How Coaching Really Works

Contracting: how to get the most out of the coaching relationship

Setting clear goals and three-way engagement to generate business impact

For any individual and their organisation, choosing to work with an external business/executive coach there are, in my coaching manual anyway, two non-negotiables.

Firstly, it’s about clear goal setting for the individual being coached – let’s call them the coachee; what do they want to achieve from the coaching process? 

And secondly, it’s establishing a three-way relationship between the coach, coachee and the organisation – let’s call them the sponsor; the person who holds the budget to pay the bill. Whether that individual is the coachee’s manager or another senior advocate (for example in Human Resources) in the organisation, engaging with them throughout the assignment is crucial. 

Clear goal setting and the three-way relationship are both critical in and of themselves but, as we shall see, they are also interdependent and in a successful coaching engagement, each depends on the success of the other. 

Know your goals

Let’s start with the importance of setting clear goals. What is it the coachee wants to achieve? 

It’s important that towards the beginning of a coaching assignment that the coach supports the coachee in agreeing to a set of three or four clear goals that should, as much as possible, be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. 

For example, a coachee might say, “I want to make my colleague’s listen to me.” But this outcome is not within their control. It’s not ‘achievable’. Instead, the coach helps the coachee find a goal that is within their control, such as focused on mastering a competence. In this example, the goal could be they want to understand how to be a better communicator when dealing with challenging colleagues. 

Measuring progress can be difficult because self and others’ subjective perceptions are an important component. However, a coach can help ensure goals are ‘measurable’ by asking the coachee: “If you were feeling more confident, what would that look like?”. Or it might be a coachee and colleagues grade a number out of ten from where they are at the outset and then where they are on the same dimension at the end of the coaching assignment. This process gives focus to the work, the client’s own reflections, and provides a basis for ‘check-in’ and assessing progress. 

Three’s company

Goal setting isn’t, however, just the preserve of the coach and the coachee. This is where the sponsor’s input at the outset of the coaching engagement – as a fundamental part of the three-way relationship – is also critical, not least because it helps to build in what the business is looking to achieve from this coaching exercise. 

Begin each coaching assignment with a three-way meeting with the coach, coachee and their sponsor. This provides an opportunity to explore with the sponsor how the coaching goals relate to the current need of the business and gain valuable information about the context in which the coaching is taking place. Getting the coachee and the sponsor to articulate what success looks like for both parties is key.

This upfront three-way meeting is also an opportunity for the coachee to articulate what support they will need from their sponsor though this process. Coaching doesn’t happen in a vacuum (in fact a few hours per month is a negligible amount of time relative to the client’s ‘day job’). The sponsor will likely have much more frequent access to the coachee and be able to observe them in real time. This gives them the opportunity to provide feedback to the coachee on the behaviours they’re looking to develop. 

This process is about making explicit – rather than implicit –what a coachee needs from their sponsor to maximise the effectiveness of the coaching engagement. 

Grand finale

It’s important to bring the three parties together at the beginning, but it’s equally important to bring them together at the end. This provides an invaluable opportunity to ask the sponsor where they have seen the most progress and give specific examples. 

It is a chance for the coachee to take real accountability for the outcomes; to talk through their SMART goals, where they feel they have made the most progress and, invite the sponsor’s comments and observations. In addition, the coachee can link their recent actions and new behaviours back to their coaching goals; drawing it all together and addressing any perception lags that have prevented the sponsor from witnessing any of the changes. 

The coachee can also ask for the support they will need on an ongoing basis. Building confidence or developing a leadership presence are journeys that go beyond an initial coaching assignment, so this meeting helps ensure a sponsor understands how far the coachee has got and the role that they can continue to play to provide the necessary and ongoing support. 

Producing results

Setting clear goals which are developed and progressed towards as part of a genuine three-way partnership, provide real visibility for the sponsor and the organisation paying for the coaching. It’s the most effective way of getting the best value from the coaching assignment and delivering the best business impact. After all, that’s what business or executive coaching is all about: helping business leaders produce results.