Coaches, for their part, tend to work in isolation. If they coach clients in several different organisations, they have to build up their own understanding of these organisations. This might not be easy, and it will certainly take time. Pooling information and ideas can short-circuit this process for coaches, while also giving their ideas a reality check.
But how can you do this and maintain client confidentiality? There is a way to get maximum value from using external coaches while increasing their effectiveness and decreasing their isolation. Bringing coaches together to explore their understanding of the organisation can be a win-win situation for coaches and buyers of coaching alike. Coaches have said that coming together as a group like this is unusual, worthwhile and fun. They feel less alone as a result. And confidentiality can be maintained if buyers of coaching observe the following practices.
Set it up at the outset
Agree confidentiality at the start of your contact. Organisations should ask the coaches as a group to attend an initial orientation session about the organisation and why it is using coaching. They should explain why they want to tap into coaches’ knowledge, sharing their ideas about how they might do this while retaining client confidentiality, and asking if they are willing to take part.
Make it work
- Tell coaches the organisation will pay them for attending the session, and then agree rates.
- Agree format and timings.
- Each coach should coach more than one client. This gives them a broader understanding of the organisation, and is a further safeguard in terms of confidentiality.
Fatal flaws
For buyers
- Telling the coaches that they must do this. It would be much better to suggest it, explain the benefits to them and to the organisation, and ask their opinion.
For coaches
-
Immediately rejecting this because it will breach confidentiality.
Before the meeting
Coaches need to be clear about what’s required of them, and have time to think about the issues. Buyers can email each coach, reminding them of their agreement, and setting out five or six broad questions. For example:
- What’s it like to be a senior person in this organisation?
- If the coaches are coaching as part of a leadership programme, what do their clients really think of the programme?
- Which parts have been helpful, and which less helpful, and why?
- What are their views on how the clients are using the coaching sessions?
- What are clients doing differently, or what might be blocking change?
- What impact are the clients having on the organisation that might be attributable to the coaching?
Make it work
- Make the email to the coach friendly and welcoming.
- Ask any coaches who can’t attend if they are willing to send their responses to the questions.
Fatal flaws
-
Asking too many questions.
During the meeting
Coaches must feel they can trust buyers, otherwise mutual sharing and learning will not take place. For everyone to get the best out of the meeting, it needs to be structured yet informal. The welcome and introductions should take no more than 10 minutes. The buyers should then leave the coaches to work through the questions for an hour, before joining them for lunch. After lunch, the coaches should discuss their responses to the questions as a group with the buyers for up to two and a half hours. The beauty of this is that it’s hard to tell “who said what”, because the coaches will feed back as a group, not as individuals on their individual clients.
Make it work
- Start at around 11am, so that lunch follows naturally, and use lunch as an opportunity to build relationships and trust.
- Let the coaches present their responses in any way they choose.
- Focus on listening and learning.
Fatal flaws
For buyers
- Not being prepared for some hard feedback, particularly if the coaching is part of a leadership or other programme.
- Being defensive or taking feedback personally.
- Failing to focus on what you can learn.
- Pressurising coaches to say more than they want.
For coaches
Falling into the trap of claiming that the answer to all the organisation’s problems is more coaching. It might be, but it sounds like a sales pitch.
Benefits
Coaches are invariably generous in giving their insights, and buyers get lots of practical ideas about what they can do to develop their people and the organisation. Coaches share information, make links and develop a deeper, systemic understanding of the organisation. Coming together in this way increases the sense of partnership between coaches and buyers. Each gets to know the other better, and coaches have a rare opportunity to demonstrate to buyers their ability to make sense of what is happening, and to suggest practical next steps. The feedback is much richer than that gained from questionnaires.
Make it work
For buyers
- Feed back to the board, with an action plan detailing who should do what.
- Use this information to inform evaluation and future developmental work in the organisation.
- Arrange the next coaches’ meeting.
For coaches
- Learn from each other.
- Use the deeper understanding of the organisation you have developed to enhance your future coaching.
- Network with each other.
Barbara Moyes is head of leadership and people capability at the Department of Health. She has a
master’s degree in coaching and specialises in leadership and transition coaching and developing people’s emotional intelligence. She supervises internal coaches across government.
w-and-ba@wmoyes.freeserve.co.uk 020 8852 4464
Volume 3, Issue 1