The Center for Executive Coaching trains and certifies internal executive and leadership coaches from top organizations around the world. This includes HR leaders who coach, executives and managers who want to build their skills, and entire internal coaching groups. Following is an animated video with advice about creating a best practice internal coaching group. Please enjoy it and, if you want to take advantage of our practical, results-focused coaching and be a leader in your field, please join our executive coach certification program today. You can start our distance learning/online program anytime, and we have quarterly in-person seminars, too. Yes, we are accredited with the International Coach Federation. For those of you with Masters Degrees, you can also use our training to gain the Board Certified Coach (BCC) certification.
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
ONE: Senior leadership supports the internal coaching group. Senior leadership must set the tone and show that they view coaching as a crucial function in the organization. They should be involved in selecting, inviting, and encouraging employees who receive coaching. At the same time, they should also be working with a coach.
TWO: Tie coaching to the organization’s strategic priorities. Don’t set up your coaching group like a call center to take calls from employees and answer questions. Coaching isn’t meant to be like one of those Psychic Hotline businesses. Similarly, don’t dabble in too many initiatives. Coaching should support major organizational initiatives in a focused way. That way, it gets measurable results and is a strategic part of the organization. Identify critical areas where the organization can make key improvements or accelerate progress, and provide coaching to support these initiatives. Perhaps certain employees need to develop new competencies to adapt to a changing market. Maybe certain employees have an opportunity to hit new milestones, like sales goals. Perhaps there is a key strategic initiative that has gotten stuck. Use coaching to advance these initiatives. When you do, coaching provides clear value for all levels to see.
THREE: Use a consistent approach. Some internal coaching groups hire coaches who have been trained in many different ways, which leads to inconsistent results and impact. Choose a coaching methodology and approach that gets proven results, and insist that all coaches use it. At the same time, be flexible enough to test and incorporate new tools, assessments, and methodologies. Organizations hire the Center for Executive Coaching to train internal coaches because we give them a practical, easy-to-learn and apply approach that focuses on results.
FOUR: Position coaching as a powerful, positive service offered to already-effective people who want to get even better. Coaching is a privilege. It is a proven way to help good people get better. When organizations combine leadership coaching with such areas as progressive discipline or other interventions for struggling employees, they stigmatize coaching so that employees view it negatively. Make sure to position your coaching group so that employees are excited about it.
FIVE: Measure and track results, and hold the coaching group accountable for having impact in the organization. Coaching is always about getting results, the same as any other function in the organization. Each coaching relationship should start with a clear intent and outcome. From there, track results throughout each engagement. Tracking results means more than asking clients about whether or not they were happy with the coaching. Emmployees being coached should demonstrate specific, measurable improvements in their performance. If you are just starting a coaching program, consider a pilot program that lets you compare results to a control group that doesn’t receive coaching.
Those are the five keys: leadership supports coaching, tie coaching to the organization’s top priorities, use a consistent approach, position coaching powerfully, and track results to ensure impact.
If you are serious about training your internal coaches in best practices, work with the Center for Executive Coaching. Whether you want to train a single coach or an entire group, whether you want to improve the skills of current coaches or you are starting a new internal group, we can help you.
