Coaching as a modality and profession is changing. It’s growing up and new trends and exciting opportunities are emerging for new and experienced coaches in 2023.

If you are a coach or thinking about becoming one, or perhaps you are a professional looking to develop coaching as one of your keys skillsets you learn in 2023, then I’ve got good news…

The coaching industry is booming!

And the skill of coaching is becoming more in demand and valued by employers and, an ever increasing number of new people, who have never experienced coaching before.

Since its inception, the industry has come a long way. Today, coaching has evolved into a diverse and dynamic field that touches on almost every aspect of life, from personal development to business and beyond.

Here are 8 trends worth knowing.

1. Life Coaching Continues to Grow:

Life coaching has seen a surge in popularity in recent years, and in 2023, this trend will continue as more and more people shift from ‘working for the man’ to working for themselves. Life coaching is expected to grow at an average of 5.2% per year between 2023-2027.

2. Competition is Fierce (in Some Markets): 

With no barriers to entry and zero regulation, life coaches are facing fierce competition with many new coaches entering the market every day. To adapt, many professionals are pivoting to markets with higher barriers to entry and less competition – choosing to become performance coaches who serve a smaller group of more affluent clients.

3. Executive and Performance Coaching Sees Massive Growth:

The global executive coaching market is expected to grow at double that of life coaching in the next few years, with an estimated compounded annual growth rate of 11.5% from 2020 to 2027.

The market is expected to reach a value of $17.9 billion by 2027 driving an increase in professionals and life coaches alike seeking out ways to upgrade their coaching skills so they can serve higher profile and high paying clients and capture this increased demand.

4. Virtual Coaching Is Here to Stay:

COVID upended ‘normal’ as we’ve known it and accelerated the trend towards remote working and online coaching with more and more people working from home and turning to speciality coaches to receive guidance and support to help them with their lives and careers.

5. Organisations are Investing & Prioritising Team Coaching:

According to a recent Coach Hub survey, 90% of organizations intend to invest in coaching in 2023. The notion that coaching is reserved only for the C-Suite is a thing of the past. Increasingly, as organisations shift from hierarchical leadership styles to collaborative, dispersed, people focused leadership models – performance and team coaching is becoming a must-have skill.

6.  Major Workplace Change - Managers & Consultants Now Expected to Have Great Coaching Skills:

The world’s workplace has been going through extraordinary change. As a recent global gallop survey concluded “the practice of management has been stuck in time for more than 30 years … the new workforce made up of younger generations don’t want old-style command-and-control bosses. They want coaches who inspire them, communicate with them frequently, and develop their strengths.”

The corporate world has taken notice. The key skill for managers and leaders to acquire today (and tomorrow) is the ability to coach individuals and teams to higher performance if they want to enjoy high-flying careers.

7. Personalized Coaching On The Rise:

Personalization has always been a key component of coaching, but in 2022, it became more

sophisticated, with coaches offering tailored approaches to meet the unique needs of each individual. This trend will continue in 2023. Personalized coaching focuses on helping clients increase their performance in a given area (for example fitness, health, business etc.) by designing tailored made coaching programs that are suited to client’s specific needs and goals, focused on achieving specific tangible outcomes.

8.  The Earning Gap Between Life and Performance Coaches Continues to Grow:

The disparity between life and executive/performance coaches continue to grow. Life coaches typically charge anywhere from $50 to $250 per hour for their services. Performance and executive coaches on the other hand, tend to charge between $300 to $1,000 per hour, or more. Performance and executive coaches typically have more specialised training and offer more specialized results, which enable them to charge higher fees.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the coaching industry is experiencing significant growth and transformation with executive and performance coaching seeing double digit growth year on year and performance coaches earning 5x to 20x times more per hour, than entry level life coaches.

More and more organisations are rushing to adapt to new workplace demands, embracing performance coaching to increase employee productivity, company revenues and increase staff retention. Managers, consultants, HR professionals and savvy employees are turning to executive and performance coaching to give their careers a competitive edge.

While more and more life coaches are facing intense competition and pivoting to personalised performance coaching, upping their coaching game (and their fees) by developing the specialised skills they need to stand out and thrive as a performance coach.

But coaching for performance isn't the same (nor does it use the same tools as a life coach). So in my next article I’ll share what performance coaching is and why becoming a high performance coach makes so much sense if you wish to have a highly rewarding and high paying career as a coach (or professional who uses coaching skills).

Talk soon,

Tom