Transform coaching: 101

15Five's Transform coaches are focused on helping you succeed at what matters most to you. By working with a coach, you can learn more about yourself, identify areas of growth and opportunity, and create a plan for the right next steps. Coaching conversations can cover a variety of topics. You will work with your coach to determine what's most important to focus on together.

In this article, you will learn...

• What is coaching?
• What will my coach work with me on? (Available coaching focus areas)
• Types of coaching series subscriptions
• Types of one-off coaching session subscriptions
• How can I request coaching?
• FAQs

What is coaching?

Coaching helps individuals and teams learn how to find the ‘why’ behind the challenges they’re facing and define an authentic path towards lasting behavior change.

What will my coach work with me on? (Coaching focus areas)

You will be able to guide your coaching session based on the topics and issues that are most relevant to you. Below is an overview of the types of areas the coaching team typically covers during coaching sessions.

• Change management: Change is something that all leaders face. Your coach can help you prepare or walk through times of change. This may look like creating a plan, processing what is happening, or practicing for upcoming conversations.
• Communication: Communication plays a crucial role in people management. Whether it's casting vision, giving feedback, having effective 1:1s, active listening, or working through conflict, your coach will help you think through how to make the most out of opportunities to communicate with your team.
• Management style: Developing a management style that is authentic to you is important. Your coach will help you explore how to refine your style, minimize weaknesses, strengthen your skills, and show up as an authentic, effective manager and leader.
• Managing up: Sometimes the challenges in being a manager aren't from circumstances related to your direct reports, but rather related to upper leadership and the organization at large. Coaching sessions will focus on these dynamics to define a path forward as you think about managing up and influencing the organizational culture.
• New manager: As a new manager, your coach will be a safe, helpful, outside source to help you process your experiences, grow your skills and confidence, and build habits that set you up for success as a manager and leader.
• Personal growth: Working with a coach is a great way to learn more about yourself. Your coach will work with you to focus on areas of personal growth. Conversations relating to personal growth could be about creating balance, stress management, emotional intelligence, overcoming mental distractions, expanding your influence, or identifying blind spots that are reducing your personal effectiveness and success.
• Team culture: As a manager, you play an important role in developing the culture of your team. Culture includes the formal and informal beliefs, policies, and behaviors of your team, whether they are helping you achieve shared success or not. Issues around gender, race and ethnicity, as well as conflict styles and styles of recognition are common topics of discovery. A 15Five coach will help you think through the culture as it is and as you want it to be.
• Team performance: Your coach will help you explore your team's performance. Identifying ways to motivate the team as they work toward a goal, recognizing how you can celebrate achievements, or talking through how you create a strategy for your team are part of maximizing team performance.

Types of coaching series subscriptions

Coaching Series subscriptions allow organizations to purchase a series of sessions with a Transform coach. Individuals or groups that are assigned to a coaching series will meet with their coach several times over the course of the year.

The following types of coaching series subscriptions are available:

• 1-on-1 Coaching: This is a series of sessions where an individual will meet with their coach on a monthly basis. Each session is a collaborative conversation focused on helping the individual gain the tools they need to achieve their goals. Their coach will use strategic coaching tools—inquiry, self-reflection, role play, skill development, etc.—to support them through the process of increasing self-awareness, practicing new skills or mindsets, and taking in feedback.
• Group Coaching: This is a series of sessions where a group of up to ten individuals will meet with their coach on a monthly basis. Each session is focused on helping the group process their experiences, share learnings, identify opportunities, and create collective accountability for growth and development. The group will commit to a particular outcome or learning objective for each session.
• Transform Coaching: This is a series of sessions where a group of up to ten individuals will meet with their coach bi-monthly (every sixty days). During each session, the group will process their experiences, share learnings, identify opportunities, and create collective accountability around the skill that was discussed in their previous Transform Skill Intensive.
• Transform Skill Intensives: This is a series of sessions where a group of up to thirty individuals will meet with their coach bi-monthly (every sixty days) to build on a skill.

Types of one-off coaching session subscriptions

Coaching Session subscriptions allow organizations to purchase standalone sessions with a Transform coach. 

The following coaching session subscriptions are available:

• 1-on-1 engagement action planning: These sessions are for an individual to meet with a coach who will help them interpret their engagement insights at a team or department level. The coach will work with them to develop a tactical plan to address short-term issues or meet short-term goals.
• Group engagement action planning: These sessions are for a group of up to ten individuals to meet with a coach who will help them interpret engagement insights at a team or department level. The group will work with a coach to develop a tactical plan to address short-term issues or meet short-term goals.
• OKR coaching: These are open office sessions with a coach where a group of up to thirty can receive hands-on support with OKRs and related questions.
• OKR skill intensives: These sessions are interactive team workshops on the basics and building of OKRs. They can include a group of up to thirty individuals. During the session time, the group will explore success strategies for alignment, ownership, and dependency of OKRs.

How can I request coaching?

If you’d like to request coaching for yourself or your team, please fill out this form. After you've completed the form, a member of our Transform team will connect with you about your request.

FAQs

Here are some common questions you may receive about coaching and some insights from our team. Feel free to reference these answers or message us at support@15five.com for additional support.

• Q: Am I being assigned a coach because my team or I are underperforming?
  Some of the world’s most successful people owe their success to working with a coach. The opportunity to work with a coach is an investment that will benefit you directly and the company overall. We’re committed to giving our managers and employees the opportunities they need to keep growing and developing into the professionals they want to be.
• Q: How is coaching more effective than if I learn on my own?
  Coaching shouldn’t stop you from learning on your own. A coach will help you learn more about yourself and apply what you learn in the real world (which you can’t do by reading or taking a course). They will help you develop solutions for you and your team that fit your unique situation and specific goals. Plus, you’ll have a safe space to process your thoughts with an expert outside your company.
• Q: How can a coach help me without walking in my shoes for a day?
  Knowing more about your specific job or industry is less important. Why? Because coaching is less about giving you the answer, and more about helping you find the best answers for your situation. Coaches specialize in helping people learn about themselves so they can either find the obstacles holding them back or the opportunities that can move them forward.
• Q: How can I find the time for one more thing when my week is already full?
  Coaching is a key company priority right now. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, we’ll work with your manager to create the time and headspace you need to devote to your coaching sessions. Also, coaching is rarely a weekly commitment. Coaches usually work with employees 1-3 times per quarter.
• Q: If I wasn’t selected for coaching, does that mean I’m not valued?
  No. If you’re interested in receiving coaching, we encourage you to let us know. We will assess our budget and assess how it fits with our overall organizational goals.
• Q: Will my employer know what I discuss with my coach?
  15Five has a confidentiality policy which strictly prohibits the sharing of any specific details discussed with a coach. You should feel comfortable knowing a coaching session is a safe space to be honest about what you’re really thinking and experiencing so your coach can help you break through challenges and achieve your goals.