Executive Coaching Reviews by Leaders and the Media

The following executive coaching reviews have been compiled from leaders and the media. They provide a snapshot of how they perceive the value of executive coaching:

What Leaders Say About Executive Coaching

“Even modest improvements can justify hiring a coach. An investment of $30,000 or so in an executive who has responsibility for tens of millions of dollars is a rounding error.”
Jerome Abarbanel, VP of Executive Resources, Citibank

“I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to solve a problem previously thought unsolvable.”
John Russell, Managing Director, Harley Davidson Europe Ltd.

“The optimal thinking executive coach empowers executives to deploy best practices to achieve the best outcomes.”
Rosalene Glickman, Ph.D., Optimal Thinking Executive Coach

“What’s really driving the boom in coaching, is this: as we move from 30 miles an hour to 70 to 120 to 180……as we go from driving straight down the road to making right turns and left turns to abandoning cars and getting motorcycles…the whole game changes, and a lot of people are trying to keep up, learn how not to fall.”
John Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Harvard Business School

“In a 2004 survey by Right Management consultants, 86 percent of companies said they used coaching to sharpen skills of individuals who have been identified as future organizational leaders.”
Excerpt from “What An Executive Coach Can Do For You” – Harvard Business School

“Corporations believe that coaching helps keep employees and that the dollar investment in it is far less than the cost of replacing an employee.”
David A. Thomas Fitzhugh, professor of Business Administration” ? Harvard Business School

“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their maximum capabilities.”
Bob Nardelli, former CEO, Home Depot

“We have done lots of research over the past three years, and we have found that leaders who have the best coaching skills have better business results.”
Tanya Clemens, V.P. of Global Executive; Organizational Development at IBM

“In research conducted over the past three years we’ve found that leaders who have the best coaching skills have better business results.”
VP of Global Executive, Organizational Development at IBM

“In one study, executive coaching at Booz Allen Hamilton returned $7.90 for every $1 the firm spent on coaching.”
MetrixGlobal LLC

“I’ll bet most of the companies that are in life or death battles got into that kind of trouble because they didn’t pay enough attention to developing their leaders.”
Wayne Calloway, former Chairman, Pepsico, Inc.

“A study featured in Public Personnel Management Journal reports that managers (31) that underwent a managerial training program showed an increased productivity of 22.4%. However, a second group was provided coaching following the training process and their productivity increased by 88%. Research does demonstrate that one-on-one executive coaching is of value.”
F. Turner, Ph.D.

“Executives flourish with optimal thinking strategic coaches who have their best interests in mind and heart.”
Rosalene Glickman, Ph.D., Optimal Thinking Executive Coach

Executive Coaching Case Studies

Are You An Optimal Thinking Leader?

What the Media Says About Executive Coaching

“Coaching takes a holistic view of the individual: work, corporate values, personal needs and career development are made to work in synergy, not against one another.”
British Journal of Administrative Management

“For years, CEOs of some of the most successful and largest companies have relied on executive coaches. Henry McKinnell, CEO of Pfizer, Meg Whitman, CEO of eBay, and David Pottruck, CEO of Charles Schwab & Co., are just a few who rely on a trusted adviser”
The Business Journal

“A coach is part advisor, part sounding board, part cheerleader, part manager and part strategist.”
Business Journal

“The Business demand for coaching is nearly doubling each year. Out of the $80 billion being currently spent on corporate education, FLI Research estimates that $2 billion is spent on executive coaching at senior executive levels in Fortune 500 companies.”
Business Wire

“Xerox Corporation carried out several studies on coaching. They determined that in the absence of follow-up coaching to their training classes, 87% of the skills change brought about by the program was lost.”
Business Wire

“Who exactly seeks out a coach? Winners who want more out of life.”
Chicago Tribune

“Once used to bolster troubled staffers, coaching now is part of the standard leadership development training for elite executives and talented up-and-comers at IBM, Motorola, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and Hewlett Packard. These companies are discreetly giving their best prospects what star athletes have long had: a trusted adviser to help reach their goals.”
CNN.com

“Once seen as the last step for an executive about to fall off the ladder, leadership coaches now help smooth a promotion, teach outsiders about their new culture, and tune up talent.”
CNN Money

“The Manchester survey of 140 companies shows nine in 10 executives believe coaching to be worth their time and dollars. The average return was more than $5 for each $1 spent.”
Denver Post

“If you want to build your business and at the same time have a rewarding personal life, you call a coach.”
Denver Post

“Executive coaches are not for the meek. They’re for people who value unambiguous feedback. All coaches have one thing in common, it’s that they are ruthlessly results-oriented.”
Fast Company

“Business coaching is attracting America’s top CEOs because, put simply, business coaching works. In fact, when asked for a conservative estimate of monetary payoff from the coaching they got… managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.”
Fortune Magazine

“In a recent study, training alone improved leadership skills by 22%. When combined with Executive Coaching, improvement jumps to 77%.”
Fortune Magazine

“….many companies….offer coaching as a prerequisite to proven managers, in the understanding that everyone can benefit from a detached observer.”
Harvard Business Review

“Many of the World’s most admired corporations, from GE to Goldman Sachs, invest in coaching. Annual spending on coaching in the US is estimated at roughly $1 Billion Dollars.”
Harvard Business Review

“Recent studies show business coaching and executive coaching to be the most effective means for achieving sustainable growth, change and development in the individual, group and organization.”
HR Monthly

“Across corporate America, coaching sessions at many companies have become as routine for executives as budget forecasts and quota meetings.”
Investors Business Daily

“The benefits of coaching appear to win over even the most cynical clients within just a few weeks.”
Money Magazine

“A coach may be the guardian angel you need to rev up your career.”
Newsweek

“Career management coaches can identify missing skills or style difficulties and other pragmatic tips.”
New York Times

“Using coaching instead of sending executives and managers to seminars two or three times a year can be more beneficial to ongoing career development, not to mention less expensive…”
PC Week

“Employees at Nortel Networks estimate that coaching earned the company a 529 percent “return on investment and significant intangible benefits to the business,” according to calculations prepared by Merrill C. Anderson, a professor of clinical education at Drake University.”
Psychology Today

“Executive Coaches are everywhere these days. Companies hire them to shore up executives or, in some cases, to ship them out. Division heads hire them as change agents. Workers at all levels of the corporate ladder are enlisting coaches for guidance on how to improve their performance, boost their profits, and make better decisions about everything from personnel to strategy.”
Time Magazine, Business News

“Personal coaches are a hot commodity among executives these days. Never mind the mansion, the Mercedes, the membership in the exclusive country club. In corporate America today, the sign that you have truly arrived or at least that you are being groomed for arrival is an executive coach. Your own personal coach, that is. Even if the coach’s assignment is to render you less obnoxious, his or her presence at your elbow signals that you are regarded by the company as entirely too valuable to fire or shoot.”
Training Magazine

“More executives are beginning to request the service for themselves…as the negative connotation of coaching as a form of punishment for poor performance is replaced by the growing perception that coaching can help an individual or group to build sustainable professional and personal skills, better learn, overcome challenges, reach stretch goals and integrate leadership training.”
US Careers Journal

“Executive coaches often are brought in to help a star player navigate a new role or advance faster inside a company. Other businesses, however, hire a coach to fix a manager’s flaws, such as poor interpersonal skills. View an Executive Coach As an Aide, Not an Enemy.”
Wall Street Journal

Feel free to add executive coaching reviews from leaders and the media in the comments below.

Are You Coachable?

Executive Coaching Case Studies