In a recent meeting I held with a coachee and their manager – as an initial check-in for a sponsored engagement – I discovered something that may be a secret to success in executive coaching engagements.
Here’s what happened. I was meeting with my coachee, whom I’ve worked with for just a few months (meeting bi-weekly), and his manager, to review the overall plan for the
engagement. This involved developing three objectives for the coaching engagement. (While coaching is confidential, the topics we’re working on with our client are generally not.) The check-in meeting is important because it can get the manager on the side of the coachee, making space for the coachee to be successful.
There was something I heard right at the beginning of the meeting that I felt was really powerful. The manager said to the coachee: “I see that you’re already making changes. I’m seeing it and I’ve heard it from other people, too. Great job!” And that was before we even got into the agenda items for that coaching session. These comments by the manager were an encouraging sign my client was potentially on track for a successful coaching engagement.
This experience made me think of another engagement I’m currently working on which is now about two-thirds of the way through the process. At the first check-
in meeting in that engagement, the manager said to the coachee: “I notice that you’ve already started working on these items. I’ve noticed positive changes you’re making and I feel good about them. Keep it up!”
The coachee feels terrific when receiving this sort of positive feedback from their manager early-on in the coaching process, and it establishes positive momentum in the engagement, which I see as valuable for us coaches. When we have this early-on positive momentum, it can create a good rhythm and cadence for success across the engagement as a whole. When we don’t get that initial momentum, time may start working against us (at least in our minds).
A lack of positive momentum certainly doesn’t dictate that we can’t have a successful coaching engagement. But I feel that establishing positive momentum early-on puts time on our side and it gives us more opportunity to get more done with our client because they have an action-oriented mindset towards the coaching engagement.
They’re not resisting it. They’re not fighting it. They’re not waiting to see what we can bring to them. They’re jumping in and taking action, and making changes. And they’re receiving recognition and getting fueled by that.
I hope this helps you to consider what you might focus on early in an engagement as a contributing factor to greater success overall.
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