Abstract/Summary

Evaluating coaching practice is a complex yet necessary task if we are to understand whether our coaching practice is effective in achieving the required results. However, the first step in evaluating coaching is to understand what the required results are; in other words, what outcomes we can expect to achieve from executive coaching. After that, we can then determine the tools and techniques we can use to measure these outcomes. As the evaluation of coaching has only become a pertinent issue in recent years, the theory and evidence are somewhat underdeveloped. However, individuals seeking to evaluate coaching can benefit from the extensive theory and evidence in relation to evaluating other forms of learning and development, such as training, which has benefitted from many decades of scholarly attention. Therefore, in this chapter, we provide an overview of the training evaluation theory and evidence and translate how this can be applied to evaluating coaching. This framework of coaching outcomes reports the multiple levels with which coaching can be evaluated. We provide recommendations regarding the tools and techniques that can be utilized in evaluating coaching at each of these levels. Finally, we present an illustrative case study of coaching evaluation in action.