Peer-Reviewed Research Confirms the Effectiveness of the AIIR’s Coaching Methodology
A Peer-Reviewed Study of 686 Fortune 500 Executives Validates that AIIR Consulting’s Executive Coaching Improves Performance in Leaders and Their Organizations
Companies invest billions of dollars a year in executive coaching and leadership development. And, the question they rightly ask are: “Does coaching actually change leader performance?” and “How would we know?”
A new peer-reviewed study offers an answer. Published in the European Journal of Training and Development (Emerald Publishing) and co-authored by AIIR Consulting Founder and CEO Dr. Jonathan Kirschner and Prof. Nicky Terblanche of Stellenbosch Business School, it is one of the largest qualitative examinations to date of the impact of coaching on leadership. Every engagement in the study was delivered through the AIIR® Method, the methodology at the core of AIIR’s executive coaching services.
What the Research Found
The study analyzed 1,130 open-ended survey responses from 686 executives across more than 300 global organizations — predominantly Fortune 500 companies. Leaders most frequently reported that coaching improved:
- Team Leadership (24.2%) — managing, delegating, engaging, and leading teams more effectively
- Communication (16.4%) — communicating clearly and influencing stakeholders
- People Development (16.0%) — mentoring, growing, and empowering others
- Executive Presence (15.7%) — increased confidence and visible leadership authority
When asked what feedback they received from colleagues, executives most often cited team engagement (27.4%), executive presence (17.5%), and communication (13.8%) — closely mirroring the changes leaders saw in themselves. The study suggests that team leadership is the central pathway through which coaching’s impact becomes visible to an organization, with leaders also describing improvements in business outcomes, culture, and operational performance.
The Role of Coaching Methodology
The engagements were delivered by 158 coaches across North America, EMEA, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. While many executive coaching providers would struggle to return a consistent result across such a wide range of coaching engagements, every engagement in the study followed the AIIR® Method (Assessment, Insight, Implementation, Reinforcement), a structured, four-phase approach to creating sustained behavior change.
- The Assessment phase collected multi-source data including psychometrics and 360° feedback
- The Insight phase translates data into a targeted development plan
- The Implementation phase sees leaders practicing new skills and leadership behaviors, and
- The Reinforcement phase consolidates learning so it lasts beyond the engagement
That consistency matters for the research — a single methodology across 686 engagements makes the patterns meaningful. When coaching is structured around how behavioral change actually works, the results show up not just in how leaders feel, but in how their organizations perform.
“The AIIR® Method was born from a single conviction: coaching should transform a leader’s performance, not just their perspective,” said Dr. Kirschner, who developed the AIIR® Method when he founded the firm in 2009. “Seventeen years later, peer-reviewed science confirms what we’ve experienced across thousands of coaching engagements: Leaders don’t just feel more effective — their impact is seen and felt by their teams, their colleagues, and their organizations. That’s a triumph for our clients, for every executive who did the hard work of changing how they lead, and for every team performing better because of it.”
Read More of the Research
“Executive Leaders’ Perspectives on the Impact of Executive Coaching on Their Leadership Development” is published open access in the European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 50 No. 10, pp. 127–145. Read the full study at doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-03-2026-0066.
About The Authors