What’s
the Return On Investment of working with an Executive Coach? This is
such a juicy question. Ten years and over 1000 clients ago, as I
tentatively opened my doors to my first incarnation of being an
executive coach. I had very little understanding of the value I was
bringing to my market. I charged accordingly at £50 to 100 an hour –
where I could get that fee and I worked with some middle managers, some
junior executives and many small business owners most of whom hired me
out of their own salaries.
What happened? My clients thrived. There’s no other way to say it.
They were already good at what they did and since most of them had
genuinely never had an agenda-free, them-focussed,
you-define-your-own-success kind of conversation in their lives, the
executive coaching conversations worked to massive effect. My clients
were promoted, they got salary increases, some moved to dream jobs,
others made huge personal changes and all of them thought thoughts and
took actions that they wouldn’t otherwise have known were within their
sphere of choices.
How did I measure these results? It just couldn’t be done on monetary
terms. How do you measure clarity, reduced anxiety, increased courage,
richer conversations and raised awareness? It could only be measured
through lives lived out and success stories shared.
After about 50 clients and repeatedly seeing their huge shifts, I had
to put my fees up. I continued to work for individuals – authors,
publishers, editors, film producers – and then increasingly I go taken
on by small then large corporates. I was seeing 2 – 6 clients a day and
loving every conversation and every little light-bulb moment – of which
there were many.
At this time – about 2004 – I was adding to my executive coach
skillset with some further study around metaphysics. Thoughts become
things. What we believe is what we see. Limited thinking produces
limited results; courageous thinking creates extraordinary &
fast-tracked outcomes.
How did I measure the success of this extra service? Again, it
couldn’t be done on monetary terms. My clients were loving it though –
doubling their sales numbers, launching (and closing) new brands and
some even starting families where they’d previously given up hope.
Every year I reviewed my fees and reviewed my client results until I
was working with MDs, senior directors and international business
owners. At this level the fact that I charged £400 an hour and £2500 a
day really wasn’t that relevant to an individual or a company. If a
finance president had a breakthrough realisation, his company was the
7-figure beneficiary of that. If a marketing director left a coaching
session with a richer strategy, her CEO and shareholders would celebrate
those results and bank the bonus.
The money and the sales were never the point – they were the
measurable outcomes. The point was (and still is) that a progressive
professional could hire an executive coach to expose more of their
potential and make their life easier, more meaningful and more
successful.
When you hire an executive coach you believe your work life and your
personal choices will change for the better. If you pick an experienced
executive coach this will undoubtedly be the case. Your results can be
measured by the improvements in your own life then and also in the lives of your colleagues, your family & friends, and those you’ll never even know that you’ve touched and change.
A worthwhile return on investment is not just about what’s released
in your own experiences, it’s ultimately about what you give back –
your ultimate life’s legacy.
About Author:
Jennifer Broadley is one of the UK's leading executive coaches.
She works with corporate leaders, business directors and successful
entrepreneurs. She specialises in CEO coaching, prosperity coaching and
providing the most cutting-edge and intuitive leadership and personal
success programs in the UK. Jennifer is passionate about the ongoing
self improvement of the world's future business leaders – the
way-showers for our precious next generation. She coaches, speaks,
writes and runs workshops on 'The 7 Steps to Personal & Professional
Freedom'®. You can buy her book of the same name from www.Amazon.co.uk You can call, email or message Jennifer from www.JenniferBroadley.com.
