Coaching Blog

2012 Trends in Business and Life Coaching

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The 2012 ICF Coaching Study Executive Summary was just released, revealing worldwide trends in business and life coaching.

This year's coaching study is the biggest  ever, with over 12,000 coaches responding from 117 nations. Extrapolating from that data, the ICF estimates that there are now 47,500 professional coaches, worldwide.

It's no surprise that the greatest concentration of coaches and highest paid coaches are in 'high income areas' like North America, Western Europe and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). What surprised me is that Oceania leads the world both in high pay and the number of coaches relative to its population. (Go Aussies!)

Here are 6 more 2012 trends in business and life coaching from the ICF Survey:

• Total annual revenue from professional coaching worldwide is now nearly 2 Billion (In US Dollars). That means it's nearly doubled in the past few years.
• Most coaches are reporting an increase in fees, clients, hours and revenues over the past 12 months, despite the global economy, showing once again, that coaching does well even in poor economic times.
• Most coaches predict a further increase in fees, clients, hours and revenue in the coming 12 months.
• Latin America and the Caribbean are currently reporting the greatest rates of growth, as coaching continues to enter and succeed in new markets.
• A majority of professional coaches say they want the industry to become regulated, with the greatest proportion stating that the industry of coaching should be regulated by coaching associations rather than governments.
• When asked what they thought would be the greatest challenge to the profession of coaching in the coming year, the number one threat was identified as 'untrained individuals who call themselves coaches', followed by 'marketplace confusion' (which is caused, in part, by untrained individuals who call themselves coaches). This also points to why the idea of regulation is gaining traction among business and life coaches.

Do any of these 2012 trends in business and life coaching surprise you? You're invited to comment below.

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