Prepare for a Manager Alignment Meeting

Manager alignment meetings are opportunities for you, your manager and coach to have a conversation about your professional growth. Use this session towards the beginning of your coaching engagement to help provide further fuel for your coaching meetings and also strengthen your relationship with your manager. Reference this guide to help you prepare for and get the most out of a manager alignment meeting.

Understand Roles and Responsibilities

You, your coach, and your manager or leader all have different roles and responsibilities within a manager alignment meeting.

You

• Determine what a successful meeting will look like

• Decide the parameters for the meeting (what will and won't be shared)

• Schedule a preparation meeting with your coach

• Schedule the alignment meeting with your coach and manager

Your Coach

• Helps you prepare for the meeting

• Facilitates the meeting

• Debriefs with you after the meeting

Your Manager or Leader

• Provides input as asked based on meeting parameters

Prepare for the Meeting

Use a meeting with your coach to prepare for the manager alignment meeting. Plan on discussing the following:

• What would a successful outcome be for you?

• What are you looking for from your manager or leader? Examples include alignment on your priorities for coaching, specific feedback, a discussion around your opportunities or strengths, or a conversation about how you would like to receive support during your coaching engagement.

• How do you want to be perceived by your leader? What mindset do you want to have for the meeting?

• What information can be shared and what information is off limits? Coaching is confidential and it's up to you to decide what information you want to share with your leader.

• Any concerns you may have and how you and your coach will handle them.

• How would you like to open the meeting? Your coach can share how they will open the meeting and facilitate the conversation, or you may also choose to lead the meeting with your coach playing a supporting role.

• How would you like to close the meeting? Again, you or your coach can take the lead to close the meeting depending on your preference.

Consider Your Ideal Meeting Timing

It’s important that you've had enough time to build trust with your coach and create potential development goals before jumping in.

Whether you’re interested in using the manager alignment meeting to discuss career development and get specific feedback, or to share your intended area of development for coaching and how your manager can support you, we recommend completing your manager alignment meeting in month two of your coaching engagement. The ideal schedule for a manager alignment meeting may also depend on guidance from your program manager.

Ready to schedule your meeting? Follow these instructions.

Review the Meeting Agenda

Manager Alignment Meeting (30 minutes)

This meeting aims to highlight your strengths as perceived by your leader and provide deeper insights into important areas that your coaching engagement might touch on. Ideally this meeting will help you see yourself through a different lens.

Roles

• Your coach is the facilitator 

• You ask questions or respond as you feel comfortable 

• Your manager or leader is a source for gathering information on how they see you

OPENING

Thank your manager for making time for this meeting and introduce your coach.

Your coach introduces themself briefly and clarifies that the purpose of this meeting is to gather insights and information about you from your manager's perspective. This information will be used to shape your coaching engagement.

DISCUSSION

Your coach leads the discussion by prompting your manager to share about your strengths and provide deeper insights. You can review example questions they may ask below.

Strengths

• Tell me about a time you saw [YOUR NAME] at their very best. What was the situation? What did you see? Why was this important or impactful?

• How or where is [YOUR NAME] having the most positive impact?

• How do you see [YOUR NAME]'s actions or behavior align with your company’s values and leadership attributes?

• If [YOUR NAME] was a superhero what would their superpower be?
  

Deeper Insights (Your coach may also ask these questions in a prep session with you)

• How can [YOUR NAME] increase their value to the team and organization?

• If you could give [YOUR NAME] one gift, skill, or attribute what would it be?

• What do you think [YOUR NAME] doesn’t see about themself?

• If you had to describe [YOUR NAME] to another manager who would be taking over as their leader, what would you make sure they knew?
  

Optional Goal Alignment

This will be covered only if you are comfortable. You may share your thoughts, or your coach can facilitate a short discussion on what would be valuable coaching outcomes.

CLOSING

Your coach asks if there's anything else you or your manager wish to share. Your coach thanks your manager for their time and lets your manager know that you and your coach will be staying on the call for a quick huddle before your next coaching session.

Post-Meeting Debrief (15 minutes)

Your manager will leave the meeting. Your coach will stay online with you and do a quick pulse check:

• How are you doing?

• What stood out to you

• What stood out to them

• What you want to do with this information

• How this influences your coaching priorities or journey, if at all

• Do you want to spend the next meeting going deeper?