Robert Hargrove

As you may have picked up on from my blogs, I have been having a lot of fun working with people in the Masterful Coaching Certification process. Programs at the Pentagon and at my country house in Waltham Massachusetts have been both impactful and enjoyable.

Following the last session, I received an email from Paul Fisher, one of the participants from a Big Co. His email and my response might give you an idea of what happens in the coaching part of the program. Here Paul is making sure he has met the first test of certification...signing up 2 qualified coachees. (I have changed the names to protect the innocent.)

Paul's letter to Robert... Thank you very much for a great two days. I enjoyed meeting you and appreciate the dialogue associated with the Masterful Coaching methodology. The discussion approach really helped bring my reading of your materials together. I am going back over my notes and the materials to help make connections and reinforce the learning.

I met with Ben, my boss, this morning and we had a really good meeting about my next steps. I am remaining in my current role for now (his choice), which will let me focus on really learning and applying the Masterful Coaching process while I focus all of my efforts on helping him with his organizational objectives.

Ben has agreed to be a client and we discussed several members of his leadership team for coaching engagements. We discussed that this is not intended for “remedial” coaching discussions, but rather for leaders who are focused on accomplishing an “impossible future.”

The leaders on his team that we discussed are ones who have big objectives that they need/want to achieve, as well as ones who are either new to their roles or soon will be and will be in a creative mode with their teams. Any of these leaders will be “Principal (Senior) Managers” and direct reports to Ben.

One in particular stands out to me. He is the new Regional Manager for our Europe/Eurasia operations. He would be keen to engage in the coaching and is definitely focused on accomplishing an “impossible” level vision.

He is located in Aberdeen, Scotland, so I would envision us meeting face-to-face in early March when I will be meeting with him on a separate subject. We would conduct weekly calls for follow-up and focused calls as needed for specific development activities as we progress through the conversations. I would plan to meet personally either every two months or quarterly at a minimum.

Will this combination of clients satisfy the certification requirements of coaching two people with the MC approach, as well as the goals of the coaching?

Perhaps we could schedule a call where I could discuss my plans for the respective clients and my initial meetings with them. Thank you again for the learning, development, and contribution opportunity. Best Regards, Paul

Robert’s response…making sure coachees are on board with an Impossible Future and coaching contract

Paul, This is a great letter as it shows your seriousness about the Masterful Coaching Certification process. I am happy to hear your job situation will allow you to focus on the Masterful Coaching Certification process. I am not clear from your letter whether Ben has signed up for an Impossible Future or rather for help in achieving current organizational objectives. Perhaps you didn’t want to push him to this on the first meeting, but this is a very important point we need to clarify. Everything rests on this.

Also, as you are going to be working closely with Ben, did you have a chance to discuss a Chief of Staff role that we talked about in the context of helping Ben with this Impossible Future and day job? I think this would really empower you and I suggest bringing it up sooner rather than later, as you are still formulating your role.

As far as coaching one of Ben’s high-potential DRs on accelerated leadership development in the context of an Impossible Future, I think that’s a great idea and would meet the requirements of MC Certification, plus be a pre-emptive strike into the staff role. I have done many coaching jobs where I coached an EVP on an Impossible Future and one or two of his VPs. You just have to be two-headed and guarantee confidentiality. This, by the way, is how to get MC to take off in the organization.

Though I usually recommend a meet once a month, talk once a week set up, in cases where you are coaching a guy from a far-flung geographic region, I have myself done the every 2nd month meeting, but ususally with a twice weekly coaching call. It usually works out pretty well, but one note of caution, make sure the guy is a COMMUNICATOR--meetings, phone calls, email.

The key is to know which of the 12 catalytic coaching conversations are best done face-to-face. For example, building an extraordinary coaching relationship, source document and winning game plan, 360 feedback. Other conversations could be doubled up at face-to-face sessions and then reviewed on the phone. Also, you can split the travel-he can come to you or vice versa.

Let’s get the 6 MC Certification calls scheduled near term. I would like to talk to you at the appropriate time to make sure Ben is on board for an Impossible Future and knows something about what that is. I would also like to talk to you about the same with his direct report. Are both willing to sign the coaching contract, which implies 200 hours of coaching (or at least a lot of calendar time)?

Look forward to working with you, Robert