Coach Assessment & Management
Coach Assessment – finding the right pool of executive coaches for your organisation
If your organisation has been using externally resourced executive coaches for some time, the probability is that less than half of them may be delivering value for money; and some may actually be doing harm. Clutterbuck Associates provides a unique and robust coach assessment service to help organisations select a pool of qualified and suitable executive coaches. Our assessment considers the experience, aptitude and competence of the executive coaches as well as taking into account any particular requirements specified by the client.
Our assessment process can be used to:
- assess existing coaches that are already working within an organisation – we review the quality and competence to ensure the company is getting value for money
- select coaches for a new executive coaching programme.
Our clients find the service very valuable as an effective coach assessment process gives credibility to a coaching programme and coachees are assured that they will be matched with a competent, professional coach.
Key elements of the assessment process are:
- Planning, design and communication
- The application process – recruitment and selection
- Training HR professionals and others to assess candidates
- Delivery of the assessment centre
- Selection and feedback to candidates
- Review, measurement and report
- Continued coach development and supervision, if required
CA consultants work with our clients through each stage of the process, ensuring we meet their objectives and are on-hand for advice. If the assessment entails recruiting and selecting new coaches the process takes between 3 and 6 months from start to finish. The size of the pool required will affect timescales.
The following activities usually form part of a full assessment centre:
Interview with a chartered psychologist
The aim is to explore the candidate’s motivations for coaching and their mental aptitude for the role. The interview is intended to identify any issues relating to inflexibility, psychologically abnormal behaviour and projection. This element is sometimes merged with the panel interview described below.
Structured knowledge / experience interview
This addresses the candidates’ range of experience, understanding of the role, breadth of approach and technique, along with their values and general compatibility with the needs of the organisation and its clients.
Real-play observation
This assesses the overall approach of the coach in terms of both basic coaching skills (e.g. rapport-building, goal management, listening, giving appropriate feedback, use of questioning, ability to empathise with and understand the client’s issues) and more advanced skills, depending on the level, at which the coach pool is intended to operate.
Once appointed, the coach pool can be assisted through ongoing supervision. We can also provide systems to gather appropriate feedback from the coach and coachee, ensuring the organisation has data measuring the success of the coaching relationships.
Benefits of the coach assessment centre
Benefits experienced by previous clients from running coach assessment centres include:
- Significant reductions in cost (effective coaches achieve results in fewer sessions)
- Confidence in the quality of coaching offered (the evidence is robust and grounded in the requirements and culture of the specific organisation)
- Insight into the particular strengths of each coach in the pool, and hence greater clarity about where and with whom they can be most effective
- Increased clarity among executive coachees about what good coaching looks and feels like
- Cross-fertilisation of learning between external and internal coaches.
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