Coaching provides a structure for professional development and continuous growth. It offers a strategic solution-oriented approach to setting and achieving career goals.
Until fairly recently, most Fortune 500 companies have been hiring coaches for their senior staff to strengthen leadership performance. With accumulating evidence of the benefits of coaching, employers understand the value of offering career coaching to employees at all levels to leverage business coaching for growth. We are quickly moving toward a new paradigm for talent management and development across the career continuum; a future in which professionals work with a coach just as serious athletes do today.
There’s a lot of data showing the positive effects of coaching on employee engagement, performance, and retention. In a 2014 benchmarking research study conducted by the Internal Coach Federation (ICF) and the Human Capital Institute (HCI), organizations offering coaching reported the following:
79% saw improved employee engagement
74% saw improved employee relationships
81% saw improved team functioning
69% saw increased job satisfaction
70% saw increased productivity
46% saw reduced turnover
*The Building a Coaching Culture full report and other surveys can be purchased on the ICF website.
Having served as an internal organizational coach and now working with global companies to implement coaching programs, I’ve seen the power of coaching first-hand. The key is in designing and implementing the right coaching program to align with the corporate culture and strategy.
Benefits Associated with Internal Coaching
Internal coaches have ready access to information about the organization’s culture, challenges, strengths, and values.
Internal coaches have the opportunity to quickly identify and address needs for improved alignment within a specific management chain.
Internal coaches are uniquely equipped to work across organizational lines and know what is needed for success.
Challenges Associated with Internal Coaching
Role clarity: differentiating a coach’s functional role and the role of an internal coach.
Confidentiality: managing any potential conflicts between the needs of the immediate client (the coachee) and the overall business.
Accountability: establishing trust in offering coaching as a means for professional development and growth and NOT as a tool to address performance problems.
When designed and implemented well, coaching programs are the most cost effective and efficient system-level intervention to bring out the best in people.
If you are interested in offering coaching to key strategic employees, or if you are considering implementing an internal coaching program, please contact me for information about coaching packages and/or an in-house coaching certification program.
