Download the sumary pdf below using the red Download Article button. Here are a few excerpts:
INTRODUCTION
This is a summary of the findings from the 2020 ICF Global Coaching Study. The study was commissioned in 2019 by the
International Coaching Federation (ICF) and undertaken by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
This represents the fourth of ICF’s major research projects on the size and scope of the coaching profession. The inaugural
study was published in 2007 with follow-up studies in 2012 and 2016.
Over that time, the coaching profession has evolved and grown. As a growing number of individuals and organizations have
adopted coaching, the use of coaching skills and approaches has expanded beyond professionally trained coach practitioners
to include managers, leaders, and human resources and talent development professionals who apply these competencies in
their daily workplace interactions. For that reason, the scope of the 2016 study was widened to include managers and leaders
who use coaching skills in the workplace.
The wider, more inclusive scope of the 2016 study was a significant innovation which has been carried through to the 2020
study to provide a fuller picture of the growth of coaching worldwide.
Similar to its predecessors, the 2020 study was designed to engage as many coach practitioners as possible in order to provide an
up-to-date picture of the coaching profession and empower professional coaches to meet the challenges that lie ahead. Reflecting
the continuing growth of coaching, the survey attracted an unprecedented 22,457 responses from 161 countries and territories.Globally, it is estimated that there were approximately 71,000 coach practitioners in 2019, an increase of 33% on the 2015
estimate. Growth was especially strong in the emerging regions of Latin America and the Caribbean (+174%) and Eastern
Europe (+40%).INCOME AND REVENUE
Coach practitioners with active clients were asked to provide their annual income generated by coaching only. Nine in 10 coach
practitioners (90%) said they currently have active clients.
Respondents provided annual revenue data in a total of 76 different currencies. In order to provide a common reference point,
the revenue figures were converted to U.S. dollars (USD) based on international exchange rates published by the World Bank.
When calculated in U.S. dollars, average revenues are highest in the high-income regions of North America, Western Europe
and Oceania.
However, it should be appreciated that while revenue data have been provided in one currency, the value of the amounts
quoted in individual countries must be contextualized in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and diverse standards of living.
This subject is explored in greater detail in the Final Report.Average income from coaching estimates for 2019 can be compared with the 2015 figures published in the 2016 ICF Global
Coaching Study. The comparison in terms of U.S. dollars indicates a reduction of 8% from 2015 to 2019. However, the estimated
U.S. dollar change partly reflects currency fluctuations and dollar strengthening over the four-year period. On a PPP basis,
average annual revenue/income from coaching rose by 4%.
It should also be noted that the revenue/income measures presented in this report are for coaching only. But 93% of coach
practitioners also offer additional services such as consulting, counseling, etc. On average, coach practitioners who offer
additional services allocate 44% of their time to coaching. The income that coaches generate from those additional services is
not included in the income/revenue.
For each of the seven world regions, total revenue from coaching was derived by combining the regional estimate for active
coaches with average annual revenues from coaching. On that basis, the estimated global total revenue from coaching in 2019
was $2.849 billion U.S. dollars, representing a 21% increase over the 2015 estimate.
COACH 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.