Need help setting up a coaching assignment?

After writing about coaching from a prospective coachee’s perspective Contemplating choosing a coach?, I thought it might be helpful to cover some of the questions a manager or HR leader might contemplate to help plan and prepare for a coaching engagement. There is quite a lot to consider, but I hope the following points help to guide you through this process.

Is coaching the solution?

Well, that depends! If you are seeking to commission a coach because you are reluctant or don’t feel skilled to deliver challenging feedback, then you may be starting in the wrong place. It doesn’t serve the coaching process well if the coach is the first person to present information or data to an individual for the first time. This is more likely to lead to a destructive rather than a constructive outcome.

Sadly, it isn’t unusual for a coach to be appointed as an avoidance strategy (whether deliberate or subconscious), but it isn’t best practice. Far better to explore openly with a prospective coachee the issues that are causing challenges in the workplace, whether they be about general work performance, a particular behaviour that is affecting others, team or organisation fit, or even proposed structural changes. If you or the supervising manager are struggling with direct conversations, then it may be far wiser to spend time and energy on this before engaging a coach.

Be clear about the problem you are trying to solve

Having decided that it is a skill or behavioural issue that you are trying to improve, it is very important that you spend time discussing the issue/s with the coachee so that you are both clear about the problem (even if you have quite different perspectives). It is unhelpful to begin a coaching assignment if you have only a vague idea about what the presenting issue is. This can arise because of a tendency to avoidance described above, or it may arise because insufficient time has been spent researching the issue with the coachee, their direct reports, peers or supervisors. Yes, this takes time, but it is better to do this work internally so you to set the coaching assignment up for success.

(This is not to say that we always get it right when identifying the key issue, despite our best efforts. It is very common to discover during coaching that the presenting issue is evidence of an underlying problem, and it is the coach’s responsibility to identify this and to assist the coachee to understand and focus their developmental strategies around it.)

Do I insist on coaching?

Coaching is best regarded as being developmental in intention. Introduced and conducted well, it can completely unlock the potential of a valued employee and really supercharge their performance. On the other hand, if you are insisting on coaching to ‘remediate’ a problem, then it is very unlikely that the coaching engagement will be successful. If you have inexpertly framed it as remedial (i.e, ‘you have a problem and the coach will help you fix it’), then this is likely to create a significant hurdle to a successful engagement.

If you are concerned about this, or you have a particularly challenging coachee to deal with, you can also engage a coach to help you to prepare for and communicate constructive messages even before the coaching has been agreed to. Wise preparation and discussion about the value and purpose of coaching with a prospect pays great dividends.

Preparing a cost:benefit analysis

While it is difficult to draw a direct line between the value derived from performance improvement and the cost of coaching, one way to prepare a business case before embarking on coaching is to set up a simple ledger which compares the cost side:

• Attributing a value to the time you and others have spent in various interventions
• The potential or real cost from the loss of valued staff (remember, the most cited reason people give for leaving an organisation is because of a difficult manager)
• Loss of performance from other staff members in the team
• Cost of re-work or client relationship repair work
• Damage to the work groups’ culture.

Then simply set this total against your coaches’ fees. How does this balance look?

(While it may be tempting in times of economic hardship to delay or suspend your coaching plans, difficulties left unresolved may well fester and become greater problems in the long run.)

What if they leave?

Quite often senior managers raise this! Ask yourself if it is better to retain a poor performing person and pay the cost of this for ever, or pay to improve their performance, see them blossom and – perhaps – leave. Consider also, that reaching an early conclusion through coaching, that the best outcome is for someone to leave saves an awful lot of time and heartache: remember, a voluntary departure on good terms is always better than the alternative.

What other support might they need?

It is likely that you have already considered this and acted on it, but sometimes a coach will uncover an issue that requires the direct intervention of another specialist. For example, the individual may need the support of a psychologist or other relevant counselling professional to assist with a personal need that goes beyond the scope of Executive Coaching. A good coach will help you to identify this and should alert you quickly if it wasn’t already apparent.

Confidentiality. What should I expect from the coach?

You do need to be clear with your coach about how confidentiality will be handled. My experience has taught me that every detail of the coaching conversation must remain confidential. If it is not, then the coachee will not trust me and very little progress will be made. The two exceptions I make to this are that I report whether the coaching is progressing satisfactorily or not, and my duty of care requires me to report if I perceive the coachee is at risk of mental or physical harm.

Setting the scope of the coaching assignment

The scope of the assignment including the number of sessions should be spelt out in your agreement. You should also establish with the coach whether the number of sessions is fixed, or if there is some flexibility in the arrangement. My practice is to be as flexible as possible, as it does no one any good if they feel trapped in an arrangement that is not productive or the desired outcomes have already been achieved.

It is also helpful to be clear about whether the coaching will be virtual, face-to-face, or a mixture. In deciding this, it might be helpful to know that virtual coaching is often more productive more quickly, perhaps because the coachee enjoys greater privacy compared with a session in the office, inhibiting social behaviours that stem from age/gender/cultural norms typically present in physical meetings are reduced, which combine to encourage greater openness.

Chemistry meetings

Before you commission a coach, you should consider which coaching style is most likely to match your coachee and your business objectives/culture and this should inform who you forward from your panel. It is best if your coachee actively chooses their coach from your short list, and this is best done through 30-minute conversations (either online or in person).

Three-way and other meetings

Finally, you will need to sort out how to introduce the coach to key stakeholders as well as the coachee. There are many ways to do this: it might be a single three-way meeting with the coach, coachee and commissioning/line manager; or you might set up a meeting where you and other stakeholders discuss their observations with the coach before they meet the coachee; or instead, you may prefer several meetings for the coach and particular stakeholders independently. There is no right or wrong way to do this, but it should be thoughtfully considered before the coaching commences.

Ready to discuss??

If you would like to talk through any of the questions above or would like some help in discussing how you should go about preparing for coaching, please contact me directly.