Research Wednesday | January 7, 2026
Evidence on the Impact of Coaching
I have learned to be skeptical of television personalities who claim expertise in nearly any field. That is the prejudice with which I approached the work of Dr. Brene Brown, but I was pleasantly surprised to see how deep the research base on which she bases her conclusions. Her latest book, Strong Ground (2025), features data from over 16,000 participants in coaching, which should be of interest to our coaches and coaching clients.
Turnover rates were reduced by more than 50%.
41% of participants reported boosts in productivity and energy.
86% reported an increase in management effectiveness.
14% reported an increase in leadership development.
One of the key factors that distinguishes coaching from Creative Leadership Solutions is that we are rigorously accountable for our results, with reports to building and district leaders after every coaching meeting. I would like to include a couple of parenthetical notes with this report. First, “coaching” has a very ambiguous definition in many quarters, which has led many senior leaders to be skeptical. See our book “Fearless Coaching” for greater precision in the use of this term. We sometimes use the phrase “collaborative team support” instead of “coach” if the term “coach” might alienate potential clients. Finally, we need to have an exceedingly clear definition of what coaching is and what it is not. The book Fearless Coaching does a nice job of drawing this distinction clearly.