By Jane Adshead-Grant
What kind of relationship should we have with the executive sponsor of a client? Is it safe to take a brief from the boss? Here we examine three ways to support sustainable change in individuals within organisations
“Coaches should not take a brief from the coachee’s boss,” a leading psychologist recently suggested.
On the contrary, I believe the sponsor has a critical part to play in an executive coaching assignment when funded by an organisation.
In my experience, there are usually two sponsor relationships within the corporate environment: the sponsor of the coaching assignment, often the line manager, and the overall budget holder or corporate sponsor for coaching.
The relationships
First, be courageous and have the discussion as to whether coaching is the most appropriate intervention for the employee or whether a dual or different intervention is more appropriate. As Professor Adrian Furnham noted in a recent lecture entitled, ‘What you can and cannot change through coaching’, there are three ways to support sustainable change in individuals within organisations:
Experiential Providing stretch assignments, shadowing others, job rotation
Education MBA, short courses, case studies and training
Personal Coaching and mentoring.
Second, manage their expectations about what can and cannot change through coaching. When a resounding yes for coaching is agreed, trust develops, and a dialogue begins.
I have found it helpful from the start to distinguish the role of the corporate sponsor from that of the sponsoring (line) manager.
Corporate sponsor
Clarify their role. Is it to:
manage the coaching assignments and total spend on coaching across the organisation?
develop a network of coaches for employees to select from, or to challenge the appropriateness of coaching?
identify the return on investment/ value-add of coaching within the organisation?
collect emerging themes in relation to developing further the organisational culture, engagement, leadership development or talent management?
Make it work
In my experience, it is helpful to develop a relationship of trust with the corporate sponsor. As coaches, we can start in the following ways:
1. Gaining an understanding of the corporate culture – their experience of where they see coaching having a positive impact within the organisation
2. Offering them diversity of coaches and coaching methodologies to meet the needs of their employees
3. Providing them with transparency of the total cost of the coaching assignment and any related, pre-authorised costs
4. Having a robust process/conversation about assignment extensions
5. Clarifying how they will define ‘return on their investment’
6. Providing any thematic evidence that arises when coaching a number of individuals within the organisation.
Sponsoring manager
A key part for the sustainable success of coaching is for us to now engage the line managers effectively.
Clarify their role. Is it to:
provide the organisational context for the coaching programme?
provide a brief on what they envisage the employee can achieve through the coaching intervention and have some input into the coaching outcomes?
provide regular feedback to the client about what they notice working well and what they would like to see more of in relation to the coaching outcomes?
define the successful outcome measures, so they have a sense of the value of the coaching assignment?
During the assignment, seek to agree mutually how much, and what, intervention the sponsor has and, critically, how they communicate with the coach during the coaching.
Make it work
Once clarified, make the process work and meet with the sponsor to do the following:
1. Define what interaction they expect to have during the coaching assignment, honouring confidentiality and integrity of coach/client relationship, and engage with them in this way
2. Encourage them to seek and provide ongoing feedback from, and to, the client
3. Establish a feedback process from the client, including the value-add of the coaching, to share with the corporate sponsor.
Fatal flaw
Assuming the sponsoring manager is engaged in the coaching process.
While some agree at the outset to be engaged – and seem willing – they may be challenged by time constraints and, in some cases, by their own ability to give effective feedback to the client about progress – or lack of it – that they have witnessed.
Make it work
Don’t be afraid to challenge the sponsor in their lack of engagement. Continue to support them and encourage their contribution as a way to add value to the process and be part of the successful outcome.
Make sure you engage either sponsor if you feel the client is not engaged and is unlikely to fulfil coaching outcomes.
Don’t present an extension of a coaching assignment to the corporate sponsor without a sound process
and/or business case, as identified by the client and sponsor.
Case study
Jeremy, a CEO, agreed to be the sponsor for his key sales director, Matthew. At the outset, Jeremy provided the organisational context for the coaching and some areas where he felt Matthew could benefit from it. We arranged a three-way meeting to outline and agree key coaching outcomes, as well as Jeremy’s role, as sponsor.
During the second meeting; a 360-degree feedback session, Jeremy walked in and requested to speak to me, asking Matthew to leave the room.
Jeremy was furious! Matthew had not followed through with an action that had been agreed and asked me to ‘work on’ this behaviour with Matthew.
Jeremy had not spoken to Matthew about how he felt or given him any feedback; he hoped I would do that.
Despite having clarified the role of the sponsor at the outset, this was unexpected and disruptive. Separately, I needed to re-contract with Jeremy immediately on his role. We discussed a more effective way of sharing feedback and for it to be provided directly to Matthew only.
Jeremy is now more aware of how he can contribute in a helpful way to support the successful achievement of the coaching assignment.
Jane Adshead-Grant, PCC, is an executive and career management coach
Coaching at Work, Volume 9, Issue 2