Evaluating the effectiveness of executive coaching: beyond ROI?

TLDR

Executive coaching has grown rapidly across practice and academia, yet its effectiveness remains poorly evaluated due to multidisciplinary perspectives, a lack of consensus on assessment methods, and doubts about the reliability of ROI metrics. The article conducts a meta‑analysis of empirical and retrospective studies on coaching effectiveness to clarify evaluation areas and guide future research and practice. The authors performed a meta‑analysis of empirical and retrospective studies and then discussed six key areas that influence how researchers evaluate coaching effectiveness and interpret results.

Abstract

Abstract The popularity of executive coaching has increased dramatically in both the practitioner world and academia during the past decade. However, evaluating the effectiveness of coaching has lagged behind. Executive coaching is a multidisciplinary practice, and professionals from many different scholarly backgrounds provide coaching services. The paucity of empirical research may be attributed to the lack of a consensus among these divergent professionals regarding whether and how to evaluate the effectiveness of coaching. In this article, we conducted a meta-analysis of the empirical research as well as reviewed the retrospective studies evaluating coaching effectiveness. Subsequently, we discussed six areas that impact the way researchers evaluate coaching effectiveness and the conclusions they may draw from their studies. Although the Return On Investment (ROI) index provides a straightforward, overall measure of effectiveness, its veracity and usefulness is questioned. It is hoped that the clarification of these areas will help guide the future of coaching evaluation research and practice.