Internal Coach Development

A programme for the specific challenges internal coaches face — power dynamics, dual relationships, organisational knowledge, and building credibility from inside.

What's inside

This collection addresses the specific challenges that coaches working inside organisations face — challenges that external coaches and generic coach training often overlook.

The programme covers six sections:

The Internal Coach Identity — Navigating the dual role of employee and coach, managing the credibility challenge, and building a coaching identity that works within your organisational context.

Power & Dual Relationships — The specific power dynamics internal coaches face: coaching people you work alongside, managing hierarchical relationships, and maintaining boundaries when everyone knows everyone.

Organisational Knowledge — Using your insider knowledge as a strength without letting it become a limitation: when context helps and when it creates assumptions that block genuine exploration.

Building Internal Credibility — Earning trust as a coach when people already know you in another role, managing confidentiality when the organisation wants information, and demonstrating value.

Contracting Internally — The specific contracting challenges: three-way agreements, managing sponsor expectations, and being clear about what coaching is and isn't within the organisation.

Sustainable Internal Practice — Managing the emotional demands of internal coaching, maintaining your own development, and building a coaching practice that's valued and protected.

How to use this collection

For internal coach development programmes, deliver as a structured programme over ten to twelve weeks for new or developing internal coaches.

For coaching supervisors, use to understand and support the specific challenges your internal coach supervisees face — particularly around dual relationships and organisational dynamics.

For organisations building internal coaching capability, use alongside the Coaching Culture Development collection to develop both individual coaches and the organisational infrastructure that supports them.

Available to registered Coaching Workspace members. You'll be asked to sign in if you're not already.