Schedule a Manager Alignment Meeting

With Manager alignment meetings, you can invite someone who isn’t on the Torch platform, like your manager or another stakeholder within your organization, to a meeting with you and your coach. Follow these instructions to learn how.

Torch tip: Leaders have the opportunity to sponsor their direct reports and open doors to new opportunities. Enlisting your leader as a key stakeholder in your coaching engagement by scheduling a manager alignment meeting not only provides you with valuable insights, but demonstrates to your leader that you are self-motivated and seeking growth opportunities. As a result, they’re more likely to help open doors for you.

1 Prepare for the meeting. Begin by reviewing our guidance on how to prepare for a manager alignment meeting, if you haven’t already. This includes setting your objectives for the meeting. Your objectives should be focused on gaining a deeper understanding of what you want to work on, and exploring the best ways your manager can support and hold you accountable. Sample objectives may include:

• Getting alignment between your manager, your coach, and yourself on development goals

• Setting clear expectations for how your manager can hold you accountable

• Aligning on the best ways for your manager to give you feedback throughout your coaching engagement

Torch tip: It’s important that all parties know what’s going to be discussed prior to the meeting. This is not the time to surprise your manager with feedback you’ve never shared before, or for your manager to spring new feedback on you. To ensure everyone has an understanding of what to expect, consider sending your manager a heads up email using our template as a starting point, and include your objectives in the meeting description.

2 Access the meeting scheduler. Once you’ve set your objectives, you’re ready to officially put the meeting on the calendar. From the Home dashboard, click Schedule meeting under Meetings on the right.

If you’re participating in more than one Torch program, choose the program you want to schedule the meeting for from the dropdown, then click Select program.


3 Edit the meeting details. To give the person you’re inviting more context about the meeting, we recommend updating the default title to use the format: “Manager Alignment Meeting: [Invitee’s First Name], [Your First Name], and [Your Coach’s First Name]”. Click the meeting title to edit the text.


Next click Add description, then enter the objectives you formalized in Step 1.


The meeting location will be “Torch Video”, and the duration will be set to 45 minutes by default.

Note: If your program manager has enabled Zoom for your organization, “Zoom Video” will be the default meeting location instead.

4 Add your manager as a meeting participant. In the Participants section, your coach will already be pre-populated as a meeting participant. If you want to assign your coach as the host, click Make host next to their name.

Note: Only one person can be the meeting host. If you assign your coach as the host, they’ll have permissions to edit or cancel the meeting.

Click Add participant. Enter the email address of your manager or the other stakeholder you want to invite to the meeting, then click Add participant.

Torch tip: Since the calendar will display your coach’s availability only, make sure to check the calendar of your manager or other stakeholder you’re inviting to the meeting separately to ensure you choose a time that works for everyone.

6 Schedule the meeting. Once you're done, click Schedule meeting. An email invitation will be sent to all meeting participants.


On your Home dashboard, the meeting will be labeled as a “Manager Meeting” in the Meetings section on the right.

Sample Manager Alignment Meeting Heads Up Email Template

We've created a sample email template you can use if you want to give your manager or other stakeholder a personal heads up about the manager alignment meeting invitation you’ll be sending their way. Keep in mind this template is meant as a jumping off point. Don’t hesitate to start with our text and make it your own!

Note: Make sure to replace the highlighted text with the information specific to you and your organization when customizing the template.