Internal coaching is still a relatively new form of coaching and as such the role has yet to be fully defined. However, one formal definition is provided by Frisch, who described it as: “a one-to-one developmental intervention supported by the organisation and provided by a colleague of those coached who is trusted to shape and deliver a program yielding individual professional growth”.
The rise of the internal coach
Internal coaches are employed on a permanent basis by organisations, but work outside of a line management relationship making their coaching role fully distinct from that of a manager coach. They are generally HR professionals or managers who have received additional coach training so they can perform a broader coaching role in the organisation. Depending on the size of the organisation, internal coaches can complete their coaching in either a full time role or as part of their existing role within the business. Internal coaches tend to have a much wider remit than manager coaches, focusing on coaching for professional growth and development, as well as performance improvement.
Internal coaching tends to address a broader range of issues with a more individual focus than manager coaching, which often works to a fairly fixed and reduced agenda (improving performance) because of the character of the managerial relationship. At the other end of the spectrum, executive coaches often work to a free or open agenda, use a flexible model of practice and have a greater knowledge of tools and methodologies. Internal coaches sit somewhere between these two they tend to have more breadth of experience and knowledge than manager coaches, but less than executive coaches. They’re focused on the individual’s agenda outside the line management relationship, but work within the organisation with its goals and agenda firmly in mind.
The main reason for this growth is organisations’ search to develop their internal coaching capability. In looking to develop coaching skills, or to build a coaching culture, organisations are realising that having an internal resource to champion coaching and provide timely coaching services can be both cost-effective and beneficial. Large US companies are increasingly turning to internal coaching to cost consciously meet their employees’ development needs, according to US research (Ventrone).
Internal coaching is a popular way to deliver more coaching while spending less money. Another reason for the growth of internal coaches stems from a change in perception of coaching. Coaching is seen less as a remedial activity these days, with a stronger developmental focus and a frequent link to status. With this change in attitude, the need for the coach to be external to, or separate from, the organisation, to prevent defensiveness on the coachee’s part, for example, is reduced. Some companies are also using internal coaching to avoid some of the perceived downsides of external coaching – high cost, problems with scalability and lack of knowledge of the business. Internal coaches seem to present a viable solution to these issues, allowing coaching to be provided to larger numbers, at lower costs and for the growing knowledge base to be kept firmly within the organisation.
Internal coaches offer many benefits. They are readily available, can offer ongoing support and have extensive knowledge about the organisation and the context of the coaching. They are also likely to know the coachee and have an understanding of their role and responsibilities. As the business case for using internal coaches becomes clearer, it seems it’s a trend we’ll continue to see develop in the next few years.
The role
Research for Making the Case for Coaching: Does it Work? (June 2006) by David Lane, Annette Filery-Travis and myself revealed that there are considerable differences in organisations’ expectations of the role their internal coaches will play. For the most part, organisations identified three specific roles for internal coaches
- the technical skills coach or champion
- the specialist development coach working with a reduced but similar remit to the external coach
- the business change coach.
Internal coaches who act as skills champions or technical coaches tend to be employees skilled in particular aspects of the business who coach others to develop these skills. The origins of this type of coaching lie within conventional training or mentoring programmes. However, some organisations who offer coaching outside the line management relationship train internal coaches to provide this service. This form of coaching is most commonly offered to senior managers or leaders and often concentrates on developing their leadership skills. In many ways, this service compares to that offered by external coaches.
Business change coaches are internal coaches who concentrate their activities on helping individuals or teams to improve business processes or undertake change initiatives in line with the organisation’s business goals. Their focus is firmly on delivering value to the business, but this is achieved by working with individuals to help them identify ways to make effective and sustainable changes or improvements happen.
An emerging role for internal coaches is supporting the development of a coaching culture. During the initial stages of introducing coaching to an organisation, where buy in is being negotiated, internal coaching can provide illustrative examples of its benefits and can familiarise the main stakeholders with what it involves. As coaching becomes more established, a key role for internal coaches is supporting interventions being implemented developing manager coaches and managing and gaining best value from external coaches. If a manager coaching programme is initiated, organisations must offer ongoing support to consolidate learning, embed behaviour change and maintain focus. Internal coaches are a useful resource for this purpose as their insider knowledge and ready availability can help maintain the momentum of change.
Using internal coaches to fulfil these functions isn’t a cheap option for organisations. Just like manager coaches, they require training and ongoing support/supervision and at a higher level because of the wider expertise they develop. Organisations thinking of establishing an internal
coaching function therefore must carefully evaluate the economic benefits of this approach versus hiring outside coaches before making their decisions.
Pros and cons
As organisations have experimented with using internal coaches, a number of issues have arisen that can get in the way of their effectiveness. One of the most significant issues centres on establishing the credibility of internal coaches. In the same way as HR professionals often struggle to gain recognition for their work and status, it seems that internal coaches may have a similar uphill struggle in setting their credibility with senior managers.
Further issues relate to issues of trust, boundaries and confidentiality. Because internal coaches are employed by the organisation, coachees may not fully trust that the relationship is confidential. Research (Wasylyshyn) has shown that many people are concerned about an internal coach’s potential for experiencing conflicts of interest. Internal coaches must be aware of how they demarcate their relationship with someone as a coach and then later as a colleague, line manager or member of staff. Furthermore, because the boundaries between clients and internal coaches can feel more “fuzzy”, a danger also exists that coaching relationships turn into informal relationships where the coaching process is not always fully attended to. And over time, these situations may become increasingly difficult to manage today’s coach may be tomorrow’s line manager or member of staff, so this is an ongoing issue that needs managing.
Another risk is that internal coaches end up being used for other development activities, rather than the activity for which they have been trained. Some organisations have pointed to the danger of setting up an internal coaching model that ends up operating as “an internal advisory role”, getting involved in team building, training or mentoring. Organisations must ensure that they carefully reserve the use of their internal coaches for coaching activities only. Otherwise they could develop an alternative HR or learning and development function.
Although one of the powerful benefits of internal coaches is their understanding of the organisation’s culture and context, it can also be a potential problem. Sometimes an internal coach’s knowledge of an organisation leads to a “corporate blind spot” which prevents them from seeing certain patterns or from raising them for discussion. They may become part of the problem, sharing the same world view as their clients. This is one of the major benefits of using external coaches their external perspective and experience of multiple organisations and coaching relationships. Supervision could play an important role in giving alternative perspectives.
A final issue is that many organisations become “victims of their own success”, internal coaches being swamped with requests for coaching. This needs to be carefully managed, particularly if they are coaching on top of their day jobs. However, the internal coach is an emerging role finding much favour with a number of organisations. Although studies of the impact of internal coaching are still too few to give fully conclusive answers, early signs are very positive. But there are potential problems, such as maintaining trust and confidentiality and managing conflicts of interest.
Organisations should think very carefully before experimenting with this approach. Careful recruitment and selection of internal coaches is critical and regular review and monitoring must be built into the coaching processes. Over the next few years, I look forward to seeing how internal coaches carve out their roles and demonstrate the benefits they can deliver.
Further reading and references:
- J Jarvis, D Lane & A Filery-Travis Making the case for coaching: Does it work? London: CIPD (2006).
- J Jarvis Coaching and buying coaching services – a guide. London: CIPD (www.cipd.co.uk/guides; 2004).
- C Braddick Managing external coaches (online practical tool).London: CIPD (www.cipd.co.uk/tools; 2005).
- MH Frisch “The emerging role of the internal coach.” Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 53(4) pp240–250 (2001).
- R Ventrone “Trends in external and internal coaching.” Internal Report: BeamPines, New York (2005).
- KM Wasylyshyn “Executive coaching: An outcome study.” Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research 55(2) pp94–106 (2003).