Careful consideration must be given to who you recruit as coaches and where your recruitment efforts will be focused: advertising to build within your program or department, or outside of your department.  Elements to prepare for recruitment and selection include coach description, coaching essentials, time commitment, an overview of the training and support that will be provided, and a Leadership Academy overview.

As you consider in-house capacity or available resources for external options take a moment to review The Leadership Academy Coaching Guide, section 2 which provides criteria for effective coaching essentials. Preparing to be a Leadership Academy Coach requires an initial investment of time.  Participation as a Leadership Coach will span over a period of approximately 9-12 months per coaching cohort, along with the additional initial investment of 3 months of foundational coaching training. 

With the investment by the agency in training and supporting coaches, as well as the preparation investment by the coaches themselves, it is suggested that during the recruitment and selection process, you consider the opportunity for the coach to potentially serve two Leadership Academy cohorts as an important component of your capacity building and sustainability discussion. 

A Coach Description will be beneficial for communication about the expectations and responsibilities of a coach as you engage in recruitment. Experience in some jurisdictions has focused heavily on internal resources, and others have included external resources through agency partnerships such as universities and other supporting departments like HR, Office of Diversity, etc.

You may find it more amenable to have a committee nominate and select a cadre of cohorts or your jurisdiction may decide to have potential coaches participate in an application process (sample application).

It is ideal to have one coach/one participant to help ensure the availability and capacity of the coach through all three phases of coaching since this responsibility is typically in addition to their regularly assigned workload.  Once all participants and coaches have been identified, thoughtful consideration will need to be given to decisions around matching the coach with the participant. Some things to consider include position within the agency, potential current or prior working relationship, individual characteristics, and styles, etc.  The aim here is to minimize any unnecessary barriers to establishing rapport and building the coaching relationship.