NIH Training Center Coaching and Consulting Services
The National Institutes of Health Training Center offers a wide range of individualized coaching and consulting services for executives, senior managers, middle managers, professional staff, and other key contributors. Executive and leadership coaching offers today's busy leaders the opportunity to pursue professional development in a confidential, tailored, and collaborative one-on-one environment. Individual Development Plan consulting provides custom career development support to NIH staff. The long-term benefits to NIH for these services are a more productive, efficient and engaged workforce.
The NIH Training Center offers an extensive network of experienced, certified coaches who have been thoroughly evaluated to ensure maximum benefit to the NIH community. Coaches listen, conduct in-depth interviews, ask questions, provide support and feedback, and challenge their clients. Our coaches work with both individuals and teams to enhance skills via a variety of engagements – or can deliver shorter-term 360 feedback services. The high-impact results achieved from coaching are observable.
The International Coaching Federation (ICF) defines coaching as partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential. Learn more below about how to pursue your potential via these individualized services below.
What is a Coach?
- Supporting individual career growth
- Solving complex problems
- Improving delegation skills Increasing individual and/or staff performance and productivity
- Improving communication, assertiveness and conflict resolution skills
- Assistance with professional creativity and innovation
- Strengthening of organizational and time management skills Improving work/life balance
- Enhancing networking skills Developing "leadership" presence
A Coach is:
- Always striving for full objectivity
- Focused on the Client's success
- An Advisor
- Curious
- Able to tap into the Client's mind for the experiences and wisdom that has been built over time, thereby boosting the confidence of the Client
- Adept in having the Client reveal the best answers for him/herself
- Skilled in guiding the Client through the thinking process, allowing the client to identify barriers and solutions that will fit his/her style, needs, talents, etc.
Key words that describe a coach: objective, curious and questioner
A Mentor is:
- Typically within the mentee’s organization
- Valuable in offering advice and counsel
- Adept in providing the "inside view" of the intricacies and politics of the organization.
- Often able to use his/her influence to help position the mentee better, gain access to opportunities (details, promotions, etc.) and, sometimes, remove barriers.
Key words that describe a mentor: insider, influencer and advisor.
A coach can make a significant difference in the long-term success of both the individual and the organization. A coach is hands-on with their coaching. A coach wants the same thing the executives they are coaching want: to achieve their target goals. A coach works with the executives and managers they coach to capitalize on the organization’s strengths to help them achieve the very best results it can.
The capacity to create relationships in which the client finds the courage to question the basic presuppositions from which they have been working.
Given that most actions come from some set of presuppositions, it is important to be able to identify them and to develop the courage to challenge them.
The capacity to listen for what matters to the client.
One of the most common losses in corporate life is engagement or passion. Very often this loss shows up as lack of innovation and creativity. Bringing the client back in touch with what they care about and connecting it back to the organization’s mission, vision, and strategy is a skill of a great executive coach.
The ability to break the conversational patterns in which the client is trapped.
Sometimes we fall into conversational patterns that become completely ineffective. “If you keep repeating what you always do, don’t ask for different results.” Translated for coaching, we could say, “If you remain involved in the same conversations, don’t expect new interpretations or different outcomes.” A great executive coach has the ability to elicit fresh conversations from the client.
The capacity to recognize the environmental and systemic dynamics within which the client works
Our ability to improve or to radically alter our actions is greatly dependent on the emotional dynamics and environmental systems in which we find ourselves. Recognizing these dynamics and understanding these systems creates new territories for learning. Helping clients increase their emotional intelligence and understanding of how both emotions and systems predispose us to act in certain ways and not in others permits them to learn and design new environments to allow for new actions.
The capacity to recognize the environmental and systemic dynamics within which the client works
Our ability to improve or to radically alter our actions is greatly dependent on the emotional dynamics and environmental systems in which we find ourselves. Recognizing these dynamics and understanding these systems creates new territories for learning. Helping clients increase their emotional intelligence and understanding of how both emotions and systems predispose us to act in certain ways and not in others permits them to learn and design new environments to allow for new actions.
The capacity to recognize the environmental and systemic dynamics within which the client works
Our ability to improve or to radically alter our actions is greatly dependent on the emotional dynamics and environmental systems in which we find ourselves. Recognizing these dynamics and understanding these systems creates new territories for learning. Helping clients increase their emotional intelligence and understanding of how both emotions and systems predispose us to act in certain ways and not in others permits them to learn and design new environments to allow for new actions.
The capacity to build trust
The client must assess the coach as sincere, competent, and reliable. Mutual trust is cultivated throughout the coaching relationship and builds over time. The absence of trust at any point disables the relationship. Once trust is present, it must not be taken for granted and needs to be regenerated constantly during the coaching relationship.
The ability to create a mood of lightness
Neither the mood of gravity nor the mood of triviality belong in coaching. Lightness is the capacity to look (and laugh) at oneself without being trapped by ego or pretense. Lightness brings to the coaching relationship the sincere desire to move into a new realm of interpretations out of which effective action can take place.
The capacity to maintain confidentiality
The client must be certain that any disclosure in the coaching relationship will remain confidential for as long as they want to keep it that way. This is an essential element in the creation of a trusting relationship between coach and client.
The ability to support the client into new actions.
New insights and awareness is needed, but so are new behaviors and actions. A great coach works with the client to support them in developing a strategy, plan, and tactics for taking new actions consistent with their declared objectives and goals.
Coaching and Consulting Services
Target Audience:
Available to GS 14 through SES and equivalent leaders.
Description:
Coaching services are offered through partnerships with an extensive network of highly experienced, vetted and certified professional coaches who have contracted with NIH to work with multiple executives over the years. Executive coaching offers busy leaders the opportunity to pursue leadership development in a confidential and collaborative one-on-one environment. Team Coaching is also available, whereby the coach works directly with a team of leaders within a division. Please note that only the 24 hour/12 month package is an option for team coaching.
If you’d like for your coaching engagement to also include a 360 leadership assessment, the 24 hour coaching package can accommodate this. Please notify us of your interest for a 360 assessment via the “additional information” section on the online request form.
FY25 Coaching Packages & Pricing:
12 hours/6 months: $5,295 | 24 hours/12 months: $9,830
To get started, please complete the online coaching request form.
The Process
External Executive Coaching - The Process
Executive Coaching Testimonials
How Coaching Has Impacted Performance
- I am providing more frequent communication regarding my office to leadership on a consistent basis. I am also sending achievements of our team to leadership so as to keep them apprised of their good work.
- My coach helped me translate change management tools into real results during an organizational change and personnel assignments. I used new insights in establishing regular meetings with office staff, and communications were improved on standard operating procedures and on interpersonal perspectives.
- The beauty of coaching is that it is immediately applied to real-life situations. My coach helped me identify practical approaches and solutions and is an outstanding coach who is very knowledgeable and insightful. She has a wealth of experience with a range of people and organizations. She helps a client look at the whole picture in developing into the best leader he/she can be while recognizing and maintaining a healthy balance in all aspects of life.
- My coach helped me look at problems and challenges in a new way and come up with new solutions; she helped me identify my pitfalls and ways to avoid or address them.
- Coaching certainly increases my personal and professional self-awareness and assists in validating perceptions and/or provide additional angles of issues.
General Comments about the Coaching Experience
- I really appreciate the opportunity to participate in this program. I hope I will be able to continue to have the services of a coach in the future.I'm very grateful to have been afforded the opportunity for coaching, and am truly reaping the rewards of that opportunity every day.
- I wish I had been allowed to have double the very generous # of hours I received!
- My coach is outstanding. She is great at time management, knows her field, and understands NIH.
- Real-time learning of practical leadership skills through coaching with immediate application to real-life situations is invaluable and unmatched by any other approach. It is an essential complement to theoretical learning.
Would You Recommend Coaching to Others in Your Organization
- I believe everyone can benefit from the services provided by a coach.
- Yes, I have already recommended this to others.
- I think every new person in a leadership position should be given access to some coaching and all **program staff to have at least a few hours of the same.
Target Audience:
Available to team leads, supervisors and managers at the GS 13-14 level and equivalents.
Description:
Coaching is provided by an internal, certified NIH coach with NIH supervisory experience. This individualized coaching package is designed to enhance management behaviors and offers a cost-effective approach for targeted supervisor coaching. NIH coaches approach coaching from an NIH perspective. Coaching focuses on behavioral changes that can contribute to personal, team, and organizational success. Confidentiality is assured. The cost covers twelve 1-hour sessions and you will receive 12 CLPs that can go towards supervisory refresher credits
To get started, complete the online coaching request form. A coach from our office will reach out to you for additional information before your office commits any funding.
Cost:
$1,900
Target Audience:
Available to all NIH employees.
Description:
Career coaching/consultation is provided by an internal OHR advisor with expertise in career counseling and NIH’s competencies. For additional information and to register, visit the Individual Development Plan (IDP) Consulting and Workshops page.
Cost:
Two, 50-minute sessions for $399.
Target Audience:
Available to GS 14 through SES supervisors and equivalent leaders.
Description:
What is 360? 360 degree feedback is a method of systematically collecting opinions about an individual’s performance from a wide range of people to uncover leadership strengths and areas of improvement. This includes feedback from supervisors, direct reports, peers, and potentially external customers and stakeholders. This broad range of perspectives helps individuals become more self-aware. Results of a 360 assessment belong only to the individual. Information will not be shared with management or anyone in the Office of Human Resources.
Cost:
$2,000
Package Includes:
- 1:1 360 orientation | 30 minute overview of the assessment tool and process by phone.
- Dissemination of the 360 assessment | Electronic data collection process from raters.
- 1:1 360 assessment debrief | 1.5 hours with a certified executive coach (in person, or by phone) to discuss rater feedback report and establish an action plan.
Want to arrange a 360 for yourself or your team? Please contact us at NIHTrainingCenter@nih.gov.