Coaching engagement and results for 30 managers in a Fortune 50 company

July 28 2018

Hello R & R

I hope you are enjoying your weekend. I just finished reading the 31 pages of written comments for you and your immediate direct reports and their direct reports. It was a very pleasant afternoon. Congratulations gentleman: Very impressive. Here are the average scores for the combined Marketing Sales and Service teams. 30 managers, 205 Stakeholders, and 31 self evaluations. We are currently half way through the year long coaching engagement.

Six months after the start of the Stakeholder Centered Coaching® process the 1^st mini survey was completed. The scale used was:

1 highly satisfied

2 satisfied

3 slightly satisfied

4 slightly dissatisfied

5 dissatisfied

1. 30 Manager (3 levels: rated managers who reported to them 1.9
2. 205 Accountability partners responded: They rated their immediate manager 1.6 ( their written comments were very enlightening and positive)
3. 31 Self evaluations: They rated themselves a 2.8. I would attribute that to their outstanding humility.

I know I sent both of you your Sales and Service summary. Attached is the combined Sales and Service summary. The written comments in all the group summaries are in alphabetical order and very scrubbed by to our outside scoring bureau to enure confidentiality and anonymity.

We now have a great platform to raise the bar moving forward.

Dsign of the Project

2 General managers ( GM sales, 4 DR) ( GM Services, 5 DR)

A master Stakeholder Centered Coach has worked with one GM for 3 years. Based on a companywide employee survey in 2017 the company focused on creating a “culture of coaching and mentoring” their direct reports. The company initiated two leadership workshops for all managers to attend. The first one was “lead for success” and the follow-on workshop was called “leadership and management”.

The President and the two GM decided to extend the workshops and employed “Stakeholder Centered Coaching®” as a systems approach to execute and measure the results. A master stakeholder centered coach was engaged to assist the general managers and their 9 direct reports direct reports with two clearly stated goals.

1 become better coaches and mentors themselves and

2 then help their direct reports become better coaches and mentors to their people.

The ideal final result was to create a culture of coaching that the vast majority of employees at all levels (GMs, managers, and individual contributors) were engaged with and satisfied with the coaching and mentoring they received from their manager. Every manager in Sales and Services had a simple goal “become a better coach and mentor”. The master stakeholder centered coach guided the two general managers and their 9 direct reports through the process of execution and implementation.

Mini-Survey Summary Report for 30 managers: July 2018

There are 29 pages of written comments:

What specifically has this person done to improve that you want to acknowledge and reinforce?

Manager

• Asks regularly for feedback on own performance
• Because the team was launched late, you have just now rolled out your coaching initiative
• Better communication to [specific] group on important projects
• Clear with your direct reports what you are working on.
• Clearly works at delivering a leadership style based on the individual and task at hand. It is something s/he routinely works on and strives for.
• Consistently provides specific and helpful examples of what s/he has tried in [personal]two areas of focus. Has also shared learnings with peers.
• Creates the right climate to get good feedback around what s/he can improve on.
• Demonstrated high quality collaboration skills on [specific]warehouse transition, facilitating a difficult process involving a lot of different groups with competing priorities
• Despite the challenges of geography, you communicate well with your team about business issues.
• Did a good job incorporating your feedback from your team.
• Did an excellent job incorporating your team’s and my feedback
• Did well incorporating your team’s feedback
• Does a great job interacting with team, individually and in group settings.
• Effectively communicated and aligned expectations
• Excellent commitment to the process
• Extremely responsive and take responsibility for your [specific] region
• Good use of me as coaching coach
• Has fully adopted the coaching process
• Has reviewed own feedback and written goals with me.
• Has worked at diligently making own action plan a part of day to day activities and thought process.
• Have been committed to coaching meetings with your team.
• Have built trusting interpersonal relationships with your team
• Have done well taking the time to recognize others
• Have incorporated the feedback and experience well in your action plan
• Helped prioritize workloads during a period of significant employee turnover
• I have observed you using your improved listening goal
• I observe you successfully using the Situational Leadership model to supervise a diverse team
• Improved focus of conversations based on audience and sent follow up notes to document discussions/ decisions
• Improved listening and understanding first before directing or making a decision
• Improved listening and understanding first before directing or making a decision
• Improved listening to others and asking questions first before directing or making a decision
• Increased ability to communicate in a clear and concise manner, especially in structured situations
• Is helpful in taking a broader perspective, helping others think and act
• Is more open with what is happening in own team with me.
• is open and inclusive
• It’s evident that you are more involved in career discussions
• Leadership amongst peers – improved [personal] credibility.
• Made efforts with direct reports and their staff around visibility and information (Direct reports)
• Making progress preparing an agenda and staying on topic more frequently
• More self-aware.
• Offers solutions that are well aligned and researched with key stakeholders. Excels at networking to come up with best solutions and increasing alignment.
• Prepares for the coaching meetings very well
• Provided development opportunities for analysts through [project] and other projects
• Provided development opportunities for analysts through [project] and other projects
• Provided development opportunities for analysts through [project] and other projects
• Provided development opportunities for employees through [project] and other projects
• Provided more honest and direct communication to employees
• Provides good timely suggestions for recognizing employee accomplishments
• Provides specific and helpful examples of what s/he has tried in own areas of focus.
• Pushed forward with delegation of [specific activity] to better focus on [specific group] activities
• Recognizes and reinforces good performance and behavior
• Shares information upward so leaders can also recognize own team’s good work.
• Shown flexibility on projects being worked as higher priority opportunities appear
• Speak regularly to your team members and are very accessible to them
• Started a good relationship with new team member, involving more delegation

Stakeholder Centered Coaching is a comprehensive process to help both internal HR coaches, and external coaches, become skilled in a form of behavioral coaching employed by Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall is widely recognized as one of the world’s most gifted coaches. This process is built around seven coaching skills that are practiced through customized real world problems faced by leaders. The two-day workshop is mainly learning by doing. Go to certification.sccoaching.com to learn more about this certification and when the next public “train-the-coach” will be conducted.

Similar to The Leader as Coach training the Principles that form the foundation for this methodology remains the same:

• Place attention on the Stakeholders: the center of attention here is neither the leader nor the coach. The major attention is on the Stakeholders who are affected by the behavior the leader is attempting to change
• Emphasize Feedforward: these are future oriented suggestions for improvement
• Change behavior and perception: it is not only necessary for a leader to change; it is also necessary for those people around the leader to “see” the change and believe the leader will not regress

Topics covered in this workshop include:

• How the belief set of successful people both helps & hinders improvement
• The 7 Coaching Skills that facilitate positive behavioral change
• Coaching the 7-Step Involving Stakeholder process
• How to start smart in a coaching assignment
• How to maintain momentum during the change process
• How to sustain success and manage the transition out of the coaching assignment

Links to

1. Introduction to the Coach’s Playbook
2. Description of the Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching process
3. AGENDA for 2 Day Workshop certification

STEP 1: Define a Leadership Goal important to Leader and the Organization
Our methodology recognizes that one of the beliefs of successful leaders is the need to be the one choosing what to work on to improve and includes a cost/benefit analysis that helps the leader determine “Is it worth it” to proceed. Once a leader chooses a goal, the other decision tied to the chosen goal, is “Who are the relevant stakeholders?” Every goal has a set of stakeholders who are relevant as the leader’s behavior both affects them and they are clear beneficiaries of the leader. Before starting the development goal and list of stakeholders is approved by the leader’s manager.

STEP 2: Buy-in from Stakeholders to be part of the Process
As stakeholders are on the receiving end of leadership, the stakeholders’ perception of leadership effectiveness is pivotal. Therefore the Stakeholders are an integral part of this process and are recruited as valued members of the leadership change process. Either by the coach, or the leader, each Stakeholder is asked to actively participate in the leader’s improvement on an ongoing basis. They are asked to provide both feedback and feedforward to the leader and be willing to complete anonymous mini-surveys on the leaders improvement. The process starts with the Stakeholders providing the initial input on the Action Plan by providing suggestions to the leader and coach.

STEP 3: Stakeholder-Based Planning
An action plan is not developed based upon the coach’s expertise. The action plan is built from the initial request for suggestions from the Stakeholders. The Leader and the Coach collaborate to put together an action plan based on the input provided by the Stakeholders. The plan in part, or in total, is also put into a daily checklist for the leader to consciously keep the plan in his/her consciousness. The plan is distributed to the Stakeholders so they are aware of what to look for in providing feedback and further suggestions to the leader.

STEP 4: Monthly Collecting Stakeholder Input
The Leader uses the 7-Step Involving Stakeholder “do’s and don’ts” to monthly check in with each Stakeholder. During this brief 3 to 5 minute check-in the Leader asks for feedback on the prior 30 days and any suggestions moving forward for the next 30 days. The Leader captures this input and shares the results with the Coach. Together they collaborate on what to add, change, or modify for the coming month based upon Stakeholder input. Any new action items created for the Action Plan, this is communicated to all the Stakeholders.

STEP 5: Measure Leadership Change as perceived by Stakeholders
Half way through, and the end of the assignment, a formal mini-survey is conducted with the Stakeholders to assess the progress made on the development goal chosen by the Leader. This is an anonymous survey conducted in order to validate the improvement made by the Leader and to measure the change in Stakeholder perception. With the results of the mini-survey, the Leader does an After Action Review to pinpoint what happened, why, and what learning to take forward into the future.

Evaluations from Participants of The Stakeholder Centered Coaching Certification

After Action Reviews

Jack Clarkson | CFO

"Consistently working my plan has helped me be more conscious of my behavior and the behavior of other people. The daily worksheet that Chris and I created keeps me focused.

I need to make more opportunities to follow up with people and ask if they have noticed a difference. In the past, this felt awkward to me and a little too “staged”. Now, I have informed stakeholders to expect that I will do this, so I feel a little more at ease asking.

Stakeholders do notice hard work and appreciate it. I felt good that people acknowledged it and also understand they are looking for more. Chris’s ability to keep me focused. In addition, he help me think issues through, be able to see the big picture and articulate it effectively. Thanks Chris" - Jack Clarkson's mini survey and AAR

Gerard Iman | SVP IT

“Another insight I have gotten from this is that I cannot be visible enough whether it be with the business, my peers, or my staff.  The more visible I am the easier things seem to go.  Also by using some of the communication skills I learned from my coach, Chris Coffey. I can deescalate situations more quickly to allow better rational discussion to get things resolved. I have worked hard to create an environment where people feel safe to express differing opinions and make suggestions.” - Gerard Iman mini survey and AAR

Jeff Breen | SVP Sales

“Changing my own behavior is not easy, especially when my day fills up with meetings and I’m playing catch up but the coaching plan has become part of my thought process DNA and I know I’ll carry with me. The coaching has been invaluable. Thanks Chris and thanks to everyone who pushed me to do this.” - Jeff Breen mini survey and AAR

Jerry Rossy | General Manager

“Although when I first started this program I had a negative attitude, at the present time, I realize that thanks to the firm and Chris’ coaching I was saved from a possible career setback and overall found the experience to be rewarding in many ways: a happier life, stronger relationships (both internallyand externally), better negotiating skills and more. I am committed to continue with this program’s concepts and values because I believe in it and I’ve seen the positive results for me and the firm.” - Jerry Rosy mini survey and AAR

Joan Beck | Regional VP

“I appreciated Chris’s insights and reminders. Often when I was frustrated and overwhelmed with the noise and attacks by some, Chris simplified the process of next steps and how we can achieve the most positive result. He reminded me often to get clarity and to really be clear myself. His validation of the process and the resulting changes I felt in me and my management was most beneficial and rewarding.” - Joan Beck's mini survey and AAR

Kerry Peters | VP

“Chris was available when needed and on short notice, to help review specific situations and analyze how I performed or ways to improve throughout the last six months. He offered strong guidance on tough situations and provided honest feedback.” - Kerry Peters mini survey and AAR

Tom Lee | SVP Engineer

“Throughout this coaching process, Chris and I kept our weekly communication when we discuss the daily check list as well as other topics I encountered during this process.” - Tom Lee mini survey and AAR

Apex Case study

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