In the middle of 2006 at the School of Coaching Tricia Bey, our MD, led an alumni discussion looking at the current market for executive coaching services in the UK and making some predictions for how it might develop. These are some of her observations about the market:

• Coaching is clearly very much in vogue and, with low entry barriers, new entrants are rushing in to the market. For example, at the 2006 HRD Conference, around 25% of the 300 exhibitors were offering coaching as part of their services.
• Many buyers are unable to distinguish good from indifferent coaching and coach training - and indeed some lack understanding of what coaching itself is.
• Buyers of executive coaching are becoming increasingly sophisticated - eg ensuring the coaching goals are aligned with organisational goals, introducing coaching lists, appointing "Heads of Coaching", etc. At the same time there is a lot of confusion about standards.
• Executive coaching is now widely accepted as a mainstream source of management support.
• Organisations are building 'lists' of coaches with demanding (but not necessarily effective) selection processes.
• There is a shift from a dependence on external coaches to building internal coaching capacity.
• Organisations are understanding better how to use coaching skills in line management and leadership roles.
• There is a growing interest in supervision but differing views about what it involves and how much it should cost. Interestingly one public sector organisation recently updating its coaching book was only considering coaches who could provide evidence of regular supervision going back at least a year.
• There is a growing use of psychometrics, especially MBTI and Firo-B, in coaching.

• There will be increased professionalisation of the industry.
• The market will be increasingly crowded - leading the better coaching providers to set themselves apart with a distinctive message about what they offer.
• More sophisticated clients will require that their coaches have regular supervision.
• Individual coaches will increasingly need to be able to demonstrate real qualifications and experience to purchasers, raising the barriers to entry for individual coaches new to the market in particular.
• Larger corporates will rationalise their portfolio of coaches, making it more difficult for individuals to get work with them - but leading to more opportunities for coaching houses with clear positioning.
• Corporates will no longer allow external coaching to be used to hide failures by line managers to manage. They will continue to build their internal coaching capacity (internal coaches and coaching skills for managers).
• A clear role will remain for external coaches in value-added situations (eg, coaching senior leaders and high-potentials, transition coaching).
• There will be a downward price pressure on one-to-one work, particularly in the increasingly commoditised performance coaching area.
• Some of the froth in the market will blow away so that coaching becomes a serious management discipline and not a trendy thing to have.