(Structuring an internal coaching network – part one)

A topic that I have been called upon for advice time and time again has been on how to structure an internal coaching network. Coaching, as a profession, has ebbed and flowed over the past two decades, and businesses and organisations have similarly ploughed money and time into training their staff in the tools and techniques in the hope and expectation of seeing the (impressive) returns that the training companies and the evidence from regular surveys moot.

Establishing an internal coaching network has a plethora of challenges that crop up with unnerving regularity, but which are rarely flagged explicitly in the training, or which are lost in communication between the business and the L&D department in between procurement and roll out. When I started out drafting this I realised that there was (far) more than can be covered in a single blogpost so I’ll divide this up into a few (and intersperse them with other, more eclectic posts, according to my whim). On writing it, and after a bracing supervision session, I also realised that there’s a separate piece needed on maintaining, evolving and adapting a coaching network, a very live challenge for me currently, and that will require a spot more reflection (and action) before I put pen to paper on that topic.

Where to start?

Presuming you don’t already have a bundle of trained coaches in the business. The first challenge is finding the right course, qualification and provider for the business’ needs.  

ILM level 5 seems to have become the de facto standard for internal coaching in the civil service, but also across most other large organisations I’ve worked with. While there are other strong qualifications, the majority seem to be aimed primarily at people who are doing coaching as their core role, as opposed to those doing formal coaching as an adjunct to the day job.

Having spent time exploring the various options I’d strongly come down on ILM5 Coaching as my preferred option, if the budget can stand it. Once you’ve gained the qualification it doesn’t expire. Many of the other programmes require people to submit their notes year after year to maintain accreditation. While this makes sense for people who are doing coaching as their sole job, I think it misunderstands (and misjudges) the variety and types of coaching that is done by an internal coach (as part of their line management, team coaching in the course of the job, corridor coaching – all alongside typically coaching between 2-4 coachees in traditional one to one coaching). All of the coaching bodies have broadened their views slightly over the past 10 years, but it’s still hard to align the standards of the profession with the realities of coaching as part of the day job. The trend towards exhaustive paperwork as a way of assuring quality (in a way that I’m not sure actually does that, so much as bias towards people who have the time to fill it in). So ILM 5, in which you get that grounding and qualify, seems to me to be the appropriate level for those in the coaching+(the dayjob) space.

The programme typically takes 6 full days, spread over around 9 months. At the IPO we’ve taken to having them delivered in three batches of 2 days. The days are also chock full 9-5pm, (worth highlighting as a lot of day courses seem to now hinge to a 10-3pm schedule). The programme crams a huge range and depth of content into those hours. Alongside this, prospective coaches need to find three coachees apiece, and all of them will ideally have some meaty topics or aims to be coached on as you’ll need to exhaustively document around 18 hours of coaching to gain the qualification. Finally the qualification requires you to write 3 assignments totalling around 10k words (not including the coaching session documentation). I like to think that I played a small part in how the paperwork element has evolved over the years, as when I did my qualification there was no word limit. By the time I submitted I’d written over 50k words (once all the appendices and diaries and self reflection forms were completed). I wonder if people like myself are what has led to there being a 10k cap?

It’s all quite intense and time consuming, but gives you a firm grounding in the principles that underpin coaching as a technique (including CBT, some NLP and a whole raft of positive psychology approaches).

When I’m approached by people who are keen to do a coaching qualification, I’ll tend to check and see what experience they have of coaching already. Some will have done a half-day intro course as part of more broad-brush management training, some will have been coached and some will be enthusiastic to develop their career and heard that coaching is a cool thing. It’s really key to frame with people applying to do the course the amount of time and effort that completing the qualification will take. I’d usually recommend that people clear the decks for the coming year of other learning programmes and give themselves the space to really immerse themselves. 

Something that is also worth bearing in mind is looking to recruit the people who are prepared to make the time to learn to coach, rather than those who just have the time spare.  It’s really important, at the outset of any project that you get people in who are invested, rather than just people who are looking for something to do. The two things aren’t always mutually exclusive, but I’ve seen things flounder when people’s attention falters.

It’s also really important to help the people who will form part of the initial coaching cohort find themselves some juicy coachees, with meaty issues to tackle. Over the years I’ve favoured getting prospective coachees to fill in a quick coaching questionnaire, full of deliberately vague prompts: What do you want to do more of? What’s missing? Would your friends/family/colleagues agree? But lately I’ve been tapping into James’ “Plant your flag” tool on our consultancy’s resources page : https://www.aspirationexperts.com/resources . It’s all just good ways to help people frame what’s on their plate.

Another good way of drumming up business is to let employees know what kinds of stuff coaching has been used for before. Alongside the old chestnut of career development, there’s always the targeting of efforts in training and development, negotiating work/life balance, iterating and improving performance (of yourself, or your team), tackling imposter syndrome. Anything where having a neutral sounding board would be of help.

Hmmmm, time seems to have run away from me with this one, so I might cut it short there. In future installments (parts 2,3,4 etc) I’ll talk a bit about selling the value of an internal network (how to frame the ROI vs the training costs), how to support people through the training, and beyond, with CPD and supervision, how to communicate the coaching offering to the business and how to form and maintain a coaching community.

(Sifting through the boxes of stuff that got stored during the Covid clearaway, I recently uncovered this award that we won in conjunction with Companies House back in 2019 – huge kudos for Nicola Williams for all her efforts).