Coaching from the inside: Building an internal group of emotionally intelligent coaches

While many senior executives can both afford and benefit from world class external coaching, this may not be an affordable or manageable option for many leaders in large organizations. Developing a cadre of internal coaches has the benefits of: (1) cost containment; (2) internal capacity to create a coaching culture; and (3) coaches make better managers. In a case study of a large European bank implementing a culture change the authors trained coaches how to coach using emotional intelligence and a change model called intentional change. Surveys and interviews of the leaders who were coached by internal coaches revealed five tangible results: (1) an increase in the speed of managers’ leadership growth; (2) an increase in manager loyalty to the company; (3) improved communication among people; (4) increased ability to solve conflicts; and (5) a renewed passion and awareness that part of their ability is to develop others.