TYPICAL COACHING CLIENTS & DELIVERABLES
Essential Communications coaches high performers to achieve
The Look & Sound of Leadership™.

Our clients are usually one or more of the following . . .
Successful experts who want to project a more credible, influential image
Rising stars who need to succeed in front of their most senior officers
Employees passed over for promotion because of style, rather than
performance, issues

In our coaching work, we . . .
Polish leaders’ "executive presence"
Coach speakers to deliver charismatic keynotes
Help employees manage how they’re perceived in the workplace

THE COACHING PROCESS
Individuals who receive coaching are called clients. Because every client has different needs and different goals, coaching must be a highly flexible process. Over the years, Essential Communications has developed many different ways of delivering communications coaching.

Below is a description of a typical engagement with a Director-level client located outside of Southern California. What follows does not describe every coaching engagement. If you’d like more details about what the coaching process might look like for you, please contact us.

A TYPICAL ENGAGEMENT

Scope of Work
A typical long-distance engagement lasts six months and includes some or all of the following services:
Initial meeting with the client and, usually, the person to whom the client
reports (This may be in person or via teleconference)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator^® personality assessment
“Anecdotal” feedback report from a broad spectrum of sources
Books, articles or materials provided as needed
One-on-one coaching sessions (both face-to-face and via teleconference)
Videotaping and feedback
“Just in time” telephone coaching
Shadowing
Exit meetings with supervisor(s)
Written coaching plan
Limited telephone support for two months after the end of the engagement

Optimally, coaching sessions occur approximately every other week. Over the course of a long distance, six-month engagement, four sessions will be face to face. The other sessions will be 90-minute telephone sessions.

Establishing & Achieving Goals
At the outset, the client and coach work together to establish goals for the coaching work. Ideally these goals should be supported by the organization but not seen as critical to the client’s performance, coaching to correct a severe performance problem is rarely successful.

Measuring success at the end of the engagement may include another feedback report and/or exit meetings with the supervisor. Often the client identifies specific, personal ways in which he/she will measure success.

A Typical Coaching Session
During a coaching session, the client reports recent behaviors which relate to the established goals. The client may feel these behaviors were a step towards or a step away from his/her goals.

With the coach, the behaviors are analyzed for what worked and what didn’t work. The coach presents a plan designed to help the client get a feel for what achieving the goal will look and feel like. Homework is given to help the client create the desired new behavior.

Some examples of actual homework given to various clients over the years are:

	Listen for any comments you make which diminish your own contributions
	Have a networking lunch at least once a week
	Talk within the first ten percent of every meeting you attend
	Observe yourself in relation to the concept of “Explainer”
	Use shorter sentences. Speak only one thought per sentence
	Stop talking sooner.

The next coaching session begins with a discussion of the homework from the previous session.

Confidentiality
Coaching creates two different issues of confidentiality.

The first issue is that of an external consultant in an organization’s workplace. Essential Communications signs a confidentiality agreement with the organization in regards to their confidential information.

The second issue of confidentiality is addressed by the question: “Who does the coach report to?”

An organization hires Essential Communications to coach an employee of that organization. That individual becomes the client and the relationship between coach and client is ruled by confidentiality.

If the organization’s superiors want to discuss details of the individual's coaching engagement, the individual must give the coach permission to discuss them. On the other hand, it is understood that general issues, such as broad developmental goals, can be disclosed without the individual's consent.

We firmly believe coaching should not be kept a secret. Involving people—both above and below the client—in the coaching process elevates the client and models good leadership behavior.

A Final Thought
The success of a coaching engagement depends on many factors. Some of these include: the client’s capacity for growth and self-reflection; the organization’s support of the client; and matching the coach’s expertise to the client’s need. All these can be critical factors for success.

One additional factor is always critical in every coaching situation: rapport. If the client and the coach don’t “click,” achieving goals becomes very difficult if not impossible.

If you’re looking to be coached, be sure to talk with any prospective coach before making a decision to go forward. There simply is no substitute for rapport.

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