This article offers actionable best practices to help you successfully roll out Sounding Board software to your coaches. These recommendations are designed to streamline the adoption process while aligning with your organization’s leadership development goals, coaching practices, and program delivery. Use these insights to plan effectively, engage your coaches, and ensure a smooth transition to tech-enabled coaching.
Step One: Big-Picture Rollout Alignment
- Involve key decision-makers in planning and execution.
- Highlight Sounding Board’s tech-enabled approach to leadership development.
- Plan to guide coaches through the change process of adopting new technology and recognize the need for intentional, empathetic change management. Anticipate challenges, plan solutions, and build flexibility into your timeline to support coaches as they navigate the change and adopt new methods for managing engagements and leveraging technology.
- Normalize the learning curve and emphasize that overcoming hurdles during the change process can lead to a better coach experience by reducing administrative burdens and enhancing leadership development outcomes.
- Use Sounding Board’s coach orientation resources and create a clear learning plan.
- Provide hands-on learning opportunities and clear communication channels.
Step Two: Lead with the ‘Why’ & ‘What’s in it for me’
- Lead with “what’s in it for the coach,” emphasizing reduced admin tasks and enhanced leadership development. For additional insights, please reference the article ‘How Users Benefit From Sounding Board.’ Additionally, highlight “what’s in it for the organization” - to help the coach see the organization as an invested stakeholder in addition to the coachee, their manager, etc.
- Ensure messaging to coaches is consistent.
- Choose a welcome/ introduction method that fits your team. Examples:
- Share the Coach Welcome Video
- Record a custom introduction video
- Host a live kickoff call
- Start with a pilot group of engaged coaches before a broader rollout
Step Three: Define and Communicate Expectations
As Admins, we encourage you to explicitly call out which features are essential for coaches to use and which ones are optional, based on your organizational context and the specific insights you hope to gain. Initially, coaches might not see the direct connection between certain features and the insights they contribute to, so it's important to guide them through this process and set clear expectations. Key areas to focus on include:
- Work Style Assessment
- Coach Profile
- Calendar Syncing
- Scheduling Sessions
- Away Mode
- Session Logging
- Notes
- Manager Perspective/Involvement
- Surveys
- Leadership Roadmap Esp. Goal Setting
Step Four: Identify a Training Plan
- Segment out the training by providing coaches with microbursts of learning, focusing on what they need to know as they get started. Begin by addressing the basics and setting expectations—how to onboard, set up their coach profile and bio, and sync their schedule. Once these foundational steps are covered, move into the next training segment, where coaches can learn how to get started with coaching in the platform—such as how to schedule sessions, use the chat function, and access coachee profiles.
- Choose between live, blended, or asynchronous training based on team needs.
- Ensure coaches review the Coach Orientation and Quick Start Guide to reinforce key information.
- Decide when coach onboarding should be completed relative to training sessions.
Step Five: Encourage Practice Before Launch
- To help coaches become comfortable, create test programs with test users for coaches to practice key workflows. Consider pairing coaches up with one another so they can experience both roles—coach and coachee—or assigning them one of the test user coachee accounts.
- Encourage coaches to use their personal Leadership Roadmap to gain familiarity with the functionality.
- Look for and engage 'early adopters'—coaches who are enthusiastic and quick to adopt the platform. Involve them in supporting other coaches as they adopt the full functionality available.
Step Six: Launch Official Programs and Coaching Begins!
- Begin launching official programs, allowing coaches to leverage the software for managing their engagements.
- Reinforce expectations for platform usage early and consistently, ensuring coaches understand key functionality and how it aligns with organizational goals. Encourage feedback and provide support to drive adoption.
- Ensure coaches know how to access information through Zendesk for any questions or support they may need, and reinforce the plan for addressing any challenges that arise, including whom to contact for support and how to escalate issues if necessary.
Step Seven: Monitor Progress & Gather Feedback
- Use in-app insights to monitor coach engagement and how they utilize the software.
- Review survey responses to gauge sentiment and assess the impact of coaching on program participants.
- Develop a strategy to leverage this feedback to reinforce desired behaviors and address unideal ones. Share relevant data with coaches—individually or collectively—so they can track adoption progress and stay aligned with your organization’s leader development goals.
Readiness Questions
As you review the best practices above, here are some questions to get you thinking about your planning and execution for the Sounding Board rollout. These will help you evaluate your strategies and ensure they align with your organization’s leadership development goals and coaching style.
- How can you help coaches see the benefits of using technology in leader development, and how does this fit with your overall leader development strategy?
- What planning steps will you need to align everyone on how coaches are willing to and can use the technology to reduce admin tasks and boost their impact?
- How might you share expectations with coaches about using the software for their engagements, and what further clarifications could be helpful?
- What ways can you spark conversations with coaches to encourage behaviors that enhance collaboration with managers?
- What steps will you take to help coaches practice key workflows before launch, and what support do you need to set up test programs and workflows with test users?