Creating a Coaching Culture in Organizations
Having worked as an internal coach in a small/medium enterprise and now consulting as an external coach practitioner, it is my honour to share my experience and thoughts in creating a coaching culture in organizations. This is an updated version of an aritcle I wrote in 2021 that was published in HR Future.
When we talk of culture within an organisation, the best way I like to define it is to describe it as an organisation’s character and behaviour.
Definition of a Coaching Culture
A coaching culture in an organisation speaks of a strategy that embodies a coach-like mindset and approach to the way of working within the organization that encourages employee engagement, productivity, and performance. These characteristics enable a good communication ethos where ALL employees are enabled to listen attentively while respecting that each employee is the expert of their own lives and their work; to be curious in asking thought-provoking questions instead of always “telling”; to maintain open and honest communication within a safe and trusting environment without judgement and fear of retribution leading to increased employee motivation and productivity; which also encourages learning and development of employees so that employees are enabled and equipped to fulfil their responsibilities.
Why would an organization want to create a coaching culture?
No matter the size of the organization it is always important to begin with the “why” to find purpose and meaning for the decision.
If the definition, above, is not motivation enough, then here are a few more ideas:
Engaged Employees who are happy and motivated, working smartly and efficiently. It should always begin with the Employees, who are an organization’s greatest asset and who together build great teams.
- Mentally and emotionally fit employees.
- Enabled and Empowered employees.
- High Staff retention – low staff turnover.
- Increased employee responsibility and ownership.
- Develop a high-Performance culture.
An organization that creates an environment for employees to feel safe to speak up, to learn, to connect, to innovate, to collaborate, to grow and to be open to change.
Healthy Team Dynamics which is important in the daily routine of any organization.
- Effective leadership of teams.
- Better communication within teams where employees feel respected and understood.
- Improved Team cohesion with increased collaboration, innovation, and performance.
- Sustainability of change.
Leaders are equipped to lead their teams with a high EQ showing empathy and respect.
- With strong leadership capability to grow and support their teams.
- A strong leadership who will effectively drive the vision and strategy of the organization.
- Leadership with Moral intelligence to make those hard decisions
- Leaders who are consistently trustworthy and compassionate
Organizational success with satisfied clients. In my viewpoint I observe a strong connection between the benefits of business agility and a coaching culture:
- Increased productivity and quality of delivery
- Efficient processes and ways of working
- Change Management success
How could this work?
Once the “why” has been established it is important for the organization to begin with a vision and a strategic plan of action towards the desired outcome. The organization will then be able to discover “how” to create a coaching culture that is sustainable during times of change and uncertainty.
Build a strong business case for creating a coaching culture that will convince ALL stakeholders of the many benefits.
- A coaching culture is only effective and successful when influenced from Executive level.
- Leaders who lead with a coach-like approach have a bigger impact within the workplace.
- A clear strategy, vision, and plan for developing a coaching culture will inspire the employees.
- Measurable outcomes for ROI and/or ROE, are important to all stakeholders.
The Coaching strategy, plan and process may look different from organization to organization depending on their needs, their business strategy, the number of employees, and the budget. There is no “one size fits all” strategy or plan.
- It is important to ensure that all senior personnel are on board with the strategy and plan.
- The person signing the cheques should be signing off on this plan to ensure buy-in and minimal resistance to the plan.
There should be a “champion for the change” within the organization to make it happen!
- Identify a person or team, usually within the HR function, who will champion the coaching culture and who will drive the plan of action and monitor the progress.
- Regularly review progress to measure what is working, what may need to be improved and what is not working.
- Regular reflection ensures that the coaching culture is sustainable to provide the best value.
- Continuous improvement encourages new ideas and new development in the coaching culture during times of change.
Partnerships are key
Partnering with others to co-create the coaching culture is key to the success of the strategy and plan.
Contract external Professional Coaches who bring with them professional coaching, mentoring and supervision skills.
- Executive coaching will set the example to others as well as allowing executives to experience the benefits of coaching especially in developing strategy and vision.
- Individual 1:1 coaching session offered to all employees, especially those who may benefit from goals and performance management coaching.
- Team coaching and Group coaching has proven to be highly effective and possibly more cost effective, making coaching accessible to ALL employees.
Provide coach training through accredited institutions to employees who have requested to train as coaches.
- Developing internal coaches to obtain their ICF / EMCC membership and/or Certifications, equipping them with additional coaching skills.
Equip Executives, Leaders, and Managers with coach-like skills through training interventions to improve:
- Communication within teams
- How meetings are chaired
- How processes and workflows are developed
- How strategic and day-to-day decisions are made
- How change management interventions are rolled out
- While training and equipping leaders and managers with coaching skills they also experience the benefits of coaching in their personal and professional life.
Coaching provides support to other training and development programs because coaching interventions encourage the application of the newly acquired skills.
Measuring Success
“What” are the noticeable signs of an organization with a coaching culture?
Strong Leadership (Engaged Employees + Healthy Team Dynamics) = Successful Organization
Greater Business Impact in the industry and the community with better productivity and quality of deliverables.
- Satisfied and happy clients who speak highly of the organization which is great for marketing and hopefully encourages the Clients to pay for good service and products.
- Great communication ethos throughout the organization.
Agility to embrace change because there is a greater acceptance and willingness to change.
- Employees are equipped for change because they have been enabled with a coach-like mindset to be creative and agile when faced with change.
Cost saving on Recruitment because the organization experiences better employee engagement resulting in a lower staff turnover.
- Include coaching from a mentor in your onboarding process to support new employees to become productive as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Employees who know that they matter to the organization, and this shows up in the way that:
- Employees speak highly of their organization and the leadership which is great for marketing and for attracting potential employees.
- Employee wellbeing where you have mentally and emotionally fit and healthy employees, and
- Happy and balanced employees will want to go that extra mile when it is crunch time.
Increased responsibility and ownership within employees who receive training and development to equip them to fulfill their duties well.
- Applied Learning from Training and development programs and courses adds more value to the cost of the training.
- Experiential learning happens in the workplace
Teams working well together guided by great leadership towards a unified purpose:
- Communication in a co-created safe, respectful, and trusting environment.
- Empowering leaders and the team to have thought-provoking conversations.
- Listening attentively, asking curious questions
- Employees feel safe to share their ideas, thoughts, innovations (even their mistakes) because of the trusting and safe environment.
- Employees have the courage to have those difficult conversations.
- Better team cohesion, with employees respecting one another and their various roles AND a shared responsibility to produce quality results.
Good Performance Management system where performance is managed well with openness, efficiency, maturity, and respect.
- The greatest benefit of performance management in a coach-like manner is the growth and development of employees which results in improved and sustainable productivity.
Maintaining success
In conclusion, some of the challenges to implementing a coaching culture should be discussed so that a balanced viewpoint may be given.
- The lack of motivation and support from the CEO and senior management will be a barrier to implementing a coaching culture.
- Contracting with external Professional Coaches who are not a suitable fit for the company and their employees can prove to be detrimental to the coaching process and the coaching culture.
- Misunderstanding about employee (Clients) confidentiality and the company (Sponsor) expectation.
- If existing employees are trained and employed as internal coaches, there could be a conflict of interest in their various roles.
- Clear roles and responsibilities should be established with clear mandates that comply with the ICF / EMCC code of ethics.
- If the value of professional credentialed coaching is not acknowledged or fully understood by senior management / financial teams / stakeholders there may be resistance to adopting the process.
- Not having a champion for the change management intervention to implement a coaching culture often causes the strategic plan to fail.
- Training interventions may not take priority with the result that team managers may see the coaching sessions as a waste of time and thereby not allowing team members the time to have their coaching sessions.
- As the company changes and grows through external influences an/or economic factors it may be difficult to maintain the existing coaching culture and keep up with the changes.
- Employees may not trust the coaching at the beginning, especially if there has been a culture of distrust and they have been mandated to receive coaching.
- A coaching culture grows and develops employees to the point that they may want to leave the organization and spread their wings.
Even with these challenges, it cannot be expressed enough the benefits of creating and sustaining a coaching culture.
If you would like to know more please feel free to contact me and let’s talk!