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How long is this going to take? There is a wide range of opinion about how long an executive  coaching engagement should last. Factors include the total number of meetings and how often those meetings take place.  This, our seventh annual Sherpa  Coaching Survey, takes another look at the way coaches deliver their services.

Coaches who follow a published process are more likely to have built in time limits, but there’s no guarantee. Many coaches “develop a unique approach” from one client to the next, which makes the open-ended engagement seem more likely.

HR and training professionals and the people who purchase coaching services favor engagements of 90 days or less. Executive coaches, especially external service providers, lean toward 3 to 6 month duration.

Maybe it’s a matter of access and convenience. Internal coaches often work and meet on the same property as their clients (fellow employees). Internal coaches tend to opt for more frequent meetings, most often weekly. They also opt for engagements of 90 days or less.

External coaches usually meet every other week, and that makes for longer engagements.

Taking it to the Limit:

• About one third of HR and training professionals prefer to set the length of a coaching engagement via “case by case decisions with no explicit limits”.
• Another third want a set “length of engagement per person with additional negotiated terms”.
• Twenty percent opt for “a process that includes time limits”, and
• 15% don’t set any initial constraints at all.

Do different kinds of coaches have different approaches? Absolutely. Business coaches favor longer engagements than executive coaches do. Their work is different, however. Coaching one person, especially using a process with time limits, can’t be compared to working with a business to improve skills, strategy and performance.  It is certainly harder to predict the scope of an assignment in business coaching.

Because the nature of their work is different, business coaches look for longer engagements.  24% of business coaches favor open-ended assignments, compared to just 14% of executive coaches. 

COMPANY SIZE AND LENGTH OF ENGAGEMENT:

Even the best laid plans can change. Executive coaches who work at the highest levels find that their clients, senior executives, are much more difficult to work with on a predetermined schedule. In the upper echelons of leadership, coaching clients are frequently called away on travel, or called into ‘emergency mode, and thus forced to postpone coaching. That can change the frequency of meetings and the length of an engagement significantly from the way it was originally mapped out.

Ultimately, the customer is king. HR and training professionals want shorter engagements, more structure and limited scope. That is being reflected in the way service is delivered. Open-ended engagements and meetings scheduled ‘as needed’ come in at under 20% of the field, and under 5% at larger firms. That’s down significantly from five years ago, when 30% of meetings were scheduled ‘as needed’, and almost 30% of engagements were open-ended.

This is an extended version of information contained in the seventh annual Sherpa Executive Coaching Survey.
The most current research is available at www.sherpacoaching.com/survey.html

This is one of a series of web pages designed to offer additional topics and commentary, beyond the basic report.

Media contact: For exclusive material and interviews: Karl Corbett, Managing Partner, Sherpa Coaching LLC, (513) 232-0002 USA,  kc@sherpacoaching.com

For a library of 60-second videos about executive coaching, visit http://www.youtube.com/user/sherpacoaching.