Many veteran external coaches wonder if the trend toward developing internals represents a net positive or negative for the coaching profession. The widely shared answer: both.
On the plus side, mid-level employees who wouldn’t otherwise have access to a coach get the benefit of internal coaching.
“It’s good for everyone because it’s expanding the pie,” most coaches agree. Also, internal coaches who need practice and hours toward their coaching credential have access to a ready- made clientele.
On the minus side, internal coaches generally have less training and experience than external coaches. People who coach on top of their full-time jobs spend a small fraction of their work week coaching – often only 1-3 hours a week. Federal employees must coach on their own free time. “That means evenings and weekends,” says one coach working in the Defense Department. “It’s very hard to accumulate hours when your time is so limited. It’s also hard, with so little practice and no supervision, to develop your skills as a coach.”
With these constrictions, how do organizations foster and maintain excellence in internal coaching? Enter the next two trends.
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Rey Carr
December 27, 2016 at 2:34 pm
With the increasing use of polls and surveys by different coaching groups or independent survey firms, it has become more difficult to integrate the different findings into a coherent picture.
Carol Goldsmith integrates the results from different surveys/interviews brilliantly in this article; and for those with a short attention span, she’s even included the top 10 in an executive summary.
Most of the organizations that conduct coaching surveys do not point out the limitations of their instrument or data collection procedures. However, when such surveys are combined, as they are in this article, the resulting data can be more credible.
Carol Goldsmith
January 2, 2017 at 10:33 pm
Thank you for the kind comment, Rey. Glad you found the article to be useful.
Be your best, Carol
Carol Goldsmith, PCC, NLPT
The Discovery Coach