ECS Group Coaching Concepts and Principles
• Situational Self-Assessment (SSA)
• Outside-In communications and thinking
• Context is king
• Relationship Wheel
• Concentric Circles (context setting tool)
• Well-crafted, intentional questions
• Listen first, process, respond (LPR)
• Negotiated No
• Over the Horizon thinking
• Demystifying strategic thinking
• Organizational indigestion
If you’d like to learn more about how ECS Group can help your leaders understand and apply these concepts and principles, please email Charles I. Story at
cstory@ecsgroupinc.com or call 615.479.7725.
The Coaching Context
● An organization should view coaching as a differentiated investment in key talent. Coaching participants should be accountable for business initiatives critical to the organization’s success.
● Coaching is a process that involves assessment, creating a development plan, including actions, and working collaboratively to achieve the plan.
● The coach must establish the linkage between leadership behaviors and business results.
● Gathering 360-degree feedback from the coaching participant’s manager, peers, and subordinates is a crucial step in identifying the types of behaviors that will generate desired business results.
● Coaching engagement success increases proportionately by the extent to which the engagement is targeted to an executive’s specific needs.
● It is critical to have line manager involvement and senior manager advocacy.
● It is imperative to develop a coaching agreement that is reviewed and agreed to by the individual being coached, their manager, and a designated HR representative.
● The agreement should include: clarification of roles and responsibilities, expected time frame for achieving goals and objectives, metrics to assess success, clarification of boundaries of confidentiality, timing and form of progress reviews, fee structure and other expenses, and documentation of who is responsible for fee payment.
● Coaching participants should have the potential to advance one or two levels and have a track record of fully utilizing development opportunities.
● A coach must model leadership behaviors such as active listening, openness, effective relationship building, and trust.
● Coaching is better accepted if it is communicated that the coaching participant has been selected to participate in an important development opportunity and that the CEO and senior management are supportive of the coaching process.
● Offering coaching to leaders in an organization can be leveraged as an incentive and retention tool for high potential employees.
● Coaching must relate to the individual’s daily activities in order to prevent coachee derailment.
● There should be scheduled follow-up sessions between the coach, the coachee, and the coachee’s manager.