Real World Coaching: Real World Research

The plans we develop for ourselves in response to learning from reflection can move us professionally in several ways. Knowing what works best with each client enables us to engage in purposeful coaching, being more deliberate and strategic with each individual we assist. Knowing where we are stuck suggests areas for further professional development. Professional coaching organizations–through conferences, workshops, teleclasses and local chapter activities–offer on-going opportunities for learning across a broad spectrum of coaching skills. A professional development plan may include hiring a mentor coach. Self-development may also involve becoming familiar with the growing body of coaching research literature. If comparing our coaching actions with our espoused theories of coaching shows up a disconnect, we may want to revisit our mental models and do some work on realignment.  Finally, noticing patterns of client challenges or coaching interactions may spark a curiosity which results in undertaking a formal coaching research project.

Documenting Impact and Outcomes

Much of the research in executive and organizational coaching initially focused on documenting impact and outcomes, often in the form of equating specific outcomes with dollar or bottom line value. Much of the data and documentation collected for purposes of reflective learning can be put to use to document coaching impacts. Formulating and documenting specific goals for the coaching engagement, for example, and providing benchmarks and timeframes for review, are a form of baseline data and provide the variables for follow up assessment. Many studies use pre-post assessments and simple, descriptive statistics can be helpful in showing impact. A coach who is consistent in using simple formal agreement and documentation procedures throughout a coaching engagement generates a rich source of data not only for single cases (think case studies) but also for meta-analysis across multiple cases.