Professional Coaching: The Evolution From “Why” To “Why Not” To “Must Have” The growth and changing landscape of the coaching industry

By Magdalena Nowicka Mook, ICF

As the world navigated an unprecedented crisis these past few years, professionals began looking for a balance to maintain a sense of normalcy in their lives. Organizations faced significant new challenges including the adjustment to remote and hybrid work environments, the search for new ways to motivate and engage teams, and a rise in the demand for holistic support of employees as full persons.

Coaching proved particularly well suited to support individuals and teams through these kinds of challenges, and while demand for professional coaching had already been growing for years, the latest research shows it has grown faster over the last three years than ever before. The ‘2023 International Coaching Federation (ICF) Global Coaching Study’ (GCS), executed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, indicates coaching industry growth of more than 50% from 2019 to 2022, bringing the total number of practicing professional coaches worldwide to more than 100,000.

As a result, human resources (HR) leaders have a new level of access to the tried-and-true employee benefit of coaching to achieve measurable positive impacts on business outputs.

The 2023 GCS highlights industrywide trends that have reshaped the current state of coaching, pulling information from nearly 15,000 respondents across 157 countries. The most prominent developments include the dramatic increase in the number of active professional coaches and annual revenue, insights into who is seeking coaching, and new and expanding applications of coaching.

Skyrocketing Growth Is on Pace with Demand for Personal and Professional Development

Since 2019, the professional coaching industry experienced a significant increase in the total number of coach practitioners worldwide, according to 2023 GCS. This growth is not limited to the North American market, but is significant across emerging markets as well. In fact, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa each show over 74% growth. Powering this growth in coaching is the increasing engagement of individuals with professional coaches. As a result, industry revenues also are increasing with an estimated $4.5 billion being achieved in 2022 alone.

In other words, coaching demand has grown on pace with the increase in professionals as it has become more widely understood and adopted. There is no doubt that companies that have engaged coaches for employee development or implemented coaching cultures across their entire organizations represent a significant portion of this growth.

Coaching Is a Fit for Leaders and Their Teams

In the GCS survey, coaches identified over half of their clients as managers or executives — a wise investment, as coaching for a team or organizational leader is known to create a “ripple effect” that reaches throughout the organizations and the professionals they support.

Though coaching was once dominated by the greatest generation and boomers, a meaningful shift is now evident. As of 2022, the majority of coaching clients were aged 35 and 44, and engaged with a coach to improve communication skills, work/life balance, productivity, and expand professional career opportunities, according to the study. Women have long been more likely to seek coaching compared to men, and from 2019 to 2022 this trend not only continued but grew to reflect 58% of all coaching clients.

Just as the age of coaching professionals declined, so did the age of clients. Today, one in five coaching clients are under 35 years old. While this means millennials and Gen Z continue to be smaller portions of the market, it indicates growing demand among these generations with an expectation this trend will continue as these generations begin to make up a larger portion of the workforce. Young professionals are engaging with coaches to support the start of their careers at a higher rate than in the past.