Global Coaching Study Executive Summary: 2020

The 2020 ICF Global Coaching Study Executive Summary highlights essential insights from ICF’s comprehensive global survey of the coaching profession.

The 2020 ICF Global Coaching Study represents the fourth of ICF’s major research projects on the size and scope of the coaching profession.The inaugural study was published in 2007 with follow-up studies in 2012 and 2016.

Over that time, the coaching profession has evolved and grown. As a growing number of individuals and organizations have adopted coaching, the use of coaching skills and approaches has expanded beyond professionally trained coach practitioners to include managers, leaders, and human resources and talent development professionals who apply these competencies in their daily workplace interactions. For that reason, the scope of the 2016 study was widened to include managers and leaders who use coaching skills in the workplace.

Based on survey responses from 22,457 coaches and managers/leaders using coaching skills, the summary includes details about coach practitioners, managers/leaders using coaching skills, and the coaching industry. It also provides insight into coaches’ income and revenue from coaching, as well as respondents’ experiences with and perspectives on coaching education and coach credentialing.