By Tamsin Slyce

Coaches who market their work using return on investment (ROI) risk undermining coaching’s professionalism, argued Anthony Grant of Sydney University at the Association for Coaching (AC) UK’s first conference.

Such bottom-line measures ignore important variables and can only be indicative of a single specific engagement, Grant told delegates at the AC UK/University of East London Leadership Coaching conference on 8 July. For coaching to continue to grow it must build its credibility through more sophisticated evidence-based models and metrics, he said.

In what many delegates found to be a provocative and entertaining talk, Grant exposed the limited validity of ROI. He offered an alternative based on ‘demonstrated value’. This involves identifying what the sponsor wants, assessing outcomes by measuring goals achieved and the client’s wellbeing and over-delivering. It requires quantitative tools such as Goal Attainment Scaling; the Cognitive Hardiness Scale; the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, and the Workplace Well-being Index, together with qualitative comments.

Grant shared details of a study he had conducted which suggests a short-term coaching engagement can be effective in helping deal with the stress of organisational change.

He followed 45 executives and senior managers from a large public health service in a major change process. Their goal attainment and well-being were measured through a four-session coaching programme.

The leaders were divided into two groups and one started before the other. With coaching, the first group’s measures showed significant improvements, while the second group lagged behind.

The second group’s measures showed similar improvements once they experienced the coaching. Both groups would have felt the impact of any organisational developments at the same time. It was the coaching that had made the difference, concluded Grant.

Coaching at Work, Volume 5, Issue 5