COACHING GUIDE
2009-2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS
One-on-One Coaching Evaluation (Coach Form)…………………………………..3
One-on-One Coaching Evaluation (Fellow Form)…………………………………..4
Preparation for Skillscope One-to-One Feedback Facilitation Session…………..5
Tips and Tricks for Interpreting the Feedback Report………………………………7
Coaching Information Provided to EPHLI Fellows…………………………………12
EPHLI Cohort V Coaching Schedule………………………………………………..14
Fellows will complete the Skillscope and MBTI before attending the first EPHLI session. The Fellows will receive training and feedback reports on these assessments during Session I.
This feedback from the Skillscope and the MBTI and the Fellows’ subsequent reflection and planning will form the basis for their Individual Development Plan (IDP). While at the training, the Fellows will receive instruction on the IDP process throughout the year.
Fellows may choose to receive one-on-one coaching to assist with the interpretation of the Skillscope and MBTI information received during Session I, and incorporate it into the IDP. Fellows are instructed to contact Kelly Ewertowski to request one on one coaching. These requests will be reviewed by EPHLI faculty and staff and each Fellow will be assigned a Coach as requested.
As a coach you are asked to contact fellows assigned to you within 7 days of receiving the assignment and no later than March 27, 2009. At that time you should, 1) introduce yourself (short bio-sketch), 2) provide dates and times to choose from for a first telephone session with the fellow to discuss the Skillscope and MBTI. Allow a one and a half to two hour time period.
Once you have heard back from the fellow, schedule the date/time. Then, prepare for the call by utilizing the information provided here and in the FYI, For Your Improvement: A guide for development and coaching; Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger.
Within a week of your first call and any subsequent calls you may have with the fellow, please complete and submit the One on One Coaching Evaluation Form and return it to Kelly Ewertowski ().
One-on-One Coaching Evaluation
To be completed by the Coach
1. Coach Name ______
Fellow Name ______
2. Please rate the ease of the process of making contact with the fellow and
follow-up conversations.
Circle One NumberVery Difficult / / Very Easy
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
3. Please report the approximate amount of time spent reviewing Skillscope and
MBTI assessment feedback reports in preparation for the one-on-one.
______Hours
4. Please report the approximate number of minutes spent during the first
coaching call.
______Minutes
5. How well do you think the fellow understood the MBTI and Skillscope feedback that was provided prior to the one-on-one coaching session?
Circle One NumberNot at All / / Completely
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
6. Please rate your assessment of how effective the fellow was (after coaching
was provided) in identifying his/her most important areas of need?
Circle One NumberNot at All / / Very Effective
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
Coaches, please complete this form and return by e-mail to Kelly Ewertowski at within 2 weeks of your first coaching call.
One-on-One Coaching Evaluation
To be completed by the Fellow
1. Fellow Name ______
Coach Name ______
2. Please rate the ease of the process of making contact with the coach and
follow-up conversations.
Circle One NumberVery Difficult / / Very Easy
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
3. Please rate the effectiveness of having a coach…
a. to help you understand the feedback provided on the 360 and MBTI.
Circle One NumberNot at All / / Very Effective
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
b. in identifying specific development areas and goals.
Circle One NumberNot at All / / Very Effective
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
c. in suggesting resources and action plans to achieve your goals.
Circle One NumberNot at All / / Very Effective
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
d. in providing follow-up on individual progress on development goals.
Circle One NumberNot at All / / Very Effective
1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
Coaches, please complete this form and return by e-mail to Kelly Ewertowski at within 2 weeks of your first coaching call.
EPHLI Fellows received their Skillscope Feedback Reports during their first on site retreat. At that time, they received a formal presentation about the Skillscope, how to interpret the feedback, completed several sections of the Skillscope Feedback Workbook, and generally became familiar with their feedback through the process outlined for you below.
Fellows also were introduced to the relationship between Skillscope and the MBTI results, and engaged in several small group activities that help them understand and discuss these relationships.
Preparation for SKILLSCOPE One-to-One Feedback Facilitation Session
Prior to a scheduled one-to-one feedback facilitation session, the facilitator will study a copy of the participant’s feedback report. The time necessary to accomplish this will vary depending upon such factors as the facilitator’s experience, familiarity with SKILLSCOPE and the relationship to the participant.
The first step is to check the report for such “basics” as name and number/type of respondents. Each feedback facilitator will develop a personal process for analyzing the report and making notes for the one-to-one session. After checking the basics, the facilitator will need to spend time getting familiar with the participant’s feedback report, looking for strengths, developmental areas, differences in opinion between the Self, Immediate Boss and Observers, relationship between scales/items, other questions that stand out—making notes as needed.
Remember, the participants “own” their own data, and as a result, you should give them your copy of the feedback report when finished with the one-to-one session.
Facilitating the Feedback Session
While it is good to have some structure in mind as you approach the feedback session, it is best to remain flexible and open to the unique needs of the individual. Here are five areas you may wish to address. (Note: Under each is a list of sample questions and/or statements for that particular area. It is your responsibility as a feedback facilitator to monitor the time and keep the discussion on track. Use the following examples sparingly and only if you find they add value to the feedback process.)
1) Setting the Context for the Session
· Clarifying objectives and expectations for the session
· Describing your role as facilitator
· Setting the context for feedback
2) Gathering Information from the Participant
· What are your goals and expected outcomes for the SKILLSCOPE process?
· What’s going on in your job right now?
· What challenges are in your job at this time?
· What types of job assignments have you had in the past?
· What is your relationship to the people who filled out the report?
· Where do you see yourself in five years?
· How would you like to use this time?
· How do you plan to use these data? (For example, to get promoted, gain more job satisfaction, work better with direct reports, etc.)
3) Analyzing the Data: Discussing strengths, developmental needs, patterns and themes
· What do you see in the data?
· Were there any big surprises for you?
· How are you feeling about your feedback right now?
· What do you think about the feedback?
· What was your overall impression of the report?
· What specific questions do you have about your feedback?
4) Addressing the Gaps: Raising issues not mentioned and discussing areas of confusion
· I made this observation . . .
· I noted that . . . What do you make of that?
· How do you interpret . . .?
· As you review the importance for success information, what patterns emerge?
· We’ve discussed your developmental needs extensively. Let’s also look at the clear strengths you have.
· You see confusing data on this item. How do you plan to get more information to clear this up?
· Do you feel you have any unanswered issues, or issues on which you need to collect more data?
5) Narrowing the Focus: Identifying key areas to strengthen or develop, actions to take, next steps
· What themes or patterns emerged for you?
· What are the overarching themes in your feedback?
· Summarize your strengths and developmental needs as you see them.
· Summarize your clear strengths/ developmental needs.
· Do you feel that you have a good understanding on how others perceive you?
· What present strength might become a weakness in the future? What present weakness may matter in the future?
· What do you have the energy and commitment to work on?
· Can you identify one “quick fix”: something small you can change right now to enhance your effectiveness?
SKILLSCOPE Feedback Facilitation
Tips for Interpreting the Feedback Report
Infrequent Responses – SKILLSCOPE directions ask raters to select those items that are definitely characteristic of the participant* (strength), items the participant especially needs to improve (development need), and to leave blank items which do not fall into either category. Absence of response can be interpreted two primary ways: neither strength nor development need (similar to a 3 on a 5 point scale), or don’t know, possibly because the rater has never seen the participant exhibit the skill. For SKILLSCOPE, absence of a response usually is not a negative.
(*Participant is defined as the manager who receives the SKILLSCOPE feedback report.)
High Scores
When a feedback report shows many strengths and indicates a lack of clear development needs, consider two options for identifying themes in the data. First, look for 5-8 items with the highest development need from across the feedback report, list them on a separate piece of paper and look for a theme among those items. Second, identify the “white spaces,” those areas that were neither a development need nor a clear strength. Analyzing items with no response might surface a theme or hypothesis for discussion.
Low Scores
When a SKILLSCOPE feedback report contains mostly development needed, help the participant prioritize the feedback. “What is most important to you to work on?” One of your challenges will be to focus the participant on one or two specific areas to target for development. Please refer to the “How to facilitate a SKILLSCOPE one-to-one feedback session” handout.
Boss as the “Lone Ranger”
One of the most confusing feedback patterns for participants is when the immediate boss rates an item as a development need, and a majority or all of the observers rate it a strength. Two questions to ask the participant are: “What behaviors does your immediate boss see that your peers and direct reports do not?” and, “Is it possible the boss is giving incident-specific feedback?” Participants may act differently around an immediate boss than they do around other people with whom they work. It is also possible that the immediate boss has decided to use the SKILLSCOPE 360 process to “send a message” to the participant, and is giving motivational, rather than performance-based, feedback.
Lack of agreement on skills most important to the job.
One of the primary benefits of selecting the skills most important to the participant’s current job is to generate thought and discussion, especially when it there is lack of agreement among the raters. If the participant and the immediate boss disagree on a majority of the importance factors, the participant should consider using that subject as a way to initiate a conversation with the boss. It is not a matter of right or wrong; it is a way to discuss differences of opinion. (Note: Participants should pay more attention to the SKILLSCOPE item level feedback than the importance factors when determining their development goals.)
Integrity
Item 89. Has integrity; trustworthy.
Possibly the single most important item on SKILLSCOPE and, as a facilitator, the one you want to make sure you are aware of before facilitating a feedback session. A participant who shows clear development need on item #89 should focus on this before any other skill area. Participants who demonstrate a lack of integrity will have a very difficult time being effective in any organization. As a point of comparison, SKILLSCOPE data collected from a CCL leadership program indicates that 93% of participants and 80% of observers rated strength on integrity.
Also look at SKILLSCOPE items:
#86. Willing to admit ignorance.
#88. Doesn’t hide mistakes.
#90. Doesn’t put own ambitions ahead of the organization’s objectives.
To learn more, read FYI, Chapter 29: Integrity/Trust and Chapter 105: Betrayal of Trust.
Relationships
SKILLSCOPE items #38-41 all begin with the phrase, “Has good relationships with…,” focusing on relationships with direct reports, peers, superiors and outsiders. Effective participants tend to score strength on these items. At the same time, some participants find development need indicated on items #35-37 and #42-44, the other items that make up the relationship scale, and this causes a disconnect for the participant. (This situation creates a pattern on the feedback report that resembles a flag. See attached sample report.) This might indicate that although relationships are a strength, the participant might not be actively working to “build warm, cooperative relationships,” or is relying too heavily on interpersonal rapport, possibly resulting in a strength overused.
To learn more, read FYI, Chapter 31: Interpersonal Savvy. (See also the Interpersonal Skills section of this document.)
Delegation
When item #59, Delegates effectively, is rated a development need, as you consider what ineffective delegation looks like (too much, to little, lack of direction), look at these SKILLSCOPE items for clues to the potential causes:
51. Gives direct reports appropriately challenging assignments and opportunity to grow.
49. Good coach, counselor, mentor; patient with people as they learn.
25. Structures direct reports work appropriately.
64. A participative manager; shares responsibilities and influence with direct reports.