First in-house coaches at Wavemaker graduate from new ground-breaking coaching initiative

Yesterday, the first 30 Wavemaker UK employees to complete their accreditation to be certified Internal Coaches were formally recognised at a graduation ceremony held at Sea Containers.

The coaches will now work within Wavemaker UK to help career and personal development amongst the agency’s 600+-strong staff.

Under the new WM Coaching initiative, which was also officially launched at the event, the Internal Coaches each completed ‘Leader as a Coach’ training accredited by The Association for Coaching.  

The coaching initiative has been introduced as part of WM Flourish – Wavemaker’s leadership and development programme set up in this year to strengthen the agency’s in-house talent.  

It aligns with Brilliant Managers – another WM Flourish training programme – which aims to increase the skillset of those working within the business with line management responsibility.

Julia Humphreys, Head of Learning & Development, Wavemaker UK, said: “WM Coaching came about as a result of feedback from our people through our staff engagement survey, exit interviews and feedback meetings”.

“The aim is to use people identified as role models of Brilliant Managers to become coaches and train other managers in the business”

“We believe that coaching will empower people to both become better managers, and that everyone across the business should have the opportunity to tackle challenges and focus on their development.

“We congratulate those graduating today and would like to thank the three very highly qualified facilitators with whom we are now working.”

Wavemaker’s WM Coaching training is delivered by The Coach House, the coach training arm of Wavemaker training partner Bec Development; overseen by Helen Tiffany, Master Coach and Managing Director of Bec Development and Coach House tutors Christian van Nieuwerburgh; Professor of Coaching and Positive Psychology at the University of East London; and Lynne Cooper, leading developer of ‘Clean coaching’ approaches including the globally recognised Five-Minute Coach.

The training was delivered over three months and involved small group workshops as well as supervised and unsupervised coaching practice.

Paul Hutchison, CEO at Wavemaker added: “I’m inspired by the Wavemakers I work with each and every day and am committed to helping each and every one of them experience more career defining moments here than any other place they work. One tangible quality of Wavemakers is their care for each other and willingness to help each other succeed. Our coaching programme has helped us harness the talent of 30 of our best people managers, honing their skills to become qualified coaches. We now have our own team of talented, qualified coaches to help support all 700 of us. And the beauty of coaching, if done well, is that it is an approach that helps individuals find solutions to their own challenges.”

Helen Tiffany, Managing Director at The Coach House, Coach Training and Bec Development said:  “Working with Wavemaker is always an energising and inspiring experience. Our ‘Leader as Coach’ programme exemplifies Wavemaker thinking and the way the best employers are evolving away from traditional models of leadership to ones which allow people to both coach and be coached and find the best in themselves and in others. It was important for Wavemaker to have an accredited programme from an experienced coaching provider. We are delighted to be associated with them on this project and wish this first wave of graduates every success.”