized survey makes generalization of the results purely speculative.
If you think I’m nitpicking you might be right. I’m basing my nitpicking on proven and well-established science and research principles. Upon what might you be basing your objections to my nits?
Rey Carr
September 16, 2020 at 6:16 pm
As a follow-up comment, in July, 2011, I used a number of factors to determine that a more accurate number of the number of coaches in the USA alone was 130,000. The current ICF survey completely underestimates the number of coaches currently (2019) in the US as 23,000.
The iCF consistently underestimates the number of coaches in the US and the World. Their latest “survey” says that the number of coaches worldwide is 86,900. The is blatantly wrong. The number worldwide is significantly higher.
Why does the ICF continually misrepresent the number of coaches? The answer is simple. To do so would reveal how many coaches are not members of the ICF; and an accurate number would even further reduce the credibility of their survey results actually being representative of coaches around the world.
Don’t be fooled by their figures, but do pay attention to what those surveyed did report.
Suzi Pomerantz
September 16, 2020 at 6:35 pm
That is such a great point, Rey! How many coaches would you estimate there are worldwide?
Rey Carr
September 16, 2020 at 6:42 pm
It would take a while to estimate the number worldwide, but I know it’s larger than the ICF figures (to be fair, it’s not really their figures; the figures are made up by the consulting firm they used to conduct the survey). I can be more accurate about North America because I’ve used several data points to improve the accuracy.