Undoubtedly, coaching has become an important element of the professional HR and particularly leadership development landscape. Whilst many HR professionals and coaches agree that coaching creates essential value for organizations, they also agree that coaching has the potential for greater sustainable value in the future.

The evolutionary step towards Coaching 3.0

Coaching has gone through an evolutionary process in the past years. From an essentially confidential interaction between coach and coachee only – let us call it Coaching 1.0 – to Coaching 2.0 as it is mostly applied in organizations today where, in addition to the tandem between coach and coachee, the direct line manager and/or HR joins in the process as an additional stakeholder – which creates an expanded coaching-system. In this triad, the coaching objectives are connected to the objectives of the organization. The objectives are agreed on in a coaching agreement and their achievement is assessed by the same triad at the end of the process.

Coaching 3.0, as a next consistent evolutionary step, expands the coaching system to additional stakeholders. In Stakeholder Centered Coaching, as defined and developed by 

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, the coachee’s most important stakeholders are involved in the coaching process from the onset. Apart from the direct line manager, who is still a main stakeholder, peers, direct reports and other useful contacts become part of this supportive circle. The goal is the active support of the coachee’s growth and development by those most affected by it.

Stakeholders – what makes them so important?

When attempting to change leadership behaviors, we are usually confronted with challenges related to human perception. Our self-awareness and understanding of how our behaviors are perceived is biased and distorted. Let us have a closer look at three of the most common biases, as they play a crucial role when it comes to successful coaching.

1. The Negativity Bias

In our coaching sessions we like to work with scaling questions: “On a scale from 1 to 10, if 10 stands for the achieved goal and 1 the starting point – where do you currently stand on this scale?” Suppose the answer is 7. For most people the next logical step would be to naturally focus on what is missing to achieve a 10. Anything negative, that is still missing and that is not the way it should be, acts like a magnet for our attention, while we seem to have a Teflon layer against anything positive or that already points towards the right direction. A beautiful Tibetan saying nails it: “A falling tree makes much more noise than a whole growing forest.”

During a coaching process, directing the attention to positive change – even the smallest and slightest change – is crucial for successful growth. This holds even more true for Stakeholder Centered Coaching, as in this particular case a whole coaching system runs the risk of having a solely negative focus.

2. The Confirmation Bias

Imagine the following situation: You want to try out the new little restaurant that recently opened in your area. You have been looking forward to it, but the overall experience is anything but amazing, as both food and service leave much room for improvement. So you decide not to go there anymore and avoid the place from now on.

Before too long, the restaurant goes out of business and new management takes over. The quality of the food improves massively and likeable, well-trained professional waiters are now taking care of the patrons. You would be amazed by the culinary experience the place currently has to offer. If you only knew! Because as long as you remain uninformed you still carry your bad impression with you. When you drive by, you still perceive the place through that negative filter, even though it no longer mirrors reality. So, what needs to happen? Right – you need to get the word one way or another. A sign “Under New Management” will make you reconsider your perception and possibly give the place another try.

In cognitive psychology, this phenomenon is called “Confirmation Bias”. It describes the human inclination to search for, focus on and interpret information in such a way that it confirms our own expectations and the image we already have. We tend to subconsciously ignore anything that would contradict our expectations, especially new behavior. However, this is precisely where we want the attention to be focused in a process of development. Stakeholder Centered Coaching 3.0 ensures that numerous eyes, ears and senses are focused on the coachee and that behavioral change is perceived.

3. The Coffee Filter Effect (perception is subjective)

You can also imagine our perception as a filtering process: We pour hot water at a temperature of almost 100 deg. Celsius into a coffee filter. At the lower end of the filter, we get a brownish beverage, at around 90 deg. Celsius – and depending on the coffee machine and your preference this can be a filter coffee, a ristretto or a latte macchiato. On the one hand, the filter retains information such as temperature, chalk, impurities and on the other hand, the water is enriched by aromatic substances, colorants and caffeine. The previously reduced information is now being “colored”, so to speak. The same effect exists in our processing of information: we only perceive a reduced part of the information available and then interpret it through our individual filters that are defined by our view of the world, values, etc. In Stakeholder Centered Coaching 3.0, various views are directed towards the same situation, reducing the subjective filtering of behavioral change. The various interpretations of the stakeholders involved provide a better and more accurate “blend”.

These perceptive biases need to be actively managed in order to improve the value provided by coaching.

Changing behavior is only half the game

Coaching processes often focus on leadership assessments and the subsequent action planning. As a result, the leader intellectually understands where leadership change would be desirable and how this change would lead to increased effectiveness. This step is critical at the onset of the coaching process as it defines the 'intent of the leader to change', however; the cautionary being that a long list of good action intentions might not “see the light of day.” And even if they are implemented, this does not necessarily denote an inevitable change in the environment’s perception or that the change is actually perceived.

Actively involve stakeholders

This perception is one of the crucial success factors for coaching. Stakeholder Centered Coaching by Marshall Goldsmith* takes the leadership change process further, outside the leader's office and into his/her work environment, with the various stakeholders. These stakeholders are involved from the onset and can provide important and insightful suggestions for behavioral change that can assist leaders to become more effective on the job.

Moreover, as stakeholders consciously pay attention to the desired change in the leader their perception changes at the same time. As opposed to anonymous coaching, the stakeholders have knowledge of the development goals as well as the coaching support thereby better understanding and appreciating the respective changes. In this scenario, for instance, the boss is not suddenly behaving “strangely” after attending a “private” meeting; but instead the peers and direct reports can relate to the development taking place. This form of executive coaching creates real value through implementing change that is sustained, recognized and acknowledged by stakeholders in the workplace.  Ultimately, perception is reality.

The Process: Practically Proven

The Stakeholder Centered Coaching approach follows a clearly structured process which has proven to be successful hundreds of times. The process initiates with a structured 360-degree assessment. Marshall developed an instrument that is particularly suitable for leaders in a corporate setting, called “Global Leader of The Future”, GLOF for short. Other tools can be in conjunction with GLOF, especially if an organization already has its own assessment tool in place. This structured assessment is enriched by behavioral interviews led by the coach with the client’s six to eight most important stakeholders. These interviews are aimed at involving additional concrete examples and experiences to the initial assessment. Furthermore, they represent a first opportunity to establish trust in a relationship between the coach and the stakeholders; in which their support for the respective leader’s growth can be appreciated and their future willingness to engage in the process is stimulated.

The information gathered is then anonymized and summarized in a report which the coach discusses with the client. The client chooses one to two concrete growth areas for the coaching process. The client then presents these goals in a stakeholder briefing to inform all involved in the process of the leader’s intentions for the upcoming weeks and months.

This is when the actual coaching process “kicks off”, which consists of three phases repeating in a monthly interval.

Phase 1

In phase one the coachee gets feedback and feedforward from the stakeholders. Picture yourself driving in your car and in the rearview mirror you can see where you have come from – which can be seen as the feedback part. In order to balance the negativity bias, the question we ask here is: “Which positive changes did you see in my leadership behavior in the last four weeks?” Obviously, we are probing for positive changes in the past.

Through the windshield you see where you are going and how you need to navigate the next few curves – which represents the feedforward part. Here, the question is: “What can I do in the next four weeks in order to be even more effective in our working relationship?” This is where the stakeholder makes the shift from being affected by the change to playing an active role and contributing to the desired change. In addition, the stakeholder has another crucial function. We continue with the metaphor of driving a car: just as the dead angle in the outer mirror of your car, we all have blind spots in our behavior. Things we are not aware of, but that others perceive.

Both, the stakeholder’s feedback and feedforward as well as the exchange with the coach contribute to reducing these blind spots. Not only does the coachee have the coach as a sparring partner but also all selected stakeholders as partners for reflection in the growth process.

Phase 2

In phase two, the inputs provided by the stakeholders are reflected by the leader and discussed with the coach. Here the coach is in the classical role and supports the client by asking helpful questions, using appropriate coaching methods and helping to analyze and synthesize the various stakeholders’ remarks. Again, the client selects specific aspects of the stakeholder’s inputs that he or she wants to focus on during the next period.

Each coaching session results in a monthly action plan that creates the basis for practical application in phase three. This is where the circle is closed as the next step is the gathering of stakeholder feedback and feedforward after another month into the process. This interaction can be informal over a cup of coffee, on the phone or even via e-mail.

After the assessment phase, the entire process usually runs over 12 months. During this time, the stakeholders are asked to give their assessment of the growth progress in a short online questionnaire called “Leadership Growth Process Report” or LGPR for short. This report generates a structured, standardized and measurable assessment of the intended behavioral change as perceived by the main stakeholders.

Summary

• Stakeholder Centered Coaching 3.0 assimilates the perception of the most important stakeholders in a change process and directs it towards the respective change. This makes the perceived change and thus the success of the coaching measurable, as perception is reality.
• By involving the stakeholders, those affected by the change become co-creators, leading to increased mutual trust and improved relationships.
• Besides the client’s growth, the stakeholder’s awareness of the development is increased and a sustainable feedback culture is fostered within the organization. In turn, this leads to more engagement, improved collaboration and productivity, resulting in added value for the organization. A win-win-win situation is generated for the client, the stakeholders and the organization.