What is Internal Coaching?

If you’ve ever casually mentioned to someone else that you’re interested in a career as a coach, you may have run into these common assumptions:

1. That you’ve taken your passion for basketball or football too far (“not that kind of coach!” you explain), and
2. That becoming a coach means you need to start a business and run your own practice in order to be successful.  

As an Admissions Coach for iPEC, I’m often asked, “Is it possible to have a successful coaching career without striking it out on your own?”

These days, the answer is a resounding YES!

Companies have recognized the benefits of coaching within their organizations—especially in the areas of professional development, effective communication, and transforming office culture. Businesses of all sizes, including PwC, Google, and Virgin, incorporate coaching as part of the training regime for their top-level executives, middle management, and even their up-and-coming employees.

As a result, an increasing number of the coaches who graduate from iPEC don’t start their own businesses.

So, what can you do with coaching skills in your existing position with a company, non-profit, or business?

It’s called “internal coaching” and, once equipped with a solid foundation of coaching tools from the iPEC Coach Training Program, our graduates are able to:

• Help new managers and team leaders step into their positions, improve their leadership and problem solving skills, and manage co-workers with confidence and clear communication
• Re-energize and re-engage employees who have “checked out” by connecting with them and coaching them on a personal and professional level
• Offer alternative problem-solving approaches to on-the-job challenges, empowering others to draw on their own knowledge and experiences to create a “best” solution, instead of applying a “by the book” quick fix
• Influence company culture to be more harmonious, improving communication among coworkers and between employees and management, and enhancing creativity and productivity

Some iPEC graduates go further than just incorporating their new skills, and end up creating an entirely new job description and role for themselves within their company. These coaches combine their interests and skills to “niche” down, offering coaching for specific challenges that arise within the workplace environment, like:

• Planning for retirement
• Smoothing transitions and changes within the workplace
• Hiring and retaining millennials in the workplace
• Helping recently promoted managers navigate their new role and the responsibilities that come along with it

Ultimately, the skills iPEC graduates learn are transferable and valuable to any workplace, giving them a wide range of opportunities to take advantage of.

Right now, you may have every desire to stay within your current role…

But what would it look like if you said YES to learning a skill set that would allow you to fly solo in the future, if you wanted to?

How would you feel if using your skills ended up creating a new, more exciting role for yourself to fill an as-yet-unforeseen need within your company?

Completing coach training gives you tremendous career mobility.

Whatever your decisions and career path end up being, iPEC’s training and support remains available to you for a lifetime. We’re here to support you in any direction you decide to take.

Are you interested in hearing more about how coach training skills can integrate with, enhance, and re-engage you in your current career?

Click here to download our free PDF guide to learn more about coach training programs and how to find the right program for you.