THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2026 35 Coaching offered something different by providing a safe, confidential space, free from judgment, where harried professionals could step back from the relentless pace of their work to examine their situations from new angles. Rather than prescribing solutions, coaches practice what we call “holding up a mirror,” or helping clients see things from a different perspective. For many of our colleagues, the value of working with an experienced colleague-coach, one who understood the context of development work precisely because they had navigated the same institutional complexities and frustrations, was immediately tangible. Coaching became the linchpin in USAID’s professional development offerings, complementing the Center for Professional Development’s existing training, mentoring, and leadership programs with something more personal and sustained. When the agency was abruptly dismantled in early 2025, USAID internal coaches took action. We realized that coaching couldn’t address all our colleagues’ needs, but it was something we could do immediately to help them navigate a loss none of us had expected. How It Started In January 2022, the first cohort of approximately 25 employees began an intensive training program in coaching at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies. The selection process was rigorous. Both of us were drawn to coaching for deeply personal reasons. One of us had spent 13 years as a Foreign Service officer and had gravitated toward informal coaching conversations with colleagues long before there was a name for it. The other had experienced transformation firsthand with the support of an executive coach who helped her recognize burnout and develop strategies to work through it. Over the next three years, USAID invested approximately $750,000 to train three coach cohorts at Georgetown. The agency also trained Foreign Service National (FSN) coaches. By January 2025, the program included more than 75 U.S. direct-hire coaches and a comparable number of FSN coaches worldwide. Almost anyone at USAID was eligible to request coaching, though clients typically included staff transitioning between positions, seeking new roles, or navigating major career or life changes. Some of the most senior leaders, including deputy assistant administrators in Washington and mission directors abroad, participated as well. Development work is defined by ambiguity, and traditional training programs often failed to address the individualized, ongoing leadership challenges that staff faced in our missions. From right, Dr. Awa Marie Coll-Seck, an infectious disease specialist and Senegalese Minister of Health, opens a health facility in Dakar in 2013 with Bryn Sakagawa, center, then director of the USAID Senegal Health Office, and a colleague from the Senegal health sector. ZACK TAYLOR/ USAID SENEGAL
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