Coaching Roi: Delivering Strategic Value Employing Executive Coaching in Defense Acquisition

By Alphronzo Moseley

Alphronzo Moseleys Doctor of Strategic Leadership final project forms the basis for this relevant book, Coaching ROI: Delivering Strategic Value Employing Executive Coaching in Defense Acquisition. Clearly, Moseley has done a very good job of providing a new addition to Defense acquisition studies. Moseley is an executive coach through the Cambridge Group Worldwide, Boston, MA. His research is one taken at Regent University for the purpose of enhancing leadership development among executive acquisition managers to provide a global learning environment to support a mission-ready defense acquisition workforce that develops, delivers, and sustains effective and affordable war-fighting capabilities.

The progress for Moseley and his colleagues as executive coaches at DAU is measured according to how well the defense acquisition workforce does its mission. Since the executive coaching initiative is the first of its kind at the university, a level 5 evaluation - the fifth level of evaluating coaching measured by a return on investment (ROI) - would provide a deeper understanding of the sources of business value and especially how coaching creates monetary value in Defense acquisition.

The results indicated that the executive coaching program delivered strategic value represented by a conservative ROI of 1,066 percent. Similarly, the coachees and their organizations experienced six business results: increased customer satisfaction, increased resources, increased work-group productivity, reduced cycle time, increased organizational efficiency, and increased personal productivity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 13, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465361776

Alphronzo Moseley

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Copyright © 2011 by Alphronzo Moseley, DSL.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011915983

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4653-6176-9

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4653-6175-2

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-6177-6

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

References

Appendix A: Participant Demographic Information

Appendix B: Roi Evaluation Toolkit Survey Instruments

Appendix C: Roi Evaluation Toolkit Results

To my father,

Reverend Seminole M. Moseley,

December 7, 1916-February 20, 1997,

and

my mother,

Mrs. Bessie L. Moseley,

April 23, 1918-June 8, 1993.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I AM INDEBTED TO my doctoral project advisor and coach of Regent University, Dr. Diane M. Wiater, whose distinguished background in coaching and intuitive insights raised the bar and encouraged me to pursue writing a book. The title for this book and the content came from my doctoral study project. I also thank Dr. Bruce Winston, Dean, School of Global Leadership and Entrepreneurship, for his challenging words on the very first day of residency. He said, This doctoral program is about perseverance and time management, and you must learn to master both if you desire to finish. Furthermore, I thank my editors, Dr. Rosalind Blunt and Ms. Rose Bethard, for their critique of my original manuscript and for their encouraging words along the way. Moreover, I thank my children, Colmar, Bertrand, Burl, Shari, and Larry, and grandchildren, Aiden and Mya, for their understanding and inspirational support as I got closer to the finish line. Last, but certainly not least, I especially want to thank my wife, Joyce, for her strong support, love, and steadfast patience during my entire doctoral journey—words cannot express how much I appreciate you! To the utmost, I thank each and every one who contributed to my learning experience and to the publication of this book.

PREFACE

THIS BOOK IS the write-up of my doctoral study at Regent University which investigated executive coaching as a leadership development option in Defense acquisition by examining the Defense Acquisition University’s (DAU) Executive Coaching Pilot Program. It also investigated not only the reaction to and learning gained from coaching, but it looked critically at the program to determine if it was delivering strategic value to its coachees and whether that value was being harnessed to drive acquisition outcomes. The study tested the five levels of evaluating coaching: reaction, learning, application, business impact, and return on investment (ROI). Since the executive coaching initiative is the first of its kind at the university, a Level 5 evaluation would provide a deeper understanding of the sources of business value and especially how coaching created monetary value in Defense acquisition. Interview data were collected from nine acquisition program managers (fifty-three percent) who completed the executive coaching pilot program. Seventy-eight percent of the program managers reported having greater than 20 years of management and leadership experience in the Department of Defense.

The results indicated the executive coaching program delivered strategic value represented by a conservative ROI of 1,066 percent. Similarly, the coachees and their organizations experienced six business results: increased customer satisfaction, increased resources, increased work group productivity, reduced cycle time, increased organizational efficiency, and increased personal productivity. The study concludes that the DAU Executive Coaching Program delivered strategic value to Defense acquisition managers and drove acquisition outcomes, and therefore, it should be required as a leadership development option.

There are limited publications that include quantitative and qualitative research on coaching ROIs. Coaching, and particularly executive coaching, is growly at a rapid pace, and the need to better measure the outcome of coaching has become paramount. This book provides that linkage through a credible, financial ROI that would be invaluable to mid-level managers and executives whether in the government or commercial business. Who should read this book? The primary audience is company executives/managers, government executives/managers, coaching researchers, graduate students enrolled in management and leadership curriculums, university faculty, and executive coaches. A secondary audience is individuals engaged in leadership development options in professional societies, individuals in leadership development firms, and individuals in consulting groups. Thank you for choosing to read this book.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

COACHING IS THE new currency in leadership development. In 2005, coaching in the United States alone represented a $1 billion business annually, and there were 40,000 coaches worldwide. Coaching is a comprehensive communication process in which coaches provide performance feedback to individuals on all work-related performance. This includes personal, interpersonal, technical, or business skills in order for these individuals to willingly contribute to meaningful personal and organizational goals (Crane 2002; Hamlin, Ellinger, and Beattie 2008).

Research indicates nearly 40 percent of Fortune 500 firms are spending millions integrating coaching as development initiatives (Handin and Steinwedel 2006). Furthermore, an agency within the Department of Defense (DoD) announced a new department-wide training program for supervisors beginning in 2010. Supervisors are expected to learn how to set and communicate individual and team goals, develop employees, build effective teams, give feedback, and supervise teleworking employees (Losey 2010). Moreover, according to the secretary of defense, the number of Defense acquisition professionals will grow 15 percent over the next five years from 127,000 to 147,000, clearly making Defense acquisition ripe for coaching (Gates 2010).

In 2008, the Defense Acquisition University launched an executive coaching capability as a pilot initiative designed exclusively for the DoD Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L) leaders. The purpose of the coaching initiative was threefold:

• Improve DoD acquisition outcomes

• Catalyze extraordinary leader performance and development

• Create a culture in the AT&L enterprise that values and practices coaching (DAU, n.d.)

The president of DAU supported this initiative in the 2009-2014 DAU strategic plan as a performance target under enabling strategy 3.2. This strategy states that DAU will provide the Defense acquisition workforce with professional growth, certification, and leadership development opportunities (DAU 2008, 29).

The initiative would be in compliance with the 2008 Public Law 110-181, Section 852, DoD Acquisition Workforce Development Fund of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008. The purpose of section 852 is to ensure that the DoD acquisition workforce has the capacity, in both personnel and skills, needed to properly perform its mission, provide appropriate oversight of contractor performance, and ensure that the department receives the best value for the expenditure of public resources (HR 4986 2008, 246).

Problem Statement

Lasting ten months, the DAU executive coaching pilot initiative was not assessed regarding quality of delivery—what worked or what did not work or whether the pilot delivered strategic value to its coachees and subsequently impacted acquisition outcomes in organizations. The study in this book sought to fill that void. The research question was, Should the DAU executive coaching initiative be a leadership development option within Defense acquisition? The research was guided by four supporting questions:

1. What is the return on investment (ROI) of the DAU executive coaching initiative?

2. How should the ROI be measured?

3. At what leadership level should there be a concentration of executive coaching?

4. What leadership competencies should be the aim of the coaching initiative?

In search of answers to these questions, this study not only investigated the reaction to and learning gained from coaching, but also looked critically at the program to determine if it was delivering strategic value to its coachees and whether that value was being harnessed to achieve extraordinary acquisition outcomes. Hence, this study tested the five proven levels of evaluating coaching: reaction, learning, application, business impact, and ROI (Anderson and Anderson 2005; Phillips 2003; and Kirkpatrick 1998).

Since the executive coaching initiative is the first of its kind at the university, a level 5 evaluation would provide a deeper understanding of the sources of business value and especially the way coaching creates monetary value in Defense acquisition. The level 5 evaluation would also enable the learning from the pilot initiative to be leveraged across subsequent DAU executive coaching deployments.

Terms and Definitions

This study of the DAU coaching initiative and the intercorrelation among delivering strategic value measured through a coaching ROI and leadership development competencies draws on the specific meanings of the following concepts:

1. Acquisition Program Manager—The designated individual with responsibility for and authority to accomplish program objectives for development, production, and sustainment to meet the user’s operational needs. The program manager shall be accountable for credible cost, schedule, and performance reporting to the Milestone Decision Authority (DAU 2009).

2. Coaching ROI—ROI is return on investment. An ROI is a formula for investments in training, coaching, or any human performance intervention that is calculated as net benefits divided by the investment or cost multiplied by one hundred (Phillips 2007). A coaching ROI is the ROI from coaching resulting in the delivery of strategic value in which the individual being coached produces extraordinary results.

3. Executive Coaching—A one-to-one interaction between an executive who has managerial authority and responsibility in an organization and a coach in a relationship based upon mutual trust and respect, offering experiential