Welcome to our blog series focused on Stakeholder Centered Coaching, a proven coaching methodology and philosophy created by Marshall Goldsmith. It demonstrates behavioral change and dramatically increases the likelihood of a successful coaching engagement.
Recap: Intro to Stakeholder Centered Coaching & Coachmetrix
Stakeholder Centered Coaching is a process that you can use with your clients for creating any kind of transformational change. Want to really amp up your results? Consider coupling this process with an online coaching platform like Coachmetrix.
You’ll be able to implement a coaching methodology and technology that fully complement each other. This allows you to both measure behavioral change and prove that your leadership and executive coaching engagements are having an impact.
In our last several posts, we set the stage on how to start smart with your Stakeholder Centered Coaching Engagements. Now that your coachee has clarity of their goals, they’ve calibrated those goals with their manager and enrolled their stakeholders – they are ready to implement feedforward.
But first – what is feedforward?
Who better to answer that question than Marshall Goldsmith himself? Here’s a quick video of Marshall and me talking about feedforward and why it’s so important. (Hint: It’s focused on a future you can change – not on a past you can’t change no matter how much you’d like to.
Can’t view the above video? Click here to watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/HGXxa2hLtW4
3 Steps to Implementing Feedforward Effectively
Feedforward is delivered through Coachmetrix via the pulse feedback process. As a reminder, pulse feedback surveys are sent to the coachee’s Stakeholders about every 45 days (although you can customize the duration between pulse feedback rounds in Coachmetrix).
With each round of pulse feedback, the leader receives data on how they are progressing against their goals. They receive:
- graphical and numeric feedback
- open ended feedforward comments
The graphical and numeric feedback is a great tool for measuring progress and trends over time, while the open-ended feedforward comments provide ideas and suggestions on how to improve in the future.
1-2-3 : Your turn to Implement feedforward:
Step 1: Review the pulse feedback and feedforward in Coachmetrix with your coachee. The coachee’s home page will dynamically update with each new pulse feedback response. Help the coachee compare their self assessment score to their Stakeholders’ scores. Don’t forget to review the open ended comments too.
Step 2: Conduct an After Action Assessment. The after action assessment model was first originated by the US military for debriefing operations. It also happens to be a terrific coaching model. Conduct an after action assessment by asking the coachee the following key questions:
- What did you intend to do over the past 30 days related to your goals?
- Which actions did you actually take over the past 30 days related to your goals?
- What did you learn?
- What are your next steps over the next 30 days?
Step 3: Update the action plan. With the feedforward comments in mind, the coachee can now update their action plan. Their Goal Statement and Behavioral Statement will remain the same (in fact Coachmetrix locks these fields after the first round of pulse feedback goes out).ction items for the next 30-45 days can and should evolve based on the ideas and suggestions provided by the coachee’s stakeholders.
Regularly Follow-up with Your Stakeholders
As always, the pulse feedback process is a supportive process to measure behavioral change in executive and leadership coaching engagements, but it should never replace the process of the coachee following up with their stakeholders.
Therefore, emphasize to your coachee throughout your work together to follow up with their stakeholders every 30 – 45 days, asking for their feedback and feedforward. This will give your coachee new ideas on how to change behavior and remind stakeholders that your coachee is still focused on her development, helping to change perceptions.
You can easily do this with Coachmetrix by selecting the Send Supporter email button. Your participants have the option of sending a message to all of the supporters or an individual. There is a standard follow up message that can be used or your participants can customize the text. The message to supporter(s) can be sent immediately or scheduled for a later date.
And, we also encourage you to encourage your coachee to follow-up in person and through other channels periodically too.
Following up with stakeholders has two key benefits:
- It not only gives the coachee great ideas on how to change behavior, but it also helps the coachee change perception. And changing others’ perceptions of us is almost always harder than changing behavior.
- It encourages and inspires others to make change too. One side benefit of the Stakeholder Centered Coaching Approach is that it has a beautiful multiplier effect. As people see a leader making an intentional effort to change, it gives them permission to change too.
Give Coachmetrix a Try
Have you tried Coachmetrix yet? If you haven’t, you don’t know what you’re missing! It has everything you need to help set your business apart and to implement a Stakeholder Centered Coaching process in the modern day environment.
Start your free trial today to see how Coachmetrix can help you rise above the crowd: https://coachmetrix.com/stakeholder-centered-coaching/
