Professional Coaching
UNDERSTAND
Coaching is a unique one-on-one relationship designed to help
you overcome challenges, plan for the future, and maximize success.
Coaches help you explore and realize your full potential as an individual,
as a team member, or as a leader.
Through working with a coach,
you can:
- Set professional and organizational goals and develop
plans to achieve them.
- Identify gaps in knowledge or skills,
and determine the steps needed to close those gaps.
- Build upon training you have received.
- Enhance your interpersonal skills.
- Improve individual and organizational performance.
Coaches provide confidential, individual guidance. They support you
by acting as a resource, a sounding board, and a partner, but also
by providing unbiased feedback and by asking questions that spark discussions,
provoke thought, and inspire self-reflection. Coaches may use evaluative
tools and other aids, including assessments offered through POD, and may ask you to complete exercises or other
work outside the coaching sessions.
Coaching has been shown to increase
the effectiveness of training and to have a high return on investment
(ROI):
- According to the Public Personnel Management Journal, "when
training is combined with coaching, individuals increased productivity
by an average of 88 percent."
- According to The Hay Group, "More than 50% of Fortune 500 companies use executive coaches
and six out of ten companies offer coaching to mid and senior level
managers. ROI from the study is 529%. Coaching is the best strategy/methodology
for successful leaders."
ACT
The University Consulting Alliance is group of consultants both employed
by the University of Washington and subcontracted by UW Professional & Organizational
Development (POD). Many of our Alliance consultants have expertise and
experience in coaching; in addition, many have professional coaching certification.
To explore working with a coach, contact the Alliance’s Consultation Services
Coordinator at 206-616-8461 or alliance@uw.edu.
The coordinator will work to understand your needs and match you with a suitable
coach. In addition, you’ll have the opportunity to meet and interview the
selected coach to make sure he or she is a good fit for you. You can also read
more about our Alliance consultants here.
One-on-one coaching sessions generally run $185 per hour, and planning on three
sessions is a good start for most people. If your training budget is limited,
you may want to consider pursuing coaching this quarter or this fiscal year instead
of other professional development opportunities such as attending a conference.
EXPLORE
Sample Coaching Engagements and Results
UW employees
and POD staff members describe their experiences with coaching and
with being coached. (The names of the clients described by the POD
coaches have been changed to protect their privacy.)
- Soledad
was an extremely talented and driven manager who needed to develop
a creative, high-performance team out of a group of autonomous individuals.
Achieving Soledad’s goals required a broad-scale culture change,
and a deepening of her understanding of and sensitivity to the history
of the organization. Through coaching, Soledad began to have conversations
with her employees designed to bring her team to a common understanding
and shared vision. Soledad also made some critical changes in her management
style, which fostered connection and a sense of purpose in her employees.
The culture of her team was noticeably improved, which inspired Soledad
to foster a similar change across the organization. - POD coach
- One-on-one
coaching has helped me incorporate POD training into my everyday responsibilities
as a manager. Instead of putting course materials on the shelf when
a training ends, I've worked with my POD coach to implement the training.
For example, after attending "Crucial Confrontations," I
worked with my POD coach to review and reinforce the knowledge I gained
in class. Within a few days, I was able to successfully manage a very
difficult and challenging situation within my unit, utilizing both
my POD training and the coaching I received. I heartily recommend coaching
to anyone seeking to develop and expand their professional talents.
- John J. Carroll, Manager, Facilities Services
- Marco was
a long-term employee who’d lost motivation. After several reorganizations
and the loss of an office, Marco felt unsure about his value to the
organization and his own desires going forward. He was frustrated by
the changes, he complained frequently and ineffectively, and he often
counted the years to retirement. For Marco, the coaching work revealed
unexamined expectations and blind spots about his behaviors that hindered
his ability to set his own course. Marco worked to understand his vocational
values, and his habits in interactions with colleagues. By gaining
a broader perspective, and by having more authentic conversations he’d
avoided previously, Marco was able to develop a plan for his career
development based on his needs and the needs of the organization. He
now enjoys a fuller engagement with greater influence in an organization
he once again takes pride in. - POD coach
- After nearly
12 years of professional life, for the first time my direct supervisor
left and a new person was hired (before then, I’d always left
first, moving on to a new job and supervisor). Even though I liked
my new supervisor, I struggled with establishing a relationship with
someone who hadn’t selected me for my role. That led me to another “first”—working
with a coach. My coach and I talked not only about my feelings but
about concrete ways to partner with my new boss to get to results.
My coach also provided me with tools that helped me clarify and communicate
my goals and better understand my new supervisor’s vision for
my department. At times he gave me “homework,” and then
in our next session we’d discuss my assignment and how I could
apply it to my situation. The skills and tools I acquired through working
with a coach were immensely useful at the time, and they have continued
to be valuable as I’ve experienced further changes in leadership.
- Beth Warrick, Former Director, Professional & Organizational Development
- Karl
was a seasoned manager who’d been transferred to a new department
and was dealing with a troubled relationship between two of his employees.
This inherited problem was a long-standing issue and needed a fresh
approach. Karl attempted to resolve this using methods that worked
for him before, but those methods proved ineffective now. Through coaching,
Karl learned to design and facilitate discussions that ultimately improved
the situation for the group. He also gained fluency in taking others’ perspectives
such that he could better manage his own reactivity to conflict. Karl’s
improved leadership skills led to strengthened partnerships and kudos
from upper management. - POD coach
To work with a coach, contact the
Alliance’s Consultation Services Coordinator at 206-616-8461
or
alliance@uw.edu.
