{"id":1348,"date":"2010-01-20T12:45:32","date_gmt":"2010-01-20T12:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localenterprise.wordpress.com\/?p=934"},"modified":"2010-01-20T12:45:32","modified_gmt":"2010-01-20T12:45:32","slug":"portfolios-and-metrics-for-enterprise-coaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2010\/01\/20\/portfolios-and-metrics-for-enterprise-coaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Portfolios and Metrics for Enterprise Coaching"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>What sort of numbers is it\u00a0realistic\u00a0to expect a full-time enterprise coach to\u00a0deliver?<\/li>\n<li>What does a healthy coach portfolio look like?<\/li>\n<li>If I employ 5 coaches to work in \u00a0city of 750 000, what sort of results should I expect?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Well here are my thoughts&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>The basic unit of coaching is the 121. \u00a0Each 121 will usually take between 45 minutes to an hour. \u00a0Of course they can take longer &#8211; but this is\u00a0rarely\u00a0productive.<\/p>\n<p>121s are intense, often emotional and usually challenging. \u00a0If they are aren&#8217;t, you are not doing it right! \u00a0This means that a coach can\u00a0do on average 3 x 121s in a day. \u00a0This should mean that\u00a0they\u00a0can\u00a0deliver\u00a0well in excess of 600 personal coaching sessions in a year &#8211; 650+ is not beyond the realms of possibility. \u00a0Of course geography matters &#8211; if clients are scattered across Northumberland you will spend more time travelling than if you coach in an urban centre.<\/p>\n<p>I would expect to see a coach working with about 200 unique clients in the course of a year. \u00a0Yes, three or so new\u00a0clients\u00a0coming onto the portfolio each week! \u00a0I would expect to see\u00a0each\u00a0coach working with a\u00a0catchment\u00a0area of between 15 and 50 000 residents\u00a0depending\u00a0on population density and other demographics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The one hit wonders<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A proportion of clients will come once and may not return for months or years, if ever. \u00a0We may have helped them enormously. \u00a0We may not have helped them at all. \u00a0 We may never know &#8211;\u00a0although\u00a0if you are visible and accessible enough and they stay in the area you should be able to get some feedback. \u00a0I have known clients who were clear on what they\u00a0wanted\u00a0to do after just one session and went and did it. \u00a0In fact one\u00a0client\u00a0called me after 3 years and said that he had started his business and now\u00a0wanted\u00a0to expand &#8211; would I like to have a chat! \u00a0Others just don&#8217;t come back when they recognise that:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>I am not in the business of giving them money or pulling magic rabbits out of hats<\/li>\n<li>They will have to do some work on this &#8211; it is not an easy option<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The percentage that fall into this category can vary\u00a0widely usually depending on the kind of\u00a0marketing\u00a0used to promote the service. \u00a0If the marketing says &#8216;We can make your dreams come true&#8217;, &#8216;Funding available&#8217;, &#8216;Lunch provided&#8217; or some combination of the above then the number of one hit wonders will be high. \u00a0Where marketing is through word of mouth, real\u00a0clients\u00a0telling others about what the service is really like and what it has helped them to achieve then they should be much lower. \u00a0Effective word of mouth depends on your\u00a0service\u00a0being quite literally &#8216;remarkable&#8217; and you being prepared to actively ask\u00a0clients\u00a0for introductions and referrals. \u00a0If they are not happy to give you these it is likely that your service is just not good enough.<\/p>\n<p>If the\u00a0number\u00a0of one hit wonders creeps much above 25% I would be wondering about whether we had problems with our marketing and\u00a0reputation\u00a0&#8211; or whether the coach was just not able to connect with the\u00a0client\u00a0group.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Ideal Clients<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In some ways the ideal clients are the one hit wonders who just go and do it, start a business, and return years later to look at business expansion. \u00a0But these are rare, and often can&#8217;t be counted for funding purposes! \u00a0The real ideal client engages with us, takes seriously the notion of doing work between meetings and returns for subsequent visits to make further progress. \u00a0We can build a strong relationship with them and provide much more support to them in developing their ideas and skills. \u00a0We can also start to see a story emerge about our own effectiveness. \u00a0We can record the progress the\u00a0client\u00a0has made and provide high quality quantitative and qualitative information on our effectiveness to funders. \u00a0Such ideal\u00a0clients\u00a0will typically require between 3 and 6 121 sessions over the course of\u00a0anything\u00a0from several weeks to 6 months or more. \u00a0I would hope to see good\u00a0coaches\u00a0with some 50%, or 110 plus\u00a0clients\u00a0each year. \u00a0Of these I would be expecting around 15- 20 clients to actually go ahead and start their business from anything within 4 months of the first 121 up to a few years after the first meeting. \u00a0There is much to be said for slow enterprise. \u00a0I would\u00a0certainly\u00a0expect a good, established coach, working in an effective system, to support anywhere between 15 and 20 or so starts each year.<\/p>\n<p>I would expect upwards of 80% of\u00a0these\u00a0new starts to be trading 3 years later. \u00a0Survival rates should always be very carefully tracked, and serious consideration given by both the coach and the service as a whole as to how they can be maintained and improved. \u00a0 Helping\u00a0clients\u00a0to start businesses that they have not got either the commitment or skills to manage effectively \u00a0or for which there is not a\u00a0sufficient\u00a0market to sustain will only\u00a0help\u00a0to set back the reputation of the service and the\u00a0enterprise\u00a0culture of the community. \u00a0However attractive it might be to get another start-up box ticked\u00a0we\u00a0should\u00a0be doing all can to slow our\u00a0clients\u00a0down until they really have the very best chance of long\u00a0term\u00a0survival. \u00a0A much smaller number of really\u00a0strong\u00a0startups is\u00a0worth\u00a0much more to the long term enterprise culture of the community than a rash of sickly ones. \u00a0I only wish funding regimes would\u00a0recognise\u00a0this.<\/p>\n<p>Anything significantly less than this would set my alarm bells ringing that all is not right. \u00a0The problem might be with the coach, with the enterprise coaching system (including\u00a0marketing\u00a0and\u00a0administration), or with the enterprise culture in the community. \u00a0The coach cannot do this on their own. \u00a0There needs to be a substantial network of pro-enterprise\u00a0individuals\u00a0who can provide additional support and provide an effective counter the negative messages about enterprise that often pervade communities.<\/p>\n<p>While the other 85\u00a0perhaps\u00a0don&#8217;t start a business I would expect each of them to have been\u00a0significantly\u00a0assisted by the coaching process to clarify goals\u00a0and\u00a0learn\u00a0how to be much more\u00a0enterprising\u00a0in their pursuit. \u00a0These outcomes are\u00a0valuable\u00a0and should be recorded and wherever possible paid for (or at least reported to) by the\u00a0appropriate\u00a0funder.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Demanding Clients<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>So\u00a0this\u00a0leaves us with perhaps 25% of our\u00a0clients, 40 or so in the course of nay one year, who are really demanding. \u00a0They need more than half a dozen 121 sessions. \u00a0Perhaps they are starting from a long way back and need many 121s over a period of years before they start to make substantial changes &#8211; or decide to stick with the status quo. \u00a0They may need referring to\u00a0specialist\u00a0service providers before our coaches\u00a0can\u00a0do much more with them. \u00a0Perhaps they just like to spend time with coaches, fooling themselves and others that\u00a0they\u00a0are really working for a better future. \u00a0Demanding\u00a0clients\u00a0may just need a higher level of support &#8211; live with it &#8211; or they may be a sign that actually a coach is promoting dependence, happy to keep working with\u00a0clients\u00a0who won&#8217;t make progress because they can just count the sessions.<\/p>\n<p>The actual dynamics of a coach&#8217;s portfolio will vary depending on the geography, psychology and enterprise culture of the community they serve as well as their own experience and longevity on the patch. \u00a0It may\u00a0take\u00a0a couple of years to achieve a stable portfolio of the type I have outlined here.<\/p>\n<p>It will also depend on the type of marketing support they receive. \u00a0Often\u00a0well\u00a0intentioned\u00a0marketing activities can produce floods of clients that need to be seen, but who turn out to be one hit wonders of the worst kind. \u00a0I am a big advocate of expecting enterprise coaches to develop their own referrals\u00a0through\u00a0word of mouth from existing clients, perhaps augmented with a little bit bit of\u00a0judicious\u00a0PR. \u00a0Expensive\u00a0advertising campaigns may attract punters to one off events and workshops but are much less effective at actually finding\u00a0people\u00a0who really\u00a0want\u00a0to work\u00a0effectively\u00a0and intensively with enterprise coaches.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Role of the Manager in Supporting Enterprise Coaches<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Call me a traditionalist but I\u00a0think\u00a0that the manager has a key role in both supporting the\u00a0coach\u00a0to develop an effective portfolio. \u00a0Each coach should be seen ideally every week,\u00a0certainly\u00a0fortnightly to review the portfolio and the progress that is being made by\u00a0specific\u00a0clients. \u00a0Ratios of one hit wonders to ideal\u00a0clients\u00a0to\u00a0demanding\u00a0clients should be tracked for clues about the\u00a0performance\u00a0of the coach and the\u00a0system\u00a0that\u00a0they\u00a0are operating in. \u00a0Where specific\u00a0clients\u00a0are providing cause for concern (insufficient\u00a0progress is being made,\u00a0specialist\u00a0services are requires that are beyond the boundaries of the coaching service,\u00a0client\u00a0behaviours are causing concern for example) explicit\u00a0strategies\u00a0should be developed for managing them effectively. \u00a0At least three or four times a year the manager should observe the coach at work, accompanying them on 121s and providing them with feedback and coaching support.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Closing Remarks<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Getting an\u00a0enterprise\u00a0coaching service to work really well takes years rather than months. \u00a0Coaches have to become known, trusted and skilled. \u00a0Marketing\u00a0strategies\u00a0have to be honed. \u00a0The numbers I have mentioned here are achievable but not in all situations and never instantly. \u00a0They have to be built towards with intelligence, insight and dedication. \u00a0Sadly, funding regimes often encourage us to\u00a0take\u00a0the expensive and unproductive short cuts of putting adverts on\u00a0buses, building flashy websites and holding conferences and expos with dragons, apprentices, millionaires and free lunches just to get punters through the door.<\/p>\n<p>But it is not any punters that we need. It is\u00a0those\u00a0who believe, because of our reputation and our track record, that we can help\u00a0them\u00a0to use enterprise to transform their lives for the better.<\/p>\n<div class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Posts\"><ul class=\"entry-meta\"><li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Some thoughts on Best City outcomes\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/07\/05\/some-thoughts-on-best-city-outcomes\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Some thoughts on Best City outcomes<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Getting to Grips with Social Finance &#8211; FREE TRAINING\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/06\/12\/getting-to-grips-with-social-finance-free-training\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Getting to Grips with Social Finance &#8211; FREE TRAINING<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Improving Employability&#8230;\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/05\/15\/improving-employability\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Improving Employability&#8230;<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Inward Investment &#8211; What&#8217;s the problem?\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/05\/01\/inward-investment-a-dummies-guide\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Inward Investment &#8211; What&#8217;s the problem?<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"SPOSTARBUST-Related-Post\"><a title=\"Smile or Die &#8211; Why I don&#8217;t subscribe blindly to the school of positive thinking\" href=\"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2012\/04\/19\/smile-or-die-why-i-dont-subscribe-blindly-to-the-school-of-positive-thinking\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">Smile or Die &#8211; Why I don&#8217;t subscribe blindly to the school of positive thinking<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What sort of numbers is it\u00a0realistic\u00a0to expect a full-time enterprise coach to\u00a0deliver? What does a healthy coach portfolio look like? If I employ 5 coaches to work in \u00a0city of 750 000, what sort of results should I expect? Well here are my thoughts&#8230;. The basic unit of coaching is the 121. \u00a0Each 121 will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[30,67,77,123,141,164,192,200,209],"class_list":["post-1348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-management","tag-business-planning","tag-enterprise-coaching","tag-evaluation","tag-management","tag-operations","tag-professional-development","tag-social-marketing","tag-strategy","tag-training","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}