3 Reasons You Should Add Coachability to Your L&D Budget Yesterday

The final days of October have slipped away, and all of the sudden, it’s November. Before you know it, the holidays will come and go, and 2024 will come to a close. 

But, before you start drafting your New Year’s resolutions, you may have some big decisions to finalize– for example, your organization’s 2025 learning and development budget.

While it may feel like the time for 2025 budget decisions has already come and gone, the reality is that many are still making final choices. So, we’re here to make those choices simple for you— here’s three reasons why you should add coachability training to your L&D budget yesterday. 

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1.  Maximize the Impact of Coaching

Chances are high your organization has spent some money on coaching training. That’s certainly the global trend. According to the International Coaching Federation, over the past decade, company spending on coaching services and training has increased 130% worldwide, from $2 billion to about $4.6 billion.^1,2

This is a smart investment. Research shows that elevating the quality of coaching interactions is a key driver of salesforce, commercial, and organizational performance and effectiveness.³

But since the time that companies began seriously investing in coaching, they've only been focusing on the coach in this two person equation. L&D professionals tell us their tenured managers have attended upwards of 15 different trainings on coaching across their careers. But their employees have not attended a single session on coachability - and the L&D team has not invested any money in improving the other half of the coaching equation.

So, for a decade, companies have been spending significant money developing their coaches, but where is the training for the coachee? 

At this point, our organizations may be full of world-class coaches doling out brilliant advice, yet virtually no one is trained in effectively receiving, seeking, or acting on that feedback and coaching. 

It doesn't make sense to invest in only one side of a two-sided equation. So, if  you have a line item in your budget for coaching, dedicate those funds, or at least a portion of them, to elevating employee coachability in 2025.

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2. Better Adapt to a Rapidly Changing Marketplace

It feels like the world spins a bit faster these days, doesn’t it? 

Many of us are anticipating new company initiatives in 2025 or adjusting to shifts in industry. Almost all of us are learning new ways of working with generative AI. 

From the microcosmic to the macrocosmic, we’re in constant flux. We’re simply never not moving, never not adapting.

In this ever-evolving landscape, your organization needs a nimble workforce to stay competitive. So how does one train for nimbleness, of all things?  

Our research indicates that the highly coachable employee is 28% more agile than the moderately coachable employee.⁴ When you invest in developing team members’ coachability, you're enabling people to change, adapt and develop other job-related skills more effectively, more quickly, and more sustainably.

To give employees better skills and techniques to thrive in moments of change (so… every moment), invest in that development by adding coachability skills training in your 2025 budget.

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3. Improve the Promotability of Internal Talent

I talked to a colleague recently who conducts leadership assessments. He said that, when a client assesses a candidate for a leadership role, without fail, every client always asks: is this candidate coachable? 

If the answer is “no”, the client has some concerns. One, it's going to be difficult for colleagues and team members to work with a leader who’s not coachable. Two, hiring someone with low coachability will communicate that continuous improvement does not matter as an individual moves up higher within the organization. And third, it's going to be hard for a candidate with low coachability to develop the necessary skills for them to thrive in a dynamic and demanding leadership role. 

Of course, with any new job comes a brand new skill set to learn. Leadership roles require coachable people who are willing to adopt new behaviors or mindsets. 

What’s more, the higher up an individual climbs within an organization, the less feedback they receive.⁵ You might think leaders field advice and feedback all the time, but in reality, they often receive less unsolicited coaching as they ascend through the ranks. 

This makes coachability even more urgent for our emerging leaders. They must proactively seek out the coaching that they need. They must have the humility to constantly ask, “How can I improve?” 

If you really want to develop high potential talent at your organization (and you should, because research suggests that internal hires are generally more cost-effective and more likely to be successful in their role than external hires), you should develop your emerging leaders’ coachability.⁶

Invest in your team members’ coachability in 2025, and you’ll create more agile, resilient, and responsive leadership for 2026 and beyond. 

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Invest in Coachability in 2025

Whether you want to improve coaching interactions, help employees gain skills to more easily adapt to change, or better equip emerging leaders, coachability can help your organization reach its goals in 2025. Adding coachability assessment and training to your L&D budget now can make your organization’s hopes for tomorrow more achievable. 

At Coachability Consultants, we believe that everyone can elevate to the level of highly coachable, and we are on a mission to help as many people as possible achieve that milestone.

To learn more about the training plan that would work best for your 2025 L&D budget, reach out to us. We look forward to getting in touch and getting you started on your coachability journey.

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Sources

1. International Coaching Federation. (2023). ICF Global Coaching Study: 2023 Executive Summary. 
2. International Coaching Federation. (2012). ICF Global Coaching Study: 2012 Executive Summary. 
3. Joo et al., 2012; Ladyshewsky, 2010; Park, Yang, & McLean, 2008
4. Weiss, J. A., & Merrigan, M. (2021, February 1). Employee coachability: New insights to increase employee adaptability, performance, and promotability in organizations. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/65fdd9abdfe007f804f15369/6633cbaa93903362ed0ba9bb_Employee%20Coachability%20-%202021.pdf
5. Scott, K., Fosslien, L., & Duffy, M. W. (2023, March 16). How leaders can get the feedback they need to grow. Harvard Business Review. 
6. Martin, J. (2014, January 17). For senior leaders, fit matters more than skill. Harvard Business Review.