Articles

Leaderful Edge provides thought leadership on bringing out peak performance from already successful executives and business owners. 

You'll find a unique depth and breadth of international expertise in this collection of articles  on leadership, coaching and consulting.

What Does It Mean To Be Human: Lessons from my Amazon Jungle, African Bush Adventures

Written by Dr. Joni Carley

Indigenous people still live by the wisdom we’ve heard from sages through the ages: we are human beings, not human doings. Western culture has almost lost that understanding but progressive leaders leverage cutting edge best practices with the enduring wisdom of the indigenous mind.

I stayed with the Shuar, an Amazon tribe known for their fierce warriors and head shrinking practices. They’re warriors in the true, classic sense of the word – like the Japanese Samurai who left their swords at the tea ceremony door so they could manage delicate tea ceremony gestures, and who were trained in 64 Arts including meditation, calligraphy and love making.

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From Dark to Light

Written by Dr. Joni Carley

I like to focus on the Solstice this time of year because it's universal. And also because it's primal so we can use it as a touchstone for our own processes. 

 

The Winter Solstice is the turning point between the days getting darker and lighter. Our ancestors celebrated their faith in the return of the light and they also celebrated the fertility of darkness and that's an interesting vantage point for lookng at our professional lives.

 

Here is a 4 step path for using the natural rhythm of the season to enlighten your career path:

 

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Executive Leadership Development

Written by Dr. Joni Carley

The field of Executive Leadership Development is crowded and conflicted. Not only are there more “experts” out there than ever before, touting more theories than we’ll ever need, but there is a new paradigm of leadership emerging. The old profit-at-any-cost way of doing business is losing ground to concepts like “values-driven leadership” because that old standard is setting new benchmarks on the scale of failure.

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Coaching Executives

Written by Dr. Joni Carley

Executive leadership development happens best with coaching. That's not to say that graduate programs, executive leadership training seminars, CEO Groups and other ways of developing aren't good. They can be great and they can be awful. But either way, nothing takes the place of one-on-one executive coaching and consulting.

One of the problems with more formal learning situations is that they depend on case studies. There's certainly alot to be learned from history but the only thing case studies can teach is what was done in the past. In these times, that's simply not enough.

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Written by Dr. Joni Carley

Return on Investment in Coaching Studies

– 11 Study Summaries

Return on investment in coaching studies show 150% to 689% yield. Here are a few:

“Coaching at Work” - Results issued in a press release dated May 16, 2002:

80% of executives say they could benefit from coaching and dismiss the suggestion that coaching is just another fad

96% of managers think coaching should be available to every employee, regardless of seniority

85% of managers say enhancing team morale is the main values of coaching

80% of managers say coaching generates responsibility-taking (i.e. leadership development)

 

supported by Lloyds TSB

  • 33% of respondents had received coaching themselves
  • 80% believe  they would benefit from coaching/more coaching in their workplaces
  • 93% believe that coaching should be available to all employees.

Coaching was perceived as great benefit in a range of areas including:

development of task-specific skills
“soft skills” within the working environment

Managers responded that they wanted more support to develop personal effectiveness, emotional intelligence, assertiveness or communication skills.

Conclusion: Coaching supports “hard” and “soft” skill development

Published Jan, 2001

  • Productivity increases 22% from standard training
  • Combining coaching with standard training increases productivity 88%

 

Lee Hecht Harrison surveyed 488 Human Resource professionals about coaching:

55% of respondents said that their organization uses coaching as a one-on-one process intended to maximize management and leadership potential

54% do so to change behaviors.

From Jan, 2001

“Executive Coaching yields return on investment of almost 6 times the initial investment in a typical coaching assignment.” 

 

“Companies who have provided coaching to their executives and their teams have realized improvements of over 48% in productivity, quality and organizational strength.”

 
“Executives who have received coaching have reported improvements of over 60% in working relationships with direct reports and peers, teamwork, job satisfaction and conflict resolution.”
 
 

Tangible (hard/yang) Impact on business:

  • Productivity

53%

  • Quality

48%

  • Organizational Strength

48%

  • Customer Service

39%

  • Reduced Complaints

34%

  • Own Retention

32%

  • Cost Reductions

23%

  • Bottom Line Profitability

22%

  • Top Line Revenue

14%

  • Reduced Turnover

12%

  • Other Business

7%
 
Intangible (soft/yin) Impacts on business:
 
 

  • Improved Relationship: Reports

77%
 

  • Improved Relationship: Stakeholder

71%
 

  • Improved Teamwork

67%
 

  • Improved Relationship: Peers

63%
 

  • Improved Job Satisfaction

61%
 

  • Reduced Conflict

52%
 

  • Increased Organizational Commitment

44%
 

  • Improved Relationship: Clients

37%
 

  • Other Intangibles

31%

April, 2004, study found:

  • 95% of leaders who were coached made positive behavioral changes.
  • 58% said they worked better with peers and team members, which seems low in my experience.
  • Leaders who were coached also found positive impact on their quality of consulting and on client satisfaction as well as improvement in their promotion and retention rates.
  • According to the 2004 MetrixGlobal Study, the return on investment in coaching: 689%

Here’s their conclusion:
“The Bottom-Line:
Coaching has positively impacted the ability of leaders to build competencies and deliver bottom-line value to the business. While all competencies were positively impacted, leadership behavior, building teams and developing staff were especially improved. The data
suggest that building these competencies led directly to positive impact on the business.

Teamwork and team member satisfaction were the top business impact areas cited by leaders. Combined, these two areas alone produced over $1.5 M in annualized benefits. Better integrating executive coaching as a centrally managed initiative with other corporate human
resources initiatives and development activities could potentially further accelerate building the required competencies.

The very positive ROI for coaching indicates that any further investment in coaching will more than pay for itself. The focus of decision-making regarding the future of coaching should shift from just what the cost of the coaching would be, to focus on the kind of value that coaching can provide to the business. ”

The study was done by:
ROI and Learning Evaluation, Leadership Coaching and Consulting
MetrixGlobal, LLC www.metrixglobal.net

 

http://www.1000ventures.com/design_elements/selfmade/coaching_at_work_benefits_6x4.png

 

  • Price Waterhouse Cooper Global Study Findings on Coaching ROI

  • global study w/ASSOCIATION RESOURCE CENTER INC.- 2008
    survey pool -  2,165 coaching clients from 64 countries

     

  • 80% of coaching clients report positive change in work performance, communication skills, interpersonal skills, and relationships
     
  • 82.7% of coaching clients check “very satisfied”
  • 96.2%  would repeat coaching under same circumstances
 
  • Median return of 3.44 times the investment.

 

The Sherpa survey asked coaches, HR professionals and coaching clients to share the ways they saw coaching used. Coaching is becoming a more widely used leadership development tool. Over three years’ time, the use of coaching primarily for leadership development has picked up from 43% to 50%.  In the same timeframe, coaching to address a specific problem or challenge has dropped from a previous high of 37%, down to 32% in the 2008 survey. The remaining 19% of respondents tell us that executive coaching is most needed by people in transition: promotions, transfers and new hires.

Compared to 2006, about seven percent of coaching has moved from specific problem-solving to general leadership development. In a billion-dollar business, that represents re-allocation of $70 million dollars over 2006.

Among those who purchase or use coaching services, 70% feel executive coaching is most appropriate for people who need leadership development.”

“The amount of money spent on coaching is significant, and it’s growing. In increasing numbers, coaches and HR professionals say coaches are engaged for “people who need leadership development." So, we have a growing industry, a shift toward coaching for every emerging leader, and nobody seems to be tracking return on investment.”

Return on investment in coaching is hard to track. We haven’t yet developed adequate measuring sticks for assessing the full value of devoting resources to leadership coaching. But using the best practices available, Sherpa found a 144% return on investment in coaching.

The Sherpa data on coaching fees suggests a high value on every coaching dollar invested.

Vision Quest Reports that of all clients interviewed:

  • 100% felt that coaching enabled them to deal 75% better with challenges
  • 88% found coaching increased job satisfaction by 75% or more
  • 80% improved ability to stay focused under pressure
  • 78% increased productivity by at least 50%

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