Getting Your Money’s Worth: Coaching’s Return on Investment
There are several ways for you to measure a professional development tool and each of these applies with equal force to coaching. These measures include the following: 
- Personal Satisfaction: Were you satisfied by the experience? Did you like or enjoy it?
- Self-Learning: Did you learn anything new about yourself as a result of the experience? Any new insights or information that was worthwhile? Have any behaviors changed as a result of the experience?
- Practical Application: How did you apply in your personal life or work what you learned about yourself through the coaching program?
- Behavioral Impact: Did the use of these new behaviors generate new/different results at work or in your personal life?
- Return on Investment: Did the financial benefits of the coaching exceed the cost?
Of all these measures, it seems that special emphasis has consistently been placed on the return on investment. Research on the topic demonstrates that coaching consistently yields a favorable benefit-to-cost ratio. The most recent research is as follows:
- A Manchester Consulting Group study of Fortune 100 executives: Coaching yielded a return on investment of almost six times the program cost.
- A study of a Fortune 500 company by MetrixGlobal found: Executive coaching yielded a 529% return on investment.
- An International Personnel Management Assocation survey found: Productivity increased 88% when coaching was combined with training.
- Metropolitan Life Insurance Company found: Coaching program yielded a return on investment of over 500% in measurable gains.
How many of your investments are getting a return of even 10%, never mind 500%? And aren’t you or your business worth this kind of investment in the coming year? In survey after survey, these return on investment figures demonstrate that the risk of such an investment is remarkably low when compared with the concrete, measurable benefits that a customized program will generate with an experienced coach and committed client.
Suggested Action Items:
- Take some time in the next week to reflect upon your top few goals for the coming year. Focus on the ones that are most on your mind. Write them down on a piece of paper.
- With one or more of these goals in mind, reflect on this question: What amount of money would it be worth to you to accomplish your goals in 2009?
- Explore the cost of coaching (either business or life, and remember to apply the discount!) and do your own benefit-to-cost analysis. Go to Business Coaching Packages.