Back in June last year Jason wrote a blog about setting up an internal coaching pool. It was a blog which had over 1,000 reads and so in the spirit of listening to your audience I thought it was time to share the next chapter.
So, you’ve recruited your internal coaches and they’ve completed their training, you have a group of coachees who can’t wait to get started, what could possibly go wrong? Our top tips for maintaining momentum…….
- Local not global: It’s tempting to match coaches with coachees who are from different sites. It’s a double whammy in terms of payback, right? They both go to each other’s sites, expand their networks, broaden their horizons etc etc. Hmm…maybe not. In our experience the most successful matches are those where it’s as easy as possible for people to work together and that includes considering the practicalities and logistics. Having to make a trip to a site where you otherwise don’t need to be is a massive time sink and quite often results in either coaching sessions not happening or turning into a check in by phone. Think local when you’re matching coaches with coachees.
- Candy Crush not Chess: Even with all the training in the world, you never quite know what you’re going to get when you turn up for a coaching session. Regular short sessions are a great way of supporting new coaches with bite-sized learning. As is often the way in life the reality is very different from the theory so having a series of session which encompass a combination of sharing, new skills and supervision is a great way of enabling your internal coaches to grow. Think short bite-sized and gradually build in difficulty rather than highly strategic, complex and a lot to take in, in one go.
- Jamie not Heston: Use existing coaching competency frameworks and make it your own. The ICF, AC and EMCC all have robust and well thought through competencies frameworks, don’t kid yourself that your organisation is so unique that you need to create something new and different! It may not exactly match the L&D competencies but hey, life’s not perfect. There are the obvious pay-offs in terms of efficiency however, it also means you have ready supply of well regarded coaching texts (for instance ICF Core Competencies and The Coaching Bible) which support your coaching approach and coaches can see exactly what they need to do to work towards a formal coaching qualification. Think take what’s there and give it your own sparkle rather than spend hours in the lab coming up with something new.
