ROI of Executive Coaching – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1180

ROI of Executive Coaching – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1180

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post 1180 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here.

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Preamble

This blog post is based on the insights from an INSEAD article. Link to report at the end.

Beyond ROI: Why Executive Coaching Must Focus on Behavioral Change, Not Just Numbers

When organizations invest in executive coaching, the first question is nearly always: What’s the ROI? How many extra units of profit, how much improvement in leadership scores, what increment in productivity can be traced back to six-or-twelve months of coaching?

The INSEAD article pushes back hard against this numbers-first mindset. It argues that effective coaching is about transformative behavioral change, about shifting mindsets, exposing blind spots, unlocking new habits, often in ways that defy neat spreadsheets. The piece outlines what gets lost when organizations focus exclusively on measurable returns and offers a more holistic approach to capturing coaching’s real impact.

The ROI “Mirage”

Balazs and Kets de Vries observe that many organizations deploy 360-degree feedback, competence frameworks, performance metrics and other quantitative tools to “prove” coaching value. This is understandable: executives are numbers-driven, and coaching must justify its place in tight leadership-development budgets.

But the danger lies in reductionism. A bump in a leadership survey may reflect better measurement, or even savvy gaming of feedback, not necessarily deep change. Moreover, performance improvements might owe more to external factors (market tailwinds, organizational restructuring) than a quiet sequence of coaching conversations. The authors warn that focusing purely on ROI risks skimming the surface, “measuring the shadow, not the substance.”

What Coaching Actually Changes

So, what does coaching change? According to the article, the deeper impact resides in the “inner theatre” of a leader’s mind: self-awareness, unspoken fears, forgotten motivations, habitual behaviors, patterns of interaction that have grown unhelpfully rigid. These are not easy to quantify, but they are foundational to sustainable leadership change.

For example: an executive who “feels different, more confident in delegating, calmer under pressure and more attuned to the team’s unspoken concerns” may struggle to identify which spreadsheet line to link that feeling to. Yet the behavioral shift, letting go, listening more, being less reactive, can ripple outward into team culture, decision-making speed and organizational agility.

Why This Matters for Organizations

When leaders feel changed, their behavior changes, and behavior shapes culture, strategy execution, talent development and organizational resilience. Yet when coaching is judged solely on “did this person’s survey score go up by 10 %?”, organizations risk overlooking the subtle systemic shifts: improved trust, fewer crisis escalations, better team psychological safety, unblocked growth pathways.

The authors argue that organizations seeking only quick ROI may select leaders whose performance is already adequate, thereby missing the greater value of coaching: unlocking high-potential leaders, or enabling transformation in a period of complex disruption. The risk is that coaching becomes a “check-the-box” exercise rather than a strategic lever.

How to Make Coaching More Impactful

Based on the article’s insights, here are key design features of coaching that deliver the substance, not just the score:

Align growth goals to context

Coaching must connect to the leader’s real environment and challenges, not just generic “leadership competencies”. The growth goal must be concrete and contextual: e.g., shift from firefight mode to strategic thinking; increase delegation and team autonomy; manage stress/energy; lead change through resilience.

Embed reflection and action

Each coaching session should be framed by preparation (“What do I want from this conversation?”) and followed by consolidation (“What did I learn? What will I do differently?”). The action log helps convert insights into behavior.

Extend beyond the individual

Coaching should not stop with the leader; it needs ripple effects into teams and organization. A leader’s changed behavior must be sustained, integrated into team norms and aligned to culture.

Measure what matters

Use mixed-method evaluation: track action-log milestones, behavior change (via peer feedback), real-world outcomes (team engagement, turnover, crisis incidents) and narrative sign-off. Avoid attributing broad results solely to coaching.

Build a coaching culture

The most effective organizations view coaching not as a program for a few, but a culture of growth, feedback, reflection and shared learning. When coaching is embedded, the impact multiplies.

Implications for Organizations

Here are implications for organizations considering or running executive-coaching programs:

Select the right leaders and the right objectives: Coaching is most catalytic when aimed at people with growth gaps or strategic transitions (e.g., taking on new roles, leading transformation, navigating complexity), not just leaders whose scores are already high.

Sponsor the coaching journey at senior level: To move beyond perfunctory, the CEO/chair must signal that coaching is integral to strategic leadership development.

Integrate coaching into broader leadership development architecture: Coaching should be part of a “leadership ecosystem” including leadership missions, reflection forums, peer groups, team coaching, mentoring.

Set realistic expectations about timing: Behavioral change often emerges over months, and team/organizational impact may lag even further.

Budget accordingly: Coaching should be viewed as long investment into capabilities, not just short-term performance booster.

Ensure accountability and follow-through: Use the coaching journal method, regular check-ins, linkage to performance dialogues, and integrate reflection into ongoing leadership practices.

Capture both quantitative and qualitative outcomes: Survey data is useful, but complement with narrative case studies; capture behavioral changes, team dynamics shifts, decision-making improvements, stress reduction, delegation improvements.

Embed coaching culture: Promote peer coaching, reflective practice forums, learning communities; ensure coaching is not limited to executive “elite” but cascades into emerging leaders and teams.

A Leadership Paradox: Coaching the “Finished” Self vs. the “Becoming” Self

One of the underlying tensions that the article surfaces: many executives believe they have “arrived” at the leadership peak; coaching challenges this belief. If the leader thinks they are finished—that they have “arrived”—then coaching becomes cosmetic rather than transformational. The true value of coaching lies in addressing the becoming self: the ongoing, evolving leader who must respond to new contexts, new scale, new complexity.

When leaders assume they are “finished,” they diminish openness and reflection. Coaching invites them to revisit their assumptions, unlearn unhelpful habits and adapt to new realities. In that sense, the ROI conversation should shift: from “What did we get back?” to “What new capacity did this unlock?” The latter is harder to measure—but far more strategic.

Sum Up

In the end, the value of executive coaching cannot be captured fully by spreadsheets. If organizations insist only on ROI metrics, they risk minimizing coaching’s potential: leadership transformation, cultural shift, emotional agility, adaptive capacity.

The article from INSEAD argues for a richer view: capturing behavioral change, identity shifts and longer-term leadership journeys. By combining numbers for scale with stories for substance, organizations can elevate coaching from a program to a capability, and from an expense to a strategic investment.

Concluded.

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For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately.

Reference:

https://knowledge.insead.edu/leadership-organisations/beyond-roi-true-impact-executive-coaching