Coaching is an intentional and confidential exploration in which the coach uses curiosity, inquiry, active listening, and candor to support the participant’s self-directed learning, increased self-awareness, and enhanced capacity to thrive, including in challenging or uncertain environments.

The coaching approach is built on the science and application of positive psychology, well-being, resilience, and strength-based leadership. Coaching is a process that builds character, focuses on what you want and how to achieve it, encourages and supports what is important to you, engages you in active, continuous learning, and helps you see new possibilities. 

Vision | The CIGIE PDC Coaching Subcommittee seeks to champion coaching across the OIG community to enable, support, and promote a well-trained and highly skilled workforce.

Mission | The mission of the CIGIE PDC Coaching Subcommittee is to help the members of the OIG workforce maximize their potential and be their best selves, which supports the efficiency and effectiveness of our missions.

OIG Coaches/Team Members  

1. Toayoa Aldridge (U.S. Agency for International Development OIG)
2. Robert Baggett (U.S. Department of Agriculture OIG)
3. Rob DeConti (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services OIG)
4. Chris Gaffney (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development OIG)
5. Jennifer Garcia (U.S. Department of Defense OIG)
6. Jan Davis Hamm (U.S. Department of Justice OIG)
7. Stan Hammonds (U.S. Department of Transportation OIG)
8. Carolyn Ramona Hantz (U.S. Department of Labor OIG)
9. Jeremy Kirkland (Defense Intelligence Agency OIG)
10. Ryan Lefort (U.S. Department of Transportation OIG)
11. Rina Meushaw (Social Security Administration OIG)
12. Alyssa Molina (U.S. Department of Justice OIG)
13. Tom Monheim (Intelligence Community IG)
14. Berivan Neubert (U.S. Postal Service OIG) 
15. Mario Phillips (U.S. Department of Defense OIG)
16. Rene Rocque (U.S. Department of Education OIG)
17. Brian Sano (U.S. Department of State OIG)
18. Delores “Dee” Thompson (U.S. Department of Labor OIG)
19. Santipong (Santi) Vorabhanda (U.S. Department of Agriculture OIG)
20. Charmaine Thorne (U.S. Department of Labor OIG)

Check out some of the past PDC events and check back here for more coaching events!

• PDC Lead and Learn:  How Coaching Can Impact Your Growth as a Leader
• PDC Kickoff: Coaching Subcommittee Presentation

• What are the benefits of coaching?
  • ​Partnering with a professional coach can unlock your potential and set you on the path to thriving personally and professionally 
  • Support in identifying and living out your vision and purpose to be the best version of yourself
  • Receive highly personalized attention conducted in a one-on-one setting
  • Identify solutions, options, and success-limiting obstacles
  • Create realistic, workable, successful, and implementable action and development plans
  • Focus on future opportunities and ways to improve
  • Learn strategies for leveraging your strengths
  • Become aware of the changes you need to make to identify, prioritize, and achieve your professional goals
• Who benefits from coaching?
  ​Anyone!  We all can benefit from coaching by focusing on specific topics, issues, or goals to achieve greater clarity or results.​
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• What are the expectations in a coaching partnership? 
  ​A coaching partnership is confidential, driven by the client, and facilitated by the coach.  Coaching partnerships are customized to the client’s needs but typically span 6-8 sessions over several months.  Prior to beginning a coaching partnership, the coach and client sign a Coaching Agreement which outlines each party’s role in the partnership and establishes the number and duration of coaching sessions.
   
• What are the expectations in each coaching session?
  ​Coaching sessions typically:​
  • Last 30 to 60 minutes
  • Occur during on-duty work hours
  • Begin with a “getting to know you” session where expectations are set 
  • Include action planning and active coaching focused on the client’s goals
  • Close with a focus on reflections and a new beginning
• Is there a minimum grade level for clients and coaches?
  No.  Clients and coaches may be at any grade level.  Coaches avoid coaching those in their direct supervisory chain.   ​
  ​
• Do OIG employees need supervisory approval to get a CIGIE coach?
  ​​Some agencies require employees to obtain supervisory approval before beginning coaching.  The Coaching Agreement stipulates that employees have followed their agency policies and obtained the necessary approvals to participate.  Even if supervisory approval is not required, clients may find it helpful to inform their supervisor that they have begun coaching, both to notify them that they will be coached during regular working hours and to share their professional development goals as well as any insights gleaned from, or actions taken as a result of, coaching conversations.  ​
   
• What are the confidentiality expectations in a coaching partnership?
  ​​​The International Coaching Federation (ICF), an accreditation body that establishes standards and an ethical code for coaches, defines confidentiality as the protection of any information obtained around the coaching engagement unless consent to release is given.  CIGIE coaches – whether or not certified by ICF – abide by this standard.  This means coaches are required to keep confidential the content of all coaching sessions, except as required by law.*  The Coaching Agreement you and your coach sign stipulates the specific confidentiality requirements.

    These provisions are consistent with and do not supersede, conflict with, or otherwise alter the employee obligations, rights, or liabilities created by existing statute or Executive order relating to (1) classified information, (2) communications to Congress, (3) the reporting to an Inspector General of a violation of any law, rule, or regulation, or mismanagement, a gross waste of funds, an abuse of authority, or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety, or (4) any other whistleblower protection. The definitions, requirements, obligations, rights, sanctions, and liabilities created by controlling Executive orders and statutory provisions are incorporated into Coaching Agreements and are controlling.

    *Limits of confidentiality in the Federal government include: a report of an act of fraud, waste, or abuse;  the revelation of having committed a crime; the threat of harm to self or others; the sharing of information in violation of a security clearance; the report of sexual harassment; or the requirement by law or a court order to share particular information.  (See “Federal Coaching Frequently Asked Questions,” Chief Human Capital Officers Council.

• How does coaching differ from mentoring?
  Whereas mentoring centers on giving and receiving experienced advice from someone within your profession, coaching involves facilitated inquiry that encourages the coaching client to lead and be accountable for their own growth.  Because coaching assumes the client has the answers within themselves, coaches focus on asking powerful questions to promote the client’s thought, goal setting, and decision-making processes.​
   
• Is there a fee to obtain a coach?
  ​There is no fee for coaching services through CIGIE.  OIG coaches are current federal employees who are offering coaching services to other federal employees. Because we are federal employee coaches, these coaching sessions will occur during on-duty work hours.​
   
• How do I get a coach?
  If you would like to request a coach, please reach out to us through the “Contact Us” button.  Due to the high demand for and limited number of coaches, being matched to a coach may not occur immediately.  Beginning in 2021, the CIGIE Coaching Subcommittee will operate under an annual fiscal year coaching cycle.  We will issue a call for clients in late Summer and start matching interested clients with OIG coaches in the Fall.  If CIGIE coaches are not available, we will ask if you would like to be considered for a non-CIGIE federal coach. If you agree, we will work with our federal partners to match you with another federal coach, and will reach out to you as soon as we have more information.  See “Coach-Client Matching Schedule.”  
   
• How are clients and coaches matched?
  During our call for clients in late Summer each year, we will ask interested clients to complete a brief intake form.  Your request will be evaluated and then you will be matched with a coach, who will contact you directly.  You will not be matched with anyone in your supervisory chain and usually not even within your agency. 
• How is the CIGIE PDC Coaching Subcommittee connected to other CIGIE initiatives?
  The CIGIE PDC Coaching Subcommittee has partnered with the CIGIE Fellowship Program to support group coaching activities and is pursuing additional opportunities to raise awareness and provide more coaching opportunities.
   
• What is the Federal Coach Network?
  The Federal Coaching Network (FCN) is a community of individuals across the federal government who are invested in the practice of coaching and whole-heartedly support its role in leadership development. The mission of the FCN is to foster leadership development and continuous learning at all levels by leveraging resources to advance coaching across agencies. Requesting a coach through the FCN is a process managed at the agency level by liaisons who will likely be found in the human resource office or office of training and development.
   
• Does the CIGIE PDC Coaching Subcommittee leverage coaches from other agencies?
  We partner with coaches from the FCN, the Treasury Executive Institute (TEI), and other federal agencies.  To maintain independence, no OIG employee will be matched with a federal coach from the agency(s) for which they provide oversight.​​​​
   

• Beginning in 2021, the Coaching Subcommittee moved to an annual fiscal year coach-client matching cycle. We now issue a call for clients in late Summer, start matching interested clients with OIG coaches in the Fall, and issue program evaluations in the Spring.  For clients requesting a coach in the interim, we maintain a wait list and complete the matches as coaches become available.​​

FY 23 Coaching Call Partnerships Underway

FY 2023:

The PDC Coaching Subcommittee has completed the matching process for the FY 2023 call for coaching participants. We received a remarkable 263 initial responses to the call!  Of the 263 respondents, 47% were nonsupervisory employees, 30% were managers or supervisors, 18% were non-supervisory team leads, and 5% were executives. 

This represents an increase from 180 responses in FY 2022 and 154 responses in FY 2021, underscoring the growing demand for, and awareness of, coaching as a valuable professional development service. Responses to the FY 2023 call came from 42 OIGs, which represents about 57 percent of the OIG community.  

The final number of OIG clients requesting a coach in FY 23 fell to 250 for a variety of reasons.  We are delighted to announce that we were able to match all 250 OIG community members with a coach - either a CIGIE coach or another coach through our Federal coaching partners.  The CIGIE Coaching Subcommittee thanks CIGIE Fellow Larry Johnson of SSA OIG for his tremendous work completing the FY 2023 matches. 

As oversight professionals, we are always interested cost efficiencies.  The average cost of a private sector contracted coaching engagement with a similar number of coaching hours is about $3,000.  We’ve been steadily working to match all interested participants and—if we reach our goal of a coach for each of our 334 interested participants over 2 years—we would see almost $1 million in cost savings!  Aside from realizing these savings and providing valuable coaching services, we enable participants to connect with colleagues across the Federal government, while boosting their confidence, realizing their potential, and helping them achieve their goals.  A win-win scenario all around!

From the results of a 2021 CIGIE Coaching survey of OIG community members who had a coach in 2021, or who indicated interest in being paired with a coach, 86 percent would recommend CIGIE Coaching to a colleague, and 98 percent described the impact of the coaching they received as positive or significantly positive.

The Coaching Movement: Learn, Advocate, GROW, and Serve

After the PDC Lead and Learn event, How Coaching Can Impact Your Growth as a Leader (which featured Coach Rob McKinnon), the Coaching subcommittee received several inquiries from OIG community members on how they can develop coaching skills and become coaches.  To help those future leaders and coaches on their journey, we are sharing four ways you can join the coaching movement:

1.  Learn about Coaching. And Just Do It. You don’t have to be a coach to use coaching skills.  As we learned from Mr. McKinnon, leaders at all levels can deploy several techniques to have a greater impact.  Two of the simplest and most effective tools are to be curious and listen—two sides of the same coaching coin.  Simply put, Michael Bungay Stainer, author of “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever,” explains, “the real secret sauce here is building a habit of curiosity.”*  Bungay Stainer shares these and many other pithy insights and other coaching tools everyone can use to enhance their leadership.  The more you learn, the more you’ll demonstrate curiosity and listening, the more others will learn from you.  *CIGIE, the CIGIE Coaching Subcommittee, and the ICF do not endorse or recommend any specific books or coaching resources.
2. Become a Coaching Advocate. Curiosity is cool; everyone is doing it.  Ignore that saying about the cat.  Whenever and wherever you can, advocate for coaching approaches, curiosity, and listening. Develop your own list of amazing questions and foster coaching connections wherever and whenever possible.
3. GROW As a Coach. For those starting their journey to become a coach, finishing their coach training or accreditation, or engaging as fully certified coaches, the Coaching Subcommittee provides an opportunity for you to grow and develop. The Coaching Subcommittee promotes the sharing of resources for coaching professional development and training opportunities and allows you to connect with a network of OIG and Federal coaches.  Also check out the great resources on the ICF Learning Portal.
4. Serve on the Coaching Subcommittee.  We are small, but our subcommittee is steadily growing and is certainly mighty.  As we bring on more volunteer coaches, we will reach more people across the community, and we plan to launch our third call for clients in August 2022. We are also working on an opportunity for either a CIGIE Fellow or detailee to help support our administrative and matching operations, as well as communications efforts.  Coaches who serve can do so (1) as coaches only, engaging in our matching process; (2) both as coaches and as participants in our coaching professional development opportunities; or (3) as full team members, helping to manage and expand our internal coaching program.  If you would like to join the CIGIE Coaching Subcommittee, or send your colleagues our way, please reach out to us here.

The GROW Model is a simple structure for coaching engagements. GROW is an acronym for: Goal, Current Reality, Options (or Obstacles), and Will (or Way Forward). 

Do you want to help transform someone’s life or career? To support them in being the best they can be? To encourage them to grow and reach their dreams and professional goals? Are you looking to strengthen your leadership skills by helping people and organizations learn and develop? If these questions pique your curiosity, then you might be interested in becoming a professional coach!

For these empowering relationships to exist, coaches go through extensive training and continuing education through accredited International Coaching Federation (ICF) training programs that are meant to develop efficient, effective coaches and ensure quality training across the coaching profession. ICF-accredited trainings go through a rigorous review process to demonstrate how their curriculum aligns with the ICF definitions of coaching, core competencies, and code of ethics.  These certified programs deliver 30 to 100 hours (depending on the depth and type of program) of coach-specific training programs, which typically span approximately 6 to 8 months and involve several hours of live sessions, coursework, and coaching experience every couple of weeks.  Private sector trainings usually cost between $10,000-$15,000. 

Searching for a coach training program is a highly individualized process that depends greatly on the individual’s personal and professional preferences and goals.  Although there is not a standardized coach training program, ICF provides a database of ICF-certified coach training programs on its website.   

In addition, several Federal agencies offer coach training as part of their learning and development curriculum; however, these classes are highly selective and are available on a limited basis.  Some examples of Federal coach training programs include:

• Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Internal Coach Training Program (available to all Federal employees, including at agency OIGs and CIGIE)

• Treasury Executive Institute (available to its partner agencies)

• Department of Interior Internal Coach Training Program (available to Department employees, including at OIG)

•Defense Intelligence Agency

Although CIGIE, the CIGIE Coaching Subcommittee, and the ICF do not endorse or recommend any specific training, some examples in the private sector include:

• Co-Active Training Institute

• Georgetown University: Leadership Coaching Program

• George Mason University: Leadership Coaching for Organizational Well-Being

• American University: Executive Coaching Program

• Hudson Institute of Coaching

If you are interested in training to become a coach, please contact your OIG or Department training officer.  If you have any general questions about coach training–or if you are qualified to provide coaching to OIG community members and would like to join the CIGIE Coaching Subcommittee–please reach out to us here.