Coaching FAQs

Ambition Coaching

What tools do I have to coach employees?

Mapping the coaching moments for managers and sales enablement leaders.

Manager Responsibilities		Ambition
Hold recurring 1-on-1s with direct reports	→	Schedule a 1-on-1 Check-In for Later + select recurring
Schedule a skip level with your direct reports or a one off 1-on-1	→	Schedule a 1-on-1 Check-In for Later + select one time
Log a conversation or document an ad-hoc conversation with an employee	→	Start 1-on-1 Now
Run an effective team meeting	→	Create a Group Check-In
Assign clear follow up action items after meeting	→	Create Action Items

 

Enablement Responsibilities		Ambition
Enroll employees in a program, onboarding, or training where a fixed number of steps	→	Create a Cadence
Enroll employees in a program, onboarding, or training where each step has a different agenda	→	Create a Cadence
Enroll employees in a program, onboarding, or training that never ends and the agenda is the same for each step	→	Create a Program or Managed Program

In addition to check-ins, Ambition also offers tools like Action Plans and Notes to complete the coaching lifecycle.

Action Plans track outcomes of coaching sessions, monitoring qualitative and quantitative measures of contributor improvement.

Shared & Private Notes allow managers to create shared notes with their employees or private notes for their own record keeping

Coaching Timelines bring all the components of coaching together. Coaching timelines allow managers and employees to see their coaching history, open and historical, in one location.

 

Can I view Coaching data on a Dashboard?

If Coaching is enabled, every user and managerial dashboard will have a "coaching" tab. 

Those with system admin permissions are able to access all user and managerial dashboards, but will only be able to view the "coaching" tab on user and managerial dashboards if they also have "Coaching: All Access" permission.

Those with manager permission are able to access the "coaching" tab on their own managerial dashboard, their personal dashboard, and on the dashboards of employees they manage.

Employees are only able to access the coaching tab on their personal dashboard.

From an employee's or a managerial dashboard, click the Coaching tab.

From the coaching tab, an employee and their manager can view:

• Open check-ins that are pending answers or review
• Historical check-ins and their agendas
• Shared coaching notes and their attachments
• Open and historical action plans and their agendas
• Ambition asks

 

An employee from another manager’s team just joined my team. Can I see their historic coaching information, such as past check-ins and notes?

Managers cannot see check-ins and notes from other manager’s check-ins. Only users with "Coaching: All Access" permission have this ability.

To view other managers’ check-ins, you’ll need to be granted the “Coaching: All Access” permission.

 

My direct reports are all managers who run check-ins with their direct reports in Ambition. Can I view these check-ins, notes, and action plans?

Only those with the "Coaching: All Access" permission have access to any and all check-ins, notes, and more.

Upper-level managers who do not have the "Coaching: All Access" permissions cannot view the check-ins that their reporting managers run unless they are a co-coach for the given check-in or program or executive visibility is enabled.

 

Coaching Program

When creating a coaching program, who should I select as the participants?

If you're creating a program for another manager:

If you have permission to create coaching programs for any manager, first select the respective manager's name from the dropdown who the program is being created for then continue by selecting participants.

Select Participants

Select All enrolls all employees who are managed by the respective manager via groups or a user's individual settings.

↳ Example of the manager field in User Settings.

Special Note if you manage another manager - If you are listed as a manager's manager within their user settings, any employees that roll up to them will also be considered your subordinate users.

Select Specific Participants

Add Group prompts you to select one or more groups which the respective manager manages in Ambition. All employees within the selected group(s) will be enrolled in the coaching program.

Add Employee prompts you to manually select which specific employees will be enrolled in the program.

 

If you're creating a program to be run by yourself:

If you have permission to create coaching programs for any manager, first select your name from the dropdown then continue by selecting participants.

If you only have permission to create coaching programs for your self, you will begin by selecting participants.

Select Participants

Select All enrolls all employees who you manage via groups or user's individual settings. 

↳ Example of the manager field in user settings.

Special Note if you manage another manager - If you are listed as a manager's manager within their user settings, any employees that roll up to them will also be considered your subordinate users.

Select Specific Participants

Add Group prompts you to select one or more groups that you manage in Ambition. All employees within the selected group(s) will be enrolled in the coaching program.

Add Employee prompts you to manually select which specific employees you will enroll in the program.

 

Why can’t I create a coaching program template?

The coaching program template feature may not be enabled for your organization, or permissions are preventing you from being able to create program templates.

Default permissions allow admins only to create coaching program templates.

If you would like to create a program template, speak with your admins about being granted the “Coaching: Create Program Template” permission.

 

Why can’t I create a coaching program?

The coaching program feature may not be enabled for your organization, or permissions are preventing you from being able to create coaching programs.

Default permissions allow admins to create coaching programs for anyone in the organization.

Default permissions allow managers to create programs for their direct reports, but no other managers.

If you are a manager or other user who wishes to create programs for other teams/managers, you’ll want to request that an admin grants you “Coaching: Create Program” permission.

 

I am a manager for a group of managers. Will I receive notifications for check-ins my managers run?

Upper-level managers will not receive notifications for their managers’ check-ins unless they are added as co-coaches for these check-ins.

Only the manager of a given check-in, that check-in's co-coaches, and the employee being coached receive check-in notifications.

 

I'd like more KPIs visible within a check-in. What permission set do I need in order to add and edit metrics for my organization?

When the default Ambition permission sets are used, only those with admin permission have the ability to add and edit metrics.

If you would like to add or edit metrics to your Ambition instance, speak with your admins about being granted the “Integrations: Edit” permission.

 

 

Action Plan

The action plans I created involve steps and goals that will take place over several days/weeks. Are employees able to save their progress as they knock out each goal?

Yes. Your employees have the option to save their progress as they fill out each question or item on your action plan. They can make changes to their action plan and save their progress as many times as they like until the action plan due date.

 

Can employees skip required questions or tasks on their action plans?

No. Employees won't be able to submit their action plan for review until all of the required questions have been answered. An action plan can be submitted with optional items left blank.

 

Will I be able to receive an employee's action plan as soon as they complete it?

Your employees are able to complete all of the questions and tasks on their action plan and then click “Save Progress.” The completed action plan won’t be submitted for your review until the agenda items are completed by the employee.

 

Can employees change their answers after they’ve submitted an action plan?

Employees cannot change their replies after they’ve submitted their action plan, though they can leave comments under each question or action item.

 

An employee's action plan expired. Can I reset the due date or reactivate the plan?

Employees receive a notification as soon as an action plan has been created, and they can access it immediately. Once an action plan has expired, it can be reopened. The action plan's due date can also be edited at any time while the plan is in "Answers Due" or "Pending Approval" status.

 

 

Coaching Note

Who can see shared notes?

Shared notes are visible to those with the "Coaching: All Access" permission, the respective user who created the note, and the selected employee who the note was created for.

 

A new manager will now supervise my previous direct reports. Can the new manager see the private notes I’ve created for each of my prior reports?

No, private notes are only visible to those with the "Coaching: All Access" permission and the user who created the private note. A new manager would only be able to view your old private notes if they were assigned  the “Coaching: All Access” permission.

 

Who all can see private notes?

Private notes are visible to those with "Coaching: All Access" permission and the respective user who created the note. Any user with the "Coaching: All Access" permission will be able to see private notes unless the note is about themself. 

Co-coaches are not able to view a private note that was created by the lead manager, but they can leave a private note that is visible to the lead manager.

 

Can I leave notes on a check-in once it has been completed?

Yes, owners of the check-in can leave both private and shared notes on check-ins regardless of the completion status.

 

Will the employee know if I leave a note on their check-in?

Employees will be notified via email when a shared note is created for them, but they will never be notified about private notes.

 

Can employees leave notes on their own coaching timelines?

Employees are not able to leave notes anywhere in their Ambition accounts. Employees can, however, respond to and leave comments in the “comments” section of their coaching check-ins.

 

What types of attachments can I add to my notes?

You can add JPG, PDF, CSV, and short MP4 files as note attachments.

 

 How many file attachments can I add to a note?

You can add only one file to a given note.

 

Can employees respond to shared notes?

Employees cannot respond to or interact with notes shared by their manager. Employees can, however, respond to and leave comments in the “comments” section of their coaching check-ins.

 

Are notes deleted after a certain amount of time?

No, coaching notes will remain in your Ambition instance indefinitely until they are manually deleted.