The executive coaching industry is growing – and evolving – rapidly. With the profound changes in the workplace wrought by the Internet and, most recently, the pandemic, it’s clear leadership coaching must also grow and adjust with the times. But how will that growth be manifested? What’s trending now that will work to reshape the landscape of leadership coaching in the foreseeable future?
A lot has been written about the intersection of technology with traditional coaching methods and how this fusion gives rise to a new coaching paradigm. Rather than getting overly theoretical or academic, here’s a list of 10 trends we see shaping leadership coaching in the 2020s and beyond.
Trend #1: Neuroscience will Play a Growing Role
Put simply, neuroscience is the study of the brain and the nervous system and how these systems function to turn sensory stimuli into output, actions, and/or reactions. Coaches will employ more neuroscience-based techniques (such as neuroplasticity) to help leaders become more effective at leading themselves and others based on what our brain tells us about being human. The intersection of neuroscience and coaching is still in its very early stages. However, there’s a growing interest in this topic and how it can apply to coaching to increase effectiveness and sustainability of change. One of our favorite books in the area of neuroscience and how it might apply to workplace behavior is Your Brain at Work by Dr. David Rock. We also like to share Dr. Rock’s SCARF model with our clients when applicable.
Trend #2: More and More Coaching Will Occur Remotely
Coaches in the near future will connect with more clients through rapidly maturing technology platforms that facilitate effective sessions regardless of geographic location. The pandemic showed us that going virtual can work. It’s now at the point where it’s become a standard business practice. Savvy coaches will learn to exploit the potentials of remote coaching to grow their clientele. This trend also opens up the possibilities to coach well outside of one’s geographic area, which enables a coaching practice to go worldwide. In the future, we can imagine the use of on-the-fly language translation apps that will enable a Spanish-speaking coach to work with a Japanese-speaking client.
Trend #3: Leadership Coaching will Go Mainstream
Leadership coaching will emerge from the C-suite to be offered to more and more people from the manager level on down. Not that long ago, it seemed as though only senior-level executives in large corporations worked with executive coaches. Now executive coaching is becoming more commonplace among professionals of all backgrounds and levels. More affordable coaching options and pricing will also come into play to make coaching available to a wider swath of professionals, even at small to mid-sized companies. This trend has hastened with the introduction of well-funded start-ups such as BetterUp and Torch.
Trend #4: The Growing Importance of Measurable Results
Smart companies invest cautiously, and they want to see what they’re getting in return from leadership coaching. For this reason, coaching is becoming more outcome-driven, with the tracking of measurable results through assessments, structured feedback, surveys, data analytics, and other tools. Increasingly, clients will choose coaches who can clearly demonstrate how they help their coachees move the needle in meaningful ways. We’ve created some videos that talk about ways to measure coaching effectiveness. The first one can be watched here.
Trend #5: An Increase in Coaching Certification Requirements
The coaching industry is currently non-regulated, which means almost anyone can call themselves a coach. That may very well change in the future. For now, it’s becoming increasingly important for coaches to have a coaching credential from an established body such as the ICF or CCE to get a foot in the door with many organizations.
This makes sense given the coaching industry is still unregulated in that anyone can hang their shingle and call themselves an executive coach, business coach or life coach.
What goes along with this trend is to see that a coach has been trained via an accredited coach training program (ACTP). By doing so, this paves the way for the coach to get a credential from either of the aforementioned organizations. Organizations such as the Center for Executive Coaching (of which our president, Michael Neuendorff, is a faculty member) will grow in importance and stature since they are accredited.
Trend #6: The Rise of Niche Coaching
Traditional leadership coaching is mostly generic and applicable to executives across a number of different industries and sectors. But every company has its own needs and objectives, and this gives rise to the practice of industry specific niche coaching. For example, a healthcare leadership coach, or small business coach, or sales coach. This type of specialization in coaching paired with a credential can really help a coach stand out from the crowd.
Trend #7: Increase in Demand for Leadership Coaching
According to a recent survey, 63% of organizations have used executive coaching services to develop their senior leaders. As more companies turn to coaching to drive performance, those that don’t hire coaches may find themselves looking behind the times. Executive coaching is no longer viewed as a luxury but a vital and proven element of leadership development. More and more companies will embrace this trend and build it into their development budgets.
Trend #8: The Rise of Group or Team Coaching
Group coaching (simultaneously involving several coachees) tracks closely with our mainstreaming Trend #3. By working with groups of people instead of the traditional one-on-one, more people will be able to benefit from coaching within a cost-effective and efficient framework. Another factor driving the growth of team coaching is the impact a coach can have on an organization when groups of people are being coached. Big changes can happen when a team has tough conversations, raises their level of communication, and increases their awareness of others.
Trend #9: Ever-increasing Digitalization
As we’ve noted, in-person coaching has declined. Besides live person to person virtual coaching, coaching delivery via apps are starting to appear. Just as apps might help a person stay on track with a financial plan or exercise regimen, they may also help managers to make smarter decisions in a variety of commonly encountered situations. The impact on leadership coaching of app-based delivery is far from fully realized, but this is an area of coaching to keep an eye on as AI-driven software becomes more intelligent.
Trend #10: Increased Focus on Emotional Intelligence
Some forward-thinkers envision a future where most of the work done by people will require strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. This will be the way that people clearly distinguish themselves from AI-driven software programs that do all sorts of routine work. Since enterprises will place a premium on leading with emotional intelligence (especially since the increased focus on well-being during the pandemic), it’s very likely that executive coaching will focus more closely on helping leaders develop their emotional intelligence. We’ve written a series of articles on leading with emotional intelligence on our sister site.
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These are trends that have already begun to affect the future of executive coaching. As this growing and fluid field evolves further, it’s likely that new trends will emerge that we can’t even predict yet. Such is the nature of an industry fueled by explosive growth and rapidly-developing technology, and it’s best if we, as coaches, track these trends and seek to align with them.
Want to learn more? Here are 3 proven ways to elevate your skills as an executive coach.
If you would like to be trained and certified as an executive coach via our accredited coach training program, learn more about the options here.
Photo copyright: Featured photo is from ©Anna Tarazevich via Pexels. Second photo is from ©fizkes via 123RF.
