This particular risk, associated with the work of an influence coach, is more likely to occur if you are really good at your job. The more you help your client, the more value you add, the more likely you will find yourself wondering if you have actually earned your fee. Sadly, the buyer and the client may also be wondering that.
Influence Coaching Trap #3 is:
Losing sight of the objective.
If you have adopted a robust start to your coaching work (mapping out a programme of sessions/topics and pinning down a specific work-related goal that your client will focus their learning on), staying on course over 3-6 months is hard work.
Here are some of the reasons why you may wander from your plan:
- Business/organisational priorities change and the original goal becomes a low priority (or disappears completely).
- Your client changes job. Rough estimate, over 10-15% of my coaching clients have had a significant change of responsibilities during the time we were actively working together.
- Reality dawns, and your client realises they’ve got a real challenge on their hands. Coaching takes them out of their comfort zone, and if you are holding them to account, pressure increases. So, they begin to resist applying themselves, perhaps by distracting you with juicy political machinations.
- After beginning your work, you both realise that the real development priority wasn’t visible at the start. Often the real problem lies hidden until you begin your work.
- Too much time elapses between sessions. There needs to be some momentum and pace to influence coaching.
- Once opened, the political Pandora’s Box brings forth a multitude of other critically important (and fascinating) things to discuss.
- They finish early. Yes, although I get my clients to aim on a goal perhaps 6-9 months out, sometimes they finish way ahead of schedule (such is the potential of the Stakeholder Influence Process).
You need to keep a careful watch for all of these. If you are not careful, you can get to the end of the programme of sessions and find yourself in the position where you have only covered half of the original topics. Yes, there will be excuses (sorry, rational explanations); however, you will then be in a challenging spot. If I was your buyer (and I’ve bought 1000s of hours of coaching) I would have a number of questions in my mind:
- Was the development need met? If not, why not?
- Have I got value for money? Is the client delighted with what you have done?
- Is your judgment sound? If your plan was so good at the beginning, why has it changed?
- What does this say about the performance/capability of the client?
- How will I justify your fee to my boss and/or the client’s boss?
- What does this say about your performance/capability as a coach?
- Shall I hire you again?
No, I never asked the question, should I buy a few more coaching sessions from the coach so they can finish?
Here are some ideas on how to keep on track and keep your client and buyer happy:
- Review your plan with the client at the beginning/end of each session.
- Have a clear session structure and limit the time allocated to “any other business.”
- Work hard to ensure you have complete trust between you and your client.
- Work hard to make sure you start with the best goal in the first place.
- Keep other stakeholders in the loop, especially if things are heading off track (mindful of confidentiality).
- Engage your client in the benefits of staying on track.
- Beware you don’t enjoy talking about the other stuff too much, fascinating though it always is.
- Keep a running record (for your purposes) of what you do in each session.
- When you are off-topic, ensure it is consciously done, so both of you are aware it is happening.
- Don’t be afraid to challenge your client hard and limit distracting conversations.
That said, things will happen from time to time that are completely out of your control. The ideas above will help you to respond even more effectively. And don’t forget, if a meaningful goal is legitimately lost, consider pausing the coaching. Application of learning is so important that if they haven’t got anything to focus it on, you might well be wasting everyone’s time and money.
The Gautrey Influence Blog
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