Leveraging Outcome-Based Coaching Solutions at Your Organization

What is outcome-based coaching?

leadership coaching participant meeting with their coach

Many leadership development programs rely on a one-size-fits-all approach, leaving leaders feeling disengaged and failing to fully develop essential skills.

This can lead to long-term costs for organizations, including underdeveloped leadership capabilities and increased employee turnover. Poor leaders can also create a ripple effect that negatively impacts their colleagues and direct reports’ productivity, satisfaction, and growth.

Unlike other coaching providers who prioritize generic programs, Torch takes an outcome-based approach to coaching. Outcome-based coaching emphasizes sustainable skill development and behavior change, which creates a lasting positive impact.

Torch’s coaching suite, with the recent addition of tailored 1:1 coaching programs and group coaching solutions, align around key business priorities and needs. These programs are designed to seamlessly adapt to your organization’s unique goals and deliver clear and lasting outcomes.

Let’s dive into what each of these solutions look like.

Tailored 1:1 Coaching Programs

Tailored 1:1 coaching programs solve business problems through program-specific content and assessments that align with your organization’s objectives. These programs address key audiences and their collective challenges, such as new managers developing foundational skills and middle managers dealing with burnout, in a one-on-one setting with a coach.

Torch’s flagship 1:1 coaching offering is largely directed by the person receiving coaching, where the participant identifies areas they want to target with their coach, who guides them toward their goals while holding them accountable. Tailored 1:1 programs, on the other hand, are designed to be more prescriptive.

In a tailored 1:1 coaching engagement, approximately 60% of time is spent on content and exercises that focus on solving a business-related challenge and the remaining time is reserved for developing additional skills unique to the individual. Because of this structured approach, these programs provide organizations with predictable and repeatable results, enabling them to realize value in real time.

Group Coaching Programs

Torch’s group coaching program also tackles shared business challenges, however, its core differentiator is that there are multiple participants with similar experiences, identities, or skills gaps, collaborating to reach a common objective.

How do you when group coaching is the right fit? Several use cases include developing new managers, improving communication skills, and leading through change. These programs create a trusted space for employees to engage in facilitated discussions, learn from other group members, and reflect on shared challenges with their peers.

Torch’s top-rated group coaches lead sessions for groups of 6-8 participants, with learning plans curated and designed by Torch’s behavioral science team. Surveys throughout the program look at participant goals, group performance and effectiveness, participant behavior change, and program effectiveness, which Torch provides to program admins to help them better understand and measure outcomes.

The Future of Coaching

As the world of work continues to change, Torch’s COO, Heather Conklin, offered her take: “At Torch, we recognize that every organization faces unique challenges and has specific goals they want to achieve. Our goal has always been to align our coaching programs with these objectives, and create strong leaders who can drive positive change within their organizations. We are confident that these new programs will help our Torch customers further accelerate the positive impact of leadership coaching on business results, and we’re excited to continue evolving our approach to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers.”

By incorporating group coaching or tailored 1:1 coaching programs into your broader L&D strategy, you can ensure that your people are growing in alignment with both the organization and with each other.

7 Elements That Make or Break a Group Coaching Program

Studies on group coaching in the workplace have shown that group coaching supports growth in a number of crucial areas – for example, listening, communication, emotional intelligence, and self-awareness. However, not all group coaching programs are created equally.

Luckily, there are steps organizations can follow to maximize success in any group coaching program, such as selecting the right participants and maximizing engagement. Let’s dive into the other factors that make or break a group coaching program.

Participant selection

Because participants work collaboratively in group coaching, creating a healthy environment and mix of people is crucial. Participant selection can significantly impact program engagement, which is a key factor in the program’s success. Here are some important questions to consider before selecting participants for a group coaching program:

What do potential group members have in common? Groups are more effective when their members have challenges, skill gaps, or social identities in common. For example, aspiring women leaders or first-time managers.
Are any potential group members close colleagues or members of the same team? While familiarity can be a benefit in some cases, a group with too much pre-existing closeness can make establishing rapport among all members more challenging. On top of that, having members of the same team together can cause group conversation to get lopsided in favor of issues specific to the unit/team that is over-represented.
Are potential group members interested & committed to learning new skills, and willing to support their colleagues in learning new skills? Because strong rapport forms the backbone of a successful group coaching experience, it is critical to choose participants who are excited to learn in this context, support their peers, and commit to attending the majority of group coaching sessions.
Do group members have similar job levels? Selecting group members with similar job levels eliminates power dynamics that could negatively impact coaching outcomes. It also increases the likelihood that group members view the group as a safe space where they can be honest and vulnerable.

Additional factors that contribute to a successful group coaching program

Scheduling: Attendance and availability are a must when it comes to creating a successful group experience. Specifically, no participant should be assigned to a group if they cannot attend that group’s first meeting, which is a critical moment in the development of rapport between participants and the coach.
Coach consistency: Instead of holding all group sessions at the same time with different coaches, it’s better to assign the same coach to all groups within a program. This provides consistency within different cohorts, and ensures that participants are growing in alignment with each other and the organization.
Engagement: Successful group coaching programs are only possible if group members are engaged. Organizations can encourage engagement in group coaching programs by removing obstacles employees may face in attending sessions – for example, ensuring managers are on board with employees attending sessions. At Torch, we also help sustain engagement by giving participants additional resources to support their growth via the Torch platform.

When designed well, group coaching can be highly impactful for both organizations and their employees. By taking a mindful approach to participant selection, coach consistency, and maximizing engagement, organizations can maximize the power of group coaching and create positive outcomes for the business. To learn more about how you can offer group coaching at your organization and what it looks like in other organizations, check out the recording of our conversation with Samera Edwards, at Waymo, or schedule a call with us here.

Top 6 Business Priorities for Group Coaching

Organizations are increasingly looking for ways to foster growth, connection, and belonging amongst their employees, as research shows that organizations with high levels of employee engagement are 23% more profitable than companies with low engagement. There are a multitude of ways that organizations support their employees–virtual training, in-person training, learning courses, etc. Group coaching is a powerful tool that many organizations underutilize. It works by giving participants space and guidance (with both a coach and facilitated platform) to engage conversations that leverage the collective experience of their peers. Group coaching is a collaborative approach that helps participants learn and practice new skills. That often means the group works on a specific business priority– like making the transition from individual contributor to being a new manager to finding belonging within an organization. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages of group coaching and understand how and when organizations should use it.

When is Group Coaching the Right Fit?

Group coaching thrives in environments where there’s a need for collective growth. When a group of individuals share common goals, challenges, or skill gaps, group coaching provides an environment where participants can learn from each other’s varied experiences and backgrounds. For organizations looking to create a more cohesive and inclusive culture, group coaching offers a sense of community and camaraderie among participants, which enhances motivation, accountability, and engagement. In fact, research shows that employees who experience belonging at work are 3x more likely to look forward to going to work.

Key Business Priorities to Address With Group Coaching

While group coaching can be beneficial in most contexts, there are a number of specific business priorities where it is most commonly used, and is well- suited.

New managers: Transitioning from an individual contributor to a managerial role can require an entirely new set of skills. Group coaching provides new leaders with the necessary skills and support to navigate this transition effectively.
Communication: Communication is the cornerstone of successful leadership and team collaboration. Group coaching focused on effective communication equips participants with tools to enhance clarity, empathy, and understanding in their interactions.
Middle managers: Middle managers play a pivotal role in translating organizational strategies into actionable plans. Group coaching programs tailored for middle managers help them bridge the gap between strategy and execution, driving organizational success.
Leading through change: In today’s volatile business environment, leaders must navigate uncertainty and change with resilience. Group coaching can equip leaders with the mindset and strategies to lead through turbulent times while maintaining team morale and performance.
Underrepresented groups: For employees, feeling a sense of belonging and confidence in their identity is vital to their satisfaction and impact at work. Group coaching provides individuals with a support group of individuals with shared backgrounds, while increasing retention for employers.
Becoming a more effective leader: For leaders, leveraging coaching skills can be integral to fostering a culture of empowerment and continuous improvement within teams. Group coaching programs help leaders foster a coaching mindset and develop essential skills that help them cultivate stronger, more empowered teams.

Group coaching offers a powerful platform to address various business priorities and challenges, providing a predictable and repeatable environment for professional growth and development. By leveraging group coaching programs, organizations can equip their leaders and teams with the skills and mindset needed to reach their goals. Learn how group coaching programs can support your organization’s unique goals and strategy by scheduling a demo here.

Beginner’s Guide to Group Coaching

Guide to Group Coaching 101

Many L&D programs target key business challenges, such as onboarding new managers or supporting leaders through periods of change, but there’s a missing component: learning through connection.

One of the most common programs, training, is effective at providing employees with knowledge and information. While other programs have different strengths, like in-person training, which offers peer connection but fails to deliver sustainable behavior change, 1:1 coaching is ideal for providing individualized support in developing and maintaining skills, but is also…individual. What completes the picture then, helping to support, cement, and sustain the learning from 1:1 coaching with the opportunity to connect and learn alongside their peers? Group coaching.

What is group coaching?

Group coaching leverages the resources and knowledge of a group of individuals who share experiences or identities. In group coaching, a qualified coach works with all members of a group in a collaborative setting. The participants share common goals or challenges that the coach and their peers help guide them through.

Importantly, group coaching is not training and does not focus on improving the dynamics of existing teams. Rather, the focus is on facilitated discussions and peer learning that help participants build critical skills while working through real-life scenarios.

When should group coaching be used?

Group coaching is most impactful for groups of employees who, regardless of what they are working on professionally, share a similar experience or identity–such as being a new manager, leading through a restructure, or becoming a parent. Beyond enabling participants to develop necessary shared skills, group coaching accelerates internal relationship development and network building within the group. This allows employees to build long-lasting internal support structures that serve them throughout their careers.

-Some example of situations where group coaching is powerful include:
-Employees are underperforming or missing key relational skills
-Identifying and preparing employees for promotion
-Managing low engagement and/or retention in underrepresented groups
-Aligning newly hired leaders with organizational culture and standards

What are the benefits of group coaching?

Group coaching provides participants with the connection they need to feel supported and be held accountable for their behavior, all while accelerating growth by learning from their peers. There are four main reasons why HR leaders choose to incorporate group coaching into their L&D programs:

Peer learning
Group coaching enables participants to solve problems and gain skills by sharing their own experiences and learning from other group members’ experiences. Torch’s group coaching is structured so participants spend the majority of sessions in facilitated discussions, rather than consuming content in a workshop-style environment.
Organizational alignment
Group coaching makes aligning employees around organizational objectives easy, and helps participants focus on building skills that help them succeed within your organization. For example, organizations running a new manager L&D program may want managers to develop skills related to a specific set of values. Torch’s group coaching programs ensure that participants receive the same coaching experience, with shared alignment around organizational goals.
Connection & belonging
Employees often end up working with a relatively small percentage of people within an organization, especially at enterprise companies. Group coaching provides participants with an opportunity to branch out beyond their teams and network with cross-functional colleagues that expand their professional support networks.
Complement to 1:1 coaching
While group coaching is not a replacement for 1:1 coaching, it does enrich the 1:1 coaching experience with all of the benefits mentioned above. Group coaching is recommended as a complement to 1:1 coaching in the majority of coaching use-cases, and can take place alongside 1:1, as peer support following 1:1, or as an intro before starting 1:1.

If you’re interested in learning more about launching a Torch group coaching program at your organization, request a demo here.

Unlocking Behavior Change: Measuring Success In Your Coaching Program

One of the main hurdles organizations face when investing in a coaching program is accessing the data necessary for measuring program success. In many coaching programs, there is no structure for setting success criteria or objectives from the start. This is then amplified by a lack of tools to actually evaluate behavior change or capture data from the program. Because of this, organizations struggle to assess the actual impact and ROI of their coaching investment.

At Torch, we leverage a four-tiered framework, based on the Kirkpatrick model, to measure the effectiveness of learning and training programs, including coaching.

Levels of the Kirkpatrick Model

This model acts as a systematic approach to unraveling the layers of behavior change, starting with participant satisfaction and ending in tangible results. At each stage of this model, Torch has developed a suite of tools designed to facilitate and substantiate growth. These tools range from detailed administrative reports with insights into program progress, to colleague-reported feedback that ensures participants are focusing on the right behaviors.

Here’s a look into how Torch’s platform supports program admins in growing and developing their people:

Move towards the right measures of success

Within Torch’s platform, participants can access a suite of colleague-reported feedback tools designed to actively facilitate their growth and development. This built-in arsenal includes 360 assessments, impact surveys, and peer feedback surveys.

The 360 assessments and impact surveys help participants reflect on the most important areas for growth during their coaching journey. What sets these assessments apart is that they incorporate input from a participant’s colleagues, providing a more holistic perspective and insight into each participant’s development.

Example of insights participants receive from 360s

A noteworthy recent addition to our toolkit is Peer Feedback Surveys. These surveys enable participants to request and receive feedback from their colleagues every four months throughout their coaching engagement. These surveys automatically populate with the same colleagues who provided feedback in the participant’s 360 assessment, and participants can invite additional peers to provide feedback as well. Once colleagues submit their feedback, Torch aggregates their responses and provides participants and their coaches with insights in a Peer Feedback Report.

View of participant’s peer feedback report

Research shows that this feedback is core to shifting participant behavior, as it helps participants understand their progress from an outside perspective and identify additional areas for development. Responses are intentionally not anonymized, so participants can pinpoint which specific relationships improved as a result of coaching.

Understand ROI with detailed insights and reports

Measuring behavior change is complex, but Torch simplifies it by offering a range of tools and reports that empower admins to assess growth at each level of the Kirkpatrick model.

Starting with “Level 1: Reaction”, Torch equips admins with comprehensive coaching engagement reports. These reports deliver detailed data including participants’ satisfaction with their coach, user engagement, completion of action items, and more. These reports provide admins with insights into participants’ first impressions of the coaching program, and allows admins to proactively take action when they notice decreasing engagement.

Reports that admins can leverage to ensure program engagement

As we progress up the Kirkpatrick model to Level 2: Learning, Torch provides admins with a look into the skills participants are acquiring through self- and colleague-reported data. Tools like 360s and impact surveys allow admins to identify the skills and growth participants are gaining from the coaching program.

Admin view of 360 assessment results

At Level 3: Behavior, Torch provides organizations with insights around participants’ behavior change through QBRs and manual reporting. These reports not only shed light on growth at an individual level, but also provide a broader understanding of how participants’ behavior change ripples down and impacts their colleagues and team.

Once we reach the final level of the Kirkpatrick Model, Level 4: Results, Torch works with organizations to help them measure ROI by connecting Torch’s coaching data to other data sources such as engagement surveys, performance metrics, and retention data.

By implementing these tools and features, Torch empowers participants with the insights they need for success and also assists organizations in understanding the actual return on their coaching investment. To dive deeper into how Torch’s platform can transform your coaching programs, schedule a personalized demo with our team.

Unlocking Behavior Change: Building Momentum and Engagement From the Start

You’ve probably heard the saying, “the first impression is the last impression.” Nowhere is that more true than in software. First impressions are enduring and difficult to change once they’re formed. When it comes to coaching, the onboarding experience serves as a participant’s first impression of the program. In addition, research shows that reducing friction early on helps people build the habit of engaging, which leads to more growth and learning.

At Torch, we’re investing in creating the best onboarding experience possible. We wanted to remove any challenges or obstacles participants might face during their onboarding experience that could decrease their momentum or engagement.

The result? A flow that features a streamlined onboarding process, engaging homepage, and built-in tools that enable alignment between coaches, participants, and their managers. By building momentum and a sense of progress early on, Torch fosters an environment conducive to behavior change. Let’s take a quick peek at the three primary components that make up Torch’s onboarding experience:

1. Coach matching

Before participants start thinking about changing their behavior, they need to first understand what coaching is and why they’re doing it. Torch’s onboarding experience begins by giving participants an overview of their coaching engagement and answers these initial questions. This ensures that participants understand what the coaching process will look like and sets initial expectations.

Participants’ first view of Torch onboarding

Next, participants take a short matching survey that asks them about their preferences and experiences. For participants to experience meaningful behavior change, they need a coach with whom they can quickly build rapport and trust. The matching profile survey is designed to capture key information around a participant’s experiences, preferences, and background, so that they can be matched with the right coach.

Sample question in participants’ matching profile survey

2. A homepage that streamlines onboarding for participants

The homepage is the first place participants go when they log in to their Torch platform. Because onboarding is such a crucial point in an individuals’ coaching journey, we embed the onboarding dashboard right into the homepage. This way, participants are reminded of key action items every time they log in to Torch. Torch’s homepage is streamlined with only the most relevant content to reduce distractions and unnecessary information. It consists of three key sections:

Important coaching information: participants can find answers to basic questions they might have, such as: “How long will my coaching engagement last?” or “When does my coaching engagement start/end?”, so they don’t have to dig through multiple pages or tabs.
Key action items: participants can find all the next steps they need to take to complete their onboarding, as well as direct links to complete these items, right from their homepage. This way, participants aren’t left with any ambiguity or confusion around how to complete their tasks. There are also engaging CTAs and banners across the page that encourage participants to complete their tasks.
Relevant resources: participants can find resources curated by our behavioral science team that answer key questions they may have about coaching, such as: “What should I expect from coaching?” or “How can I make the most of coaching?”

View of the homepage participants see when they log into Torch

By building onboarding into Torch’s homepage, we’re able to get participants started with coaching and on the path to sustainable behavior change quickly and efficiently.

3. Built-in tools that enable coaching alignment

For participants to successfully change their behavior in the context of coaching, they need to: 1) know what behavior they need to change, and 2) be held accountable for their desired change. While coaches are experts at guiding participants through the behavior change process, they face certain limitations as external figures to the organization. First, coaches’ context around organizational and team goals and challenges is limited to what participants tell them. Second, coaches can only hold participants accountable for their behavior change during coaching sessions, rather than on a day-to-day basis.

To solve these limitations, Torch created Manager Alignment Meetings. Manager Alignment Meetings are optional meetings that allow participants to invite their manager to join a session with their coach at the beginning and end of a coaching engagement. At the beginning of an engagement, a coach, participant, and their manager can meet to align on team challenges and organizational objectives. Participants can also gain insight from their manager around areas of growth the participant could improve upon during the coaching engagement. At the end of an engagement, Manager Alignment Meetings enable managers to provide feedback on areas of behavior change they’ve seen in the participant, as well as commit to future development for the individual. Most importantly, Manager Alignment Meetings allow managers to support the participant through their coaching journey and hold them accountable to their goals on a regular basis.

Views of a manager alignment meeting invite and scheduled session

Behavior change is only possible if participants are engaged and invested in their coaching journey. By optimizing each piece of the onboarding experience, Torch is able to help participants build momentum and increase engagement early on, setting them up for success down the line. Learn more about how Torch’s approach to behavior change can support your organization’s needs by scheduling a personalized walk-through of Torch today.

Unlocking Behavior Change: How Coaching Drives Sustainable Behavior Change

We often speak with organizations who have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in digital course offerings and workshops for their employees. But when the Learning & Development (L&D) leader assesses whether the programs actually helped their business, they are unable to find clear proof of the programs’ impact. These stories are far from unique; countless other businesses face the exact same challenge — they invest significant resources into their programs, only for nothing to change in the long-run.

For L&D programs to create real, measurable benefits like higher performance, team satisfaction, and retention, HR leaders need to shift away from providing short-term, one-size-fits-all solutions. Instead, programs should focus on equipping individuals with the tools necessary for changing their behavior in a sustainable way.

But what does it take to really change someone’s behavior long-term? At Torch, we partner with hundreds of leading organizations, helping HR leaders integrate 1:1 coaching into both new and existing programs. Specifically, we’ve found that four elements ensure these L&D programs create real and lasting behavior change:

1. Build momentum from the start

While we know that coaching leads to behavior change, it’s not enough to just have a coach. In order to reap the benefits of coaching, and capture lasting behavior change, participants need to be actively engaged with their coach. Engagement is heavily influenced by a participant’s first impressions of and interactions with the coaching program and platform. Based on our data, we know that sustainable behavior change is much more likely if participants are engaged – for example, logging into the platform frequently, booking regular sessions with their coaches, etc. – in the early stages of their coaching journey.

At Torch, we’ve optimized our onboarding experience to maximize participant engagement from the start. When participants log in to Torch, they arrive at a streamlined homepage that allows them to easily find information about their coaching engagement, identify and complete key action items, and access resources that walk them through how to make the most out of their coaching engagement, so they can hit the ground running.

View of participants’ homepage experience when they log into Torch

2. Make sure your people are moving in the right direction

“It’s helpful to have a coach who is dedicated to your specific goals and actually getting into the nitty-gritty and working with you to really understand the full context of the situation before trying to apply a solution.” – Vince Ning, Co-Founder and Co- CEO at Nabis

While coaches are experts at helping participants grow and develop new habits, they rely on participants to provide them with important context. Here are a few examples of context a participant brings to the engagement:

– information about organizational goals
– a self-assessment of their key focus areas
– the goals and challenges of their specific team

Being able to bring these to their coach requires that a participant has high levels of self-awareness, as well as full context and alignment with their manager.

With Torch’s Manager Alignment Meetings, participants can invite their manager to a joint meeting with their coach. This enables coaches to gain more context around the team’s goals and challenges and helps them better understand the participant’s unique growth opportunities. On top of that, this feature allows participants to set growth expectations with their manager, right from the start, empowering managers to support the participant and hold them accountable through their growth journey.

Torch’s meeting scheduler allows participants to invite their manager to a joint coaching session

In addition, Torch structures every coaching program around your organization’s unique leadership competencies. Employees will see customizable organizational guidance right on their dashboards, and as they progress, they’ll also be able to tie peer feedback and goals to the priorities dictated by the organization. This way, your employees can focus on the areas that matter most to your organization, without risk of misalignment.

3. Make growth a team effort

Without clear guidance, data, or validation, the concept of ‘growth’ can feel vague and directionless. That’s why Torch coaching sessions occur alongside other resources that help the participant and coach direct their growth – for example, a 360 leadership assessment rooted in behavioral science that collects feedback from their peers, direct reports, and managers, to point them in the right direction.

Torch also has a new peer feedback tool to provide participants with insights around their growth, including areas where they’ve improved in and where they can continue to grow. This new feature enables participants to request direct feedback from close colleagues, managers, or direct reports over the course of their coaching engagement. This allows each participant to understand whether their new behaviors are having a positive impact on those around them. The feedback is then summarized into a report that participants and their coach can use to identify additional areas of growth and opportunity.

Participants can access aggregated reports of feedback their peers leave for them

4. Measure the impact of your investment

“With help from Torch’s data science and analytics team, Reddit has been able to deeply understand the impact that Torch coaching is having on our employees throughout their careers.” – Tramel Dodd, Director of Learning and Development at Reddit

There are many ways to measure coaching’s impact on an organization. At Torch, we leverage the Kirkpatrick model to look at behavior change. The Kirkpatrick model separates impact into four tiers – reaction, learning, behavior, and results – and each tier requires different data and reports to accurately measure success. To help you fully understand the impact of your investment, Torch has new features that equip you with the data necessary for measuring and reporting the impact of your coaching program at each level.

Levels of the Kirkpatrick Model

At the reaction level, the Kirkpatrick model tells us that behavior change isn’t possible if participants aren’t engaged in their coaching program. Torch provides detailed reporting capabilities that give program admins access to real-time, actionable data on participant engagement, so they can always be in the loop around overall program health.

Admins can view program insights and data in Torch’s coaching engagement reports

With program health accounted for, your second core measurement should be behavior change. To help admins measure behavior change, Torch provides valuable feedback from participants’ managers, peers, and teams that admins can leverage in the form of reports and insights.

With tools that enable sustainable behavior change, organizational alignment, peer feedback, and measurable outcomes, Torch creates an environment that supports upskilling and creates lasting behavior change in employees. Learn more about how you can create lasting behavior change in your employees by scheduling a personalized walk-through of Torch today.