4

Collect and Feed Back Data

Once the coachee articulates her purpose for wanting to be coached, she will have a conversation with her coach wherein she will identify what realizing that intended result will look like. What will be different? How will she know? How will she measure her progress? Data support the coaching process and enable a coachee to track her progress throughout her coaching journey. This chapter closely reviews components of collecting and feeding back data, with focus on multiple ways to collect data, phases of sorting and analyzing themes, techniques for sharing data with coachees, and the important step of inviting others to observe and give additional feedback to the coachee. This chapter also addresses the “feedback mindset,” which requires courage on the part of both the coach and coachee.

Let’s explore and review a set of concepts and techniques you can use in your own practice as you move from gathering data, providing feedback, developing action plans, and supporting coachees toward delivering results. Although these steps are shared in a linear fashion, it is important to remember that dialogue and following the Seven Cs Coaching Map are not necessarily a lock-step process. They ebb and flow, sometimes requiring a return to further refine the purpose or revisit the data when developing a goal or assessing progress. The models and steps provide guideposts to keep you centered. All steps should be covered, but can be revisited and repeated as needed.

Gathering Data

Data are used throughout coaching to give meaningful feedback. Through feedback, the coachee learns about himself and impact of his behaviors. This encourages reflection and promotes testing of various perspectives. Data are gathered, collated, and reviewed to help coachees zero in on the purpose of engaging in a coaching process and then again when developing goals, formulating action steps, and assessing progress. Data concerning strengths and areas to grow can come from the coachee’s personal reflections or through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observations. They can be delivered formally or dropped in a passing conversation. Data help to align intentions with perceptions. They provide the basis for comparing where you are to where you want to be.

Studying and reflecting on feedback encourages individuals and teams to demonstrate openness and accountability and identify their own cognitive dissonance. If you consider yourself to be a good problem solver and rate yourself a 5 out of 5, but your peers rate you a 2.5, then there needs to be a discussion to determine why the scores are different. If an organization believes it is delivering exemplary customer service and recent customer surveys verify that notion, the organization knows to continue on course and reinforce existing practices.

In their book Thanks for the Feedback, Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen (2014) point out that there are three forms of feedback data: appreciative, evaluative, and coaching. In the world of work, we know that a boss can thank an employee for completing an important report ahead of schedule, evaluate an employee on certain competencies during a performance appraisal, or discuss an employee’s progress toward demonstrating greater teamwork over six months of coaching meetings. It is important to remember these three distinctions. Coaching should be developmental, not judgmental. Both coach and coachee need to review data with an eye toward a future scenario. And although coaches and coachees can certainly express appreciation of one another, the process is based on holding the coachee’s agenda, keeping him accountable, highlighting choices, and mutually developing pathways to goals that are important to him.

As with so much within the field of coaching, collecting and feeding back data includes both technical and interpersonal components. Let’s first address the more technical elements of data gathering and analysis, and then move to the cognitive aspects of sharing the data.

Data Collection and Tools

When working with a coachee—formally or informally, up, down, or sideways—there are three sources from which to collect data:

• the coachee’s external contacts: clients, customers, suppliers, and others the coachee works with who reside outside the organization

• the coachee’s internal colleagues: co-workers, “inside” customers, bosses, and direct reports

• the coachee: the coachee’s own self-reports or what you, the coach, observe from interacting with the coachee.

These sources are relevant whether the coachee is an individual, team, or an entire organization. What do members of a leadership group claim to be the strength of the entire team? What do customers say about an entire organization? How do employees view middle management? What behaviors does a CEO personally believe she needs to practice to be more effective? And even more insightful, what do you experience as the coach interacting with the coachee in the moment?

Choosing a data collection method or tool depends on what best supports the coachee. You weigh the pros and cons of each method and concentrate on the desired results. Once information is gathered, it needs to be sorted into meaningful themes that are most likely to be heard and understood by the receiver. Information is powerful when it is used to seek continuous improvement.

There are essentially seven data collection methods commonly used by practitioners: self-assessment inventories, 360-degree surveys, climate and employee opinion surveys, focus groups, image studies, individual and group observation, and one-on-one feedback. They are described as follows:

• Self-assessment inventories can be used by individuals or teams to assess personality, style, values, career skills, or management competencies. Examples include Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Emotional Intelligence Inventory, Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, and Career Architect. Such instruments tend to be easy and quick to use. It is best to use self-assessment in combination with other data-gathering methods to ensure balance and multiple perspectives.

• 360-degree surveys can be administered online and completed by the coachee and the coachee’s superiors, colleagues, peers, direct reports, and customers. They can be designed for individuals or teams, and are based on competencies such as leadership, emotional intelligence, or other tailored skill sets. Examples include BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory, Suite of 360 Assessments (from the Center for Creative Leadership), Hogan Assessments, and FeedbackPlus. These inventories are valid and reliable, provide both statistical and narrative data, and usually include templates for action planning. Results are provided by those who interact with the coachee regularly and provide a gap analysis between the coachee’s view and the view of others. Results are composite and confidentiality is ensured. On the other hand, they can be costly and may require specific training on the part of the coach.

• Climate and employee opinion surveys can be off-the-shelf or tailored and delivered to entire divisions or organizations to measure the level of satisfaction around specified organizational dimensions (decision making, career development, culture, benefits). Examples include SurveyMonkey, DecisionWise, and Hay Group Surveys. These surveys are valid and reliable and can be valuable for organization-wide planning and continuous improvement. However, they can be costly and take time to administer.

• Focus groups are facilitated sessions with people across an organization, with discussion on topics concerning one specific group or the entire organization. Data are gathered on flipcharts by a notetaker or electronically. The information is collated into themes without attribution. Results are qualitative and the process requires trained facilitators and researchers.

• Image studies require a trained coach with expertise in sorting through personal and face-to-face qualitative data. The process is similar to a 360-degree assessment, but the data are gathered directly by the coach, who interviews the coachee and the coachee’s superiors, direct reports, peers, and customers. The questions and process are designed by a trained coach, who collates the data into themes and presents the data to the coachee during a coaching session. The benefit of this technique is the rich data obtained, which in turn leads to more meaningful understanding and action planning.

• Individual and group observation occurs when the coach accompanies and observes the coachee going about work activities, interacting with others, attending meetings, and so on. The data are gathered in real time and provide immediate behavior assessment.

• One-on-one feedback refers to a person (coach, colleague, boss, direct report) who experiences another person exhibiting a certain behavior and decides to give direct feedback to that person. For example, a colleague may decide to give feedback to one of his officemates who keeps interrupting conversations. Another example would be when a coach notes that her coachee keeps blaming others during coaching meetings. It would be useful for the coach to make an observation that will help the coachee realize that he’s blaming others.

As you can see, each method comes with pros and cons. For example, conducting effective focus groups takes expertise and training, the use of certain inventories requires certification, and image studies require time and a high level of trust. Additionally, choosing which method or combination of methods to use depends on a number of factors: time, cost, number of participants, confidentiality, acceptance level of the coachee, and ultimate use of the data. The analysis questions provided in Table 4-1 are useful in contemplating the most appropriate approach.

Table 4-1. Choosing Data Collection Methods

Consideration	Questions to Ask
Best Fit	» What data will the client and the client’s environment find credible? » Are the data narrative or statistical? » What tool will best support their learning style and culture? » What will best support the intended results of the coaching?
Available Resources	» How much time is available for data gathering and analysis? » What is the budget? » How much time are raters willing and able to spend? » What will provide the best depth and breadth?
Intended Use of Data	» What will provide the best data that will move the client to action? » What is the level of interest in raters participating again for a follow-up? » How important is both pre- and post-coaching data? » What is the need to offer both individual and team or entire company results?

The advantages of carefully choosing the right data-gathering tools can mean the difference between acceptance and rejection of the feedback. If a director of marketing has been told that she is vindictive when someone criticizes her, it would be prudent to choose a data-gathering method that provides confidentiality, such as a 360-degree assessment. A survey would be best if an executive team believes that only one customer is disgruntled, when in fact multiple customers are displeased with the company’s service. A survey can indicate that four out of five customers rated the company poorly, and the executive team would have to face that reality.

Data Analysis

As you collect data as a coach, you will be creating notes, files, spreadsheets, and charts of information in myriad formats. How do you make sense of it all? And more important, how do you organize the data into a format that will assist the coachee in processing the feedback and moving to action?

Sorting feedback data into manageable themes is like writing a research paper. Let’s say you are writing a paper on corporate sustainability. As you conduct research, read books and articles, watch a few videos, and peruse newspaper clippings, you begin to sort the information into related topics—definition of corporate sustainability, different types, importance to the organization, specific examples from major organizations, typical challenges and how to plan for them, associated costs, how to implement and gain buy-in, and how to measure and track results. There is no “right” or “wrong” with these categories; rather, they resonate with you and the kind of paper you want to write given your audience, purpose, and desired reactions.

The same is true when organizing coaching data. Two different coaches may consolidate the data using variant headings and frames. The point is not that all the categories are the same; rather, the intent is to develop headings and homogenize the information into chunks that the coachee can consider, embrace, or reject. Chunking allows questioning, reflection, and real learning, whereas vast quantities of random information can cause confusion and immobility.

Just as you would find in the research on corporate sustainability, the data concerning a particular coachee may be inconsistent. The only way to reconcile such differences is to dig into the data in more depth. You can expand your data collection and add more interviews or conduct an additional focus group. Additionally, with your coachee, you can ask clarifying questions, analyze the data under different circumstances, and discern the reasoning behind some of the opposing data points.

For example, let’s say a coachee gets feedback from her 360-degree inventory that her presentations are strong. Yet, at the same time, feedback from interviews with her peers indicates that her presentation skills are weak. Based on the face value of this input, her coach might guide her toward watching a video on how to make presentations interesting and organized. Yet, in reality, it turns out that the coachee’s problem is not in designing good presentations, but that she gets nervous presenting in front of groups—and that this fear holds her back not only with formal presentations, but also with participating in groups. Getting to the true meaning of a piece of data assists the coachee in pinpointing and verbalizing her real goal.

Depending on the amount of data you are trying to manage, you can use simple sorting tools such as sticky notes and your own personally designed charts, or you can use more sophisticated tools such as spreadsheets or software packages. Again, the result is the same—organize similar data into manageable chunks. At this point, you will spend hours or even days sorting and resorting the categories and wording of the data.

A useful technique is to start with the raw data, progress to overall strengths and weaknesses, and eventually end with actual topic areas. The term homogenized is used because the coach condensed similar statements into one to represent a particular sentiment or issue. There are no rules other than presenting the data truthfully. The important element is that you use your method consistently and you clearly explain your method to the coachee. This is essential whether the coachee is an individual, a team, or an entire organization.

By separating the homogenized raw data into strengths and areas to develop, you can begin to see patterns in how the coachee is perceived and the results of her behaviors. These valuable insights then naturally lead into meaningful themes and topics. You can use them to confirm or reject working themes you might already have in mind during the initial data-gathering process. Yet, as you continue to collate the data, you further refine those categories through the process of sorting and resorting.

Finally, you can gather the data into manageable chunks, complete with strengths and development areas, and further supported by hypothesis statements that can be tested during dialogue and reflection with the coachee. The hypothesis statements are possible reasons—garnered from the data so far—for why the coachee behaves in certain ways. These proposed reasons provide a basis for questioning as you help the coachee peel back the layers behind her beliefs.

The benefits of sorting data thematically include:

• assisting in prioritizing action

• making it easier to formulate goals and future pictures within an action plan

• eliminating redundancy

• preventing coachees from arguing away a certain point.

As you work with your coachee’s data, allow your thinking to diverge as you consider alternative perspectives and rationale. Keep asking yourself questions as you frame and reframe. Search for linkages and relationships between different data points. This will help you plan for the feedback meeting. For example, you can ask:

• How are people reacting to you?

• What behaviors are supporting you?

• What behaviors are getting in the way?

• Why did you decide to approach various situations the way you did?

• What led to the choices you made?

• What results do you want to experience?

• What has to change for you to get the results you desire?

As the coachee responds to these and other questions, it is likely that she will reveal her thinking and underlying beliefs. With this information, you can help her consider alternative beliefs and play out what behaviors would support them. The emphasis should be future focused. It is important to support the coachee in connecting the dots along the continuum of beliefs, behaviors, and results. In doing this, you can support her in developing critical thinking and the skills needed to analyze the links and discover new behaviors and results.

Feeding Back Data

Reviewing the data with the coachee supports reflection and prevents her from jumping to all-or-nothing conclusions. You can encourage her to view the data as a whole, note connections, and decide on the most beneficial areas to work. You should aim to always give the coachee the straight story and ask critical thinking questions that encourage varying views. Questions you can ask include (Bianco-Mathis, Roman, and Nabors 2008):

• What does this feedback mean to you?

• How do you feel about it?

• What are your choices?

• How do they serve you?

• What are the consequences of those choices?

• How do you move forward?

• What results do you want to achieve?

• How does this (behavior and performance) support your purpose?

• What can you do differently?

• What are the consequences of doing nothing?

In the end, coaches are effective at feeding back data when they:

• Place data in context.

• Support reflection.

• Help their clients make new connections.

• Help their clients make informed choices.

Data Gathering and Feedback Mindset

As you review the charts, tools, and approach of gathering and feeding back data, you might be feeling some pressure and even trepidation about gathering data, maintaining confidentiality, using dialogue to reveal reasoning, questioning underlying beliefs, or presenting data in a thoughtful way. Basically, whether you are the coach or the coachee, working with feedback takes courage. Think of a time when you were given feedback. Was it done well or poorly? Even if it was done well, how did you feel? Let’s face it, coaching is not for lightweights. But by refining your dialogue and skills, you can stand ready for the challenge.

The coach needs courage in establishing trust, asking others to give honest feedback concerning a fellow colleague or boss, maintaining confidentiality, presenting data in meaningful chunks, and reporting data with care. In turn, a coachee must be courageous in honestly assessing herself, openly listening and processing feedback from others, prioritizing areas to work, disclosing that she is trying out new behaviors, and being willing to gather follow-up data. Both coaches and coachees are opening themselves up to scrutiny and vulnerability. Coaches need to take care of themselves, prepare diligently, hone their skills, share stories with other coaches, and accept who they are—with their own strengths and weaknesses—as they reach out to coach others. Sometimes coaches must also guide coachees through raw experiences in such a way that they not only come out stronger, but are perceived by others as being stronger.

That’s a powerful challenge for all involved. Brené Brown talks about embracing vulnerability and reaching out to others as a way to be authentic, accepting the worthiness of self and connecting with the humanity in others. This requires that we be courageous, let go of the perception of who we think we need to be, and accept who we are. By doing this, we are then open to personal change and growth; the kind that takes place in coaching.

Perhaps the most effective tool for navigating this vulnerability is dialogue. A coach uses dialogue to engage coachees; in turn, coachees use dialogue within their immediate environment and throughout the organization. As explained in previous chapters, the use of dialogue techniques promotes reasoning and helps to translate emotions into meaningful expression. This makes it easier to tackle uncomfortable or sticky conversations. Armed with dialogue, coachees can more confidently reach out and take on situations that they otherwise might ignore, bury, or escape from.

It is useful to make vulnerability and courage points of discussion during the coaching process. By so doing, the coachee gains strength and confidence. Fear dissipates with practice, staying present, preparing for difficult conversations, and fiercely focusing on the “other.” A coaching mantra for both coaches and coachees is to lean into the discomfort.

Best Feedback Dialogue Techniques

Chapter 2 covered dialogue in depth and shared many powerful techniques. Learning and practicing each technique is necessary to hardwire your brain. Equally important is being able to in a matter of seconds pull out just the right dialogue tool for the right situation.

In the process of giving feedback, some situations are more prevalent than others. For example, a coachee may state, “There is a mistake. This feedback is not for me. It belongs to someone else.” Obviously, this represents some cognitive dissonance. How do you, as the coach, handle this with care? Initially, it is important to make sure the coachee truly has the right information. Administrative snafus happen, and your preparation and mindfulness is necessary to prevent upsetting anyone.

If the feedback is correct, first establish context and help the coachee face reality, as difficult as that may be. It is best to do this even before the coachee sees the feedback data. Then show the data and set the context picture again. Reinforcement may be needed several times. Consider this script:

From here, as you and the coachee move through the data and begin to prioritize areas to work on, you will rely on your dialogue skills—and the basic infrastructure of inquiry and advocacy—to support the coachee in his exploration of the feedback. Reinforcing some of the dialogue tools covered in chapter 2, the techniques and scenarios in Table 4-2 highlight common feedback situations. Remember, no matter what method you use, it is important to bring the coachee back into the conversation through an action-oriented, thinking question.

Table 4-2. Feedback Scenarios and Techniques

Situation	Dialogue Technique
Put myself in your shoes and reframe	If I put myself in your shoes, I can understand how you might feel puzzled about this feedback. Your managers feel that you are a good presenter, yet your colleagues believe you are not a strong communicator. What are some reasons for this?
Right or wrong	I want to remind you that there is no right or wrong in these data. This information represents a point in time, and we need to consider what is being said, the validity, the reasoning behind why it might have been shared, and the options you have for accepting it or not. That said, even if your perception is different from what is being shared—or even if we have information that indicates the data are wrong and biased—there may still be action you want to take. When reviewing the data, how might keeping this mindset be helpful in your interpretation?
Reframe	That certainly is one way of interpreting that statement about your management style. Can you think of another inference you can make—something else the statement might be saying?
Give an example or story	How might your tendency to declare everything a priority cause your team to start ignoring your sense of urgency? It’s like that fable of Chicken Little running around saying the sky is falling until folks stopped listening to him—and then, of course, the sky fell one day and no one was prepared. How does this inform your thinking about how to handle this feedback?
Patterns or trend	When you review the data under the decision-making theme, what patterns do you find concerning your approach as noted by both your colleagues and direct reports?
Behaviors or results	I can understand your frustration. These are high-level people and your expectation is that they should professionally step up and take accountability. Thus, you feel resentful about having to spend time outlining the outputs you are looking for and so you don’t take the time to do it. Given the data, what is the result of you not stipulating specific outcomes—and what is the implication for an alternative behavior you might think about trying?

Getting Support From Others

In our experience as coaches, we often found ourselves frustrated. For example, we would spend months coaching a leader who had decided on a future picture of more participative decision making or improved communications. The leader would practice field assignments and report on successful examples of trying out new behaviors and results. We would even spend a day observing the leader and seeing for ourselves the change over time. The frustration often came six months later in conducting follow-up interviews. We would get comments such as, “Oh, I guess Joe is doing better. I have noticed a few changes. But only yesterday he announced a decision without asking for our input. Let’s face it. Joe will always be Joe.” What happened here?

What happened was human nature. We all make judgments of other people. We slot them into categories in our brains: Charlie is the guy who can’t stop talking; Lisa is the accountant who never smiles; Franco is a great visionary but can’t find his way out of a paper bag. We do this to order our environment and make it easier to remember people. Our brains like to categorize and label. When someone comes walking down the hall, it’s as if he has several labels sticking to his clothes—smart, obnoxious, sensitive, helpful, good with numbers, great communicator—all reflective of how he is perceived by others. And not only does our brain label; it likes to hold on to those labels and will then keep looking for behaviors to reinforce the already established label. This human characteristic makes it difficult when a coachee practices and starts exhibiting new behaviors.

For example, let’s say our leader, Joe, starts to ask for input before making a final decision. Let’s say he does this eight times out of 10. As a coach, you would acknowledge this as progress toward goal achievement. As an observer in Joe’s environment—someone who has had to live with him making decision after decision without any input—you would be inclined to ignore the eight times of new behavior and only remember the two times of old behavior, because to actually see and accept the new behavior you would have to change the ingrained label in your brain. The brain would prefer not to do that.

And so we have a coaching dilemma. Sometimes the environment won’t let the person change!

Collecting data, whether done by the coach or coachee, is a coaching component that “brings the environment along.” To further anchor this environmental partnership, the coachee should be encouraged to thank those who provide feedback. The coachee’s response to this might be, “What! Why do I have to do that? I don’t feel comfortable doing that.” Because of feelings of discomfort, embarrassment, or even time commitment, it is wise for the coach to emphasize the reasoning behind this activity and raise the coachee’s confidence in making this happen. This usually involves some role-playing and reinforcement.

If the coachee is the one collecting the feedback, she can thank the person in the moment: “Thank you for taking the time to talk to me. Your insights are important to me and I really appreciate it.” If the feedback was given through a 360-degree inventory, focus group, or third-person interview, then the coachee should have a conversation (in person or virtually) with each person and say something like this:

Now, what does this do? Basically, it alerts the environment that the coachee is:

• taking the process seriously

• going to be taking action, specifically in the two areas mentioned

• coming back for more input

• asking colleagues and others to be part of the process

• setting the expectation that new behaviors should be noticed

• demonstrating both vulnerability and personal strength—it takes integrity and authenticity to do this.

In essence, the coachee is bringing the environment along on the journey of development. The coachee is also role-modeling an exemplary way for how the process of giving and receiving feedback should be managed in the organization. When enough leaders, managers, and staff role-model this behavior, the entire culture begins to change.

Help the coachee realize that saying thank you has advantages and is a step in ensuring that her coaching work can grow and be nurtured by others—as opposed to being ignored. Asking for and thanking others for feedback early in the coaching process is one way to build support in the environment. We discuss a second method to “bring the environment along” in chapter 6.

Making It Real

This chapter discussed data-gathering methods, and the technical and conversational qualities necessary for higher levels of understanding. It also showed why having a feedback mindset and courage to give, receive, and redirect feedback is an important ingredient for a successful feedback process. Lastly, to create an environment that supports individuals and teams, the environment has to be invited into the process. We saw how including and thanking others, and demonstrating appreciation for their feedback, begins a cycle of support that allows change to happen. Please reflect on this chapter and develop ideas for how to incorporate what you’ve learned into your daily work.

1. Imagine a situation in which you have given or received feedback that was not done well.

2. Describe the scenario in terms of what was said and done: data-gathering method, attitude, language used, and results.

■ Scenario:

■ Language:

3. Based on what you read in this chapter, develop a goal for how you would like that scenario and similar scenarios to be handled in the future; then indicate new language that could be used in this scenario that would support your goal.

■ Goal:

■ New language: