[Upbeat music][upbeat music] Coming up on the Leadership Growth Podcast. I want the person being coached to really facilitate that session, as they're the one talking through. This is my plan. These are my goals. This is my progress. You know, they're owning that whole piece and a key question I do not allow those meetings to end without being asked is answering that question of what do they need from their boss to continue to be successful? Sure we want to get feedback from the boss on other things as well, but that's a key one because as a coach, we really do want to work our way out of a job with individuals. We don't want them having to rely on us forever. We want them being able to continue this process, being able to continue that growth, and a key part of that support in the future is going to be their, their direct manager, their supervisor, their boss, as well as others.[Upbeat music] Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Leadership Growth Podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Stewart, along with my brother Peter Stewart, and we're here to talk about tools and ideas to help you successfully elevate and strengthen your ability to be a great leader. Well, Peter, nice to see you again. Are you ready for another episode? As always, it's great to record these and have a conversation with you. Excited for the topic today. Absolutely. So we this is kind of a part two in some ways around coaching. What to expect during an executive coaching session. How to best optimize your coaching experience. We want to talk about the overall coaching approach, coaching process, and a typical coaching session itself, what to expect, how to best prepare, what you should expect from your coach, and how to help you leverage that as best as possible. So before we dive into the topic at hand, Peter, as we think about growing up, let's take a trip up Memory Lane.[Music] Okay? And this is just having fun here, getting people to know us a little bit more. We were talking at the beginning of the show, and I just have one word. Sprinklers. When I say sprinklers, what what comes to your mind as we were growing up? Immediately dad.[laughing] And in the backyard, on our hands and knees, arms reached into a deep hole working with PVC pipe trying to get sprinklers to work. This seemed to be a never-ending battle of man versus pipe.[laughing] And— And and this, this was like dad's one of his ultimate nemeses. I mean, he hated working on the sprinkler system in the backyard. It is. And so we grew up in California, didn't rain a lot, Northern California. So the only way to have green grass was to have a sprinkler system watering them. And we didn't have a large property on that one, but it was like, okay, how do you keep it green? And the pipes kept breaking, the heads got clogged. So we would spend many a Saturday and sometimes late into the Saturday night, helping him and I remember being out there with you know, little mini hacksaw cutting through the pipe, handing him the the pipe glue of, you know, holding the flashlight as it gets dark and scooping out the water as the hole would fill as the water turned back on and so forth. But there's a... an element of one, it's a fond memory, as I think back working there, arm in arm with dad out there doing that, but also just the problem solving and the patience or the lack thereof[laughing] that we all as humans have a limit, but you have to kind of just work through and figure out, okay, what's going on? Why is this this not working? Is the the head cracked? Is the pipe? Is there, you know, the elbow not working? Is the joint working? Is the— anyway. There's so many hours spent trying to fix sprinklers. Yeah, and we were all either assigned or we learned how to do it. So yes, the outdoor sprinkler system for the, for the lawn. Oh, the and dad didn't really swear, but— No. You know, his anger and frustration got to that point where you're just like, oh, anyway, it was uh...[laughing] Yes, a lot of problem solving. Yes. And it's something that I have had to continue living on the, on the west coast in Washington. We have sprinklers. That's, that's the way you have it. You don't have to worry about them in Wisconsin, so in some ways I envy you.[laughing] Yeah, I'm out in Wisconsin. No sprinklers for us. So like in July, the lawn can get nice and brown sometimes, but otherwise the rest of the year, it's fine, so... Yeah. Wow, okay, so that's a little trip down Memory Lane. Now, Insight of the Week.[Music] Okay, Peter. So, are you ready for this? Yeah. From our our friends at Gallop. Our friends at Gallop, they have come out with some fantastic research on feedback and the relationship between feedback and engagement. Because sometimes a manager will say,“I don't have time to give my employees feedback as much,” or they're hesitant to share it. Or they think it always needs to be negative. Instead, it can also be positive, catching people doing something right. And, and yet there is tremendous connection between the frequency of people receiving feedback and their engagement and motivation level. So let me, let me share two interesting insights around this. So first, first off, 80% of employees who say they have received meaningful feedback in the last week are fully engaged. Just, just let that sink in. Yeah. 80% of the folks who have said that they have received meaningful feedback in the last week are fully engaged. And the amazing— just think about how... how rare it is these days to have somebody that's who's fully engaged. And this is a key to helping them get engaged. And so I'll share one more here. Here, before you— Before you share that, just to make sure I'm understanding the statistic, and kinda the inverse of it. If... we want to have more engaged employees, we need to give them feedback because what that stat's saying is 80% of individuals or employees who got feedback regularly got it on a weekly basis. it increased the likelihood that they were engaged, which is what we all want. We want more engaged employees. So what what more insight can you provide into that feedback? Yeah, absolutely. So employees are 3.6 times, 3.6 times more likely to strongly agree that they are motivated to do outstanding work when their manager provides daily feedback. 3.6 times as likely to feel motivated when their manager provides daily feedback in in contrast of say annual feedback or waiting for, you know, the end of the quarter or something like that. This is daily feedback. And and again, we all may have different perceptions of what feedback really is. And sometimes we think it's it has to be negative or it has to be really powerful versus simply catching somebody at the end of a meeting and saying, “hey, that was really insightful, that comment you made.” Or “thank you for the effort you put on this.” Or “I appreciated the way you started off that presentation,” or “how you then framed that was really, really good.” It could also be met with “that part was helpful,”“and this part let's reshape it in the future.”“Let's figure out a way to adjust this, to make it better.” And it could also be, “hey, that cannot be done again.”“Let's figure out a way to prevent that and what did you learn?”“What resources do you need?” The point is to do it more frequently because in the absence of feedback, we can conjure up all sorts of stories. And some of those stories are far worse than what actually is happening. So to foster and I will also say this is even more critical for hybrid or virtual employees who might feel a little alone, or separated or distant. The, the daily practice of providing feedback and saying, “hey, I'm thinking of you, thank you for doing this.”“Let me follow up on—” is powerful. Oh, it is powerful. And all the examples you just shared to help illustrate and just give more insight into what feedback can mean from the simple observational feedback, a kudos, hey, nice job with that to a little more in depth detail, both positive and negative. But it's being able to give them some sort of information about what they're doing. Yeah. They might be aware of it and some they might not, but especially it's helping to uncover those blind spots. Because if you're frustrated because somebody's doing something over and over again, they might not even realize they're doing it in a way that is causing you frustration. You know how there's no way to have them understand what the impact is without providing feedback. So you're doing them a service and back to your figure, 3.6 times more likely. That's tremendous. Yeah. So if you're trying to motivate your team, if you're trying to help engage them, look to see the frequency of the meaningful, genuine feedback that you're giving. So that there you go. That's the insight of the day. That's a great insight. Thanks for sharing. And it in many ways it helps set the stage for this ongoing conversation about coaching. Coaching is a feedback process. Yeah. It's just more formal. Love it. So, let's continue then. So let's dive into coaching itself. Let's talk about the coaching process. Let's let's talk about how often do you meet with a coach? What does it look like? And let's go into a typical coaching session and understand what— how to best prepare, how to optimize it, because I'm I'm fairly confident that there might be misperceptions. If if somebody's never had an executive coaching session they might not be sure what to expect, what kinds of subjects to dive into or not. So Peter, let's start off with we generally follow a five step coaching approach. Do you want to walk us through these steps, Peter? Sure. Happy to do it. Because there is this this coaching process and helping people understand what to expect. As you meet with the coach, first thing we're trying to do is set an objective. It's identifying and clarifying what is the real reason for this coaching relationship to be established? What are we wanting to get done during this? Then there's going to be a period of assessment. And we're not just talking about a formal assessment. This is assessment in general, where it's an information gathering. It may be from multiple sources it may be from a single source, but it's we're wanting to get additional data so that then we can guide and uh that that coaching process, which then leads to the next one of giving some feedback based off of the assessment. So we we've had the objective, identified here some overall things we're trying want to get done, assessment to gather information, give some feedback on that and that we don't stop there. That would be a very short process and the support and the growth would not happen. That's where these next two parts are critical, where you're setting goals. This is where often we'll create an action plan. It's it's writing down some core goals to focus our efforts on over the next three, six months, whatever it might be. And then finally, there's the support. Supporting the individual as they're trying to take action on those goals. So that's just a real quick overview of those five steps. So objective, assessment to get that information, give some feedback, establish the goals, and provide support. And as we think of setting the objective, let's let's share some examples of the kinds of objectives that usually fit well for a coaching process, so even last week, starting off uh ten to 15 additional new coaching engagements with different like— it ended up actually being about 20 um coaching engagements. And so we were talking separately uh with each individual and then also we gathered them together so they could learn from each other. But talking to each of them to start talking through the objective itself. So some examples that folks will be focusing in on. Time management, delegation, strategic thinking, workload management, executive presence, effective communication, uh managing change, coaching their employees better, building an effective team, helping support their relationship with peers, and building a stronger process overall. Those were just some of the ones that came about last week. So Peter, build on some of that. What else, what other ways, what other topics are appropriate for executive coaching engagement? As you started rattling off that list, I was anticipating checking off like, yep, that one comes up and yep, that one comes up because and I'm I'll come back to your question a minute, but it is fascinating how often we oveassume that our situation is so unique.[laughing] When in reality, there's a lot more similarity to the challenges, the problems, the issues others are facing than the differences between those. So the these issues happen all the time. And and if you were to summarize many of the issues that coaching topics will address and focus on it's usually about a people interaction challenge. Is it how are my emotions conveying or how do I understand somebody else's emotions and how they play? How do I communicate what's clearly in my mind with somebody else? How do I help align different personalities on my team? How do I help strengthen a relationship with my boss? I'm new in this role. I'm new to this organization. How do I get my feet stable? How do I launch and be successful in this? I don't want to change too much too fast, but yet I don't want to sit here and not do anything. You know it's it's all these things that there's not just one set answer for. It's not like you can just Google or ChatGPT a question and it's going to give you the perfect response. Why? Because it's a little more nuanced. So those are situations that I think coaching is just absolutely ripe for, primed for, to help work through, especially those relationships, those growth, those development areas. And I appreciate you mentioning the onboarding. Executive coaching is ideal for those transition points. Yes. You prepare you for a future promotion or an expanded role of some sort, or to help you be successful in the new role that you just began. Mm hmmm. And not only to help you, but to help you assimilate with your team and set a clear strategy and manage change in being able to then really fundamentally dive into your own blind spots because so much of coaching is first and foremost helping have a cognitive check in to see what what are the beliefs that you have about yourself, some of which might be self-limiting, especially if you feel you are only successful if you are very authoritative in your leadership. And that's what's helped you be successful. And yet now you're in a team and working for somebody who's exceptionally collaborative. How do you adapt and adjust to that kind of an environment? It could be you come from a specific industry and you're used to doing things a certain way. How do you then recognize, shift, and adapt and take the best things of what you have been doing and then adapt and adjust to the new environment, so that you can then effectively work well and build relationships with others. So many of these things are ideal for an executive or a leader at any level to then engage in a one on one coaching conversation with with a human coach, I'll emphasize human coach because you can also do it with a bot. What we find is human coaching when combined with a AI of some sort is even the most is like the most amazing experience because then you have 24, 24/7 access to a fantastic AI resource. However, you still have the empathy, the complex and the connection, the complex thinking and the connection with a human executive coach, but it can be done for so many different situations as long as you're focused around challenging yourself and willing to be hungry and humble as you then work work through and we spoke a lot around that on the previous episode if you want to catch that as well. Yes, that common element of growth and you want to be hungry for it. And I'm reminded of that there was a Russian cognitive uh, uh psychologist who developed this term he called scaffolding. Lev Vygotsky uh was the the researcher. And it's this notion of how we grow cognitively and intellectually. And it's if you think of a scaffold around a building, and what is the purpose of that is to help allow for there to be structure as you are working and elevating to that next level. You're building those those steps. And in many ways, coaching can help provide some of that scaffold. Mmm. You know, that approach is as you're helping identify, okay, where is the base level now? Like where is their present level of operating at whatever skill we're going to target? And then how do we improve that? Just just take it up to that next level. And then from there, you build it up to that next level. And so that's that systematic approach to it that I think coaching can do so well. And just to pull on that term executive coaching, which is a term we'll often use. And why is that the case? And and who is it for? It doesn't mean coaching is only reserved for individuals of a certain status within an organization. I like to view that executive piece, really more as executive meaning, it's helping to think about some of this higher level thought, this higher level skill set that any leader can develop. So it really is applicable for all. Yeah. So I think we've hit into the objective part quite a bit in terms of identifying what are some of the goals, what are some of those reasons why the coaching experience exists, then we talk about assessment and how that works. And oftentimes in that first session, assessment starts with getting to know the person. It's really getting to know their background, what some of their work experience is like. Some of their personal experience. You know, where did they grow up? What were their was their family like? Some of their interests? Because we're not just dealing with numbers and figures with them with humans. So that's a part of it. And then starting to understand a little more about the context and the situation of their team, of their organization, some of the relationships they might have with their boss or bosses, with their peers or direct reports, and then that assessment may pivot and shift out, to gathering some feedback from some of their colleagues around them, as well as maybe even adding on some formal assessment, like a 360 assessment, or it may be a disk assessment or an EQ. There's a variety of assessments you can add on just to add further data and information. And building on that, it also is the phase where you want to then have a conversation as a coach, you want to have a conversation with the person's boss, to gain additional insight to see how they're viewing the coachee, the person that you are coaching, as well as perhaps key interviews with key stakeholders, other folks who are in the sphere of influence for the person being coached, whether that's their direct reports, but more often it's peers or other executives, other leaders, who then support that person. It's a great way of gathering information and seeing what is most important oh, and including, of course, HR or other support functions gathering in as much information and yes, a 3660 and that can be done through interviews or an actual online 360 a variety of psychometric personality or work style assessments that can be leveraged as well. Utilizing any sort of performance review information, um other detailed assessments that have been provided beforehand. What's the person done previously and bring all this data and insight into the coaching session to be able to then process and understand and yes, usually one of the first sessions is that intake session, where the person has completed a bio to dive deeper to into getting to know who they are and their successes and what what are they proud of? What are their strengths? Where areas they like to improve and strengthen? And what really matters to help them be successful today? And oftentimes we might talk about career development, um how to show up as an as a leader, and what would be most helpful to do that. And so that this leads into the next phase, which is that feedback process, and the feedback process is taking all this information and having helpful conversations to not only understand what the data is, but really how to interpret and most importantly, how to prioritize it so that the the one or two areas, I keep drawing this kind of funnel with my hands because it's a lot of the top of the funnel and we want to distill it down into the one or two areas to really emphasize and focus on. And that distillation process that prioritization, that is all around that feedback process itself. Yeah. It is it's that that feedback process, which can be, I think it's it can be a tremendously rewarding time for a coach is you're able to really help disseminate this information. And you're able to watch and see some of the the ahas, some of the realizations that the the coachee, the individual being coached is is recognizing. Things they might be in agreement with, things they might be surprised at, but it just it helps to lay it out there and say, okay, what are what are we now going to do here? What are we going to do with this? How do we use this information? I I'm reminded of this was a debrief session I had on a 360 assessment several years ago. And this individual was a VP of quality for an organization. And if to to picture them about as mild mannered as an individual as you could meet, very soft-spoken, very quiet, and and even maybe just a little bit hunched over um as we'd, we'd get the feedback. And I remember going through their assessment report with them. And it was glowing, like such high praise. And I could tell as we were going through, he'd you know, he was kind of sitting up a little bit taller and kind of look and he kept stopping. He's like,“now is this about me?” Like, “is this really about me?” Anyway, going through identifying areas for growth for this individual and really a lot of it was finding his voice, was sharing that. And over the next several months I had leaders from that organization come and say,“what happened to this individual?”“What— he's speaking up in meetings?” He he'd been there for 15 years. Everybody appreciated it, but it was like this new found confidence, and all he needed was a little bit of feedback that he actually was doing things the right way, and that they appreciated what he was doing. So that's that's on the positive end where you have some things that that come out. But it really is it's an honor to be able to participate in that process with people for their growth. Yeah. And you're reminding me just a couple weeks ago, I had a 360 debrief with a head of marking, marketing for a fortune 500 company and... the the boss data? Very, very strong. His, his team? Very good. His peers, not so much, and it was a very clear picture that this individual was exceptionally confident, bold and direct, and had the answers. And just would go. And didn't always stop and incorporate and include the his peers as a part of the solution. And even in discussions was not necessarily as open to their input and their feedback because after all he was the expert in marketing and they weren't. Now there's always that balancing act between how to solicit feedback and how to keep moving, but clearly there was a gap. And that was an eye-opening experience for him and thus we were able to focus his action plan more in terms of the team building, not so much with his own team, but as a team member of his first team, which is really that executive team. And that's where that we were able to help identify through that feedback process.

goal setting, And so crafting the individual action plan is key, and we often say, whatever action plan you're creating, make sure you don't pack it full of lots of stuff. No. Pick one topic per action plan. That might be strategic thinking, and that's the action plan. Maybe it's change management. Maybe it's coaching. What we don't want to do is to take as many like coaching or team development and time management and strategic thinking and change management, and let's do all of it within the action plan. And we also say you can have maybe two action plans if you want and we also suggest the action plan really should be effective for like a 90 day period and after that 90 days switch it up, retire it, change it, and then you can always select something new, but focus on one thing and develop specific actions around it. What are the barriers? Get feedback from your boss so that your boss is aligned with what you want to emphasize. There's lots of different action plan forms out there. We have one that we often use, but sometimes will adapt it to whatever the organization has. Great. The point is get specific and identify the actions, get alignment with your boss and do it. Live it. Adapt it. Adjust it as you go. Set specific milestones and deadlines. Identify who's going to support you, what resources. And this is where the coach can be so powerful in holding the leader accountable to living their action plans, and I'll also emphasize that action plan is really the only thing, essentially, that is confidential—uh sorry, that is not confidential.[laughing] Everything else is confidential. The action plan is not because that's what needs to be shared with the boss and get constant feedback with the boss around what the individual is really emphasizing. Yeah. And as you're going through those points, Daniel, and I know we did a podcast episode before really outlining how do you have an effective action plan? So if listeners haven't listened to that one, I reference you to to go and take a listen to that. But the key element to really emphasize here is you want to be kind to yourself during the process. We're not trying to tackle every challenge or strength that you want to improve on. You are you're very selective picking a couple of things. One or two because you still have your day job. You're still trying to do everything else under the sun that's on your plate. And then you're very prescriptive about setting those small, specific steps of what you're going to do over that 90 day period. And I think keeping that window in mind really helps prevent that plan from turning into the magnum opus of everything you're ever going to want to change. Right. Focus on that plan, share it with your boss to get their support, their approval, and to make sure it's in line with what fits with what you're trying to accomplish in your role. And then that really does set the stage for really the majority of coaching sessions. It's the support to execute the plan. It's what's working, what's not? You've made this ambitious plan. You're supposed to do ABC and D. As we follow up now in the next week or two, what success have you had? What are the challenges that have gotten the way? What did you not anticipate? What's working? What's not? And so that's where those conversations become so valuable because we're not just talking theory of change. We're actually talking about what's working for you and what's not so that then we can pivot. So let's go to that fifth step that you were already kind of referencing and which is really that support process. And that's where the coach is able to actively during the coaching process, challenge and probe and link ideas that maybe the individual hadn't seen or didn't dive into or needs to see perhaps differently to open up new thoughts. It's continually connecting with the individual, with the with the coachee and saying what are you learning? What are you having success with? What are you frustrated about? What can you incorporate now that maybe you didn't realize or know beforehand and let's continue what else can you keep learning? Who else do you want to involve? And being able to continue to also have that connection with their boss, getting constant ongoing feedback to help support them, further refine, and live their action plan. And then, at the very end of the coaching process, there is a three person meeting, the coach, the coachee, and the leader's boss to then review the effectiveness and the successes and challenges of the action plan itself, And to see what have we learned and what can be done to help the person continue after the coaching to further develop and strengthen in appropriate ways to help them be the best leader that they can. Yeah. And that that final step you were talking about, and it can happen multiple times throughout the coaching process, but usually it is a closeout portion is well where we will be sure to have that that meeting with those three individuals. And as we're meeting with the boss, I'm I'm advising I want that leader. I want the the person being coached to really facilitate that session as they're the one talking through. This is my plan. These are my goals. This is my progress. You know, they're owning that whole piece and a key question I do not allow those meetings to end without being asked is answering that question of what do they need from their boss to continue to be successful? Sure, we want to get feedback from the boss on other things as well, but that's a key one because as a coach, our role— we really do want to work our way out of a job with individuals. We don't want them having to rely on us forever. We want them being able to continue this process, being able to continue that growth, and a key part of that support in the future is going to be their their direct manager, their supervisor, their boss, as well as others. Yep. Well, it sounds like the next episode, we can continue to have a conversation on coaching because we want to dive deeper into what does an actual coaching session look like? Yeah. What do you need to prepare for? What kinds of things happen? What kinds of things don't happen during a coaching session? And then also, how long is a typical coaching engagement? And we're talking formal coaching leadership and executive coaching kinds of processes, which can be three, six, 12 months plus. And it can vary tremendously, so we can talk more about the length and what to do as well as we use a very specific retainer approach, so it's not just session by session, but there is unlimited access to the coach in between, as well as you can slice and dice those sessions in much smaller, even more frequent approaches, all designed around what makes sense for the client, not the coach, and so it's really a client centric approach.[music] So, Peter, as we wrap up, knowing full well we'll be able to dive into additional coaching conversations in the next episode, what's what's the one thing that really stands out from the conversation here today that helps that somebody wants to keep in mind to help them really optimize their coaching experience? I mean it's it's a great question and I think what really comes to mind is recognizing that it is this inorganized process. It's not just a bunch of unconnected conversations. There is a guiding theme. There is that role. It's that development focus and support for the goals. And so that's where I think it really does pivot from just nice conversations that might be helpful to a development process with real teeth and traction in it to do that. And the other part I'd think about is the process we've outlined sure it makes sense for formal coaching, and as you involve a professional coach, but we have also outlined steps that leaders can use as they are coaching their own people. It can be as basic and as simple as— but you're just helping to identify what's going on? What's an objective? How can we get some information through an assessment? OK let's give you some feedback from that. What goal are you working on? How can I support you? You don't need a credential necessarily to provide that for someone on your team, so I think there's there's application for so many. So, Daniel, one question for you is as we do wrap this as well, is what advice would you give to somebody who might be a little apprehensive to invest time and effort into this coaching process? It's that's a good one and a couple of things that I would suggest. One is to take a deep look inside and to see how open and willing you are to challenge your own assumptions and to learn. That's the first step, and the second is I would highly recommend chatting with somebody who has had a coaching experience or talk to a coach, or but preferably talk to somebody who's had an executive coach, what sorts of things did they experience? What sort of things worked well for them? What sort of things did not work well for them? And to remember that it is something that you can adapt and change to suit you. It is all about your development. It is not about the coach. It is about what you need, and for you to be confident and comfortable to be a self advocate for your own development, because if the coach is really good, they will be able to help support and go in the places and approaches to best support where you need to go as of course it's aligned with the organizational needs as well. So be considering that to then challenge yourself to be a strong advocate for your own development in any coaching experience. Well, folks. Great insights. Peter, it's been a pleasure as always to to chat with you and thank you all of our listeners for joining us for another episode of the Leadership Growth Podcast where we're able to dive into the tools and ideas to help you be a stronger, more successful leader. Please listen again in the future. Subscribe and please comment as well. We look forward to seeing you again. Take care, everyone. Bye.[Upbeat music] If you like this episode, please share it with a friend or colleague, or better yet leave a review to help other listeners find our show. And remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode. For more great content, or to learn more about how Stewart Leadership can help you grow your ability to lead effectively, please visit stewartleadership.com.