By Liz Hall
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has seen the perceived value of coaching soar since introducing a bi-annual bidding system.
It has also seen confidence levels “shoot up” among internal coaches since introducing supervision, said Pamela Major, an FCO internal coach.
Previously, anyone in management who asked for coaching got it. “Being asked to bid for it and not knowing if they’ll get it has raised the value and makes people really think about what they want from coaching,” she said.
Typically, applicants now flag up what they expect to achieve if they raise their game in certain areas through coaching.
Meanwhile, introducing external supervision means “people feel they’re being invested in and have more credibility with their clients. It’s important for us to say to clients you’re not getting second rate here,” Major told delegates at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Coaching conference on 28 September.
In 2006, the FCO moved away from an internal coaching model of dedicated staff to a cadre of people who coach as 8-10 per cent of their job – now around 50. In 2008, following a period of extensive consultation including among external coaches, it launched its new strategy. Coaching was built on the premise that “coaching should not be self-standing”, advice that had stuck in Major’s mind.
“We thought about that a lot and it’s a touchstone for how we wanted it to be… [coaching is] attached to L&D to really bed the learning and bring about a coaching culture,” she said.
Meetings are now chaired in a coaching style which helps participants “get more below the surface”.
Coaching is built into programmes to develop leaders in their first six to 12 months, so the benefit of the training is “magnified”. The FCO is currently working up a model for high potentials and their line managers in under-represented areas, in line with its diversity targets. It is also looking at coaching for those in overseas posts.
Under the new strategy, the FCO is paying more attention to evaluation.
“It’s devilishly difficult but we’re having a big push on evaluation, turning much more attention to it than in the past. We’re involving line managers more at the beginning and on impact at the end,” said Major.
Coaching at Work, Volume 5, Issue 6