Three Principles of Stakeholder Centered Coaching:

  1. Place the attention and focus on your stakeholders. The true leverage points in behavioral change are the people who are interdependent with you and work with you every day.

  2. Emphasize FeedForward. Focusing on the future (which we can influence) is more effective than focusing on the past (which we cannot change).

  3. Change behavior and perception in parallel. It is useful to work in parallel on changing a behavior and the perception of your behavior by your stakeholders.

The Process:

1. Define a Leadership Goal important to the Leader and the Organization

Our methodology recognizes that one of the beliefs of successful leaders is the need to be the one choosing what to work on to improve. This includes a cost/benefit analysis that helps the leader determine “Is it worth it” to proceed. Once a leader chooses a goal, the other decision tied to the chosen goal is “Who are the relevant stakeholders?” Every goal has a set of stakeholders who are relevant, as the leader’s behavior both affects them and they are clear beneficiaries of the leader’s positive change. Before starting, the development goal and list of stakeholders is approved by the leader’s manager.

2. Buy-in from Stakeholders to be part of the Process

As stakeholders are on the receiving end of leadership, the stakeholders’ perception of leadership effectiveness is pivotal. Therefore, the Stakeholders are an integral part of this process and are recruited as valued members of the leadership change process. Each Stakeholder is asked to actively participate in the leader’s improvement on an ongoing basis. They are asked to provide both feedback and feedforward to the leader and be willing to complete anonymous mini-surveys on the leader’s improvement. The process starts with the Stakeholders providing the initial input on the Action Plan by providing suggestions to the leader and coach.

3. Stakeholder-Based Planning

An action plan is not developed based upon the coach’s expertise. The action plan is built from the initial request for suggestions from the Stakeholders. The Leader and the Coach collaborate to put together an action plan based on the input provided by the Stakeholders. The plan in part, or in total, is also put into a daily checklist for the leader to consciously keep the plan in his/her consciousness. The plan is distributed to the Stakeholders so they are aware of what to look for in providing feedback and further suggestions to the leader.

4. Monthly Collection of Stakeholder Input

The Leader uses the 7-Step Involving Stakeholder “do’s and don’ts” to check-in monthly with each Stakeholder. During this brief 2-to-5-minute check-in, the Leader asks for feedback on the prior 30 days and any suggestions moving forward for the next 30 days. The Leader captures this input and shares the results with the Coach. Together they collaborate on what to add, change, or modify for the coming month based upon Stakeholder input. Any new action items created for the Action Plan are communicated to all the Stakeholders.

5. Measure Leadership Change as perceived by Stakeholders

Half way through, and the end of the assignment, a formal mini-survey is conducted with the Stakeholders to assess the progress made on the development goal chosen by the Leader. This is an anonymous survey conducted to validate the improvement made by the Leader and to measure the change in Stakeholder perception. With the results of the mini-survey, the Leader completes an After Action Review to pinpoint what happened, why, and what learning to take forward into the future.