An occasional column in which readers share tried and tested tools they’ve invented or adapted. This issue: what car wash token should coaching buyers choose, asks Lynne Walley
Clients, like cars, come in all shapes, sizes and ages. It can be helpful for organisations buying coaching to work with the car wash process as a metaphor for coaching – how will they, as it were, ‘shampoo and polish their staff’?
The concept of coaching as a car wash process arose a few years ago when I was on a postgraduate business coaching course.
We were asked to work in pairs to create our view of the coaching process. Working with Mandy Hunt, an experienced Derby-based therapist, we designed a car wash model which, in the past few years I have expanded and used as a measure against organisations’ commitment to staff development through coaching.
The following are some of the elements surrounding coaching stages – from a car wash point of view!
Pre Wash
As coaches we are approached by organisations to undertake development coaching programmes. We start with a number of key questions, namely: what is the organisation’s communication strategy; what is their objective for the coaching; does the organisation have a queue for coaching; what skills is the organisation targeting and what roles are being prioritised?
Wash: bronze, silver or gold?
So who chooses the programme? What level of contracting takes place between the coach, the individual client and the sponsoring organisation? Are the organisation’s ethics and values defined? Defining career paths and outcomes, what are the goals of the individual and the organisation? Does the programme complement other management interventions?
Foam
What is the organisation’s approach to change? Culturally, how do employees align themselves to the company and what is their sense of belonging? Is there a commitment to and application of psychometric tools?
Rinse
Conditioning (because you’re worth it!) Will the coaching wash through the behaviours and thinking skills?
Drying
Is the coaching process simply hot air, or a value-driven, deeply rooted approach to raising standards?
Wax and polish
Will senior leaders be waxing on about coaching and polishing their talented staff in readiness for career progression? Do those who have been coached shine out and have the rollers spun around the return on investment? Will the brushes part as you drive out?
Is success being celebrated?
So as a procurer of coaching programmes, or a coach working with a procurer, what token is the organisation buying? Bronze: a quick wash and dip into coaching; Silver: one that starts to address the coaching issues, looking at career development and developmental coaching; or Gold: real and lasting value that puts a shine on staff and enables them to wax lyrical about their experience of coaching.
Lynne Walley is an executive business coach: hello@coachingand.co.uk
Coaching at Work, Volume 8, Issue 5