Government Skills has launched a new service that means all civil
servants can now get easy access to one-to-one coaching -
provided for civil servants by civil servants.
Under Government Skills'
Internal Coaching Service, which is also available through
Civil Service Learning, users can access a new, digital
platform which enables them to choose from a database of more
than 250 fully-trained coaches, all current civil servants. It
then sets up a messaging channel between the coach and coachee,
through which they can organise face-to-face or online sessions.
The new digital service replaces an older system in which those
looking for a coach had to refer to an Excel spreadsheet.
Coach profiles
Now, users can decide who they want to work with based on a short
profile of each coach, detailing their professional background
and approach. The functionality also allows users to search for a
coach by department, profession or name.
“This is a service for civil servants by civil servants and it
provides a personalised way of supporting performance development
,” said Helen Ogilvy, pictured, Government Skills' head of
coaching - who herself is one of the coaches on the service.
“ We are confident that this new service will provide an enhanced
user experience which will encourage more people to give coaching
a go as it is a fantastic way to boost performance and
explore fresh ways of tackling work-based issues.
“Crucially, the service is free - giving individuals the autonomy
to explore coaching as a development tool without needing
sign-off from managers.”
Qualified and trained
“To be part of the Internal Coaching Service, coaches must be
suitably qualified and trained,” said Chris Berthoud, who has
been a coach at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
since 2016.
“This means we can help people rise to the top of their game
(think tennis coaches, but for work) and also work with people
who might have challenges around confidence, resilience,
relationships with managers and so on.
“We typically offer six one-hour sessions, around three weeks
apart. It's heartening to see people grow in self-awareness; try
out new behaviours, and occasionally – undergo some kind of
revelation which changes their life for the better.”
Digital matching
The Internal Coaching services works by digitally matching users
to a coach who meets their needs and preferences.
Once the user has selected a coach, they use the in-built
videoconferencing function that works no matter what IT system
their organisation uses.
Jim Squire, consulting fellow at the Ministry of Defence, praised
the impact that coaching has had on his approach to work.
He said:
It made me realise it's ok to ask for support and not a sign of
weakness.
My coach's guidance and encouragement helped me to
disassemble quite rigorously my recent past experiences.
She gave me the space and just enough nudges to explore the
underlying issues, develop my own views on what alternatives I
could pursue and finally helped me to make my own decisions that
I can basically chose to be optimistic and positive about a
future career I have control over rather than remain negatively
focussed on things that haven't gone so well in the past.
I was truly impressed by how skilfully she did this; just the
right amount of questions, inferences and challenges. She never
took the problems or the solutions off me and what we've come to
is genuinely my solution, but not one I could have worked through
without her guidance”
Explore Government Skills' new Internal Coaching Service.
