Coaching for Respect™
When two colleagues can no longer work together, you don’t have to choose between letting it fester and opening an investigation. Coaching for Respect™ is a confidential, ten-step process that helps both people rebuild enough respect to work together again.
When respect breaks down between two colleagues, the damage spreads. Meetings get tense, work slows, teammates take sides, and good people start looking elsewhere. If one person’s behavior has crossed a policy or legal line, a formal process is the right step. But many cases haven’t, and they rarely fix themselves.
We believe Coaching for Respect™ is worth trying first, even if you rule it out, before moving to formal, disciplinary or legal remedies.
Without Coaching for Respect
Replacing one employee who leaves
Resolving one employment claim
An investigation by an outside expert, often an attorney
Typical Cost
One-half to two times their annual salary (Gallup)
Nearly $125,000 on average for claims closed with payment in 2025, among Travelers’ private and nonprofit insureds, up 32% since 2020 (Travelers, 2025)
$10,000 to $25,000 or more, in our experience
*Based on 30 to 40 hours of internal staff time plus 4 to 8 hours of coaching from Gregg.
An investigation documents what happened. Coaching for Respect™ aims to repair the working relationship.
Coaching for Respect™ is a structured, confidential process developed by Gregg Ward over two decades and drawn from restorative justice and alternative dispute resolution in the workplace. It takes each person through three phases and ten steps, usually in 6 to 8 one-on-one sessions over 4 to 6 weeks, in person or virtually. It ends with a joint session and a follow-up.
At its core is one simple question: what do you respect in the other person? Once both people have explored what happened, including intentions, actions, impacts and perceptions, the answer becomes much easier to see. That’s where repair starts.
The same approach also works as one-on-one coaching, when one person’s behavior is causing friction. If the process stops working, we say so and end it. That protects everyone involved.
Tell us what’s happening, without names if you prefer. We’ll help you decide whether Coaching for Respect™ fits the situation, and which way of running it suits your organization.
Not every case ends in repair. Two co-directors of a research program, from different universities, were working to undermine each other’s authority. Early on, it was clear neither was engaging honestly with the process, so we ended it before the joint session. Knowing when to stop is part of doing this responsibly.
Restoring Respect (Winding Creek Press, 2023) is Gregg Ward’s how-to guide to the Coaching for Respect process, with a foreword by Marshall Goldsmith. It walks through every step of the process.
A powerful process that restores respect and gets folks back to working well together again.” Marshall Goldsmith, from his foreword to Restoring Respect
An investigation determines what happened and whether a policy was broken. Coaching for Respect™ helps two people repair their working relationship so they can keep working together. If an investigation is needed, it comes first.
Usually 4 to 6 weeks, with 6 to 8 one-on-one sessions, then a joint session and a follow-up.
$8,000 to $15,000 when CRL runs the process. If your HR leader runs it with coaching from Gregg Ward, $6,200 to $10,400, including internal staff time.
Yes. Sessions run in person or on video, whichever suits the people involved.
Yes. When one person’s behavior is causing friction, we use the same approach in one-on-one coaching to help them understand their impact and change it.
Start by determining whether the behavior crossed a policy or legal line. If it didn’t, a structured process like Coaching for Respect™ gives both people a safe way to be heard, see what they still respect in each other, and agree on how to work together.
Tell us what’s happening. Our first conversation is confidential.