Supporting internal coaches: a cheap and easy formula

Many organizations have internal coach pools. This has a lot of advantages: from the ability to offer coaching to the members of the organization without having to budget for external suppliers to the benefits coaching skills bring to leaders and contributors of the organization, there is a lot that speaks for supporting coach training and coaching internally.

But what happens after the organization has spent money and members have spent time learning to coach? Often, the demand for internal coaching is not as great as anticipated, especially if there is no targeted internal marketing for these coaches. Trained coaches don’t have a sufficient number of internal clients to work with in order to keep learning and honing their coaching crafts. The danger of a failed investment is real.

Organizations in this situation need simple and cost-effective ways to encourage their internal coaches to “keep up the good work”, to keep practicing coaching and to keep learning by reflecting on their craft. “Coaching circles” or “Active learning groups” can be a useful tool in this situation. They can target both the aspect of continuous learning as well as the aspect of internal marketing of coaching services. Here is a quick “how-to”.

Kick off

Invite all trained internal coaches to a kick-off meeting. Make sure to include everyone who would like to act as an internal coach (provided that their managers are happy to spare their time etc.) even if you haven’t supported them in their training. Create a list of criteria for inclusion (maybe a level of certification or number of training hours – I have seen both). Use an open space format with a snappy headline and allow internal coaches time to discuss the issues that they are facing in groups of their choosing.

Working groups

Topics that have been generated in the open space can be further discussed and worked on in working groups. I have seen different themes emerge, often “marketing our coaching offer internally” or “continuous professional development” are concerns that are being raised.

Active learning circles / reflecting teams

For continuous learning, you might include active learning circles or reflecting teams. Groups of no more than 6 coaches get together to work on their learning goals. Here is a simple format based on the “Solution Focused Reflecting Team” model:

6 minutes: Welcome and check in

6 minutes: Presentation of learning objectives

4 minutes: Selection of a learning topic for the session, selection of a facilitator / time keeper

4 minutes: Presentation of the learning objective by the “objective donor”, the person who has this learning goal

5 minutes: Clarification questions, what do the others need to know about this learning goal so that they can help

5 minutes: A round of appreciation for the “objective donor”, what impresses the group about them?

15 minutes: Ideas, inspirations, questions, thoughts, anything that may be helpful to the objective donor

5 minutes: the objective donor shares what they are taking away

5 minutes: ripple effects, what is everyone learning from this session?

5 minutes: closing the space and setting a new date

This format is really simple and can be adapted to the group’s needs. The group may also opt to engage in peer coaching with observation if there is no urgent question by anyone. If the organization also has trained supervisor, the group may make use of a supervisor every once in a while, too, in order to reflect on their process and how to make it as useful as possible for the participants.

If you would like to experience such a process, why not join one of our free meetups and exchanges – we often use this format to discuss our participants’ questions and make use of the diverse experience in the room.

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