I've spent a lot of my career either standing up, or working within, an internal coaching and consulting function. These functions operate within the organisation supporting business leaders and teams with their work around a specific domain of expertise.
There are several types of functions, from business agility, agile, training, management coaching and the like.
What follows in this post is how I stand them up, or how to optimise existing functions. There is a simple diagram showing the basic outline. I will jump into each numbered section below.
Coaching and Consulting
I'm not going to get into the myriad of flavours of both of these, but in some respects, they are different to each other.
As per usual, let's break down the origins of the word to extract a suitable meaning. It's worth considering that meanings evolve and are mashed about in certain contexts.
Coach - "instructor/trainer"
Consult - "ask advice of, seek the opinion of as a guide to one's own judgment," / "take counsel, meet and consider."
They are similar but it pays to understand the subtle differences which I tend to distinguish in this way:
- In a coaching function, coaches work with individuals to nurture, teach and instruct individuals with regard to their work, behaviours and character.
- In a consulting function, specialists advise, instruct and guide individuals with more specific problems.
It's important to understand what type of function you are setting up so you can set expectations, nail the business results and hire the right people.
In my experience most internal functions are a combination of both coaching and consulting, ideally with coaches/consultants who can do both aspects.
Many leaders and managers want an answer to a problem - a concrete "do this, try this, use this model, operate this way" kind of solution - consulting.
Sometimes they want someone to work with them to inform, teach and nudge them - coaching. Oftentimes, they want a combination of both.
I've worked in "coaching" teams where leaders actually want solutions, not nudges, training and advice. And I've worked in consulting teams, where leaders want someone to guide gently and not just "tell" them what to do.
Just be clear whether your "customers" or "partners" in the business want a more guided hand, or they want expertise on how to solve a pressing problem. Or both. And set your team up appropriately.
There is a place for both. We'll come to our purpose and demand in a minute.
Cost
Let's start with the most fundamentally misunderstood premise when setting up and leading internal coaching/consulting teams. Cost.
As the team is stood up and someone is put in charge, it can feel pretty good to have a team of experts ready to deploy across the organisation to help improve organisational effectiveness.
But, you should always remember that you, and your team, are a cost to the business.
Everything inside the business is cost. Value is generated outside of the organisation, typically by customers buying whatever it is you are selling or offering.
As such, your internal coaching function is a cost. This is so often misunderstood that it's bewildering.
As such, it's important, right from the start, to work out how you are going to release business value (outside of the organisation).
It's not so simple. In fact, it can be quite hard. And in some cases, the executives who have agreed to an internal coaching team haven't considered this basic business premise either; i.e. they've not worked out what value the coaching team will bring, they just know they have a problem (or have been sold the idea of an internal coaching/consulting team).
This could work in your favour, at least in the short-term as you are protected from having to explain how you add value.
At some point though, with costs mounting (or at least being tracked somewhere), you will have to articulate how your coaching function adds value. Remember, value is nearly always external to the business.
The sooner you can start to connect the dots between the work your team does, and the external value generated, the better placed you will be to fine tune your service, communicate the value you bring and justify the existence of the team.
You are a cost.
The more specialists you bring in, the more your costs go up.
Good vibes, positive feedback, nice comments and good feelings from those you work with, may suffice to tell your story for a while, but it's far more effective to understand early on how you add true business value (external).
There are some exceptions to this basic premise.
Say for example, you are helping the company remain compliant, or improve safety, or roll out internal HR policies, or even helping teams maintain a License to Operate (basic needs to keep operating). Even some of these can be tied to cost; not being fined, not being sued etc.
It's rare to find internal coaching services in these spaces, but not unheard of. In these examples, tying your work to external value may not be necessary, or not very easy to do.
An agile coaching function for example, should be able to tie the coaching work done to an improvement in business results (value). A management coaching service should be able to connect to business results too.
No matter the context or remit, understanding that your internal team, like every other team in the business, is a cost, is the first and foremost concept to instill in your mind.
Understanding this will help you keep your service lean, qualify demand more appropriately and tailor your services more appropriately. It will also help you when the inevitable question lands on your table - "What value do you add to the organisation?".
Let’s jump through the diagram and bring each part to life.
Purpose (1)
Let’s start with the core basics of any team. What is your purpose?
- Why do you exist?
- What problems do you solve?
- What opportunities do you open up?
- What, when it comes to your annual performance review, will you need to have delivered?
- What will keep you employed and your coaching function alive?
These are all various questions to ask to understand your purpose. It’s fair to say your purpose should always be from a customer’s perspective too. In this case, your customers are likely internal leaders, departments and teams.
What is your purpose from their perspective?
You would like to hope that both your leadership team's expectations, and your potential customer’s expectations, are broadly the same thing. This is not always the case, so plenty of management, communication and alignment may be needed.
In most cases, the reason you exist from an executive point of view should align with the work you are expected to do from a customer’s perspective. Double check. It’s not uncommon for leaders to completely mis-uinderstand the value you are expecting to deliver.
Your purpose is essential; it will guide what work you say yes to, and what work you say no to.
It’s not uncommon to find a central coaching function taking on far more work than they exist to do. This is not always a problem, if strategically well considered (we'll come on to that), but be careful not to overextend, and in some cases, do someone else’s job.
Your service will expand and pivot and change as you work with more people in the business. You will receive inputs, feedback and insights that mean you tailor your services and offerings to meet the demand. Let this always be in service of your main purpose of being. Let this also be in service of the leader's perspectives of what you do.
It can be tempting to try and solve everyone’s problem and dilute what it is that makes you good - and what it means to deliver on your purpose. It can be tempting to chase anyone who'll talk to you and do work because "there's something there to do", but that could lead to a loss of clear direction and purpose. I see this often.
As with all good service providers, they know what they do, and they do it really well. They only expand into adjacent offerings when they know they can do it well - and it does not dilute what they exist for.
For example, it’s quite common to find internal business agility functions helping teams to move smoothly and quickly towards their business goals - and build a positive culture. Long time readers will know that is the Releasing Agility model.
However, it’s also quite common to find these coaching teams reaching into work that is not always under their remit, or accountability. They can start to dabble in financial models, HR policy and process, people development, delivery and leadership coaching. Some of this may be related to business agility, some may be a far reach from why they exist.
It helps therefore to define, quite clearly what it is you do. What are you known for? What is your area of expertise? What problems do you solve? What are you the only ones who are experts in?
Your purpose is often driven by the strategic direction of the business.
For example, the organisation may be doing an “agile transformation” and require a central team to support that transition - therefore leading to the formation of a coaching team. Your involvement in this transformation may, or may not, be mandated. This makes a big difference, as we’ll cover later in section 4.
It’s helpful then to see the strategic direction of the organisation, or department, as an input to defining your purpose.
Another input is, of course, the remit given from executives who are sponsoring this function. We’ve covered that.
You will hopefully have plenty of experience in the subject of your coaching team, for example agility, and should therefore also bring this into your purpose too.
At the end of the day you should, with clarity (and only a few blurry lines) be able to say:
- We DO this
- We COULD do this
- We WON'T do the this
This clarity will allow you to understand what value you are delivering for the invested cost, what work to take on, what results you are chasing, who to bring into the team and how to run your coaching engagements.
If you can do anything and everything, not only will it be hard to find your place in the organisation, but you won’t know what to say no to, you won’t be able to draw boundaries between your work and someone else's, and you won’t have clear definitions of what you are expected to deliver.
It’s super easy, especially in the early days to take on any work that vaguely sounds like something you could do. Be cautious. Take it on carefully - and always have an exit strategy from this work.
If the formation of this team has been well considered, with a clear purpose and value offering, you will already have a pipeline of work and hungry internal customers wanting what you have for offer.
Being crystal clear about your purpose sets everything else up for success.
Of course, you may need to refine and define your purpose after you start your journey, but don’t let it go on for too long until you’re clear what you do, why, who for, what you don’t do and how you add value.
It’s a lot harder to define your purpose later once you're working in areas of the business and struggling to work out what value you add.
You may also build a reputation that is hard to counter, if you jump at every opportunity without a clear purpose and boundaries. If you take on any kind of work with no clear expectations of value or even the service you offer, you may find you don’t deliver much to your customers.
It doesn’t take long in an organisation for word of mouth to spread that people aren’t quite sure what you do.
You should also consider building a communication and PR plan - I’ll cover this in future posts. But in essence, you should have a clear plan that is aimed at winning hearts and minds (of various stakeholders), influencing the narrative of work and providing clarity to those you seek to help.
Product and Services
Once you have a clear purpose (i.e. why you exist and what problems you solve), it's time to build some products and services.
It helps to package these up in ways that make sense to your customer’s problems and needs, rather than any internal ability or skill.
I always refer to these as a "menu" of activities that could be packaged up into a product.
It's very rare to find an internal client who has just one singular problem to solve.
Problems are often systemic in nature, require good communication to solve, will require some behaviour changes, probably aren't supported with evidence or data, and likely need some kind of work item structure putting around the solutions.
This is an example of mixing and matching the menus.
The menu shows all we could offer - we would then spend some time packaging a few of these together to make products which are contextually relevant for the clients and business.
I may choose to share this menu with customers to show what we can do, but it's likely that would be in the later stages of an opportunity. Up front you want to build a relationships, understand their challenges and think about how you're going to help them.
You need to make products and services appeal to your potential clients or customers (internal), and they should therefore be relevant to the problems and opportunities they have.
It’s also important not to be insulting to your customers. I’ve seen plenty of internal coaching functions lead with “you have problems and we can make you better”.
Let’s not insult or offend, or belittle customers. Let’s lead with packaged solutions that solve problems for customers but articulated well. The products and services you offer will vary depending on your purpose and expertise.
Just like any kind of solution, service or product we buy in our own lives, we need that thing to have utility, to solve a problem or satisfy a need. Spend some time building a core catalog, or menu as I call it, of the kinds of things you are offering or can do.
Then work out how to add a layer above, or package, that can bring them to life for customers.
Abilities (2)
Any delivery of value requires people capable of delivering it.
You, and your team, no matter the size, have abilities that should deliver on your purpose and products.
In fact, it’s fair to say that your purpose (and the work you say yes to) should also be heavily influenced by the abilities in your team.
There is little point in offering management coaching if you don’t have anyone in your team with this ability. Your offers / purpose and your team’s abilities go hand in hand.
I have an in-depth guide to ability and capability coming soon, but suffice to say, it’s important to know the difference between these two terms, and ensure that you are not offering a service that you cannot deliver on.
Ability means someone in your team can already do this work. They are already capable. What it does not mean though is that everyone in your team is capable in X work - unless of course they are.
This could be Enterprise Scaled Agility as an example. You have at least one person who knows how to do this.
Capability means someone in your team, with some help and training, has the ability to become capable. Capability is the ability to become capable.
These are two very different things. One (ability) means someone can do it, the other (capability) means someone has the ability to become capable but cannot, right now, do it.
I have seen internal coaching functions mess this up big-style. They have not leaned into their current understanding of what they are capable of.
They may have someone who is pretty good at basic workflow management. They have the read the theory on Lean Portfolio Management, but have never actually done it. They most likely have the capability to become competent in LPM, but right now, they don't have the ability.
The team then offers LPM as an offering through their coaching service. A customer is in need of some rigour in their portfolio operations and pulls on this coaching or consulting service.
This causes a problem. In reality the coaching team does NOT have the ability to do this work - they’ve never done it before. Sure, they may have some people who COULD do this work with training and guidance. But now they have demand for work that, if they were being honest, they’ve never done before.
Sure, people can learn and good talented people may be able to consult or coach on LPM and make a success of it. Or maybe they won’t. Either way, you are learning on other people’s times - and you are not the expert. Be careful.
It’s also common to have one person in a team who can do something really well. Let’s use the example of LPM again. One person may have done this several times - and is very capable.
This ability is then packaged up as something the internal coaching team offers as a product or service. Yes, they have someone who can do it. And yes, maybe they have a few people who, with some training and time, have the capability (the ability to become capable), but right now they only have one person -and that person is busy on an engagement bringing about a good portfolio management system.
A new customer comes along and wants this - and those who have the capability are thrown into this engagement because we’ve said we can do it. They may succeed. They may not. The chances are they will need the help of a specialist who can do it, thereby taking them away from another engagement.
If you offer a product or service, be clear in your mind who can already deliver on this, who could become capable and who will never be capable in this. This is performance management of people, career growth and training.
You must be clear from the start what you can and cannot do (and who can and cannot do it). You may need to manage demand and hold off committing to certain work until the capable person becomes free.
This is where it pays to study the demand coming in. If you suddenly have lots of demand for LPM and only one person who is capable, then you'll need to stack the work until they are free, or even better, pair people who have the capability (ability to become capable in LPM) with the person who is already an expert. This not only builds the skills and experience of the person who has the capability, but it also then gives you two people who can do the work. Repeat and soon enough your whole team will be capable.
If you don’t have the ability to do the work - don’t say you can do it.
Your reputation as an internal coaching team must be protected, by delivering on what you say you can do.
If you start to see a demand for abilities your team don't have, then maybe you've been communicating the wrong thing, or its a siren call to bolster your team with that abilility. Maybe someone in your team has the capability to learn this new thing, in which case get them into training or some other way to turn the potential ability into actual ability. Or alternatively, hire in the expertise if you can - always ensuring you're trying to bolster your teams ability to do the work you promise.
This is why your purpose, products and abilities go hand in hand. Until you have the abilities within your team, you should not be offering products and services you cannot deliver on.
Demand (3)
Demand is a good thing - as long as it’s value add.
Demand is a pipeline of customers wanting what you offer.
Depending on your context you may have buckets of demand before you even stand up the team. Later, in step 4 we cover generating demand, but for now, let’s look at the demand you currently have.
Demand is a chance for you to deliver value. Demand is for you to align yourself, or members of the team with abilities, to the needs of the business. Demand is a chance to do some good work; to deliver on your purpose; to add value.
As with any demand management process there is a process of qualifying the demand.
Some demand will be more complex, more intriguing, more interesting, more laden with value and more suited to your products and services (your purpose). Some demand may be the kind that feels nice - someone wants you - but not value-add or aligned with your purpose.
As mentioned earlier, it can be tempting in quiet times to do anything that comes your way.
There could be some value in this, and later we will cover generating demand and the need for "gifts for friends", but always ensure this is strategic in nature - and not the de facto work your team is engaged in full time.
Low value work, or work that is not in line with your purpose, will take time, effort, energy and attention and won’t necessarily lead to any tangible benefit to the business.
Not all work you do will be tied to business results directly, but the bulk of it will likely need to be - you are a cost after all.
Only you will know what balance makes sense and whether the work is worth doing.
It’s very easy though to throw coaches at anyone who will talk to you. This may be a wise move as some of that work will grow into something else. Just be sure you set expectations appropriately with your customers - and have an exit plan for all engagements.
I’ve seen teams of people swallowed up into engagements with little tangible value.
Low value, low level work keeps everyone busy but leads nowhere. Sometimes this low level work cannot be exited without politics and drama, meaning high value work opportunities are not actioned.
After all, many customers/clients, especially if they are not paying for the service, may quite like having an extra pair of hands around, or someone to bounce ideas off, or the security of an impartial voice. These all sound positive, but not if the work is not inline with your purpose and the value you are expected to generate for the business.
As mentioned earlier, good vibes and good feedback may not be enough to answer the question “how does your team add value?”.
Demand for your work should, in many cases, be aligned to one or many of the following ways to increase organisational effectiveness:
- Improved delivery to customers
- (think time to market, better quality, reducing friction of delivery (cost and time to market), management training (better business results)
- Level of service
- (think customer retention numbers, reducing complaints, lowering number of live issues, first time call resolution)
- Morale
- (think staff engagement (tied to productivity), or staff churn, or cost to hire, or recruitment process.
- Costs
- (think cost reduction, cost mitigation, cost avoidance, growing profit versus cost (efficiency))
- Revenue
- (new products, better service, better products, opening up new markets, growth)
All of the above are directly, or indirectly, tied to a financial measure of some type.
Then of course, you could be working on:
- Safety improvements or compliance
- Legal compliance (avoidance of fines)
- License to operate (dealing with the basics of being able to operate the company)
Demand for your service will likely fall into one or many of these - and as such, your products and services (and your ability to deliver on these), should also be relevant and suitable to improving organisational effectiveness and your purpose.
If you have a purpose, and have products and services that align to these organisational improvements, then you should see plenty of demand for what you offer.
As mentioned, some of this demand may be the catalyst for the creation of your internal coaching team in the first place (a need or problem), some demand may have to be generated (see No. 4) and some may just find their way to you from word of mouth from previous or current work.
Whatever way it makes it to you, you must qualify this demand and assess which pieces of work take precedence.
With a lack of sufficient demand (i.e. quiet times) it’s suitable to align coaches to exploration work, demand generation or low value work - as long as that does not become the norm.
If you find your internal service has consistently little or no demand, it really is worth looking at your purpose and whether you have done a good job of aligning products and services around your purpose and customer’s needs.
The final question to ask is “why do you exist” as a team, if there really is no demand……
Demand Generation (4)
Let’s call this what it is - Sales and Marketing.
Many internal coaching teams pay little attention to this element of demand generation, until demand dries up or harder questions are asked about the value the team adds.
It’s important to understand that your service of internal coaching is just that, a service. And a service needs selling, articulating, fine tuning, improving and communicating about.
How much effort you put here will be contextual.
In one organisation the internal coaching service was mandatory for all programs of work. There really was little need to spend too long “selling” the service as each Vice President was told they were going “to transform” and here are your transformation coaches.
However, if delivery against promises is not made, or the mandate runs out, or demand slows, it’s still important to think about how to generate future demand.
In one organisation the coaching service was “optional”. In which case, there is an immediate need to generate the right kind of demand. Not just any demand, but demand aligned to purpose, products/offers and abilities.
Generating any old demand is not the point. It must be work that is worth doing.
As such, it pays to look at demand generation as a simple and basic sales and marketing effort. I'm probably insulting many sales and marketing professionals with what follows but it works for me.
The Process
Marketing is about getting the word out about the product or service - and driving leads into the sales funnel. It's about raising awareness in the marketplace (the business) and setting up some branding, promises and expectations with the goal of attracting people to what you offer.
These marketing leads then need qualifying further, and in many cases, moving from prospect to client through a sales funnel. This may not come naturally to many people so pull in help, sit a course, or try the tested model I use for internal coaching teams.
At this point we assume we’re clear about our purpose. We know why we exist and what problems we solve, or opportunities we open up. We understand how to relate what we do to value outcomes (and clients problems). As in, we can articulate how our costs result in better value (external) to the business.
We also have some products and services packaged up that can be sold. And, importantly, we have capable people to deliver on these promises.
We now need some demand.
We need to be clear about how we talk about our services, and even build a Tone of Voice (article coming soon) that resonates with who we are, our purpose and importantly, our potential customers.
This is half of the battle. After all, if we have a good product and remit that we believe in, it’s much easier to sell it.
I use a classic ascending life-cycle model idea.
Free for all - marketing
After tapping into the distribution networks we start sharing collateral, messages, insights, posts, models, ideas, nuggets of wisdom and anything else useful to our audience.
These are all free for everyone in the organisation and are designed to be helpful. You could call this education based marketing.
For example, let’s say you’re setting up a Business Agility coaching function. You may share articles on releasing agility, communication theory, value stream mapping, agile team constructs, why agile can help people, how to measure business agility and more.
Explore different mediums and methods and tools.
Ensure you are present in mind by offering, on a consistent basis, free gifts that help people in their day-to-day work. Podcasts, articles, guides, models and videos work well.
This is all about raising awareness of who you are and what you do.
If you’re super serious about this, then consider running this model as a PR campaign. Marketing is about awareness and driving leads, but PR is concerned with influencing decisions and winning hearts and minds for a new way of thinking or operating. A subtle but unimportant difference.
Free Gifts for Friends - marketing
We now want people to engage more readily with us in a more intimate but non-committal way. These are free gifts for friends.
Workshops for teams, mini-training courses, minor support for an immediate problem related to your domain, assessment, maturity models, free consultancy calls - these are all free gifts for friends. Get creative here.
We’re asking them to move from a place of awareness to a minor commitment of something valuable.
This is why earlier I said that some low value work can grow.
This is why it should be strategic - a low value workshop for example could grow to a commitment of coaching and organisational improvement. But if all your team is doing is workshops, it’s going to be much harder to ascertain the value you and the team bring to the business.
Workshops are good, fun and people rarely say no to them - but are they going to shift the dial on effectiveness and value add for all involved?
They can be a good free gift for friends. Of course, in this example it is assumed that workshops aren't your remit and sole value. You get the idea.
If nothing else comes from it, at least you have a friendly face in the organisation to stay in touch with. And do stay in touch.
Don’t badger them and harass like the slimy sales pitches from LinkedIn. Instead, nurture a relationship and stay connected. You can only build a relationship by seeing people.
Grab a coffee once a month. Ask them questions and find out more about them and their work. Find out ways in which you can help them out.
This is nurturing someone, or a team, through a funnel leading to impactful work for both people. After all, your service is designed to help and improve the business, so there is nothing wrong with trying to “sell” it. It has value for all involved, you may need to spend time convincing people to pull on the service.
In an ideal world you wouldn’t need a sales and marketing funnel for an internal service but until you get to a place where your value is so evident to all that they are fighting over you and the team, you’ve got to do PR, marketing and demand generation.
Short-term - sales qualified
We then move into short-term engagements. These are value add engagement with a clear outcome that helps everyone, and improves the organisational effectiveness.
Short-term durations to me will be different to you. It all depends on your model of engagement, goals, purpose and value levers.
In my experience, short-term would mean 8 weeks or less. There’s not a huge amount of massive change you could make in 8 weeks, but you could make a difference that is meaningful.
This may take the form of working with a low performing team and putting them on the path to meaningful and lasting change. It could be a "stapling" process (Value Stream Analysis) that leaves behind obvious areas of improvement and cost reduction opportunities.
It’s short-term but it has value associated with it - tangible business value for both your internal function and your clients / customers.
Engage - sales qualified
At the top of the pyramid is a long term engagement, which would be 6 months to a year.
In the coaching work I do, and have been part of, or stood up, we want long term commitments with clear outcomes, goals and measures. Meaningful change, despite what some people may say, often takes time.
Quick change can happen but sustaining that, optimising it and continued delivery on that change (and value) takes time.
6 months is a reasonable time to make a significant impact on a business unit. Depending on the needs, problems and change/value outcomes, it’s entirely possible for an engagement to last longer.
I have done several year long engagements that kept increasing the value and organisation effectiveness by a noticeable amount month on month.
It's contextual and depends on the service you are offering and problems you are solving.
Be clear about what you do and what people can expect by setting clear expectations, boundaries, reviews and agreements on outcomes. Then work hard to deliver on these - always ensuring that you, and your client, are happy with how things are progressing - and that value is indeed, being released.
The top two sections of the pyramid represent sales that have happened. The bottom two represent marketing approaches. The goal is to move people through this model and qualify through a sales process at the top two levels.
What this means is that you have qualified the demand to ensure it’s in line with your purpose, your goals, your measures of value and your team’s ability.
For example, I once saw an agile function bring in some demand from a webinar they ran. They offered agile coaching services but this demand was for someone to help out with classic Project Management Office work - updating charts and graphs. It was a demand that should have been “qualified” and then politely refused. The leaders, due to a lack of other demand, took it on and assigned coaches to the work.
The coaches didn’t have experience of running a PMO, nor were they thrilled with the work. No guardrails or outcomes were defined. It’s fair to say it didn’t end well.
In another function that offered management coaching, demand came in from a senior person in the business, for someone to come and help the management team build presentations in PowerPoint for the governance process.
The demand should have been rejected but was instead brought in. Three experienced management coaches spent two months creating PowerPoints. They lost interest, complained bitterly but they were stuck. With no caveats, expectations, guardrails or exit plan, they were stuck without serious political challenges.
Qualifying the work is essential.
Anything that is miles away from what you do should be rejected and your marketing activities improved to ensure a better quality of leads.
Demand that is inline with your purpose, but is further down the pyramid (free gift for friends for example) may be something you choose to do, but enter into this work with clear outcomes, boundaries and an exit plan. Also aim to flow this through the pyramid to an long term engagement - technically called an up-sell.
This upsell could come naturally through expert delivery of the free gift for friends and nurturing the relationship afterwards. Alternatively it could come from the coaches "selling" a short or long term commitment, after delivering the "free gift for friends".
This is not slimy, machiavellian tactics - this is selling a good, valuable and useful service of coaching or consulting, to those who may need it.
This is not about meeting quotas or targets, this is about a service that exists to improve organisational effectiveness - and getting people to use the service.
This is not about hard sales but about providing a solution to problems. This is not about jumping on any piece of work, this is about qualifying work that allows you to add value, and improve the effectiveness of the organisation.
You are a cost that someone is willing to outlay for a return of value- all we’re trying to do here is maximise that value by generating awareness, qualifying work and not wasting anyone's time.
We have something to offer that we believe is good, valuable and important - why would we not sell this to those who would benefit?
Delivery and Value (5 & 6)
There's no need to make the delivery of value complicated - a simple cone of delivery will suffice. But I will call out some specifics of delivery that relate to coaching and consulting.
Delivery is contextual. You may be supporting a major transformation, or coaching an individual, or improving the performance of a team - and plenty of other work in between.
We've talked so far about purpose, products and demand etc. Now, once work has been commissioned and taken on, we need to deliver the value associated with it.
Agreement
I will say there should alway be an agreement of the work upfront; a coaching or work agreement.
This should be agreed upon by you (the leader of the coaching service), the coach/consultant (that may also be you 😄 ) and the customer/client.
- What work is to be done?
- The actual tactics, activities etc
- What problems will be solved?
- Why are they in need of coaching?
- What results are we driving towards? (i.e. resolutions to problems)
- Who will do what work?
- The client will need to play an active role - especially if any training is involved. See this Activity Theory Model for more on that.
- You may also have multiple coaches and other team members who need to do something.
- What measures are we using to track progress against value?
- If we have problems, we should have measures, therefore we should know when we've solved them.
- What value will be released, uncovered or added as part of this?
- What value are we opening up, releasing or reducing (costs, revenue, retention etc)
- When will the engagement run until - and when will it start?
- Who in the business will the coach/consultant be working with?
- Are there any impediments, challenges, risks, issues or dependencies related to the work?
- Think access to people, time, locations
- What is the review process?
In a nutshell who is going to do what, why, when, how and with whom.
Reviews
Reviews are the super move here.
An engagement should always have a review process between the coach, the client and the leader of the coaching function.
I recommend monthly 30-minute reviews. The review is a chance to reflect and understand how the engagement is going.
- Are there any problems?
- What work has been done and to what success?
- Is the client getting what they expected?
- Is the coach getting what they need from the client?
- Does the work need to pivot and change?
- Is the scope of the work changing - and do we all agree on the new direction?
- Do we need to pull in some help?
- Are the dates still looking good, or do we need to extend or short cycle the engagement?
- Do we need to end the engagement
These reviews should feed into the engagement agreement, which absolutely is expected to change and evolve as the engagement gathers momentum.
Close Down Report
I advocate for a close down report at the end of the engagement. I would merely add this to the original agreement document.
In this close down report it should be clear:
- What work was done.
- What outcomes and value was released or delivered.
- What was not covered but was planned - and why.
- What extra work happened.
- Next steps for the client
- i.e. it may be that there is still more work to do - and the next steps may outline a future roadmap for them to work on
- Data, evidence and reporting to show improvements in the areas identified in the original agreement.
- Testimonial (assuming it ends well) from the client with permission to use this in a case study or marketing material.
Case Study
If exceptional work was done, you may wish to turn this into a case-study for marketing and leadership visibility.
There is nothing better to sell a service than the words and recommendation from people in the business, supported with tangible evidence of improvements.
A break
I always advocate a short break from engagement work for the coach, after an engagement closes.
This isn’t just some time off, unless they want it (you cannot force people to take time off…well, not usually) but rather a break from active coaching engagement.
They may not feel burned out or frazzled by the engagement but, in my experience, coaching engagements do take their toll on people.
I tend to create a short 1-2 day fire-break between engagements, where the coach could be doing marketing material, product development, learning and training or tidying up some of the admin involved with running an internal coaching team.
But this is waste - we’re a cost!
True, but the value of an internal coaching function always comes from the experts, specialists and people in the team. It is the people who do the coaching and consulting, and they have to be at their best all the time.
Mental activity and engagement is high when coaching, and speaking to people a lot is also tiring.
You add value through the products you sell - and this is through the work your people do.
Don’t sweat the occasional downtime, especially when it is designed to refresh and energise the engine of your success; people.
On that note - always understand the value being delivered - and work out how to generate more of it.
How can you make the service better, smoother and more customer orientated? How can you grow the abilities of your team to stay relevant, adapt as the organisation does and add more value than you cost?
Can you be more efficient with your time, energy and attention?
Could you manage the process more effectively?
Could you generate better marketing? Which part of the process needs the most attention?
How can you control the narrative and PR of your function?
And ultimately, how can you keep, reliably and honestly, answering the question:
“What value does your coaching service deliver?”
Closing Thoughts
It’s a lot of fun standing up, managing and delivering on the promise of an internal coaching service.
The right service can be essential for organisational effectiveness; after all, not everyone in the business has all the right skills, experience and behaviours to tackle the problems they face. This is why they need coaches or consultants - to help them get better, solve problems and grow in their role.
I am an advocate for coaching and consulting services. Just be clear why they are needed, what they bring to the table and how they can help the organisation deliver better value (external).
Just remember that the team is a cost and hence must be able to find the path to value.
And you must control the narrative, build marketing and actively own the strategic communication about the service - winning hearts and minds is half of the battle.