411 Locals: An Internal Team Coaching Program for Better Team Performance

A study provided by the International Federation of Coaches shows that an internal live coaching program can improve the productivity and performance of the team at any company. The survey was conducted among 150 enterprises across the globe that are already running an internal live coaching program. All of them reported the internal coaching managed to increase the employee performance with 10% to 30 %and to lower the level of work-related stress with 15 to 22 points. 

Initially, the coaching was offered only to senior managers or individuals at specific grades - middle-level manager or employee with high potential. Nowadays, in most companies, including 411 Locals, the internal live coaching is delivered to all employees. An investment of such rank is quite reasonable as it offers high return on investment. 

External or Internal Coach? Which one is better?

411 Locals knows well, that both approaches have their supporters, so there is no right and wrong answer to that question. It is believed that the main advantages of the external coach are the experience with leadership and multiple tasks that were performed previously in different organizations. External coaches are supposed to have better training and tend to have the higher level of accreditation compared to internal coaches. However, the main drawback of hiring an external coach is not only the higher cost but the lack of understanding of the company’s internal structure and culture.
Internal coaches are considered to have a better internal understanding of the company processes and structure. Also, they are familiar with the company culture and are seen as an accessible and free resource within the organization. 

Internal coaching program for better team performance 

Employees and teams are the engine that drives most companies or organizations. The levels of efficiency, the work done, and the delivered outcomes are the results of how the team works together. 411 Locals reminds, that Indicators such as performance and productivity could suffer when the team members are lacking the knowledge how to work together. A crisis such as conflicts, hostility, or unclear expectations could lead to poor results and ineffective handling of the internal resources. Starting an Internal coaching program can prevent such undesirable events and harmful effects of unhealthy teams.

Understand and accept the team dynamics and establish behavior expectations 

According to 411 Locals, A great place to start an internal team coaching program is by understanding what is the role of the employees within the team and if they work well together. It is about different styles of working and interpreting the information, as well as verbal and nonverbal skills. Reaction on one and the same stimulus could be totally different. No matter the difference between the team members and their unique features, the team has to be synchronized. Some personal assessment tools can be of a great use to determine and uncover individual patterns - communication approach, conflict resolution, a capability of multitasking, and problem-solving. The main role of the Internal team coaching program will be bringing the team members together and finding a way to improve their performance. The coaching tools and mastermind groups are a great way to understand others people point of view. Once the point of view is clarified, is time for setting up internal rules, acceptable for all team members. Maybe, most important aspect of the internal team coaching is to develop a clear set of communication and behavior expectations. Using a team charter can easily formalize and visualize all expectations and agreements. 

Evaluate the achievements and set up a proper reward system

In general, people have different values and these create a dominant obstacle to team effectiveness and unification. To overcome this the Organization or the Company should set up a rewarding system, evaluating both individual and team contribution. Here steps in the team coaching once again. With group and role play games, the rewards expected by every team member can be clarified and then the expectations evaluated. It is important the coach to find overlapping between expectations, reality, and the company values. Next is to find goals that both individuals and the team share. Great tool for achieving that could be mastermind sessions focused on the team and individual values. 

What works well for one particular team, may not necessarily work for another department or team. One of the goals of the internal coaching is to create effective relationships between team members. However, the effective work relationships are build by revealing employee’s needs, style of work, and preferences. An internal coach can easily use them to identify the differences between team members and then to focus their attention on overcoming them and bettering the performance of the team.