Design Your Selection Process and Choose Participants for Torch Coaching

Strong coaching engagements start with selection. In fact, leadership programs with equitable, formal and transparent selection processes are more likely to succeed.

This article will guide you through reflecting on your existing processes if applicable, and developing a selection process for your organization's Torch Coaching program that will drive healthy engagements, strong ROI, and inclusive representation. You'll also learn about best practices for participant nominations throughout.

Reflect On Your Existing Processes

As a starting point for designing your participant selection process, consider these questions about your existing processes, if any:

• How have you structured selection processes in the past?
• What worked? What didn't?
• Do you already have selection criteria in mind?
• What do you hope to achieve by having a formal selection process?

Your answers will help inform your decisions as you begin developing your custom selection process.

Develop Your Selection Process

Follow these key steps to create a selection process that best fits your organization and drives strong outcomes, organized based on Torch's research-backed framework.

1. Clarify the Existing Leadership Development Opportunities

List all current leadership development opportunities that exist within your organization. Include stretch assignments, mentoring programs, and other forms of skills training. 

When you're communicating about the Torch Coaching program later on, you can also make employees aware of any additional opportunities that exist to ensure they have a holistic view and understanding of their leadership development options.

2. Define the Eligibility Criteria and Organization Expectations

Summarize the criteria that make an employee eligible for the Torch Coaching opportunity. This should be based as much as possible on objective, observable evidence. For example, the following may factor into your selection criteria:

• Role or responsibility (e.g. director or above, number or direct reports)
• Recent or upcoming changes (e.g. first time managers, transitional roles)
• Demographics (e.g. women in tech)
• Tenure (e.g. 6+ months at your organization)
• Objective Performance Review Data (e.g. productivity, lead generation)

Keep in mind the ideal participant is someone who:

• Can commit to investing 3-4 hours of their time per month to the program.
• Is open to the process and ready for change.
• Demonstrates enthusiasm for their development and growth.
• Is eager, excited, and ready to do the work.
• Is willing to provide feedback and share their candid experience, typically via program surveys.

Ensuring participants have "skin in the game" is the best way to set them up for success and motivate them to regularly engage with your program. For additional guidance, here's a sample profile of who we typically see succeed in Torch Coaching:

It's also critical to understand as an organization what your engagement expectations are for your program participants. 

If you're expecting participants to attend a certain number of coaching meetings, complete surveys, provide feedback, or set goals, you'll want to let them know up front. Life gets in the way, so making sure that you ultimately choose participants who can intentionally prioritize the program is crucial.

3. Communicate the Criteria and Expectations Across the Organization

Once decided, ensure everyone across the organization knows the criteria and expectations. Your plan should answer the question "How can we communicate opportunities so managers and employees take action on them?" Consider the following:

• Timing - Share the details when they will be most impactful. For example, you could communicate the opportunity right before or after a promotion or review cycle, when development is top-of-mind for many leaders and managers.
• Content - Frame the message so that the opportunities, criteria, expectations, and intended "next step" actions are clear.
• Channels - Make sure the communications are shared in all relevant places for your organization, such as team meetings, Slack channels, or newsletters.

As part of your communications, make sure to clarify what your organization is hoping to accomplish, the reason the organization is investing in the program, and what you are hoping to see from a ROI standpoint. Illuminating that "north star" will help prospective participants understand how they factor into the larger picture.

4. Formalize a Process

For Participant Selection

Making the decision of who gets access to the Torch program is one of the most crucial decisions in setting up your program for success. Along those lines, it's important to create an inclusive and equitable process that ensures equal opportunity for nomination. The most common nomination principles are:

• Self-Nomination (Recommended) - Employees "raise their hands" and opt-in to participate
• Nomination by Others - HR representatives or managers submit employee nominations

If you need some inspiration, one of the programs with the highest engagement we've seen was from an organization that opened a nomination pool and had interested employees complete an application outlining why they needed coaching and what they were hoping to achieve. The participants were then hand-selected from the applications.

To promote equity in leadership development within your organization, ask yourself "What types of approaches can I use to reduce bias in the process?" Ideas include:

• Allowing individuals to self-nominate (recommended)
• Asking managers to rate all of their direct reports
• Asking for multiple pieces of evidence in support of a claim or nomination

For Disengaged Participants

Though in a perfect world everyone would be a model Torch Coaching program participant, you'll want to determine up front what the process will be for a disengaged participant. Here are the top scenarios you'll want to consider:

• What is the action plan for participants with no sessions scheduled two weeks after the invitations have been sent and the program has launched?
• What is the action plan for participants with one or no meetings scheduled or completed after one month in the program?
• At what key moments will you choose to swap out a participant's seat so someone else can participate instead?