Only a decade ago, executive coaching was associated with either very senior business leaders coached by well-known authors and thought leaders, or with leaders who were struggling in their roles and were given a coach as a last resort.

Today, executive coaching has become mainstream — and it has changed significantly.

First, despite the name, it is no longer the prerogative of C-level executives or their direct reports. Many companies now offer coaching to leaders at all levels of the organisation.

Second, it is no longer seen as a remedy for underperformance. Instead, executive coaches are increasingly viewed the way we view coaches in sport: helping already high-performing individuals to become even better.
As an executive coach myself, I support business leaders with a wide range of challenges: transitioning into new roles, defining strategies for their teams and organisations, improving collaboration with their own leaders and teams, and navigating change.

As a result, executive coaching has evolved from a niche activity into a serious industry. And, like any growing industry, this raises questions about developing and maintaining professional standards, pricing, quality and technology.

Stefan Stenzel has been active in the coaching world since the early 2000s and published ‘Die Zukunft des Coaching-Business’ (‘The Future of the Coaching Business’) in 2022.

I recently sat down with him for two conversations to explore the state of the executive coaching business today.
In our first conversation, we focused on ‘The Executive Coaching Business’
and covered the following topics:

• The value of executive coaching
• Measuring the ROI of executive coaching
• The characteristics of a good executive coach
• Assessing the quality of an executive coach
• Does the downward pressure on fees impact the quality of executive coaches?
• The red and blue oceans for executive coaches
• The place for independent coaches in the world of Digital Coaching Platforms (DCPs)
• Face-to-face versus digital coaching
• External coaches versus internal coaches

About Stefan Stenzel

Stefan Stenzel (Dipl.-Psych.) studied Organizational Psychology at Heidelberg and Mannheim with a minor in business administration. He has almost 30 years of experience in PD and OD. Since 2001 he is working at SAP SE in the role of a HR Senior Expert for Learning in the team of Global Leadership Development with varying areas of responsibilities. Based on his initial coaching training in 1998, he is working as an internal coach at SAP since 2002. With short interruptions he is globally responsible for the external coach pool across all management levels and is currently implementing a coachbot to complement the service portfolio. He is Co-founder of DBVC e.V. in 2004. In 2023 he co-founded in this context with, Dr. Uwe Böning. the so-called Think Tank “Future of Coaching” . He is author of various publications on the topic of (the future of) coaching.

Stefan Stenzel Linkedin

Contact Stefan Stenzel: kontakt@coaching-reset.de

Webpage: www.coaching-reset.de

Book: Die Zukunft des Coaching-Business https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-662-64421-8

Disclaimer

The statements and expressed opinions of Stefan Stenzel are his own and do not represent the views, positions, or policies of SAP SE.

Any comments he made are purely personal and should not be interpreted as being endorsed with SAP SE.

For any official information or statements, please refer directly to SAP SE.

Any questions or comments? Press this link and send me a message!