Using Surveys in Coaching: 9 Steps from Purpose to Practice

Surveys are one of the most commonly used methods to determine a client’s needs and expectations prior to coaching, and they can also be used to monitor and assess progress and results throughout the coaching engagement. By using different question design, information about behavior and attitudes, learning, performance and reactions can be obtained and analyzed. Surveys may also provide valuable feedback for coaches.

Clients should be informed of the purpose of the survey and assured that no negative consequences will result from their participation or non-participation. Coaching agreements with organizations should include a statement of confidentiality and anonymity.

Designing and using surveys in coaching is a nine-step process.

1) Establish the Purpose

A thoughtful and thorough purpose statement is essential to improving the coaching practice, assessing the level of success when helping clients meet their goals, or making an overall contribution to the greater coaching knowledge base.

2) Select Survey Participants

Coaches need to determine who will participate in the survey. They may employ more than one survey for assessment, such as with organizational clients.

3) Explore Methods and Modes

Two broad methods exist for survey administration: self-administered and interviewer-administered. Surveys can be administered in-person with paper, by mail or email, or via the internet. These modes differ in terms of cost, timeliness of response and expected response rates.

Web surveys are the most popular mode. Although they have clear speed, cost and flexibility advantages, the response rates tend to be lower. The cost of an internet survey can be relatively low depending on the amount of professional time needed to develop questions and analyze data.

4) Develop Questions and Response Items

Once the purpose is clear, specific questions and response items are developed. Coaches most often use open-ended questions and strive to create space for clients to explore ideas and goals. However, closed-ended questions typically comprise the bulk of a coaching survey. Therefore, the survey developer must know the potential answers ahead of time. Types of closed-ended questions include checklist, multiple choice, true or false, and Likert-style scale items.

Questions should be culturally inclusive and sensitive while refraining from leading the client to a specific answer. Double-barreled questions (posing two questions in one item), and questions with double negatives should not be used. The survey should be written in simple and direct language without jargon.

When surveying clients from the general population, a useful rule of thumb is to write questions at a middle school reading level. Including a few open-ended questions offers clients an opportunity to express opinions and may provide the coach with testimonials that can be used for marketing (with client consent).

5) Choose a Questionnaire Format

Begin with a brief statement of purpose and express gratitude for the client’s time and input. The survey should be visually appealing. A responsive format, for easy viewing and navigation on a variety of devices, should also be considered.

The order of questions and answers is important. Research supports ordering responses from negative to positive (“strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”). Preliminary questions should be easy to answer to encourage clients to continue, and difficult or sensitive questions should be placed at the end. Group questions on the same topic together.

6) Conduct a Pre-test

Before administering the survey, a pre-test will help identify confusing questions and increase validity and reliability. Individuals in the pre-test group should be similar to those who will complete the survey when it is finished.

7) Administer the Survey

Generally, self-administered surveys have better response rates when completed in a group setting, such as at the end of a team coaching engagement.

Here are some tips for improving the response rate:

• Explain the purpose of the survey and reassure clients that their responses are important
• Make several contacts with clients to encourage completion
• Keep the survey as short as possible
• Direct clients to a survey website rather than an email questionnaire

8) Analyze the Results

Survey answers comprise the data to be analyzed. The answers are converted into a form appropriate for analysis and communication. Coding, or data reduction, entails designing a code or rules by which the respondents’ answers are assigned values that can be entered into a computer and analyzed.

9) Communicate Results

Plain text will often suffice either in short narrative form or with bullet points. However, when presenting a group of clients’ responses, a display such as a table or graph is helpful.

Tables use less space and display more data.  Well-constructed tables display numerical or textual information in rows and columns and allow the reader to quickly compare groups or understand patterns.

Graphs provide a powerful visual tool to display numerical data in bars or lines. Bar graphs are used to compare groups. Line graphs are useful in displaying changes over time. Pie graphs, graphs presented in 3-D format, and stacked bar graphs are often more difficult for readers to interpret.