Chapter 12: Third-party Initiated Coaching

Overview

Coaching is sometimes initiated by someone other than the coachee or the coach. In this case there are some things that you, the coach, will want to consider. These will include how much involvement the third party wants to have in the coaching process and how much you are prepared to allow. There will also be issues of confidentiality between you and the coachee and the possibility that the third party and the coachee may have different agendas .

If a third party has initiated the coaching, the coach should have a conversation with this person to establish the exact reasons for the request. The following list of questions may be helpful here:

• What makes you think that this person will benefit from coaching?

• What specific behaviours have you noticed that you would like to see changing?

• What do you want this person to be able to do better?

• What is the person not doing that you believe he or she is capable of?

• What achievements do you see this person being able to make as a result of coaching?

• What specific incidents can you describe that have led to this request for coaching?

• What have you told this person about your request for coaching?

• Why have you chosen coaching, rather than other methods of development?

• What support will you be able to give this person during the coaching period and beyond?

• What do you think the impact of any changes in this person will be on your team and on others with whom the person comes into contact?

• How do you plan to deal with this impact?

• What feedback are you expecting to receive from me and from the coachee?

It is important to establish whether the third person has told the coachee that he or she is being nominated for coaching. The coach should not be the one who tells the coachee that he or she needs coaching. This is the job of the third party, usually the line manager “ in reality, however, the line manager may hope that you will take this on as part of the job of coaching. This is a crucial part of the process of preparing the coachee. Imagine the problems that might arise during your first contact with the coachee if that person did not know that he or she was a candidate for this type of development! It may be that the line manager does not feel able to give the coachee the feedback that is required and therefore the coach will need to do some work with the line manager before getting involved with the coachee.