The following findings come from the 2018 Executive Coaching for Results study which involved a thousand coaching managers, including internal and external coaches. The study was conducted by CoachSource, the world's largest executive coaching company, with more than 1,100 coaches in more than 100 countries. The study participants had to evaluate how likely they considered certain trends in their field to occur within the next three to five years.
Robots will not replace coaches (for now)
Coaching managers and both internal and external coaches agreed on the most important trend, namely a stronger integration of coaching and leadership development programmes in companies. The second strongest trend, according to the respondents, is the development of managers' coaching skills, while the third trend is team coaching, i.e. coaching provided by teams as well as to teams.
On the other hand, coaches consider the possibility of their replacement by artificial intelligence within five years the most unlikely trend. Nor do they expect coaching rates to drop and coaching to become a commodity.
While external and internal coaches consider coaching of millennial leaders a strong trend, from the point of view of coaching managers in companies, the development of this form of coaching is less likely.
Coaching managers take an opposing view in terms of centralising executive coaching in companies under one or more suppliers. While they consider it a strong trend, internal and external coaches regard it as less likely.
The 2018 Executive Coaching for Results study follows previous editions from 2005 and 2013. It has confirmed that the use of coaching in all its forms will grow in the next five years.
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