Training your people to become internal coaches

Would you rather train your own staff to become coaches, or hire external coaches for your organisation?

As I’m travelling north to deliver coach training workshops in Newcastle and Nottingham, I recall another coach trainer recently telling me that she has noticed a trend: more organisations are sending their own staff to be trained as coaches.

It’s easy to see the win-win: you develop your own people and, in the long run, it works out cheaper than hiring external coaches.

There are benefits to both internal and external coaches. Which is right for you?

External coaches bring wider experience and the benefit of being outsiders, meaning your people typically find them easier to trust and open up to. As such, external coaches may also be more effective at challenging things — in fact, their outsider’s lens gives them a unique vantage point from which to identify blind spots and cultural patterns.

Internal coaches are part of the organisational system and culture, which is both a strength and a weakness. But it does give them more leverage to enact change, especially if you scale up a group of internal coaches in strategic positions across the organisation. Internal coaches can fulfil their role part- or full-time, and since they’re already on the payroll there is no ‘additional’ cost as such (apart from the initial training investment).

Both external and internal coaches come with certain caveats like cultural fit, the need to manage confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and clearly defined roles and expectations.

But there is a lot to be said for developing your own internal coaches — and I say that as an external coach! Maybe you need both 😊

Interested? I offer various introductory coach training formats, online and in person, from 2 hours to 2 days.

If you’re looking for something more intensive, I co-deliver coaching and leadership programmes with my good friends at Consulting for Real People, as well as ILM coaching certificates and diplomas with my alma mater, the Academy of Leadership & Management.

Keep growing!