Perhaps not the most obvious place to start but the conclusion I’m drawing is that the most enduring returns are partly found in the individual and partly in what an individual makes possible.
There’s a simple idea behind this sentiment; wherever we as coaches work, those entrusted with that investment have a responsibility to understand the value it creates.
In commercial organisations that value may be expressed through revenue, profit or market share. Elsewhere it may be reflected in better services, healthier communities, improved patient outcomes, or lives changed for the better.
From this we can deduce that although the settings and measures may differ, the question we might pose to understand it is similar. The challenge is that some of the most valuable returns aren’t always the easiest to see.
Only recently, I was in conversation with a client organisation who wanted to talk about the tangibles. It’s a common ask. We went on to have a conversation about how this might play out and with it came an acknowledgement that changed behaviour is actually the end point of something deeper. A change of heart, a different way of seeing things, a new skill learned and a willingness to experiment. In other words, something needs to be experienced and feltbefore it’s captured and becomes a metric to measure.
The examples were plentiful. The structure and tone of meetings; more listening, more respect and more participation from quieter colleagues. Discussing the ‘undiscussables’ because trust has grown within the executive team. Difficult conversations happening earlier. Being able to model certainty when things feel unstable. A senior leader deferring and committing to a team suggestion that they personally disagree with.
A searching question such as ‘what became possible because this leader developed?’ as opposed to ‘did the coaching work?’ will encourage us to think beyond return on investment per se and towards the broader question of value creation.
In one of my favourite leadership books, Peter Senge captured this beautifully in The Fifth Discipline:
“The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organisation’s ability to learn faster than the competition.”
Of course, the word competitive can be interpreted broadly here. However, whether we’re serving teams, shareholders, members, patients or students, our willingness to grow ourselves before attempting to grow others may be one of the greatest sources of enduring value we possess.
In another example, a client reflected during a coaching session on the value of one of the modules in their coaching programme.
“The money my business spent on me doing this has already paid back in millions of retained revenue because I approached one high-stakes conversation entirely differently”.
What struck me wasn’t the figure, impressive though it was. It was where the value had been created. Not in the coaching session itself, but in their day-to-day work afterwards and in their meeting preparation (which they admitted usually fell short) and the preparedness and confidence they brought to a conversation that ultimately shaped an important commercial outcome.
It was a defining moment for them. Not only did they change the course of a conversation; it also changed the trajectory of a business relationship.
They were also candid enough to say that the pull of work makes it very tempting to double down on effort rather than creating small pockets of time and space for thought. They later described it as a sliding doors moment.
In this case the value was expressed in retained revenue, but it may also be expressed by a team that feels psychologically safer, a patient receiving better care, a volunteer choosing to stay, or a family receiving better service.
Perhaps that’s one of the least visible, yet most valuable, aspects of leadership development. It doesn’t simply develop individuals; it increases the capacity of an entire system. And perhaps that’s the return we can all become better at recognising. Not only after it appears in the numbers, but while it’s quietly taking shape in the conversations, decisions and behaviours that make those numbers possible.
