Work with A Small Group (2 to 8 individuals)

This option is characterized by:

1. use of an appropriate self descriptive or 360° feedback tool common to all of the members of the group,
   
2. careful selection of the "peers", "subordinates", "clients" and "superiors" to be invited to provide feedback to each individual,
   
3. 2 hours of personal "coach to individual" meetings to explore the instrument results privately,
   
4. 1 to 4 group meetings of 1 to 1.5 hours to share the results and explore common themes in light of the organization's culture,
   
5. creation of "coaching peer" pairs among the participants - regular meetings to discuss progress over a 3 month period.

It is the most cost effective per individual of the 3 approaches.

Structured Work with an Individual

This option is structured to allow work with a specific individual.

In order to work effectively with an individual in a coaching relationship, a coach needs good knowledge of:

1. the individual and the person's working relationship with the superior, subordinates, peers, and clients;
   
2. the culture of the organization and its reward structure (promotion conditions and norms, bonus schemes and career development processes, including the norms surrounding developmental assignments) for executives,
   
3. existing performance appraisal, professional development and individual feedback processes.
   

A coach can achieve this knowledge through dialogue with a number of people. Once acquired for a single individual, it can be transferred to other future "coachees" in the same organization.

Consequently, this option has two phases. Phase One need not occur if the WCI coach already has this organizational knowledge. Phase Two is focused on the coaching relationship with an individual.

Phase One - Setting Up the Coaching Assignment / Understanding the Organization's Culture

1. Meet with the individual sponsoring the coaching - normally the "coachee's" superior - to discuss the following to set up the coaching assignment:
   
   • the person who will be coached,
   • the superior's relationship with the person,
   • the reasons why the organization is prepared to invest in coaching for this person,
   • an appropriate feedback tool - self descriptive or 360°
   • if 360° feedback will be used, determine the respondent group who will be asked to provide 360° feedback on the individual - usually 2 to 4 people in each of the peer, subordinate, and client groups, plus the superior and the individual being coached,
   • the best way to introduce the coach to the individual who will be "coached",
   • the best way to introduce the coach to the others who will be involved,
   • the overall sense of timing for the assignment,
   • the measures of success - what "on-the-job" behavior changes will provide evidence of the success of the coaching relationship,
   • the business arrangements.
     
     
2. If the coach does not have an understanding of the organization's culture, then they will also discuss:
   
• the names and roles of the individuals who it will be important for the coach to meet to understand the organization's culture (some one in human resources, one or more of the person's clients, peers and subordinates).
  
  
3. Meet with the individual being coached, and review the results of the above meeting - make an initial assessment of "fit".
   
   
4. If the "fit" makes sense to the individual, the superior and the coach, the coach starts the process:
   
   • makes arrangements for the self descriptive or 360° feedback process, using the internet whenever possible to distribute the surveys and to collect the information,
   • monitors the feedback process, following up as needed with respondents, to ensure that all of the information is collected on time,
   • receives the report from the instrument used, and prepares for a meeting with the individual being coached.
     
     
5. In addition, if the coach needs to understand the culture, the coach concurrently meets:
   
   • with human resource individuals to understand the performance management, professional development and formal "reward" processes,
   • with the individuals who will help the coach gain insight into the "culture" of the organization - usually between 2 and 4 additional folks,
   • one more time with the individual sponsoring the coaching to summarize what has been learned and confirm the perceptions of the organization's culture.

Phase Two- Coaching the Individual

1. The coaching relationship starts with feedback review. Whether based on a self-descriptive or on 360° feedback, the coach's first responsibility is to ensure that the individual understands the results. This is not the same as accepting it, or acting on it. That comes later. Generally this takes 1 to 2 meetings of 1 to 2 hours to accomplish. Depending on the content, these can be straight forward or hard meetings. They generally occur in a 1 to 2 week calendar period.
   
   
2. Subsequent meetings start to address action planning around behavior change. The point of a coaching investment is create more effective behavior on-the-job. The coach and the individual dialogue about what it takes to produce such change. They:
   
   • identify specific situations,
   • discuss how the individual would normally behave in it,
   • explore how that would be perceived by the others present,
   • dialogue about other ways of behaving in order to achieve the desired business results in the situation,
   • explore how that would be perceived by the others present,
   • evaluate whether or not the individual has the skills to "do" the new behavior,
     • if not, work out a way of acquiring them, and then implementing them,
     • if yes, plan to implement,
   • set out a way of following up with one another in another meeting to assess how well this worked.
     
     
3. Such meetings occur weekly or biweekly over a 2 to 3 month period. At first, they are reasonably regular. At the later stages, they may begin to taper off. This may be for one of the following reasons.
   
   
   • The easiest changes happen first.
     • Often this change also has significant beneficial impact on the way others see the individual.
     • This may lead to a feeling of "Enough - I have achieved what I can with this coaching process" on the client's part. The coach needs to find ways to confront this and move onto the more difficult changes.
       
       
   • The more difficult changes are avoided, requiring the coach to find ways to confront the avoidance.
     • This stresses the "fit" dynamic between coach and individual.
     • That may take several meetings to work through.
       
       
   • The more difficult changes are undertaken, but it takes time to acquire the skills to pull them off effectively.
     • The individual may have to participate in formal professional or personal development programs.
     • Dialogue may be needed with the individual's superior to arrange mentoring.
     • The individual may have to try the new behavior more than once in order for it to become effective behavior
       
       
4. The coach will maintain a "process" dialogue with the individual sponsoring the coaching investment - without revealing any of the "content" that allows the coach - individual relationship work. They may need to periodically assess how well the coaching assignment is progressively. Such assessments will lead to decisions about how long to carry on with the coaching meetings.
   
   
5. A normal coaching assignment lasts 2 to 4 months and involves 5 to 15 meetings during the second phase.
   
   
6. It ends with a meeting between the coach and the individual sponsoring the coach in which they assess the effectiveness of the coaching against the original criteria for observed behavior change that were established as part of the set up activities in Phase One.
   
   

Completely Customized Coaching for An Individual

This option is essentially the same as the Structured Work with An Individual. However, rather than using a pre-structured 360° feedback tool, the 360° data collection is completely customized. Areas for feedback are determined during the set up activity (See Phase One above). The data collection takes one of two forms.

• Face to face meetings on the part of the coach with a 2 to 4 individuals in each of the peer, subordinate, client and superior groups to collect the data. The coach then organizes the results into a report.
  
  
• Creation of a customized 360° feedback instrument that is based on items from other tools, or on newly created items that directly address issues for this individual in this culture.

Clearly, this is the most expensive of the 3 service options. It makes sense for high potential individuals who are likely to become one of the 3 to 5 members of the inner circle who ultimately run an organization.

Instrumentation Options

WCI works extensively with the following tools in our coaching work.

1. For One-on-One and Team Interpersonal Skills - WCI's Competency Styles® - a set of 4 work books that provide individuals with insight into their one-on-one and team behavioral competencies when "Interacting with Others", "Gathering and Using Information", "Making Decisions" and "Structuring Personal Activity". Visit the Competency Styles® web site to discover more.
   
   
2. For Personality Type Dynamics - The Myers-Briggs® Step II Profile - a self descriptive that profiles an individual on 4 bi-polar Jungian Personality Type dimensions, and explores each dimension further on 5 bi-polar facets of that dimension. (Myers-Briggs® is a registered trademark of Consulting Psychologists Press of Palo Alto, California, USA.)
   
   
3. For Emotional Intelligence - the Hay Goleman EI Inventory - a 360° feedback instrument that provides individuals with insight into the competencies that make up emotional intelligence in the work place.