360° follow-up interviews By re-managing an abbreviated version of the original 360° interviews conducted during the executive evaluation, it is possible to ensure an unambiguous measurement of improvement compared to the 2 or 3 main development objectives specified during the creation of the action plan. This underlines the importance of having well-documented training objectives at the beginning of training. 360° monitoring can be as simple and doesn't require much time as a short online survey with 4 or 5 questions sent to the same evaluators who participated in the original evaluation. This makes it possible to measure improvement as perceived by leaders, colleagues and direct reports of the executive.
To measure the lasting effects of training, this 360° monitoring should be done 6 months or more after the end of the training. Anecdotal EvidenceWhile it is undoubtedly the least “scientific” measurement method, anecdotal feedback on the coaching process is probably the most common and, in many ways, the most significant way of judging the success of a coaching intervention. Talking in the hallways or around the coffee shop about changes in executive performance or having executives share ideas about their own training experiences can have a greater impact on a company's conclusion about the effectiveness of coaching than any formal analysis or survey. Return on investment (ROI): Executives like to say that the company's most important asset “goes up and down the elevator every day.
If this is the case, logic would dictate that a strategic and intelligent plan for investing in this “human capital” (for example, through executive coaching) should generate greater returns on the organization's main assets. The most common method for measuring the value of coaching is the return on investment. However, it is often difficult to quantify when a company's culture is the object of measurement. Instead, focusing on a similar three-letter acronym ROE for Return on Expectations can have more impact.
We can increase the possibilities of calculating a significant estimate of the final impact of training by carefully identifying the highest priority objectives before the start of the program and making an “objective measurement” of these areas of interest before and after the training takes place. Coaching is the missing piece, but, of course, people want to measure it, but the lack of results too soon can lead people to stop training. Post-coaching evaluation A survey that measures the satisfaction of the client, the leader, the human resources department and other coaching stakeholders can be sent out 2 to 6 months after completing the training. Every year, the International Coaching Federation (ICF) recognizes a handful of companies and organizations that have achieved the highest standard of excellence in training programs.
Of course, while executive coaching can have a significant influence on business results, there are obviously other factors that influence. The training also helped the executive to improve their strategic use of time through greater delegation of responsibilities. However, successful coaching initiatives begin when leaders align training activities with specific strategic objectives.
