In today’s competitive workplace, organisations continuously strive to optimise employee performance and leadership skills. Shadow coaching, where coaches observe employees in real-time settings and offer immediate feedback, is an increasingly effective tool. Beyond personal growth, shadow coaching can provide significant returns, such as Return on Investment (ROI), Return on Experience (ROE) for coachees, and Return on Expectations (ROE) for management stakeholders.
What is Shadow Coaching?
Shadow coaching is a practical, real-time coaching technique. A coach observes employees as they carry out their daily tasks and gives feedback based on live behaviours. This targeted approach encourages reflection and provides personalised strategies for enhancing performance.
Where Can Shadow Coaching Be Applied?
Shadow coaching can be applied across a variety of workplace settings, particularly where interactions and performance are key:
- Field Sales Coaching: Coaches can accompany sales representatives to client meetings, offering instant feedback privately after the meeting on how they handle communication, objections, and negotiations. This is crucial in fast-paced environments where agility and quick adaptation are needed.
- Leadership Meetings: Executives benefit from shadow coaching during meetings, where feedback is provided on how they manage team dynamics, communicate strategic goals, or facilitate discussions.
- Team Collaborations: Observing team problem-solving or routine meetings helps improve collaboration, leadership, and communication skills.
In essence, shadow coaching fits seamlessly into any scenario where immediate feedback on performance is beneficial.
How Shadow Coaching Impacts ROI?
Organisations seek tangible returns from investments in employee development. Shadow coaching can provide significant Return on Investment (ROI) by improving efficiency, decision-making, and team dynamics.
- Immediate Feedback for Real-World Application: Instead of hypothetical scenarios, shadow coaching involves direct feedback from real-world situations. For example, a manager observed during a challenging team meeting might receive feedback on better delegation techniques. This instant feedback can be applied immediately, accelerating learning.
- Increased Self-Awareness: Shadow coaching shines a light on both strengths and areas for improvement. A leader might become aware of habits like dominating conversations or avoiding difficult discussions, which can then be addressed and transformed.
- Personalised Development Path: Every individual has unique challenges. By providing real-time, customised feedback, shadow coaching ensures that the experience is highly relevant, leading to more effective development in the specific areas that need improvement.
Return on Expectations (ROE) for Management Stakeholders?
For senior management, Return on Expectations (ROE) ensures that shadow coaching aligns with organisational goals and produces observable progress.
- Alignment with Business Goals: Shadow coaching helps develop leaders whose actions directly support organisational objectives. For instance, if the company prioritises client satisfaction, shadow coaching can focus on how leaders manage client relationships and ensure effective communication.
- Measurable Leadership Improvements: By establishing clear goals at the outset, organisations can track tangible improvements. A company may set expectations for a leader to improve team collaboration, and shadow coaching can help them achieve that by identifying specific interaction improvements during meetings.
- Faster Leadership Development: Shadow coaching accelerates the development of leadership competencies. In fast-moving industries, such as consumer goods, food service, and pharmaceutical, where quick decision-making is crucial, shadow coaching allows for rapid adaptation, meeting management expectations in a condensed timeline.
Shadow Coaching in Action
Consider an example of Sarah, a senior Sales Manager. During a team meeting, the coach observes that Sarah tends to interrupt team members when they present ideas. After the meeting, the coach provides real-time feedback on how this behaviour may be stifling innovation and collaboration. Sarah is encouraged to ask more open-ended questions and allow her team to contribute freely.
By the next meeting, Sarah adjusts her approach, fostering more engagement from her team. As a result, productivity increases, and the company benefits from the improved creativity and problem-solving abilities of her team. This case highlights how shadow coaching can contribute to both ROI and ROE, while management sees the direct impact on leadership development (ROE).
The G.R.O.W. Model: Maximising the Impact of Shadow Coaching
The G.R.O.W. (Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward) model is a framework that enhances the effectiveness of shadow coaching. By applying this model, coaching sessions become more structured, providing a clear roadmap from observation to improvement.
- Goal: The manager’s goal is to deliver a more convincing and impactful presentation during the next Board meeting. This goal is clarified during the shadow coaching session by identifying specific elements of the presentation they want to improve, such as clarity, confidence, or persuasiveness.
Example questions to ask: What do you want to achieve in your next Board presentation? How will you know that your presentation was successful? - Reality: During the observation, the coach notices that the manager tends to rush through key points, avoids making eye contact with Board members, and uses too much jargon, which may confuse the audience. This reality check helps the manager become aware of the behaviours that are hindering their effectiveness.
Questions to ask: What did you notice during the Board presentation? What feedback have you received about your presentation? - Option: The coach and the manager brainstorm different strategies to enhance the future presentations. This could involve slowing down the pace of speaking, practicing more engaging body language, or simplifying complex points into more digestible chunks.
Questions to ask: What new techniques can you try to make your message clearer? How can you better engage with your audience during the presentation? - Way Forward: Finally, the manager commits to rehearsing the new strategies before the next Board meeting. They might agree to focus on pausing between points, maintaining eye contact with key decision-makers, and using simpler language. A follow-up shadow coaching session could be scheduled to review the improvements.
Questions to ask: What will you focus on improving before your next Board meeting? How will you track the success of these changes?
By leveraging the G.R.O.W. model, coachees not only experience growth (ROE), but also meet organisational expectations (ROE) and contribute to the business's financial health (ROI).
Conclusion
Shadow coaching offers a multifaceted approach to employee development, delivering measurable ROI, fostering personal growth through ROE, and meeting management’s ROE. By using real-time feedback, organisations can enhance leadership capabilities, improve team performance, and drive overall business success. Whether it’s in leadership, sales, or team dynamics, shadow coaching provides an immediate and practical approach to driving continuous improvement in the workplace.
So, where can shadow coaching make the biggest impact in your organisation? How can you integrate shadow coaching into your employee development initiatives to maximise ROI, enhance the coachee’s experience, and meet management’s expectations?
