There are times in our careers when all of us need help and guidance. If we are committed to developing the people in our organizations, we spend time coaching those who need help. We want to improve performance correct critical areas that may be career stoppers or may eventually lead to termination. If we don’t have enough time to spend coaching our people, we frequently send them to training in hopes that they “get religion” and change. This training rarely works, especially over a long term, and it also wastes your training dollars.

I have managed training functions for most of my career in human resources. I have unsuccessfully been able to justify the R. O. I. after many attempts to measure the results from a training program. The training that was immediately applied in the work place was the most cost effective training. The waste of resources was in behavioral training where we want employees to behave differently and be more effective supervisors, managers and executive leaders. The most effective and sustainable method of modifying behavior that I found was coaching by a professionally trained coach. We, as leaders, would like to spend the time coaching our people. We rarely can spend sufficient time coaching others in order to produce lasting change. In comes the professional coach who is certified, has business experience and has the time to spend with the client “coachee”.

Let’s look at the business case. Training programs don’t work. If we don’t provide help to the manager, they remain less productive, less effective and will eventually terminate because they negatively impact others and the business. Bradford D. Smart, PhD. and author of Top Grading said that termination can cost up to 24 times their salary when you measure the disruption and impact to the business. Coaching can “stop the bleeding”, recover loses and return the client to a productive role that is sustainable. Merrill C. Anderson, PhD. of MatrixGlobal measured the coaching returns from a Fortune 500 company to be an average of 529% on your investment for the tangible measures.* The intangible benefits of coaching far outreach the measurable benefits in my experience and opinion. The business case really needs to be justified for your own situation. But, coaching is proven to be cost effective and sustainable if the client is willing to change their behavior.

Performance coaching only works with people who have value to the organization. They just need to manage behaviors that get in the way of relationships, listening, communications and other growth limiting areas. Coaching is not the answer to the last chance before being let go. It must be used for valued employees.