Assignment task: What are the best scope and resources for a coaching plan? Defend your choices about responding as if you needed to convince a colleague that your coaching intervention is a good idea.
For each scenario:
- Who is the target of the intervention is
- A reasonable and realistic expected outcome from the coaching engagement
- Whether there is a preference for an internal or external coach, and why
- The recommended duration and frequency for a coaching engagement
Scenario one:
You are the HR manager in a large consulting firm. The organization's strategy is to rotate consulting managers across geographic regions. Most of the consulting staff from the New York City offices live in the outer suburbs and only come to the office during client meetings. The office has evolved a work culture that is output oriented and performance-driven. A new manager, Allison, is rotating up from the Charlottesville office and is accustomed to having all her colleagues in the exact physical location from at least 8 am until 6 pm, and often later if there are deadlines. Allison is having difficulty adjusting to managing a decentralized workforce.
Scenario two:
You are the HR manager for a prominent regional history museum. The founding family, upon whose estate the museum is located, has always held board positions. The grand-niece of the founder is currently the chairman of the board. Several other relatives are members, but they are not a majority. Other board members are prominent community members and large donors to the museum. Your newly hired executive director, Francesca, has joined after a successful career as a senior curator at a leading art museum. It was a protracted negotiation as she is very talented. She took the job only after the museum agreed to several salary increases and a multi-year contract. She has had uncomfortable exchanges with the board over-allocating resources for community events such as galas versus historic preservation. She is now in a heated battle with the board chairperson, who wants to host an event for another local charity in the historic dining room.
Scenario three:
You are the HR manager for a retail chain. You typically promote managers from within the ranks of successful store employees. You are working with a successful manager, Ivan, who has had an extraordinary sales volume and seems to have cultivated a hard-working and loyal staff that is able to achieve excellent customer service and an overall very profitable store. However, it has come to your attention via security personnel that one of Ivan's direct reports-a high-volume and well-regarded store employees-"borrows" evening wear for nights out, does not remove tags, and returns the merchandise to the store to be sold as new. You are concerned that Ivan is unaware of the situation or too close to his staff to exert appropriate controls.