Breakthrough: Coach M for Professional Development Goals
All of our very best Coach M improvements have come about through collaboration with our clients. We constantly innovate and change, driven by requests from our clients and the experiments we conduct with them. Recently, we added the ‘Get Coach’ feature, which allows individuals to book directly into the diary of a human coach and it’s already proving indispensable to clients.
We are excited to announce another new twist on Coach M in 2023 – a service that helps organisations with professional development plans. This is a significant change as previously, all of our Coach M work has been focused on supporting individuals with their learning goals set as part of a training program or learning experience. However, when a client came to us and asked if they could use Coach M for professional goals, we decided to experiment with it and the results have been sensational.
The problem that our clients identified is that individuals often have challenges keeping up the momentum with their professional development goals. This can be due to a lack of time, other distractions, and changes in the individual’s circumstances. In addition, organisations often link professional development goals to pay and remuneration, but these goals are also linked to what the organisation is looking to achieve for that year or quarter.
It seems it can often become a tick box exercise for the individual and the organisation. We have heard stories of organisations where individuals retrospectively put in their goals and achievements just before a performance review, and the organisation has no way of knowing when these goals were inputted or whether they have changed from the original goals set at the beginning of the quarter. It must be a concern for HR professionals managing the process with their leaders.
Could we use Coach M to help an organisation know if individual PDPs align with strategic objectives and if, throughout the year, the organisation is on track to meet these objectives?
What if each employee had a regular reflective conversation about their progress? They could drive their own development in a proactive, scaffolded way. Not something that they just had to complete, but a conversation that had them at the centre of it. They could have individual coaching on these goals with Coach M through regular coaching conversations. This conversation would enable them to track progress, identify barriers, and recognise when goals need to change. Rather than reviewing their diary trying to ‘remember’ what they have done over the previous period, they have an easy to access summary in their inbox. A real value add.
Coach M for professional development goals is designed to help individuals stay on track and achieve their goals, while also providing highly valuable insights for the organisation. It works by providing individuals with a customised coaching program based on their PDP, tailored to their specific goals and needs. The program includes regular check-ins and progress updates, supported solely by Coach M or alongside a human coach, internal or external.
Please contact me to find out more. I can’t wait to share the possibilities with you!
*The name of the processes change across organisations: IDPs (Individual Performance Plans), PDPs (Professional Development Plans) or Career Development Plans – they are common terms used in the field of professional development and career planning often on an annual or quarterly cycle.
PS – It would be impossible to have a conversation about chatbots in January 2023 without mentioning ChatGPT. What’s your view? Do you think ChatGPT wrote this blog or did I? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments or email me to find out more!
For our info…..
PDP (Professional Development Plan) and IDP (Individual Development Plan) are both common terms used in the field of professional development and career planning.
Alternative terms for PDP include:
Career Development Plan
Professional Growth Plan
Staff Development Plan
Alternative terms for IDP include:
Career Action Plan
Career Development Plan
Personal Development Plan