Welcome to the Coaching Admin Orientation and Quick Start Guide for the Sounding Board platform! Whether you're a seasoned admin or new to the platform, this guide is your go-to resource for efficiently managing coaching programs. From onboarding to user management, we've got you covered with step-by-step instructions and key insights. Let's dive in and unlock the full potential of coaching within your organization.
To streamline set-up, we've organized the articles in a complementary order. We recommend going through them sequentially and actively building out your organization's coaching structure simultaneously to grasp the technical steps involved. Feel free to refer back to this guide anytime as you navigate the Sounding Board platform. Happy coaching!
Table of Contents
Phase One: Prep & Plan
Complete these foundational steps to prepare for working with your software workspace.
Welcome Video
Understand Your Role
As the Administrator for Sounding Board, you’ll be responsible for setting up your workspace/tenant and integrating our technology into your leader development strategy and practices. Sounding Board streamlines insights to help demonstrate how your programs impact leader development and business outcomes. However, before those insights can surface, the software needs data and adoption from your team—which is where you come in.
Here’s an overview of your role and responsibilities:
Create a Zendesk Account
Create a Zendesk account to access all the articles below. Instructions are here: Sounding Board's Zendesk for Articles and Tickets.
Review Implementation Resources
The Implementation section in Zendesk provides step-by-step guides and best practices to help you set up, configure, and integrate Sounding Board. It also explains the 'why' behind our tech-enabled approach to leader development, offering foundational concepts and encouraging strategic reflection for a successful rollout.
- Review Technical Resources: Access our technical requirements documentation and other resources like API & Integration overviews in this section. Share these documents with your internal stakeholders and IT teams to ensure a smooth rollout.
- Review Implementation Foundations: Explore our Implementation Foundations content to gain insights on managing the changes that come with adopting new technology. Learn the 'why' behind our tech-enabled approach to leadership development and best practices for navigating the building blocks like leadership capabilities & surveys.
Phase Two: Set Up & Launch
We've organized the articles in a sequential order to streamline setup. Follow the steps below, and use the test users to get hands-on & apply your learning.
Admin Onboarding
Once your workspace is created, check your inbox for a welcome email to begin onboarding to the software. More information here: Onboarding to the Sounding Board Platform
Explore Your Dashboard
Once Onboarding is complete, you'll land on your dashboard. More information here: Sounding Board Dashboard Overview
My Subtenants
If your organization plans to use our software to manage your clients' leader development experiences by leveraging companies/subtenants, create the subtenants first, then assign users and programs to the appropriate subtenant. More information here: Creating Subtenants
Users
We'll add the initial Admin users to your workspace. These Admins will be responsible for adding all other users, whether end users or additional Admins. Sounding Board has pre-populated your workspace with test users. These users allow you to practice key workflows involved in managing your programs and engagements.
- How to Create a New User
- Adding Users With The Bulk User Upload Tool
- Adding a New Admin User
- How to Assign or Update a User's Manager
- How to Assign or Update a User's Delegate
- People Table
End User Experience
Review these articles to gain insights into the coach and coachee experience. Understanding the experience you want to create for them will help guide how you approach program setup and additional configurations.
Coaching Programs
Coaching programs determine how coaching is utilized organization-wide and establish the parameters for coaching engagements within the program. Programs allow you to group people with similar leadership needs and tailor the program settings to fit the program participants' needs, such as coach matching, resources, and leadership capabilities.
Coaching Program Building Blocks
Before you create your coaching program, we recommend reviewing and setting up the below building blocks to make the program creation process as smooth as possible.
Leadership Capabilities
Step one: Review articles
Step two: Apply Your Learning
- Go to 'Company Settings.'
- Add or edit a leadership capability.
- If you’ve already identified leadership capabilities for your organization, add them now.
Surveys
Step one: Review articles
Step two: Apply Your Learning
- Review the 'Survey List' & familiarize yourself with the Sounding Board surveys.
- Practice Previewing, Editing, and Duplicating surveys
- Create a test survey in the Survey Builder to understand how it works.
Creating 1:1 Coaching Programs
Step one: Review articles
- Creating a 1:1 Coaching Program
- Creating an On-Demand Coaching Program
- Creating a Coaching or Mentoring Program Template
Step two: Apply Your Learning
- Define how you'll use the program construct. Explore how you can group participants based on factors like region, leadership level, or shared leadership development goals.
- Create Templates & Test Programs: Create a Program from a Template or go to the 'Programs' section.
- Test Coach Matching: Set up two test programs—one with Admin-Driven Matching and one with User-Driven Matching. Log in as a test coachee to experience the user-driven matching firsthand.
- Configure Leadership Capabilities: Practice adding, editing, and removing leadership capabilities in test programs. Adjust the default 'Company' capabilities at the program level to match desired outcomes or leadership levels.
- Test Survey Settings: Edit survey triggers, recipients, visibility, and survey content in your test programs. Preview and adjust surveys to fit your program needs.
- Launch Test Program: Select 'Launch Program' to finalize and change the program status from Draft to Active
Creating Group Coaching Programs and Engagements
Step one: Review articles
- Creating a Group Coaching Program
- Creating a Group Coaching Engagement
- Creating Group Coaching Engagement Template
- Creating a Group Coaching Engagement from a Template
Step two: Apply Your Learning
- Define how you'll use the program & engagement construct. Explore how to group participants based on factors like region, leadership level, or shared leadership development goals.
- Create Templates, Test Programs & Engagements: Create a Group Coaching Template or go to the 'Programs' section.
- Configure Leadership Capabilities: Practice adding, editing, and removing leadership capabilities in test engagements. Adjust the default 'Company' capabilities at the group engagement level to match desired outcomes or leadership levels.
- Test Survey Settings: Edit survey triggers, recipients, visibility, and survey content in your test engagements. Preview and adjust surveys to fit your group engagement needs.
- Launch Test Engagement: Select 'Launch Engagement' to finalize and change the program status from Draft to Active
Program Settings
These settings have already been covered in the above individual program creation articles, but if you would like to explore them further, this is the place.
- Program Leadership Capabilities
- Add Resources to Coaching or Mentoring Programs
- Adding or Editing Surveys for 1:1 Coaching or Mentoring Programs or Group Coaching Engagements
1:1 Coaching Program Management
Other Resources
Phase Three: Adoption & Growth
Maximize engagement management and operational efficiency to drive ongoing adoption.
1:1 Engagement Management
- Rematch a Coach in a 1:1 Coaching Engagement
- How to Complete Engagements
- Engagement Extensions
- Pausing and Resuming 1:1 Coaching Engagements
- Manage Engagement Surveys
- How to Bulk Update Engagements