Learning Pathways Cymru

Coaching Positive Leadership

FAQs

What is Coaching Positive Leadership (CPL)?

CPL is a network of experienced coaches who work together collaboratively in order to provide clients with coaching and coaching skills development.

By working collaboratively CPL is able to offer clients a wide range of experiences, backgrounds and personalities to provide a more extensive menu of services than would be possible if we were all operating independently.

Members of CPL believe strongly that leadership is the key element of successful teams, businesses and organisations and that much of the learning and development in leadership skills and behaviours is best developed through practical experience supported by one to one coaching.

We also believe that leadership is at all levels of an organisation or business and is not just a role or attribute of the most senior in designation.

What is coaching?

Coaching for individuals is a method of work-related learning which relies primarily on one to one conversations.

The coach facilitates a structured conversation that encourages reflection by the coachee, literally at times “holding up a mirror” in order that the coachee can understand better what others (colleagues and clients) perceive of their actions and behaviours.

The responsibility for the coachees’ development, supported by the coaching process, sits very much with them.

What are the benefits of coaching?

For the individual?

Facilitating the learning and development of the coachee
The coach encouraging the coachee to think differently and to become solution orientated
Coachee develops greater awareness, grows in confidence and motivation increases
Coaching gives the opportunity to reflect, to clarify and prioritise the important things and to maximise performance and success.
A coach will help bring understanding to complex situations, facilitate the coachee to think things through and keep on track.
Solutions which are self – generated, which the coach encourages, are owned by the coachee and as a result are more likely to result in related actions
Coaching encourages behavioural change, which is usually sustained well beyond the end of the coaching contract
The sustained behavioural change makes coaching a highly cost effective investment.

For the organisation?

The sustained behavioural change makes coaching a highly cost effective investment.
Tailored work to respond to particular individual’s and organisation’s needs
Supports organisation in building on its current skill base rather than needing to go into the market
Coachees increased sense of worth enhances commitment to the organisation and supports retention
Action orientated, providing immediate potential for input back into the organisation
Flexibility in terms of when & where it is delivered
Potentially less time away from the job than with other forms of development.

What happens in a coaching session?
Structured coaching conversations are likely to include how:

coachees work with others
they themselves behave and how that is interpreted by others
they perform in specific situations, particularly difficult ones for example with colleagues and clients, for example
they form judgments and make decisions
they learn from current issues and work relationships

The issues likely to be discussed in the coaching process will focus on the individual manager’s developmental needs and may cover a variety of aspects as suggested above, but for all of them, issues arising from the coachee’s professional life provide the starting point.

What should the coachee expect from a coach? A coach will:

ask questions and encourage him / her to explore issues more deeply;
challenge thinking and encourage / facilitate different perspectives
encourage him/her to take responsibility for his/her own learning development;
listen;
clarify and draw out understanding;
stimulate imagination and creative thinking;
help him/her work out things for themselves;
encourage him/her to set learning objectives;
encourage him/her to try different ways of doing things;
encourage him/her to reflect on specific experiences and draw learning from them.

What is expected from the coachee? The coach will expect him/her to:

be honest and open in coaching discussions;
be committed to take responsibility for his / her own learning;
provide open and honest feedback on his / her satisfaction with the sessions;
prepare for the sessions by identifying the topics to be discussed, and outputs that s/he would wish to have at the end of each session.
take positive action in the interval between coaching sessions

Coaching Opportunities offered by CPL include:
Board Level coaching: As a senior leader, the complexity of tasks and responsibilities that a Director or Chief Executive is handling can be hugely assisted by the time and space provided by coaching and an empathetic, experienced coach, for confidential discussion, reflection and clarification of objectives. The areas for reflection, learning and development, for someone in a top leadership role are often best catered for via coaching.

Newly Promoted / Recruited Senior Executive coaching: Your organisation has identified a need, invested the energy and resources in promoting or externally recruiting a new senior executive, so the next part is to provide for him / her coaching to assist in and accelerate learning in post over those first critical weeks and months. Clearly, for a newly-in-post senior executive, this is a time when learning and development are happening at a rate, and one of the most critical times when providing the opportunity of reflection, through external coaching is very beneficial.

Rising Stars Coaching: How often is your organisation concerned about the future? How do you prepare some of your talented managers to be able to assume positions of senior leadership, so that succession in the team or organisation is planned and prepared for? How do you ensure they are well-prepared for future roles? Our coaches can work with your “Rising Stars” and assist them to prepare for future roles and to “hit the deck running”. The added benefit is that through developing your “Rising Stars”, they are less likely to look for opportunities elsewhere and move out to other organisations.

Senior Women Coaching: Women in senior management and leadership roles do not have different needs from men, but their context can be different and there are fewer role models at a senior level. This in itself provides women with different learning and development needs which can be addressed well through coaching.

Team Coaching: High performance and effective teams are core to the success of a business or organisation. Our coaches are able to work with teams on the key issues they face, often achieved through observing interactions and behaviours of the team and through focusing on real life issues that they are dealing with. Team coaching is often supported by individual coaching of team members.

Senior Leadership Team Development: The senior leadership team, in any business or organisation, faces particular challenges: they set the tone, culture, values and behaviours for the others to observe and emulate, as well as the strategic direction, goals and KPIs. To drive forward a successful business or organisation the effectiveness and performance of the Top Team is critical to business and organisational success. We can work with the Senior Leadership Team to support them in their real life challenges (collectively and individually) and to assist them to reflect, learn and develop in order to increase their effectiveness and performance.

Creating a Coaching Culture – skills development in coaching:
A coaching culture is a learning culture. Successful organisations and businesses have a learning culture, where the rate of learning is greater than the rate of change. Developing the skills and practice of coaching in an organisation is an important way of engaging all employees, at whatever level, to be increasingly committed to the organisation and its values, helping to focus clearly and effectively on the task in hand and to go “the extra mile” in their work.

We are able to provide programmes to assist your managers develop their coaching skills in order that they themselves can best support and develop their staff and build the winning teams you need.
Developing coaching skills as an integral part of your managers competencies will benefit not only your formal appraisal process but the quality of the ongoing engagement between managers and staff.

Why choose Coaching Positive Leadership (CPL) above other coaching providers?

We realise that investing in coaching is an important decision, and that it can be difficult to know where to start. There are so many coaches in the marketplace and how do you choose?

What differentiates CPL from other coaching networks?

CPL coaches are all able to demonstrate:

Senior level management and leadership experience
Business and organisational consulting experience
Coaching and mentoring expertise and experience
That they have a post graduate qualification in coaching
Are members of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (www.emccouncil.org)
Adherence to the EMCC code of conduct
Undertake and support each other in a structured and robust supervision process, which complies with the EMMC’s guidance for supervision.

Contract arrangements
Time - basis. The contract is established on the basis of a number of sessions. A typical session for a senior manager / leader would be scheduled for two to three hours. An initial contract would be for 6 sessions over a 3 to 4 month period, possibly with the first sessions at fortnightly intervals, to build the coaching relationship and momentum, and then becoming a monthly event.
Retained - basis. The contract is established over a fixed period, with a fee agreed for the whole contract. Coaching sessions are then booked as and when needed. This could be for an individual manager / leader or individuals in a team.

Contracts and Invoices:
These are negotiated with and raised by Learning Pathways Cymru Ltd.
Putting the contract in place:

An initial contracting conversation with the organisation, identifying expectations, clarifying the process, evaluation and cost
An initial conversation with the manager / leader or team to be coached, where we elicit their objectives and identify any key requirements in a coach
We offer 2 – 3 potential coaches for the manager to make a choice
We review after their first session to check suitability
We follow up with both coachee and coach to ensure appropriate evaluation takes place

Agreeing the basis for evaluation:
As part of our contract with you, and with the manager / leader or team to be coached, we will agree with you the basis of evaluation of the contribution made to your organisation by our service, whilst respecting the confidentiality

of the coaching conversations. The evaluation is conducted typically at both the midpoint and the end of the coaching process.

Fees: Fees are calculated on a day rate.

The use of a “day” can be flexible: it could for instance be:

2 separate coaching sessions with 1 manager / leader with in between diarised telephone support;
1 day on an organisation’s premises when 3 managers / leaders have individual coaching on that day;
observation of coachee in action (e.g. in a team meeting) in order that “live data” can be used during coaching conversations
1 day facilitating a Team Away Day;
1 day of preparation prior to a “Team Away Day”.

Any additional costs, arising from an organisation’s or individual’s needs, would be negotiated as part of a “mid term” contract adjustment

Frequently asked Questions by Organisations choosing a coach:

What independent research is there which supports the benefits of coaching?
The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has indicated through research that coaching as a learning and development tool is growing. While 41% of organisations undertook coaching activities in 1996, by 2000 this had increased to 74% of organisations.
The 2002 Coaching at Work survey carried out by the CMI and supported by Lloyds TSB, showed that 80% of organisations now have coaching in place.
The study also showed that the main reasons for using coaching are:

Supporting staff structural change
Staff motivation
Demand from managers / leaders
Retention of staff

The research also found that:

80% of managers believe that they would benefit from coaching / more coaching in their workplace
25% of managers feel there is not enough time set aside for it
93% of managers believe that coaching should be available for all managers, irrespective of seniority
85% believe it enhances staff morale
80% believe that coaching is good at generating responsibility on behalf of the learner
80% believe that coaches should have training before they begin to coach

Where as only:

5% thought that coaching was just another fad
7% thought there were more appropriate training methods
3% felt it was a waste of resources

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) – Coaching and Buying Coaching
Its respondents are typically the HR professionals in the organisations and its findings include:

79% of responding organisations use coaching
78% cite improving individual performance as the main objective
99% of the respondents agree that coaching can deliver tangible benefits to both individuals and organisations
93% agree that coaching and mentoring are key mechanisms for transferring learning from training courses back to the workplace
92% agree that when coaching is managed effectively it can have a positive impact on an organisation’s bottom line

It also cites a MetrixGlobal LLC survey that coaching produced a 528% return on investment alongside significant intangible benefits to business.

How do I present coaching as a concept to managers and individuals within my organisation?

The overall purpose of coaching is to provide a guided and structured opportunity and experience for an individual to take responsibility for their own learning and development in order to develop their skills, improve their performance and achieve important business and personal goals and development. It is therefore an investment in the future for individuals and the organisation as a whole.

How could we introduce coaching into our organisation and how can you assist us in doing this?

We can work with you to position the programme and communicate your desired message within your business.
We are also able to offer the provision of a short introductory coaching workshop, increasing understanding about coaching and the coaching process.

What are the benefits of working with external coaches?

Working with an external coach allows an openness and honesty of discussion that may not be easily achieved when working with an internal colleague.

What are the measures you have in place to ensure the quality of your coaching?

All our coaches have undertaken a post-graduate accredited training programme and are Members of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
In addition, each coach participates in our on-going coach Supervision Programme, to ensure continual learning and development.

Is coaching confidential?

The coaching session is completely confidential between coach and coachee. Broad areas of feedback between the coachee, coach and client (i.e. the organisation) can be agreed at the initial contract stage, on which there is general feedback and evaluation. However the detail of the coaching conversations remains confidential.

How do you obtain client feedback to ensure satisfaction?

We actively encourage feedback at the end of each individual coaching session, between coach and coachee.
During a programme of coaching we recommend also an evaluation process mid-way and at the conclusion of the contract. This is carried out in such a way that the confidentiality of the coaching conversations is not breached.

How do I ensure that the right coach is allocated to the right individual?

As part of our contract negotiations, we meet the individual managers and as a result of conversations recommend an individual coach, who in our judgement would work well with him / her. After the first formal coaching session, both the coachee and coach are asked if they are happy to continue working together and if not, then an alternative coach would be offered.

What happens if the coach and the coachee do not get on?

If the coaching relationship is not progressing constructively, we would expect the coachee and coach to first raise the matter between them and then refer it back as in the answer to Question 8 for a change in personnel.

How long is a normal coaching relationship?

This is dependent on the particular situation. Our recommendation is that the initial contract is for a series of 6 coaching sessions over a period of about 3 to 4 months. Initial sessions may be fortnightly in order to build momentum, and then probably move to monthly as the coaching relationship and purpose is established.
Some clients extend the contract; some take a pause and then resume the coaching contract and relationship when new challenges arise. Some clients have a retainer contract for coaching sessions to call on as they need / wish them. It is important that there is scope for flexibility to meet the needs of the individual or organisation.

How frequently do the coaching sessions take place?

The frequency is agreed between the coach and coachee at their initial meeting within the organisational contract. It is recommended that the first few sessions take place with regularity of about once per fortnight or weekly if that is what meets the needs of the coachee initially. Thereafter the frequency is negotiated between coach and coachee.

How long is a typical coaching session?
The length of the session will be discussed and agreed between the coach and coachee at the initial session. It is expected that most sessions will be about 2 hours in length, however they could be shorter or longer, dependent on the needs of the coachee.

Are there cancellation fees?

This is covered in the overall contract negotiations between Learning Pathways Cymru (on behalf of Coaching Positive Leadership) with the organisation.

Face-to-face coaching or telephone coaching?

CPL believes in the benefits of face to face coaching, rather than telephone coaching per se. However, in between face to face coaching sessions, it is possible that (dependent on the needs of the coachee) diarised telephone conversations could be an additional dimension.
CPL does not normally contract to deliver “telephone coaching” as a stand alone.

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