The Surprising ROI of a 2-Second Coaching Habit

In this month’s newsletter, I share how a small behavioral shift can have a measurable impact on frontline performance. Before we dive in… 

Here’s one of my top-performing posts on LinkedIn this month:

What if a two-second action could significantly boost coaching effectiveness and frontline productivity? 

That’s the question our team at Centrical Labs set out to answer. What we discovered is a powerful reminder: sometimes, the most effective performance tools are also the simplest. 

Let me explain. 

My Team Analyzed 200K Coaching Interactions. One Pattern Stood Out. 

We all know this: Coaching is one of the most powerful tools to improve a team’s performance. According to Gartner, coaching is a better driver of performance than training, staff retention, and recruiting high performers. 

But the success of coaching depends on execution. My team analyzed more than 200,000 coaching interactions completed in the Centrical platform across 50,000 frontline employees in industries such as banking, travel, and customer service. 

Here’s what we found: when coaching tasks were assigned without a due date, employees completed them 72% of the time. 

When a due date was added, completion rates increased to 84%. 

That’s a 12% improvement, achieved through a simple change in behavior. 

It Didn’t Just Improve Follow-Through. It Improved Productivity. 

We then looked at performance outcomes to see if the impact was deeper. Did deadlines make coaching more impactful? 

The data says yes. 

When coaching tasks included a due date, KPI performance improved by 4%. 

Coaching works best when it’s consistent, timely, and connected to what matters in the moment. When expectations are clear and time-bound, employees follow through. 

Want to read the full Centrical Labs report?

Bonus Content: How Agentic AI Helps Scale Coaching Impact

It’s one thing to optimize individual coaching interactions, like adding a due date. But how do you scale these performance-boosting behaviors across thousands of employees and managers? 

That’s where AI — and specifically Agentic AI — comes in. 

Scaling performance-boosting behaviors takes more than dashboards. It takes systems of action—tools that translate insight into immediate, personalized next steps. 

At Centrical, we’ve been focusing on building precisely that: AI and Agentic AI capabilities that don’t just capture performance data, but activate improvement, turning insights into personalized, timely coaching at scale. 

One example: Personalized Success Plans, which help employees make sense of their performance data and take meaningful next steps. These plans are dynamically generated using predictive insights and are tailored to the individual, providing employees with guided improvement plans that are relevant, practical, and easy to act on through integrated coaching and training. 

On the manager side, our AI Assistant helps team leaders identify performance gaps and recommends next-best actions. Rather than relying on static reports or intuition, managers receive context-rich insights that support more targeted, efficient coaching. It’s about freeing them up to spend more time with their people and less time navigating systems. 

Together, these innovations aim to make performance support more adaptive, so that managers and employees alike can focus on what matters most: growth, improvement, and driving results. 

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