What is change management coaching?

Change management coaching* is a collaborative partnership that helps you identify your current change leadership strengths and uncover new ways to enable workplace change. It supports leaders at all levels to equip themselves with the awareness, understanding, and skills needed to successfully bring about organizational change.

This type of coaching is focused on leaders at various levels — executive sponsors, middle managers, team leads —who have a role in guiding or implementing change in their organization.

How is change management coaching structured?

The components of change management coaching include:

  • Defining success for yourself and how you want to operate as a leader of change. Change is complex and makes many demands on a leader. Being clear about what’s most important to you now provides essential direction for coaching.

  • Building self-awareness of the relevant strengths you bring to table, as well as where you may need to grow in order to effectively lead this change.

  • Experimenting with new tactics, viewpoints, and strategies. We often learn more about leading change from actually doing it than talking, thinking or reading about it.

  • Following through on commitments. Learning to lead change is a process that requires consistent effort, which the coaching process supports through a focus on accountability.

What topics are covered in change management coaching?

Unlike training, with change management coaching, you decide where to focus your time to create the most value for you. For many of us, developing new forms of expertise or ways of operating involves developing in a mix of three areas: knowledge, motivation and opportunity.

Knowledge

Many people come to coaching to augment their knowledge — “I don’t know how to do X or I want to get better at Y.” We can address this by identifying what you already know and do well, and then identify frameworks, models, practices that may augment your efforts. Topics covered to develop knowledge relevant for change management may include:

However, if you are solely interested in expanding your awareness of change practices or skills, training may be a better fit than coaching.

Motivation

Often though, leading change effectively isn’t just about awareness of skills but our willingness or motivation to put them into practice. In change coaching, we may also explore what’s driving how you exercise your change leadership. What may be holding you back? Topics explored in this area may include:

  • Maintaining focus and adaptability — both/and leadership

  • Identifying areas of control and influence

  • Naming fear and avoiding loathing during change

  • Avoiding overwhelm — managing oneself during change

Opportunity

Finally, it can be particularly productive to consider how to create opportunities to exercise change leadership — formally and informally. Topics in this realm often include:

How is change coaching different than consulting or training?

The International Coach Federation (ICF) creates standards for coaching, which differentiates it from therapy, mentoring, consulting, and training in important ways.

What it is NOT

  • A training course in change management

  • A step-by-step process for change

  • Consulting services that solve change challenges for you

  • Mentoring based on my professional experiences

What it IS

  • Tailored to your change leadership goals and the growth areas most pressing to you

  • Grounded in evidence-based practices

  • Aimed at building on your existing strengths

  • Focused on real-time situations

 
 

Is change management coaching right for you?

Find out by scheduling a time for us to coach together. We’ll discuss your current situation, the type of support you are looking for, and do some coaching. The only cost to you is 30 minutes of your time.

 
 

Who is change management coaching for?

Studies show that catalyzing change, and related skills, is one of the top topics that leaders target with coaches. You are not alone! Organizational change requires leaders at all levels to develop new skills and perspectives or apply existing capabilities in new ways.

The focus of our coaching partnership will shift depending on the specific role you play in the change, which could include:

  • Executives or Managers who play Change Sponsorship or Governance roles

  • Directors, Supervisors, or Managers tasked with “making change happen”

  • Change Agents, Change Leads, or Team Leads

  • Implementation Team Members

  • Technical Leads

  • Project or Program Managers

What can you expect to invest?

When considering coaching it’s important to reflect on what improved performance and greater confidence during times of change would be worth to you — not just in monetary terms, but also in the time, attention, and energy you’ll invest in the process.

  • To reap the benefits of coaching you’ll need to invest your focus, energy, and time both during and between coaching sessions. It’s essential to create the space you’ll need to explore and experiment.

  • My minimum engagement with clients is four sessions, which is appropriate for more experienced change leaders or practitioners who are interested in collaborating on 1 - 2 defined topics.

  • I work with many clients for 4 - 6 months, which provides the opportunity for collaboration on a variety of topics during key phases of a change effort.

  • I meet with most clients for an hour every two weeks, however, client needs and preferences determine the frequency of sessions. That said, I do require that we meet at least once per month.

  • Short-term coaching packages cost about what you’d pay to attend a national conference. My rates are competitive with industry standards. Pricing consideration is offered to individuals and nonprofit organizations.

Give change management coaching a try

Schedule a free, 30-minute coaching session

 
 

*Note: People also use the term “change coaching” or “change management coaching”to mean things such as:

  • Technical assistance provided to staff to support the effective use of a specific practice, tool, or process. Examples include assistance provided by software firms when implementing their product, or by public health or education experts to staff implementing a particular evidence-based practice.

  • Internal coaching provided by change practitioners, peers, or managers to assist staff and leaders to understand and adapt to the change. This type of coaching is often undertaken along with training, to support behavior and mindset changes that could be required in transformational change efforts. Examples include power-sharing, increase/decreases in autonomy or responsibility, or new ways of working such as remote vs. onsite.