I was coaching another agile coach the other day and they presented the following story to me looking for my coaching wisdom & guidance…
I know, I know, but I shared as much wisdom as I could ;-)
The sponsor/stakeholder/client (a senior executive in the technology organization) asked them to coach one of their direct reports. That person is a senior manager in the organization, well respected, and long-tenured.
The senior leader gave the coach a list of challenges they had with the individual that they wanted them (the coach) to work on fixing in (the senior manager).
When the coach attempted to “coach” that individual, they met resistance. In fact, the person didn’t see the need for coaching. They recounted that in their last performance review their manager (senior leader) had given them a stellar review, wonderful feedback, and a nice promotion and salary increase. So, they really didn’t feel the need for much in the way of coaching and personal improvement.
The coach went back to the stakeholder and respectfully and delicately communicated the resistance and tried to bow out of coaching the manager. They told the senior leader that, if they felt that individual needed some help, that they would have to communicate that to them themselves, thus opening the door for the leader performing the coaching.
The senior leader didn’t accept that position. In fact, they pushed back hard. They said that (1) the manager had a performance problem and (2) that they were delegating to the coach to “fix it”. As part of their ongoing responsibility as a “coach”. To be honest, they resented having to repeat themselves…
And this is where I came in. The coach was looking for me to do something (ask powerful questions, provide advice, suggest options, mentor them, anything…) to help them to decide what to do next.
To be transparent, they felt like they were between a rock and a hard place with very limited options. And they had already scheduled a follow-up coaching meeting with the senior manager and were quite triggered as the meeting approached.
How would you have handled this?
First of all, I’m not going to share what I said to the coach or how our coaching conversation went. I will save that for a future follow-up post. What I want to explore is this…
If you were the coach, how would you have handled this? What would you have said? Or how would your coaching arc conversation have flowed? Please add your approaches, advice, and ideas as a comment.
I’m looking forward to seeing what might emerge for readers so please comment.
Leaders, is this, ok?
And secondly, I want to ask other leaders who are reading this for your feedback.
Is it “ok” for the senior leader to delegate to the coach in this way? If not, why not. And if so, why and to what purpose. I’m not just looking for a yes or no, but I’m looking for your nuanced, situational thinking.
Again, I have an opinion but I’ll hold onto it until I see the wide variety of thoughts/comments that are sure to be shared.
Until next time, stay agile my friends,
Bob.