Ten Trends Driving Organizational Coaching

The second business model treats coaching as both an internal resource and an external revenue stream. CCOE coaches may work one day with an internal leader, and the next day with external leaders who want to create a coaching culture in their own organizations. Leaders at one CCOE in the management consulting world are now pricing out a menu of client services ranging from providing coaches on contract, to building coaching skills in identified leaders, to helping clients set up internal coaching programs of their own.

Says a veteran in the firm, “Management consultants already know that using coaching skills helps to develop more business with clients. Now the question is whether clients will pay us to help them develop their own coaching culture and/or build their own internal coaching resources.”

A third business model relies on cost-shifting or covering the coaches’ salaries in creative ways. One large organization that spent $2 million to stand up its CCOE actually saved money by replacing 12 externals with 12 full-time employees who spend 50- 60% of their time facilitating internal trainings and workshops. When not facilitating, these internals coach hi-pos and partner candidates. “Our hope,” the center’s director explains, “is that leaders who get coaching will realize that they can’t get along without a service they didn’t know they needed.”

A fourth business model builds on the trend of adding coaching duties to someone’s full-time job. Fittingly, such employees are called Job Plus coaches at one multinational firm. The center’s director shared how this CCOE started five years ago:

“Coaching began here as a response to a global survey showing that while our leaders and managers performed effectively in their jobs, they scored low in developing people,” he says. “We were already using coaching to develop our senior leaders. How could we bridge the gap and offer coaching to anyone who wants it?”

Championed by an enterprising leader in the U.K., the organization set about developing a pool of certified internal, external, and Job Plus coaches all trained in the ICF core competencies. Some 500 employees have since completed a 3-day intensive coach training, plus 3 months of peer coaching, followed by 3 supervision sessions conducted by credentialed external coaches. (More on supervision below.) Trainees are then assessed for certification as a Job Plus Coach. In 2015, this team of 500 completed roughly 1,500 global coaching engagements.