New research links coaching to increased income, job promotions, and higher levels of financial satisfaction.

People have many reasons they might hire a coach. Often, they’re driven by some type of dissatisfaction in their life or a longing for something more, whether it’s the desire to feel more fulfilled, to improve their leadership skills, or to make more money. You may have talked to other professionals who have worked with a coach and reported that their coach helped them do all of these things.

As we get better at measuring the effects of coaching, we’re uncovering scientific data that backs up these stories. In fact, a new study provides preliminary and promising evidence that iPEC’s Core Energy Coaching™ model can help people increase their income and move into leadership roles in their career. The same data also shows that people who work with a Core Energy Coach report feeling more satisfied with their financial situation.

iPEC is a comprehensive coach training program that’s trained more than 15,000 coaches worldwide and Core Energy Coaching™ is their proprietary methodology. Previous iPEC research has measured the effects of Core Energy Coaching—namely, that it raises a person’s core energy, helps a person respond better in stressful situations, and increases life satisfaction.

Now, iPEC’s research team is exploring the financial effect those changes can have on someone’s life. “We know that people who work with iPEC coaches see a positive shift in their energy and that people who raise their energy experience more life satisfaction. So, in this study, for the first time, we were looking at how that impacts financial gain,” says Lynn Waldorf, PhD, CPC, who analyzed the iPEC data.

How iPEC Measures the Effect of Coaching

The new study is based on the data from 259 coaching clients who took the Energy Leadership Index™ (ELI) between April 2013 and March 2017. The clients, all of whom were employed full-time in a range of job positions, earning between $25,000 and $300,000 annually, took the ELI in the beginning of their engagement with an iPEC-trained coach and again three to 12 months later.

The ELI is a 70-item, web-based self-assessment that measures the amount of anabolic and catabolic energy in a person’s core energy makeup, under both ideal and stressful circumstances. Anabolic energy is constructive and creative, and works for a person. Conversely, catabolic energy is destructive and draining, and works against a person.

iPEC’s Core Energy Coaching methodology trains coaches to help clients become aware of their actions and choices so they can shift into anabolic energy. The previous research used a dataset of nearly 30,000 clients to establish that the ELI is an accurate measure of this shift and that the average increase in anabolic energy and decrease in catabolic energy, after a coaching engagement, ELI respondents reported was statistically significant.

The current study reaffirms that shift, showing that the core energy—or Average Resonating Level (ARL)—increased for these 259 ELI respondents in a statistically significant way. This increase in ARL helps with everything from confidence to clarity—the effects of which can be wide ranging in a person’s life.

Coaching Linked to Increased Income and Job Gains

Can working with a Core Energy Coach help you increase your income? The data is certainly promising in what it suggests.

ELI respondents reported their income on both their initial ELI and their follow-up ELI by choosing which income level best described them. The levels moved up by $25,000 increments, until the $100,000 threshold, when levels went up by $50,000 increments. Forty-two people reported moving up into another income level on the follow-up ELI. The majority were one-level increases, which happened, on average, after seven months of coaching. Six people reported a jump of two (or more) levels—increases which happened, on average, after nine months of coaching. “Since all we could detect was making a level jump, there is likely more movement than we saw,” says Liz Fisch, Senior Vice President of Program Development and Research for iPEC.

About 10 percent of people reported getting promotions to at least one role above their starting level during their work with an iPEC coach. Researchers saw the most change in people moving from non-managerial to managerial roles—in essence, claiming the leadership roles they had sought.

While researchers can’t conclusively say that these income increases and promotions were caused by coaching, all of the evidence points to a link between increased ARL and increased income. “We have a high level of confidence that positive changes are not due to random chance but are related to an increase in core energy,” Waldorf says.

Coaching Increases Both Financial Satisfaction and Life Satisfaction

In general, the data found that people were more satisfied with their financial situation after coaching than they were before. Does this mean that everyone who said they were more satisfied with their financial situation was making more money? Not necessarily. More isn’t always better. Satisfaction, or feeling like you are living on your own terms, is one of the key outcomes of Core Energy Coaching. “It’s increasing your core energy to more anabolic levels which makes the difference in your life satisfaction, more than just how much money you make,” Fisch says.

At its most basic level, coaching helps people make changes in their lives. “Ninety percent of what holds people back is their own mindset and idea of what is possible. So, when they experience Core Energy Coaching and change their perception about what could be possible, they start thinking differently and behaving differently,” Waldorf says. When you work with an iPEC-trained coach, you’re working with an evidence-based model that’s been studied and linked to real-life changes and tangible outcomes.

You can read the full research paper here.

Connect with me, Judy McHugh, CPC, ELI-MP (as well as MBA and EdD) to discuss the vision you have for your future and explore how Core Energy Coaching can help you achieve higher levels of financial satisfaction.