How ready do people need to be for coaching? (4 of 4)

Written by Stuart Haden on February 3, 2015

My last three postings have followed my journey in creating free online course (It’s Not About The Coach – 3 part INTRODUCTION). During this time I have really been interested in ascertaining how ready people need to be. What is the ideal level of readiness, can this be expressed as a percentage?

In order to find our starting point I gathered information from 27 organisations, it became clear that the average readiness for coaching is around the 40% mark. If the coachee is willing to go on the upward curve then this starting point is probably fairly typical of most coaching arrangements. However, if the coachee is only 40% ready that it does mean some of the coaches efforts will be wasted.

If coaching is really to deliver a return on investment then we have to reach 50%, just so that energy is not wasted. What we really need from the coachee, is 65% readiness. Once we start to hit these levels of readiness the coachee can focus more so on their goals than the coaching process itself. Bear in mind also that if readiness is greater than 65% then maybe the pace of change is too quick. For example, if someone has a readiness level of 90% then more haste less speed might be required.