We’ve looked at how a coachee might decide whether to ask for coaching from their manager, from an internal coach, or from an external coach, depending on how transparent they feel they can be; we’ve also looked at how a manager-as-coach, internal or external coach might decide whether they can provide the service to the coachee. Now let’s look through an organisational lens – this could be HR, Learning and Development or a Head of Coaching- to decide when to use each kind of coach.
- Context – the manager as coach and internal coach generally have a better understanding of the business context compared to an external coach, such that they don’t need to spend time exploring the meaning of acronyms and organisational structures. The danger is that the manager as coach and internal coach may fall into the trap of making the same assumptions about the context as the coachee, rather than questioning them
- Costs – the manager as coach provides coaching as part of their role, therefore at no extra cost. The accredited internal coach provides the same or better coaching value as the external coach at cost rather than commercial price. Not only that, the organisation has to invest time and money in sourcing and vetting the external coaches, as well as bringing the external coach up to speed on organisational culture and context*. The cost of continuous professional development and supervision will need to be borne by the organisation for the internal coach, where the external coach will pay for that themselves.
- Confidentiality – the internal coaching is equally as bound by their accrediting body’s code of ethics to adhere to confidentiality as the external coach, so this is really a consideration for the coachee to make, rather than the organisation. The manager as coach should keep confidences, but may feel obliged to consider what they have heard in coaching in the performance management process.
- Consistency – the internal coach secures better consistency of approach than working with multiple vendors across the globe. The organisation will need to decide whether this is important to their culture.
- Culture – Managers as coaches and internal coaches have the opportunity to shape the organisation’s culture, by modelling the company values.
- Competency – do the managers as coaches and internal coaches have the coaching competencies needed?
- Capacity – are there enough managers as coaches and internal coaches with the requisite skills to meet the business needs for coaching? If not, external coaching may be the alternative.
So deciding upon which coaching role is best for a coaching assignment is simple through one lens – does the coachee feel a level of trust in the coach that will allow them to be vulnerable?; and complex when looked at through the organisational lens.
*Extract from David Rock: Driving Change with Internal Coaching Programs
| Hiring
External Coaches |
Sourcing
Internal Coaches |
|
| Sourcing Coaches | High Cost | Low cost |
| Business Understanding | High Complexity | No cost |
| Cultural Fit | High Complexity | No cost |
| Screening | Medium Cost | Low cost |
| Orienting to the organization | High cost | No cost |
| Staff Retention of those Coached | High Derailment Risk | Increased Retention
|
