Coaching the coach

You've set up a coaching program at your organization – great! But how do your coaches get the coaching they need? What’s your response when coaches ask for help with the coaching they’re delivering?

To some extent, you want them to be able to resolve problems using their own skills and strengths, in much the same way that they’d advise the people they coach. But some of their questions could be complex, and you may need to get involved – at least initially.

Below, we’ll outline questions that your coaches might raise, and we’ll look at how you can coach your coaches to resolve them.

1. "Where do I start?" Coaching may be a hot topic at the moment, but not everyone is familiar with it. Coaching styles also differ hugely, particularly at different levels (a CEO needs a very different coach from a new manager). Make sure that you’ve clarified exactly what coaching means for each of your coaches. To answer the “where do I start?” question, outline how different coaching situations call for different approaches, and produce different results. For example: • Corporate change: the coach may need to focus on emotional and status-related issues, as well as on organizational changes.

• Personal issues: the coach may need a “softly softly” approach to help people through life- or career-defining moments, and to cut through emotional interference. • Increasing self-awareness: the coach is likely to start with psychometric tools such as Myers-Briggs, and move on to standard coaching models.

• Self-limiting beliefs: the coach will need to listen carefully, and challenge views gently but firmly. Then explain coaching approaches such as the GROW model, and encourage coaches to apply some of their management skills to the start of the coaching relationship, such as establishing SMART goals with their coachees. Suggest that coaches and protégés monitor results, just as they would in their day-to-day roles

Developing internal coaches

The Ridler Report is an internationally reputed research project analyzing strategic trends in the use of senior level executive coaching. The 2013 report confirms trends that I have noticed in my coaching business:

• A trend toward internal rather than external coaches
• The growth in team coaching
• More discerning purchasers of coaching

I am just going to focus on the first point: The trend toward internal coaches.

I have welcomed the growth of internal coaching for some time, if it had been prevalent when I started my coaching career, it would have been my choice to coach within an organizational structure.

An internal coach uses their skills and organizational knowledge to support and challenge staff through promotion, navigate change, to integrate into the organization and increase performance.

This is the optimal way to make the most of the staff you have, providing them with the meaning in the work they do as well as the challenge they need to keep them motivated. Not to mention that it’s cost effective.

Of course there are challenges, such as: time to coach, credibility and managing boundaries.

The thing to remember is that internal coaching is not appropriate for every situation and external coaches can still be used for specific interventions, for example CEO’s and Directors typically do not use internal coaches.

So what are the keys to making your internal coaching service a success?

1. Good quality accredited training for your coaching pool — this ensures that coaches feel confident are equipped to coach internally. They also have a portable qualification to reward them for their efforts.
2. On-going continuous professional development and supervision — it’s really easy for good practice to slip, regular development will maintain and increase the quality of coaching as well as provide a forum for sharing and community.
3. Adhering to coaching ethics and standards from a professional coaching body — reputation is everything for the internal coach, once your credibility is gone there is no going back and if your clients don’t trust you, you cannot coach them.
4. Clearly communicating the purpose and audience for internal coaching — this can be defined through your business case for coaching. Once this is clear there are no doubts around favouritism or exclusion.
5. Having a consistent and transparent coaching process — all coaches should be using the same documentation and process, this presents a professional process and one that can be more easily evaluated.

And lastly, don’t forget to evaluate the success of coaching, so that you can continue to improve your service and demonstrate the positive difference that it makes.

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