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The added value of three way contracting in coaching

I used to think it was enough to have a contract directly with my coachee.  But I have come to see the error of my ways! 

That 1-1 contract is fine if the coachee is paying for the coaching.  But if their company is paying for it, you automatically have an additional client, and multiple stakeholders who have expectations about how this person performs in the context of the organization and its mission and vision.

Peter Hawkins describes the 1-1 coaching contract as personal development.  That’s pretty accurate I would say, as the coachee decides what they want to work on, and it’s often to do with self-leadership. 

I think of leadership as multi-faceted.  There is self-leadership, and we all need to get better at that, before we can have a hope of influencing others around us.  Getting to grips with who we are, what is important to us, how we want to show up in the world etc.

Then there is leadership of others.  Instantly, you have more stakeholders affected by the coaching – the team members. 

Last, but by no means least, you have leadership of the organization, which can only be a collective endeavour – none of us can do this alone, and we need to work with our peers and others to run the business, as well as transform the business.

So when an organization commissions you to coach an individual leader, what they really need (though may not be able to name it as such) is systemic coaching.  Not personal development.

Therefore, at contracting time, we need to identify all of the stakeholders who have a vested interest in this individual stepping up in their world, and what they want the individual to step up TO.  What will they need to be able to achieve in tomorrow’s world, to address the needs of those stakeholders? 

Now that is a stretch, for both the coachee, and for us as a coach, to support them in their stepping up to meet the needs of their world.

2 thoughts on “The added value of three way contracting in coaching

  1. Good post Clare. I think it’s always helpful to get clients to describe “success through the eyes of their stakeholders”. Even if its personal development that they want to focus on there will be other people affected such as family, friends etc. When it’s business related, there will be multiple stakeholders and perspectives to consider. If you can get one or some of those stakeholders in a room to describe what success would look like through their eyes it is extremely powerful.

    1. hi Antoinette, good to see you here. Your comment reminded me of something that a coach at the Center for Creative Leadership described to me once. He would interview all the coachee’s stakeholders, and bring their voices into the room that way. He would interview their spouse/partner, their boss, their team members, their peers, their customers, their boss’ boss etc. All of this added such richness to the coaching – this wasn’t your typical 360 feedback, gathered through a survey, where you still didn’t really know how you were doing, because people hadn’t written enough detail about what they meant, or wanted to remain anonymous so didn’t give examples…this was deep insightful feedback from all of the people who had a vested interest in the coachee doing well. An expensive process, I am sure, but well worth it for the deep understanding you would get about what the coachee might want to tackle in his/her coaching.

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