Effectively partnering with a coaching firm (1/2)
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These are the first five of 10 principles.
(1) Is the coachee on board?
If you are in position where you can make the decision for an executive or business coaching program. Step one is make an informed guess if the leader is really and intrinsically motivated to participate in any coaching programme. No real buy-in is a waste of everyone's time and money. Simple as that.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating. It often comes after three months or so. For example. Is the coachee honouring timing of the sessions? Carving out time? Do you notice any differences in behaviour? Making a real effort?
(2) Is the direct boss involved?
The direct boss needs to play an active role! Start the programme with a three-way session. In this session, the boss gives her/his briefing and perceptions. Repeat this session halfway through the programme and at the end.
The direct boss cannot delegate her/his leadership responsibility to the coach! Which is something that happens regularly in real life.
Final question to answer: is the boss supportive to the coachee and to the investment? Does she/he see the potential return of the investment?
(3) What type of coaching brings most value?
There a different forms of coaching. For example: onboarding coaching (first 100 days), Preparing someone for a bigger job, Making more impact in current job. Legacy coaching. You can work with a great leader and very high potential but the person needs to grow in her/his effective leadership behaviour.
(4) What is our Return on Investment?
Before making the decision. Questions to ask yourself are. How critical is this person for our business? Can we afford to lose this person? Would this person pass our keeper test? -- The keeper test is the answer to the question: if this person comes to me and tells me that she/he has found a comparable job elsewhere; would I try to keep this person? Or would I be somewhat relieved?---What is our replacement cost if we lose this person? What if we can assist this person, through coaching, to increase her/his impact by 25%? What is the cost benefit analysis of this project?
(5) Do we need to give the coachee a choice?
Offering a choice between different coaches often works well because you get more buy-in from the coachee. However, there are some serious downsides. 1. Coachees often instinctively choose someone they ”like” and not for a coach that can cause them ”pain” and is tougher. Many succesful people don't want to be proven "wrong". It's the reality. Downside nr. 2. Some coaches are just better salespersons. So, when offered a choice, the coachee ends up with the best salesperson. Not always with the best coach!
In our first session with a potential coachee we literally always ask the retorical question: "I will tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. Can you handle that? Do you want me to do that?" Of course there's only one answer. It gives us the mandate to make progress and create break throughs.
Our advice: decide case by case if you give your coachee a choice, or not.
Click here to see the other five principles
This episode one of two of our series of 10 principles to get the best return of your investment when making company coaching decisions. Enabling you to make better decisions. This is good for your business and for the concerning business leader.
We are in global executive and business coaching ourselves for 30 years. We live in it! And are now sharing some of our real life industry experience from this young and developing industry. It makes us happy if you find some value from it.
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