An Integrated Approach to the Evaluation of Coaching Programs

The four types of evaluation just described all contribute to the decision-making and dissemination processes that inevitably attend the ongoing planning and development of any coaching program. An optimally effective and appreciative program evaluation will draw all four types into a single, comprehensive design. This design brings together the valid, useful and appreciative information collected from documentary, descriptive, diagnostic and outcome determination evaluations. It combines this program information with a clear and consensus­ based agreement concerning the purposes and desired outcomes of the coaching program, yielding results that translate readily into program decisions and dissemination.

Initially, the idea of incorporating all four types of evaluation into a single, comprehensive project may not seem feasible. However, with careful planning, all four types can be employed at relatively low cost. First, the same information sources and data gathering procedures can be used to collect several different kinds of information. Careful, integrated planning not only saves time for the evaluators, it also reduces the chance that program participants will feel “over-evaluated” and “under-appreciated. Second, the whole evaluation process can be spread out over a fairly long period of time, if planning begins early enough in the development of a new coaching program. The long-term planning of widely dispersed evaluative interventions makes a major evaluation project possible and reduces negative reactions to those interventions that are made. In general, an outcome determination evaluation will require extensive attention at the start and end of a program, whereas program description and diagnosis require greatest attention during the middle of the program. Program documentation requires some attention before the program begins and during the program. The most extensive documentation work is required after the outcome determination evaluation is completed and before a final report is prepared.

Does it seem like too ambitious a plan? The initial response is usually “yes!” Do we really need to do all this work and initiate all of these different approaches to evaluation? The typical answer is “no!”  Unfortunately, these answers stop the process. Program evaluation is either not performed at all or done in a manner that yields little insight about successful coaching or provides few compelling reasons to support coaching services on a sustained basis for many clients. If professional coaching is truly of value to our organizations, then it deserves the kind of careful and appreciative approach being advocating in this essay. It requires an integrated approach that embraces both formative and summative purposes, and that interweaves the four Ds.  We should evaluate that which we value . . . and this certainly should include the enterprise of professional coaching.