Professional Coaching: The Evolution From “Why” To “Why Not” To “Must Have”

The growth and changing landscape of the coaching industry

Highlights:

1. Professional coaching experiences unprecedented growth with over 50% increase in just three years.
2. The majority of coaching clients are aged 35-44, seeking work/life balance, productivity and career opportunities.
3. Companies are integrating coaching programs to support the growth of leaders and teams.

As the world navigated an unprecedented crisis these past few years, professionals began looking for a balance to maintain a sense of normalcy in their lives. Organizations faced significant new challenges including the adjustment to remote and hybrid work environments, the search for new ways to motivate and engage teams, and a rise in the demand for holistic support of employees as full persons.

Coaching proved particularly well suited to support individuals and teams through these kinds of challenges, and while demand for professional coaching had already been growing for years, the latest research shows it has grown faster over the last three years than ever before. The ‘2023 International Coaching Federation (ICF) Global Coaching Study’ (GCS), executed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, indicates coaching industry growth of more than 50% from 2019 to 2022, bringing the total number of practicing professional coaches worldwide to more than 100,000.
 

As a result, human resources (HR) leaders have a new level of access to the tried-and-true employee benefit of coaching to achieve measurable positive impacts on business outputs.

The 2023 GCS highlights industrywide trends that have reshaped the current state of coaching, pulling information from nearly 15,000 respondents across 157 countries. The most prominent developments include the dramatic increase in the number of active professional coaches and annual revenue, insights into who is seeking coaching, and new and expanding applications of coaching.

Skyrocketing Growth Is on Pace with Demand for Personal and Professional Development

Since 2019, the professional coaching industry experienced a significant increase in the total number of coach practitioners worldwide, according to 2023 GCS. This growth is not limited to the North American market, but is significant across emerging markets as well. In fact, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa each show over 74% growth. Powering this growth in coaching is the increasing engagement of individuals with professional coaches. As a result, industry revenues also are increasing with an estimated $4.5 billion being achieved in 2022 alone.

In other words, coaching demand has grown on pace with the increase in professionals as it has become more widely understood and adopted. There is no doubt that companies that have engaged coaches for employee development or implemented coaching cultures across their entire organizations represent a significant portion of this growth.

Coaching Is a Fit for Leaders and Their Teams

In the GCS survey, coaches identified over half of their clients as managers or executives — a wise investment, as coaching for a team or organizational leader is known to create a “ripple effect” that reaches throughout the organizations and the professionals they support.  

Though coaching was once dominated by the greatest generation and boomers, a meaningful shift is now evident. As of 2022, the majority of coaching clients were aged 35 and 44, and engaged with a coach to improve communication skills, work/life balance, productivity, and expand professional career opportunities, according to the study. Women have long been more likely to seek coaching compared to men, and from 2019 to 2022 this trend not only continued but grew to reflect 58% of all coaching clients.

Just as the age of coaching professionals declined, so did the age of clients. Today, one in five coaching clients are under 35 years old. While this means millennials and Gen Z continue to be smaller portions of the market, it indicates growing demand among these generations with an expectation this trend will continue as these generations begin to make up a larger portion of the workforce. Young professionals are engaging with coaches to support the start of their careers at a higher rate than in the past.

It is possible millennials and Gen Z also will find coaching more appealing as their generations become more commonly represented among coaching professionals. While coaching initially took shape as a second or third career, there are now opportunities to engage in coaching training programs while in college.

Along with this growth of the profession, 80% of coaches agree that credentialing continues to be a crucial identifier for individuals and HR leaders seeking to engage with a coach.

By far, the most rewarding aspect of industry growth is to see that the types of clients engaging with coaching are much more diverse than they have been in the past. Young people, retirees, all genders and races are working with coaches, and for those who have been in the industry for years, this growth is truly outstanding.

A Broadening Spectrum of Applications to Make the Most of Coaching

When professional coaching first emerged as an industry, it was entirely driven by one-on-one coaching-client engagements. Over the decades, coaching evolved to include a broader spectrum of applications including managers using a coach approach, team coaching, and organization-wide coaching cultures.

The 2023 GCS results indicate these models continue to advance. Coaches who specialize in business coaching have grown steadily in number and as many as 67% of coaches indicated this was their primary specialization as of 2022. Across all global markets, 57% of coach clients engage a coach in a sponsored engagement through their employer, compared to personal, self-funded interactions.

Companies like Intel have integrated coaching company-wide as an employee benefit as they strive to clarify goals, change behaviors, build capabilities, and create the conditions that drive positive business results. Intel’s internal coaching program has netted a return on investment of over $1 billion per year in operating margin, far and above just accounting for the cost of program implementation.
 
This measurable growth points to an impressive current state of coaching and reflects the value that individuals and organizations have found by integrating coaching into their workplace repertoire. As a driver for heightened engagement and productivity, HR leaders around the globe are noticing the value, and incorporating coaching programs in their organizations to support steady growth for leaders and their teams.

Looking back three decades to the profession’s origins, coaching was often defined by what it is not. Coaching is not mentoring. Coaching is not therapy. Coaching is not counseling. But today, coaching is more commonly defined by what it is and what it can achieve: a powerful way to unleash a person’s potential, supercharge leaders, accelerate high performers, and enrich company cultures.

As this becomes more widely understood, more organizations, governments, nonprofits, and individuals are turning to coaching to help them reach their highest potential and set them apart from competitors for talent retention.

The 2023 GCS demonstrates that awareness of this potential is rising and, thus, the favorable outcomes associated with the growth of coaching will continue to be realized around the world.

Author Bio

Magdalena Nowicka Mook is the CEO of the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Previously, she held positions with the Council of State Governments and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service. She is a trained coach and a frequent speaker on coaching and leadership.