How can you tell if someone in your team will genuinely benefit from coaching?
You may have experienced coaching for yourself. If it was beneficial to you in terms of your own self-awareness and leadership position, you may see opportunities for its use across your team. But beware: not everyone is coaching-ready, and not every issue is right for coaching. Just because it was right for you, does not automatically make it a panacea to be used for everything and everyone.
Depending on the size of your organization, you may have someone to turn to who is a ‘coaching custodian’ – someone who understands coaching and what it is best used for. But if you don’t have that resource, you may find yourself evaluating whether coaching is the right next step for your team members’ growth and development. Here are some of the factors you’ll want to take into consideration before making the investment in coaching.
Is there a new role?
If the individual has just taken on a new role (such as a first-time team lead), have you furnished them with relevant training before coaching commences? Such training should give the individual an understanding of models and methods for giving feedback, delegation, communication skills, prioritization and so on.
Coaching does not teach or tell, but with the underpinning of training, subsequent coaching can help the individual work out how they will deliver in their new role in their own unique way, aligned with their own values.
Development responsibilities
Have you fulfilled your own people development responsibilities, communicating responsibly, delegating well, and giving feedback to the individual, thus nipping any potential fall in standards in the bud? Or are you trying to outsource to a coach to ‘fix’ the person, rescuing the individual from your own lack of people skills after the damage has been done?
You need to be honest. What challenges are the individual’s to deal with, and what are your own? A coach cannot – and will not – be the messenger for difficult feedback.
Is coaching what’s required to solve the problem at hand?
When evaluating why a team member might need coaching, it’s crucial to ask: Does the subject matter lend itself to coaching, or does it require a different approach? If individuals are dealing with specific personal challenges, there are other professionals more suitably qualified to the situation than coaches. A therapeutic intervention or a physical health perspective might be more appropriate.
Who wants what?
Does the individual want the same for their career as you want for them? Or do they want something different? When a leader is highly enthusiastic, it can leave the individual feeling coerced into agreeing to coaching, when they don’t really want it or see a need for it.
Don’t assume that your team members want the same progression or opportunities that you have had yourself. For example, do they want to be in the succession pipeline for a role that would take them abroad, for which coaching could prepare them – or do they actually prefer to keep their children’s school stability front and center of their work choices?
Is the timing right?
This is a tricky one to gauge. At a time of change, coaching can help people get to grips with the transition that they’re going through. But sometimes the change can be such a distraction it fragments the individual’s focus and diminishes their ability to engage in coaching. You’ll only know by having a conversation with them.
Does the individual want to bring change into their working life?
Discussion is required to assess how far individuals are open to change. What are the changes they’d like to see, and how do those align with the changes you and the organization want to see? The individual may wish to talk about their relationship with you in coaching, but won’t necessarily admit to that. How prepared are you for conversations that might result, including about how you could support them more, or whether they wish to pursue a different career path?
If you still think that coaching could be right for an individual, get their perspective before taking it any further. Coaching is a big investment by the company, and perhaps that shows them that you care for them – but it also requires a big investment from the individual, in time and energy. Do they want to make that commitment?
You want this to be a win for them, a win for you, and a win for the organization. It will be a bigger win if the individual understands what they are signing up for. How clear are you about what coaching is, and isn’t? How clear is the individual about what they are being offered?
When to go ahead
If all parties agree that coaching is a good fit for the desired outcomes, the person, and the timing, then arrange a meeting with a coach to assess whether the team member and the coach can work together. Once that matching process has happened and coach and individual have decided to proceed, the coach will continue to work with the individual to enhance their coachability.
But as a leader, your role does not stop there. The line manager has a pivotal support role in between coaching sessions, so tripartite meetings are useful to set up the coaching for success, addressing all stakeholder needs. This brings the voice of the paying client into the room and lays out all stakeholders’ expectations of the process. You play a part once coaching has started too: you are with the individual more often than the coach, and you are responsible for day-to-day feedback, support and challenge.
Coaching can have a huge impact on a person’s development and growth – but only if all parties go into it with eyes wide open after thorough and thoughtful exploration of the options.
Clare Norman is author of Cultivating Coachability (Right Book Press) and founder of Clare Norman Coaching Associates
