Executive coaching outcome research: The contribution of common factors such as relationship, personality match, and self-efficacy.

TLDR

Coaching outcome data are unlikely to be robust soon, but existing psychotherapy research suggests coaching can be similarly effective. This study proposes a novel approach to evaluating executive coaching outcomes using data from 156 client–coach pairs, aiming to identify and compare the predictive value of active ingredients such as working alliance, client self‑efficacy, personality, and personality match. The authors examined these active ingredients by measuring working alliance, client self‑efficacy, client personality, and personality match between coach and client. Client outcome perceptions were significantly associated with working alliance, self‑efficacy, and perceived range of techniques, and the coach–client relationship mediated the effects of self‑efficacy and technique range, indicating it is the key determinant of perceived coaching success.

Abstract

This article argues for a new way of studying executive-coaching outcomes, which is illustrated with a study based on data from 156 client– coach pairs. The argument accepts that we are unlikely to get robust data on coaching outcomes in the near future but assumes that we can expect similar effectiveness for coaching as that demonstrated in rigorous psychotherapy outcome research. Therefore, it is argued that it is more important now to (a) identify the “active ingredients” that predict the effectiveness of executive coaching, and (b) to determine the difference in predictive value of these active ingredients on coaching effectiveness. The outcome study examined some of these active ingredients, such as the working alliance between coach and client, the self-efficacy of the client, the personality of the client, and the “personality match” between client and coach. The results show that client perceptions of coaching outcome were significantly related to their perceptions of the working alliance, client self-efficacy, and to client perceptions of the range of techniques of the coach. The client– coach relationship mediated the impact of self-efficacy and range of techniques on coaching outcomes, suggesting that this relationship is the key factor in determining how clients perceive the outcome of coaching.