INTERPRETATIVEDATA: WHAT’SSHAPING THEMARKETPLACE 265
•Overall, the greatest concern in selecting, hiring, and using internal /
external coaches is aligning the right coach with the coachee.
•Responses in our survey and our interviews indicate there is a growing
trend toward external use of coaches for all levels of managers and
leaders.
•There is no question in the minds ofour analysts that currently, execu-
tive leadership and senior leadership levels within the organization are
receiving more coaching, for longer periods of time, with greater levels
of expenditures.
•There appears to be a significant increase in coaching entry-level man-
agers and leaders, which indicates the high payoff of such efforts.
•Overall, there is no question that organizations primarily use coaching
to enhance current performance and correct performance issues. The
growing evidence from respondents is that team building and managing
change, as well as succession management and ensuring the success of
the new leader are also important. Overall, coaching is most frequently
used for leadership development, followed by change management,
strategy, and then career development.We received many contributions both in written form within the ques-
tionnaire and verbally through interviewing coaches during this process. We
have included here a number of comments that were especially noteworthy.
As you will see, many of these come from the heart and speak to many of the
larger issues that were supported in the data.
Here is the case of Barbara Beath of Ernst & Young, who expresses how
360-degree feedback as a coaching tool improved scores year over year:
Af ter utilizing 360-degree feedback for a division’s executives, 100% of
execs in the bottom 15% of results received one-on-one coaching to help make
behavior changes and improve their scores. 100% of the bottom 15% in scores
(12 out of 12 executives) improved their scores the next year and only one of
those 12 execs were in the bottom 15% of scores in the second year.
Yo u will note in the data, 360-degree feedback is, without a question, a
critical part of today’s coaching interventions, and we predict it will be so in
the future.
It was encouraging to hear so many touching stories of internal coaches who
are truly making a difference, as in Sylvia Brown’s experience at Boeing:
I was an internal coach for a member of the Boeing Executive Develop-
ment Program. The coachee was high-potential and intelligent but frequently
was stonewalled by her peer team on projects. Coaching enabled her to see