Creating Coaching Cultures (Post 3 of 7)
This is the fourth article in our series on Creating a Coaching Culture. This series of articles is primarily focused at HR and Development professionals wanting to transform the culture of their organisation and are seeing the potential of embedding coaching abilities within their organisation to achieve these goals. In this series, we’ll hear from professionals in the region and learn from their experience, struggles and successes.
Following the last article on how good a coaching culture can be, today we’re exploring the sometimes uncharted waters of establishing a coaching culture. Firstly we’ll look at some strategies that companies in the region have used or are considering using to build towards creating their ideal coaching culture. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, we’ll question what needs to be considered for your company to design and choose strategies to build the coaching culture that it wants and needs.
Later in this article we will be referring you to our “Coaching Culture Canvas” tool. You can download your copy here. Today we’re focusing on the section titled, “Strategise.”
Hearing from the Region
In speaking with industry leaders we noticed that strategies for growing corporate cultures fell into the following three areas of increasing importance.
Use of external coaches
Resourcing of internal coaches
Development of managerial and leadership coaching skills
1. Use of external coaches
A number of HR professionals spoke about the use external coaches, especially for more senior leaders. These coaches were valued as impartial and confidential and often worked with people on areas such as their leadership.
2. Resourcing of internal coaches
Many HR managers spoke to us that becoming a credentialed coach was part of their own developmental pathway. In this profession, gaining coaching skills and qualifications is now seen as way to enhance career prospects and bolster present employment security. Having internal coaches was also seen by a few managers as a way to assist with the on-boarding of new staff.
3. Development of managerial and leadership coaching skills
By far the vast majority of the conversations we had we with regards to increasing the coaching skills of managers and leaders within business.
Key Ideas
Key ideas that came through were as follows:
Developing coaching skills in managers / leaders. Helping them shift from “tell” to “ask”.
Coaching and coaching skills used as part of leadership interventions / training / development
Use alongside other developmental tools such as EQ training and 360 feedback
Have example leaders / champions of coaching
Use to innovate performance management away from yearly reviews with quantitative ratings to on-going qualitative feedback
Considering coaching skills when choosing who to hire and promote
Shining light on past experiences of purely formal training interventions not producing the kind of results that were hoped for.Helping to build foundations of clearly communicated and lived mission, vision and values.Helping employees, managers and leaders to hold themselves accountable. Using the 70:20:10 framework that the best growth in people comes from any formal training being just 10% of the developmental activity. The remaining 90% is made up of 20% social learning (which includes coaching) supporting the 70% of new and challenging experiences.
We spoke with Dalia Safir, HR Director at Aujan Coca-Cola Beverages Company. She let us know that at Aujan they were working on different ways of approaching performance management, “Focusing more on regular and qualitative feedback between managers and employee rather than ratings once a year.”
Your Coaching Cultures Strategies
Hopefully by now you’ve faced the brutal facts of your organisation’s current ailments with all its pains and hurts. You’ve gazed into the future and imagined what it could be like when you have that strong coaching culture. With this two realities in mind consider the questions below using your Coaching Culture Canvas.
Go to your Coaching Culture Canvas.
In the Strategise section, consider the following questions and note down your thoughts.
What questions need to be asked to discover the best ways forward?
Who needs to ask these questions?
Who needs to be asked these questions?
In the next article we will help narrow down the thinking and choose the right path to building the coaching culture that our organisation needs.