Strategic conversations: How to get your company to sponsor coaching

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If you’ve been curious about how to approach your employer for sponsorship or wondering how to advocate for yourself, this week’s episode is for you. 

I’m breaking down 3 essential tips to help you confidently ask for support and pay for your coaching - even if your company doesn’t usually cover this kind of expense. Trust me, this is going to be a game-changer, both for you and your company. You won’t want to miss this one! 

Topics in this episode:

  • How to ask your company to pay for coaching. 

  • Believing in the value of coaching. 

  • Highlighting company benefits. 

  • Using stats to support your case for company investment. 

  • Empowering women to invest in work-life balance. 

 Show Notes & References:

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Transcript

Intro

Hello, working moms. Before we get into the episode today, I want to take a moment and let you know that the last day to book your consultation call for the fall cohort of ambitious and balanced is Wednesday, September 25. That's just 2 days away. The fall cohort kicks off on Monday, September 30. 

If you have even just an inkling that you want to be a part of this group, now is the time to snag one of the last 30 minutes consultation calls with me, to make sure you are a perfect fit for this program. 

You could do that by going to my website, www.rebeccaolsoncoaching.com/ambitiousandbalanced

All right, onto the show. More and more companies are strategically investing in their working moms. Our culture, our companies, even our legislators are having really important conversations around what it takes to support working moms. 

And so today in this podcast, I want to equip you to have a really strategic conversation with your company about paying for coaching. 

Even if your company does not have specific professional dollars for coaching, I have found that many companies are still open to the idea of sponsoring coaching, and I wanna help you become an advocate for it. 

So today in the podcast, I'm walking you through three rules of thumb when it comes to advocating for yourself and asking your company to make the strategic investment in paying for a coach. 

If you've been thinking about approaching your company to make an investment on your behalf, or if you've really wanted to work with me and have never thought you could actually approach your company to pay for it, this episode is specifically for you. You ready? Let's get to it. 

Welcome to the Ambitious and Balanced Working Moms podcast, your go to resource for integrating your career ambitions with life as a mom, I'm distilling down thousands of coaching conversations I've had with working moms just like you, along with my own personal experience as a mom of two and sharing the most effective tools and strategies to help you quickly feel calm, confident, and in control of your ambitious working mom life. You ready? Let's get to it. 

Hello, working moms. I am, feeling absolutely worn out over all of the birthday celebrations that my family had for my daughter, who turned ten this weekend.

 We sort of are a low key birthday family, unless it's a big birthday and ten in our family is a big birthday. And so my daughter got to plan her whole birthday party and do all the things she wanted. 

It was so much fun. It was a lot of work. If you're watching this video on YouTube, for sure. 

If you are not, if you are not following me on my YouTube channel. You should be doing that. 

But if you are watching, you can also see I've got purple in my hair. We had a whole hair dyeing experience over the weekend as well. 

Like I said, she got all the things she wanted. But let me tell you, I am a, little worn out today, so I'm not gonna lie. Okay. 

But we have a big topic to talk about today because one of the questions that I have been getting a lot, as I've been doing consultation calls for the group program that launches September 30. 

If you don't know that's ambitious and balanced. 

One of the questions I've been getting a lot is, can my company pay for this? 

And I know for some of you listening, you are in organizations that have professional development dollars. And for some of you, of course, you don't have that. You're not in that type of organization. 

How to advocate for yourself. 

But to be honest, I think that this episode is going to be useful to you no matter what type of organization you're in, because we're going to talk about how to advocate for yourself and make the ask of your company to cover the cost of something like coaching. 

Now, I have coached several of my clients and how to pitch the idea of their coaching investment to their boss, to their companies, and having them pay for it. And it's worked for them. 

So even if they're in a company that does not traditionally offer professional development dollars to their employees, I am finding that more and more companies are agreeable and understand the value of their women, in particular, being coach and getting the support of a coach. 

And just because your company doesn't have an official policy on this or something specific that you know of, it is still possible for your company to pay for coaching. 

And so I want this episode to guide you in how to have that conversation with your boss or with your employer. 

And we're going to cover three very specific points on this because I want to set you up for the most success as you advocate for this type of support from your company. Okay. 

But I want to start with a little aside here, because I think this is very important to mention before we even, like, jump into the topic. 

It actually kind of, like, dovetails into the very first point that I want to make. 

I don't want you thinking that the only way that you can work with me or get support that you need is for your company to pay for it. Right. 

When you're thinking that you are giving all of your power away to your company, you are reinforcing the idea that work life balance that the career success that you want, that priority first life that you want to create is only possible if your company or someone else pays for it. Right? 

That feels terrible, doesn't it? 

It's like I'm saying, I can only be happy if my husband helps out more around the house, or I can only feel balanced if I had more family that lived around and could help us out more. 

I could only feel on top of things if people stop messaging me so often and scheduling over my time during my day and stop interrupting me at work. Right. 

You have control of your life. 

If you've been following me for a while, you know that the way that I talk about work life balance and the process that I teach gives you full control. 

Yes, of course it would be easier if you had a partner that helped out more around the house, or if your kids were less resistant, or if you had a more seasoned team that didn't need you so much, or if your employer had more benefits to help you invest in things like coaching. Like, of course it would be easier. 

We don’t wait for life to get easier. 

But in this ambitious and balanced community, we do not wait around for other people to do things and for life circumstances to get easier in order for you to create the priority first life that you want. 

Absolutely not. 

And that's one of the reasons why I created the group coaching program, ambitious and balanced. 

Ambitious & Balanced starts September 30. 

That starts just in case you don't know, September 30 because I wanted to teach you the skillset of being able to create work life balance and have a priority first life on your own. 

I want to teach you how to overcome people pleasing perfectionist behaviors that have you over prioritizing work instead of family fun and rest. 

I want to teach you how to stop depending on other people doing or feeling or responding in a certain way in order for you to have the ambitious and balanced life that you want. 

The ambitious and balanced group is about giving you ownership over your own work life balance. 

And when it comes to advocating for yourself, to your boss or your employee in order to pay for coaching or something like coaching, it starts with you actually figuring out how you're going to get the support that you need. 

Essentially, how are you going to pay for coaching yourself? 

Because it's that important to you and because you're worth it, even in the case that your employer decides not to pay for it. You have to be bought in. 

You have to be bought in. 

This is the first point that I want to make about advocating for yourself. You have to be bought into coaching being exactly what you need. 

Again, I'm using the example of coaching here because it's the inspiration behind this podcast. 

It's the conversation I've been having over and over again. I want to help more women get coached and more and more women be able to work with me and join my program. Ambitious and balanced. 

But maybe you've been thinking about some other sort of support system, some certification, something else that you've wanted that sort of makes sense for your company to pay for. And like, there's a good argument for that. 

So just so you know, you could be applying everything I'm talking about to something else other than coaching or other than coaching with me. I'm just using this sort of umbrella of talking about it because it's like the easiest thing to do. 

Okay, so the first point is that it's absolutely the most essential thing is that you start here, that you need to be bought into what you are asking your employer to invest in. 

You need to believe that coaching is the best solution that you've been looking for. 

That it's going to help you create work life balance, that, you seek to create. Right? 

That it's going to help you show up better at work, that it's going to make you more productive, that you're going to be more present, that you're going to be able to support your team better. 

You have to believe those things first. Nobody wants to invest in something that they just sort of hope or are, sort of on board with the idea that it's going to get them the result that they want. Right? 

Nobody invests like that. If you're going to make an investment in the stock market, particularly a large investment, you're going to go all into stocks that you truly believe are going to get the return that you want. 

When you go to a restaurant and you order a hamburger, you do so knowing or believing that it's fully going to satisfy your hunger. 

If you pick a workout class to go to tonight, you do it knowing that that class is going to get you the result that you want that day. 

It's going to push you in the direction that you want that day. Right. 

If you're going to make a large investment or ask your company to make a large investment of time and money in something like coaching, then you need to believe with as much certainty as possible that it's going to get you what you want. Right? 

How certain are you?

This is why one of the questions that I ask when I have a breakthrough call or a consultation call with women that want to work with me in one of my programs, I'll ask them, how certain are you that working with me is going to get to the desired result of work life balance, the career trajectory that you want, the priority first life that you want, whatever it is, whatever their goals are. 

And, of course, I have some women that say, well, I'm not 100% certain, and that's okay. 

My response is always, well, what makes you 80 or 90% certain? 

And usually the women on these calls, they'll point to the fact that they've been listening to my podcast, and it really resonates with them. 

Or maybe they've even been able to put a few strategies or practices that I teach into place in their life and it's been helpful to them, or that they feel like I know what they're going through, that they relate to me as, like, a human being, and so they feel really comfortable with me, or they know that they work really well with accountability, and they need the regular touch point in prompting and pushing them towards their goals. 

They look at the process that I teach and the desired results that they want, and it just feels logical to them. Right. 

The process makes sense. They resonate with them. 

You have to be convinced as much as you possibly can that the investment of time and money that you or your company would be putting into something like coaching is going to work. 

And not only that, assuming it does work, it also needs to feel worth it. 

$8,000 is a big personal investment for most of the women that I work with, and most of them pay that out of pocket. 

If you got exactly what you came for in coaching with me, like, if you were really able to achieve the vision that you want in your career and you had the skillset to balance life partnered with motherhood, if you were able to reverse all of your overworking behaviors and actually have the time in your calendar for yourself and your family, and you were still able to maintain your career trajectory and have really strategic conversations at work, if you were able to eradicate imposter syndrome and feel confident again and feel deeply valued by your company, like, this is what I promise you're gonna walk away with in coaching in one on one with me. Right? 

Do those results feel worth an $8,000 investment? 

That's an important question to ask. Or even $2,000 for the ambitious and balanced group coaching program. That's how much the program costs, right? 

Does that investment feel worth it to you to learn how to create a priority first calendar and stick to your boundaries no matter what, and learn how to infuse more rest and more fun and more just adventure in your life? 

If you were really learning how to do that, not just now, but have the tools to be able to do it no matter what, in whatever season of life you're in, does that feel worth it to you? 

When you believe it does, When you believe not only is the coaching going to get you exactly what you want and you believe it's 100% worth it to it to you, you will advocate to your boss or to your company in a completely different way. 

So whenever I have somebody that gets on the calls with me and they say that they're interested in working with me, they're totally in. They want their company to sponsor the coaching. I'm like, I'm all in. Whatever you need, I will help you make sure that your company pays for it, if this fits within whatever they do. 

Does it feel worth it?

But here's the questions you're going to start hearing me ask you is I'm going to ask if you were paying for it directly, would it feel worth it to you? 

Because I know that you're going to make the case to your boss in a completely different way with a completely different energy when you're thinking that way, when you're thinking you're willing to put the time and the money investment into this, even if they say no. 

Why coaching is exactly what you need. 

Okay, so first rule of thumb when you're advocating and asking your employer to sponsor your coaching or any type of investment like this is to focus your mind on why the coaching is exactly what you need. 

You need to be as fully convinced as you possibly can, so much so that you would be willing to pay for it yourself. Okay. 

Focus on the benefits. 

The second rule of thumb is to frame up this ask, focusing on the benefits. Right? This is, this is the art of selling. It's not just about what you get from it, it's about what they're going to get from it, right? 

Your company is looking for a return on their investment and it could be much easier for them to understand their return if the focus was professional skill development, some sort of professional development conference, or even hiring an executive coach instead of a life coach. 

Likely your company doesn't need much convincing about what that investment is and what they gain from that investment. 

So here's how you have to start thinking about this as you go about talking to your company about it. 

You have to ask yourself this question:

When I feel like I have the priority first calendar that I want, where I'm no longer on the edge of burnout, where I feel like I'm giving my family what they need and prioritizing them, when I have a skill set of, creating work life balance, and I can show up in a powerful way. 

What positive impact does that make at work? 

How does my company benefit from that? 

Let me give you some examples. Like Katrina, she was able to stop over preparing for every meeting, every presentation, which gave her more time back in her schedule, which allowed her to really focus on mentoring her team. 

And so she stopped moving around all of her one on ones, which is what she was doing, in order to, like, make more time for preparation and to feel 110% prepared for everything she was doing. 

And the impact of her having more time to develop her team and spend on one on ones is that she stopped doubting herself as a manager. 

Her team got more time with her. She was able to develop them in becoming more resourceful and more resourced. 

And because she was able to give them more time and thought space, her whole team grew and developed from it. 

Her company benefit from the skills she learnt in coaching.

Notice how we're framing this. Her company, her team really benefited from her getting the skillset of learning how to not always have to be 110% prepared for everything. 

My client, Melissa, was able to stop doubting herself so much in meetings and presentations with her teams and with her clients, right? 

So much so that the people around her at work, like her office mates or her coworkers, that's the word, noticed. And they started calling it out that she looked more confident, that she felt more confident, that she was speaking up more. She started sharing her ideas more. She felt less nervous going into meetings. She advocated for her team more. Right. 

The impact for the company was that they got a more seasoned and strategic manager in that department. 

My client, Megan, stopped feeling like she was always triaging everything all of the time at work. 

And instead, every week, she got crystal clear on what her priorities were and what she needed to accomplish those priorities. 

Each week. She learned how to silence the noise of all of the additional requests and meetings that would come in, which oftentimes would derail her time and energy. 

And the result of her creating that priority first calendar was that she had chunks of time in her week that she devoted to strategizing and problem solving at a much higher level. 

And so her ideas were better. They were more focused on solving company goals and problems. Right. 

I can go on and on, but this is how I want you to think about it. 

As you advocate for your company, paying for coaching, what do they get out of you? 

Joining a coaching program like, ambitious and balanced and hiring me as your one on one coach, right? 

Yes, of course you’re going to be more efficient with your time, yes, you are going to show up more confidently. Yes, you are going to come to work feeling more rested. Yes, you are going to feel less distracted and much more in control of your time and energy. 

And how specifically will your team, your boss and your company and your clients benefit from that? 

That's the question that you need to answer as you go about advocating to your boss. 

Know the facts.

So the third thing I want to make, or point I want to make on this, is that you need to know the facts. 

There is so much research and hype right now, in this moment in time, about supporting working moms at the systemic levels that you can actually make a factual case on why your company should be paying for you to have a coach. 

Just a little bit of research is actually going to give you a flood of statistics and information. 

But I want to highlight just a couple for you here that really fuel me right now. There's so many of them, I had to, like, weed through the ones to pick which ones I was going to talk about. 

The first statistic I want to offer to you, the first factual reason why your company should be paying for coaching. Here it is. You ready? 

43% of women leave the workforce, either temporarily or permanently after they start having kids. 

That's a huge percentage of women, huge number of positions that have to be filled at your company if you should choose to leave, right. 

A huge number of people that they have to train and backfill, which can cost your company 200% of your salary in order to fill just your job, right. And then imagine that number like compounding, because now they have 43% of their women leaving their company right around the season of life that they start having kids, right? 

In other words, it will cost your company upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars based on your salary to replace you, versus just spending two to $8,000 and hiring me at your coach. It just makes financial sense. 

Here's another statistic for you. Research shows that company profit can be 50% more when there are more women in leadership, right? 50%!

Now, there could be all sorts of reasons why this is the case. I personally think it's because we, as women, have a different way of thinking about things. 

We have amazing ideas. We have an ability to think with a different perspective than men. And so company direction and strategic decisions are different when women have more leadership roles, right. 

Profits are higher at companies with when there are women at the top. So it just makes financial sense for your company to invest 2 to $8,000 in an employee like you if they want to retain you in order for their company to make more money. It just makes sense. It's factual. 

Another statistic that goes with this, it shows that companies that have a good representation of women in leadership at the top, they are two times more likely to be rated by their employees as being a more inclusive and overall better place to work. 

And when employees are happier and they feel like there's better representation of them, they are more likely to stay at the company, which means less attrition, higher retention, stronger, a stronger, more committed workforce. 

It just makes financial sense for your company to invest in you and other women like you.

To keep you, retain you, and keep your engagement high. 

There are just so many statistics out there that you can look at if you have a boss or a company that would be more likely to hear your argument for investing in coaching if it was just based on fact alone. So here you go. 

If you want your company to sponsor your coaching, whether they have a program designed for this, they have like professional development dollars that could be used for this or not. Right? 

You need to approach the conversation. First, believing that coaching with me is the solution you're looking for, so much so that you would be willing to make the investment on your own. 

Everyone benefits. 

Second, you need to focus on how your company benefits when they hire me as a coach. Right? This is not self serving. Everyone benefits and your company has a huge payback by hiring a coach for you. And it's your job to just make a case for that. 

And then third, you need to focus on the facts and why it makes financial sense for your company to spend just a little bit of money on coaching in order to retain you. 

Believing that you're worthy and valuable.

Now, there's a last point that I would like to make, but it's not really about how to approach your company in making this investment. Rather, it's about you believing that you're worthy and valuable to make this investment in whether that is your company paying for it or whether it's just your family paying for it. Right? 

You are worth it. 

And I know that so many of you, this is like a part of what we're going to work on in coaching together. 

Like you believing in your value, you actually putting your needs first, and you believing that your company and your family and your community all benefit when you show up as a better human being. Right? 

Your happiness is actually worth a dollar amount on some level. 

When it comes down to it, it's worth however much you're willing to invest in it. 

You only get one life and you only have a certain amount of days with your kids. 

And for most women women, the development of their career comes at a very crucial moment in their life, and that usually corresponds around the time when they decide to have kids. So you only get to navigate that moment once, and it's likely right about now, otherwise you probably wouldn't be listening to this podcast. 

So many of you, I know this is the moment. 

And there's high stakes involved in your career. 

You have a good career trajectory, you've worked hard, you want to keep it going, and you have small kids at home. 

Most of my clients have kids, I would say under the ages of six or seven. There's some for sure that are in teenage years, some for sure that are like newborns and infants. But a lot of you fit right there in early childhood, and it corresponds with your career trajectory. 

And those two things feel really at odds with one another, right? 

You only have one opportunity to navigate this moment and invest in this moment. 

You are worth it. 

I know you would do absolutely anything you possibly could to support your kids and their happiness and their needs, and this is an opportunity for you to do the same. 

There is still time my friends, to join Ambitious and Balancr. I know the group launches in just a week, September 30, and I am only taking ten women. 

So if by the time we talk, the group is filled, you will be the first to join the next group in just a couple of months when I launch it again. 

So please take this opportunity. Schedule a 30 minutes consultation call with me to confirm that ambitious and balanced is the perfect group for you.

If you need more help navigating that conversation with your company. If you need like an official document that shows your scope of work or outlines what you'll do. I do that for a lot of my women that ask their company to sponsor them so I can create that for you too. 

Next step, schedule your free consultation. Call this week and get in this first fall cohort if you can. 

I cannot wait to help you create your priority. First life. Until then, working moms, let's get to it. 

Rebecca Olson