Introduction
In Part Two, we explored best practices for navigating leadership capabilities. Next, we’ll guide you through best practices for assessing the impact of coaching and mentoring programs, focusing on surveys. Reviewing this article gives you a head start when it comes time to dive into the software and tackle the detailed setup content in our Admin Orientation Guides.
Written Walkthrough
Our software, designed for leader development, includes survey-based evaluation tools— the primary method to assess the impact of coaching and mentoring today. Designing an evaluation experience is essential for measuring program outcomes, participant experience, and how the experience shapes their development. You can use Sounding Board’s 'out of the box' surveys, which are behavioral science-backed and automatically integrate into our insights dashboard, or you can create your own custom surveys.
Combining technology with surveys allows you to streamline gathering insights while gaining the information needed to show how your programs impact leader development and overall business outcomes.
Best Practices
To help you get started, here are some of our Strategic Planning Best Practices for navigating surveys:
- Involve Key Stakeholders Early: Schedule an initial planning meeting with key stakeholders to discuss program goals and evaluation methods.
- Choose an Evaluation Method: Whether using pre-built Sounding Board surveys or creating custom ones, admins should understand how the selected evaluation method fits within their broader leadership development strategy. By default, we’ve included our 'out of the box' surveys in the survey list.
- Ensure Your Custom Evaluation Process Covers All Five Levels of Measurement: Design an evaluation process that covers all five levels of measurement: Level 1 and 2 (leader’s reaction and learning), Level 3 and 4 (behavior change and results), and Level 5, which focuses on return on investment (based on the Kirkpatrick and Phillips Models).
- Consider the Impact of Creating Your Own Surveys: If you develop custom surveys, ensure they align with the specific leadership outcomes you want to measure. Keep in mind that custom surveys won’t be integrated into our in-app insights dashboards, so you’ll need to visualize and analyze the results using your systems.
- Collecting Diverse Feedback for Broader Insights: Develop a game plan for capturing diverse perspectives by gathering feedback from multiple audiences. Engaging leaders, managers, coaches, and mentors not only supports those participating in the coaching and mentoring programs but also provides valuable organizational insights into the leadership development happening across the organization.
For more details on our surveys and orienting yourself to the software, check out our Coaching Admin Orientation and Quick Start Guide and Mentoring Admin Orientation and Quick Start Guide.
Reflect
- What additional steps do you need to take to get organized around your evaluation approach?
- Who must be involved in decision-making to ensure alignment?
- How does your survey approach fit with your organization's leadership development strategy? And do you see a clear link between what you're measuring and the leadership outcomes you aim to advance?
- What questions do you still have? What might be helpful to talk through? *Please follow up with your customer team
We hope this gave you a clearer understanding of how to assess the impact of your coaching and mentoring programs using surveys, and helped you think through the strategic planning needed for a smooth rollout.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact your customer team.
Next, check out our Core Software Features, Coaching Admin Orientation & Quick Start Guide & Mentoring Admin Orientation and Quick Start Guide.