How to keep internal coaches engaged and motivated

It’s a common occurrence in organisations, which have invested in building an internal pool of coaches. After two or three years, there is a noticeable drop in enthusiasm and participation and some may even drop out of the programme altogether, usually citing pressure of work as a catch-all excuse.

There seem to be several main reasons why this phenomenon happens:

1. Lack of recognition for their efforts. At first, the sense of reward from being able to help other people is a motivation in itself. Over time, however, this can fade and coaches can feel an imbalance of effort and reward. Some practical remedies here include:

1. Reinforcing how much the organisation values what the internal coaches do – for example, through simple affirmations from the organisation’s leaders. The CEO of one organisation makes a point of identifying and thanking internal coaches at annual events for managers. Another CEO pointedly makes use of internal coaches from time to time, to coach him.
2. Peer support – regular or ad hoc events, where coaches can share experiences and celebrate successes

2. Boredom at seeing the same issues again and again. Because internal coaches tend to operate within a relatively constrained geography of issues compared to external professionals, coaching conversations can sometimes develop a sense of déjà vu. The simplest solution here is to provide opportunities for coaches gradually to extend their repertoire into areas, such as:

1. Return to work mentoring – using their coaching skills and knowledge of the company to support people returning to work – for example, after long-term illness, maternity leave or paternity leave
2. Ethical coaching/ mentoring – adding to their coaching skills some knowledge of the psychology of ethicality and tools to help clients think through ethical dilemmas and conflicts of values
3. Working with clients outside of the organisation, under a social responsibility agenda – for example, small business start-ups, young offenders, soldiers transitioning to civil life, or students in their final undergraduate year. “Solidarity coaching” is a general term used across Europe to describe the process of professional coaches giving back to society by working without payment for charities or with those unable to pay for coaching – the European Mentoring and Coaching Council strongly encourages internal coaches also to take part in this movement

The common thread here is the challenge that can be created by coaching in a different context. A general observation is that the experience tends to refresh the coach’s day-to-day coaching.

3. Feeling abandoned and left to their own devices. Attending a training course doesn’t make someone a coach. Learning to coach is a long-term, unending journey – the most expert coaches happily admit that the gap between what they know and what they feel they ought to know about coaching constantly widens. Many organisations support their internal coaches with a programme of continuous support and competence development, through, for example:

1. Group and, if appropriate, coaching supervision
2. Regular events for continuous professional development (workshops, seminars, webinars, newsletters and so on)
3. Coach development plans
4. Coach development centres, where they can get feedback on their coaching skills
5. Coach buddies – pairing coaches to provide mutual support
6. Membership of coaching professional bodies (European Mentoring & Coaching Council, International Coach Federation, Association for Coaching), which provide a wider network of support and expertise to tap into

4. Loss of confidence in their ability to coach. This is a particular problem, where coach training has focused on simplistic, limited application coaching models, such as GROW. When coaches run into issues, for which their training has not prepared them, they can easily become discouraged. The availability of supervision can help here, but experience suggests that novice coaches can feel inhibited in seeking help. All of the ideas in (3) above can help, too. However, the most useful intervention is often a simple, regular conversation with a programme manager, to check on how they are feeling about their coaching and what further support and development they might need.

All four issues can also be addressed by having a clear progression path that recognises increasing levels of coaching knowledge and competence. All three major international bodies in coaching have accreditation routes from very basic levels to mastery (though what they mean by mastery is not necessarily the same). However, some companies take the view that there is greater value to having their own qualification routes, adapted to the role and scope of coaching in their context. These qualifications are sometimes accredited by a university.

However you address the issue of keeping coaches and mentors engaged, the following ground rules are good to keep in mind:

• Ask the coaches/ mentors what they would like to see happen (the obvious first step in engagement and involvement!)
• Prevention is better than cure – build support processes into the programme at the start, rather than wait for problems to appear
• Benchmark against other organisations – what has worked well and less well for them
• Recognise that disengagement of coaches (who should be among the organisation’s most motivated employees) may be symptomatic of a deeper malaise, which coaching might address.

© David Clutterbuck, 2015

Prof David Clutterbuck
Coaching and Mentoring International Ltd
Woodlands, Tollgate,
Maidenhead,
Berks, UK. SL6 4LJ

www.coachingandmentoringinternational.org
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