Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey: 2011

Here are some highlights

• Training budgets for 2011 will be increasing at a higher rate than we have seen in many years. (Chief Learning Officer, Nov. 2010)
• After a pullback in recent years, organizations are again offering coaching to all levels of management, instead of restricting services to include only top line executives.
• Demand for executive coaching is on the rise. Four out of five executive coaches anticipate an increase in the demand for executive coaching in 2011, and over half of HR professional and business leaders also expect an increase.
• A vast majority of business professionals see the value of coaching as very high. The credibility of coaching increases every year.
• More HR professionals are hiring certified executive coaches. Four out of five executives and HR professionals said training and certification for executive coaches is “very important” or “absolutely essential.”
• Coaching is used more and more often for leadership development as opposed to problemsolving.
• In-person delivery of coaching is on the rise.
• New standards for the executive coaching industry are being set. There is a shift among executive coaches toward the adoption of published processes for their work with clients.
• Coach training has been a fragmented field in the past. There is significant movement among newer coaches to seek out university-based training and certification.
• Few organizations calculate return on investment (ROI). The phrase ‘impact on business’ (IOB) seems to describe the result most people see from executive coaching.

This year, we received responses from over 30 countries. Most of our respondents are from the USA and Canada, and the findings are more readily applied to the coaching scene in North America.

Once again, this survey was professionally hosted by IQS Research, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. Complete details about the survey’s methodology are available at the end of this report.

2011 Sherpa survey responses came from these countries:

This survey is designed to provide clarity and definition for executive coaching. The term coach, as used in this report, refers only to executive coaches. We occasionally receive responses from life and personal coaches, but their responses are not included in this report. As a courtesy to those who participate, we report on earnings for both executive and life coaches in a separate report, released in February of each year.