On December 7th, Marshall Goldsmith shared his unique coaching model, Stakeholder Centered Coaching (SCC), in our public webinar, available here for those of you unable to attend.

In a nutshell, SCC is an ongoing spiral of 360 feedback. When a leader signs on he or she commits to picking 12-40 stakeholders who will give him or her “feed forward” on a monthly basis. Feed forward refers to offering suggestions for what the leader can do in the next month to move toward his or her goal(s).

First, the coach and leader work together to identify the leadership challenge with a traditional interview based 360 assessment. The coach and leader then synthesize the information and hone it into one or two key, clear and measurable behavioral goals. Then, in contrast to most coach approaches, the focus continues to be centered around continual input from the stakeholders, which is used as the basis to have the leader iterate his or her behavior.

SCC first requires commitment from the leader and all stakeholders who are educated and onboarded on how to give monthly “feed forward.” This entails short monthly meetings where the leader has a five minutes or less interaction requesting suggestions on how to improve, and clear guidelines on how the leader is to respond in the moment and then focus on change. The coach and leader meet monthly to discuss the suggestions; mini surveys are given every few months to assess where progress has been made.

This approach is actually a systems intervention. It requires significant candor and transparency from the leader. It also develops a kind of feedback/forward culture. In addition, it can open up communication and can not only shift a leader’s behavior but his or her brand as he or she clearly announces the need and desire to change.

At our Annual Conference in October, I interviewed Marshall and three major CEOs on their experience with SCC coaching. Together, we then presented a keynote panel describing how this process challenged the CEOs to the core and helped them to become more ego free, and better leaders.

In our research paper this month, Angela Lee and Nichelle Carpenter looked at several studies on 360s. Typically, there is a moderate (note: not strong!) correlation (.30) between what leaders think of themselves and what others think of them. To me, this points out yet another reason why Stakeholder Centered Coaching, or at least very frequent check in meetings with stakeholders, can be a huge service to our clients.  

Warmly,
Carol Kauffman, PhD
Executive Director, Institute of Coaching