This client had invested a significant amount of time and money on external coaches, coaching-related skills workshops, and human capital strategies — without any significant shift in actual coaching behaviors or outcomes within the organization. Through extensive interviews in the second largest business unit—the site for our pilot—a plan was developed that centered around two workshops, support for internal coaches and coaching champions, and the linkage of them with their team leaders on coaching projects within their team.

We are also engaged with them in a research project using our Integrated Development Pipelines™ framework to develop and track the overall culture and systems work in support of coaching. The client is also working on a better integration of their external coaches and alignment with their business aims.

The following two workshops were rolled out to 90 people in this business unit who had a stake in coaching. Rather than try yet again to teach them lots of stuff about coaching, we developed and used a simple coaching model based on our observational data of the client and used the same metaphor for both workshops. We focused the workshops on their situations and projects where coaching would be particularly helpful.

This is critical because the people who are tasked with formal and/or informal coaching often wrestled with how to balance the needs for ongoing development of people with the needs for immediate action on objectives. They learned how to pass the “baton” in coaching so that the people they coach can successfully take it and run with it. We were able to weave in a few key pieces from earlier programs, attend to some pressing issues in the current setting, and address their goals for the future. For the sake of the client, I have altered the title and some of the proprietary details.

From Relationships to Results:
Situation-Based Coaching

We delivered this program as a one-day workshop with both pre-work and post-work and a second workshop for two days that was focused on application in the workplace. As always, we customized the workshop to match the specific practices, processes and goals in this organization. The results so far have been great in terms of uptake of the material and its application in the business.

Workshop 1: Preparing Yourself to Coach. Participants were introduced to the 4P™ model as a clear and simple road map for coaching conversations. They were given plenty of time for structured practice, self reflection and peer dialogue because you can’t change what you can’t observe. The emphasis was on increased mindfulness of their own habits and experience as a way to build better self-awareness and self-assessment as the basis for the possibility of better coaching. This proved very effective for people as it got them out of the usual “I’m-at-a-workshop” mode. We broke that mold and set a new tone from the very start by having David coach the business unit leader in front of the group as the opening.

Workshops 2: Coaching Across the Four Situations. Participants were introduced to the SBC™ model as a framework for the four most common types of coaching situations leaders, managers, and internal coaches face in today’s organizations. They learned how to apply coaching skills and practices in these four directions based on their assessment of situational needs and agendas. Our framework addressed strategic issues (development and advancement) over time and tactical issues (capability and performance) in real time. This approach increased their commitment and confidence to coach more frequently and effectively since they were freed from a “one size fits all” way of thinking about coaching.

Participants were supported to integrate what they have learned into their everyday practices, e.g., how they run team meetings, how they delegate key tasks, and how they give appraisal feedback. The gains begun in the workshops are being reinforced through shadow coaching, facilitated conversations, breakthrough projects, and process consultation.