After 20 years in the People Profession, I know the value of coaching for building trust, improving performance, and enabling development. As a business partner, it was one of the most important skills in my toolkit.

Working with leaders in a coaching style was critical to their development but also ensured I didn’t become the answer to all their problems. Coaching the leaders I partnered with enabled them to consider their own solutions and feel more empowered.

When I started my journey to become a qualified Leadership Coach, it was initially to tick a box and demonstrate that I could coach. However, my transition from internal coach to professional and external coach has highlighted the different benefits of both.

I don’t believe that one is better than the other, but they are different, and they serve different purposes and often outcomes.

**Internal Coaches**

I'm going to focus on two types of internal coaches.
1) The leader as coach, and,
2) Coaches from an internal pool.

Leaders as Coach

Having leaders who take a coaching approach when leading their teams will build trust and engagement, improve performance, and more actively support the development of their team.

Enabling your leaders to develop these skills to empower their teams rather than continually direct them will make a significant impact on your culture and the ability of your people to solve problems. This is a good thing.

Where this can meet challenges is the need for very high levels of psychological safety and non-judgment; sign-up here for my leadership learning guide on “Building the foundations for brilliant conversations”. These are essential for coaching to be successful if it is the only type of coaching being implemented.

For “true” coaching to happen, the person coaching needs to remain impartial and express no views on the matter that interrupt the coaching participant’s thinking. They aren’t there to advise or direct; they are there to listen and help the participant think so they can formulate their own decisions and actions.

The participant in coaching also needs to be able to be entirely open and vulnerable; unless there is a high level of psychological safety, it may be very difficult to admit to your boss a risk or failing you have identified. It may also be very difficult for that leader to remain totally in coaching mode!

So, although there are challenges here to experiencing some of the key features of coaching, I would 100% recommend that you develop the coaching capacity and capabilities for your leaders at all levels. Even if they aren’t completely in independent coach mode, using the tools and techniques will make a massive difference.

Internal coaching pools

Tapping into an internal network of coaches can help overcome some of the non-judgment and ‘skin-in-the-game’ issues that a direct line leader may experience. By building capacity internally, you can reduce the costs of external supplier spending, but they will also have unique insight into the organisation and internal stakeholders in a way that external coaches may not achieve.

Some of the challenges that exist with an internal pool of coaches, unless this is the actual reason they have been hired, is that they still have their own jobs to do! You still need to invest in their coaching qualifications and their coaching supervision, and you need to ensure that to remain skilful that they are coaching regularly.

With an internal pool, you don’t have to find external suppliers; however, they too may struggle with non-judgement, and it may be difficult to build rapport and complete openness from the coaching participants. They may keep wondering if it’s really a safe and confidential space for them to share, especially if the issues being explored relate to senior leadership.

In no way am I questioning the capability and ethics of internal coaches. Those who undertake their qualifications and make the time to coach will be doing it as they should, to aid their colleagues, but this is about the perception of the coaching participant. Will they feel totally at ease to share their fears and vulnerabilities in the way needed for coaching to be valuable.

In summary, there are huge benefits to building internal capacity and capabilities to coach in your organisation. Build the skills of direct line leaders, and if your preferred option is a pool of internal coaches rather than working with external coaches, make sure it’s being set up in a way that builds credibility and trust and that internal coaches and coaching participants are given the time and support to engage in coaching successfully.

**External Coaches**

Engaging coaches who are qualified, who have completed the learning associated and who have membership and accreditation is really important. What you are paying for is a professional coach.

My own experiences have broadened my skills and mindset as a coach in a way I didn’t have as an internal coach. I had completed some amazing coaching training as a leader. That was a game changer for me as a leader, but getting qualified was a catalyst for me as a professional coach.

When you are working with an external coach, they don’t have the same ‘skin-in-the-game’ as your organisation. This means they can be entirely focused on the individual and their needs. There may be some wider contracting with the organisation on goals for coaching, but the focus is the client, where they are and how they’re going to achieve their goals.

They will be able to develop trust and rapport based on understanding and supporting the client in a way that works for them. The coach doesn’t have the distractions of an organisational priority or the meeting that just took place on sales figures. Their entire purpose is to coach and support the development of that coaching participant. That’s what you are buying with an external coach, the time and space, with no distractions.

That time and space is safe, confidential and focused on empowerment. You are paying for someone who is skilled and experienced in specifically what you need, someone to unlock the potential of the individual being coached.

External coaches are about engaging a professional who focuses on working directly with the client and the specific goals identified. They are more detached from the organisation, and this can aid rapport building that enables a level of vulnerability and openness that goes deeper, which returns impact and value from the coaching experience. The focus of their job is to coach.

External coaches are a flexible resource, and they don’t have to be a scary cost. This is especially true when it comes to developing your leaders. Leadership coaching is a positive and proactive approach to development. When it is experienced by leaders, they value it and appreciate it. It doesn’t work for everyone, but for a significant group, it will.

Overall, I’d recommend a blended approach.

Prioritise developing the coaching skills of your leaders. If you have the capacity to build an internal pool of coaches, this can be a positive way forward. Consider your organisation’s needs and your coaching goals.

Look strategically at how external coaches can enable and enhance your leadership, performance, well-being, and development plans.

All three types of coaches are valuable, and all serve a different purpose. Start by deciding what you want to achieve and then assess how each coach type can support you best.

Here are a few resources to help you with exploring your coaching options:

How to approach coaching their team from Better Up: How to Coach Your Team to Success: 5 Key Tips For Managers (betterup.com)
Things to consider when setting up internal coaching: Eight Best Practices For Building An Internal Coaching Program (forbes.com)
How to select a coach: How to: Select a coach | HRZone

The Benefits of Internal and External Coaches for your Leadership Development Strategy.

Internal Coaches

External Coaches

The Costs of Bad Onboarding for Leaders.

The Benefits of a Personalised Approach to Leadership Development.