THE DILEMMAS
Most practitioners I talk to are stymied around the three following dilemmas in identifying the ROI of their work. The first dilemma may be stated, “I work on the ‘soft side’ of business — the development of people skills in a leader. How could I ever define and measure that? Besides, I’m completely intimidated by research and statistics. It’s not my thing.”
The second dilemma is from those who have some confidence in their quantitative skills but do not know how to link a leader’s development to measurable business results. “I can measure the shifts in a leader’s attitudes and the team’s perspective on the leader’s effectiveness, but how do I link those to the bottom line?” Or practitioners may say, “I’ve even been able to measure shifts in organizational goals among those whom I have coached, e.g., retention and promotions, but I don’t know what elements of the coaching/consulting effort — if any — created the change.”
The third dilemma comes from a values conflict expressed, “If I take on the responsibility of measurement then I’m doing the client’s job for them — I’ve stepped over the line. I’ve become responsible for bottom line results rather than for methods that lead to executive development. Anything I do that weakens the leader’s sense of responsibility for results erodes my effectiveness.”
If you have experienced any of these dilemmas yourself, take heart. Over the last ten years, I have developed a coaching strategy, beginning with the contracting phase, which can link leader development to the bottom line results of executive coaching clients. The method allows the leader to retain full responsibility, not only for their business results but for linking their developmental challenges to those results.
Download Article 1K Club
