International Coach Federation Global Coaching Study 2016

The International Coach Federation (ICF) has just released the 2016 version of the Global Coaching Study. It looks at the trends and stats of the coaching industry. 

For me a couple of key topics are the future trends.

It found that the #1 future opportunity for the coaching industry is to increase awareness of the benefits of coaching. So here’s my attempt to reiterate the benefits:

  • Achieving one’s goals, whether personal or professional

  • Improve self-awareness

  • Increase confidence

  • Greater clarity of what you want for yourself and a process to achieve it

  • More happiness, satisfaction and/or fulfilment

Conversely, the #1 future obstacle is untrained individuals who call themselves coaches. My only comment on this is when you look to hire a coach please ask about their years of experience, training and certification. Boastfully I am one of less than 210 UK coaches certified to the level of PCC – Professional Certified Coach – by ICF.

As they have reported, some key takeaways from the study are as follows:

  • There are currently approximately 53,300 coach practitioners worldwide.

  • The estimated 2015 global revenue from coaching was $2.356 billion USD, representing a 19% increase over the 2011 estimate.

  • 62% of coach practitioners identified a Business Coaching discipline as their main specialty, representing a five percent increase from 2011.

  • 94% of coach practitioners offer one or more services in addition to coaching within their professional practice. On average, coach practitioners offer 2.8 services in addition to coaching.

  • 77% of coach practitioners and 72% of managers and leaders using coaching skills agree that people and organisations using coaching expect their coaches to be credentialed.

What would you say about the coaching industry or what would you want to know?