Organizational research suggests that coaching culture supports both wellbeing and performance in organizations. External coaching and virtual coaching platforms can play an important role in development of people. However, an important foundation for organizational health and performance is coaching which is delivered in the course of everyday work, by line managers.
Internal coaching culture does not always require line managers or leaders to set aside additional time to coach people. This is a myth. This belief creates resistance from managers because of the perception that that coaching creates additional workload and time pressure on already saturated diaries.
A coaching culture is about embedding coaching into real work, and into the management of business change. Coaching conversations are a way to engage in dialogue about how to manage complex problems, and move towards collective aspirations, while also addressing personal development goals.
In developing a coaching culture, organizations can also build better working relationships. We can develop the ability across an organization to have effective, purposeful, and collaborative conversations which connect individual and organization development. This requires a coaching oriented attitude among line managers at all levels, and a desire to act as a coach and be coached at every level, because anyone can coach and be coached.
A good start to building a coaching culture is to ensure that senior leaders are committed to coaching as part of their own leadership repertoire, and to act as role models in this area. C-level leaders need to act as supporters and advocates of coaching.
Then leaders and managers at all levels can benefit from skill building which is designed to give them hands-on experience and feedback on their coaching skills. This can be done through experiential learning activity, as well as simplicity and clarity around what coaching requires them to do in behavioural terms.
The specific frameworks, tools and techniques which are applied matter less than the growth of effective coaching alliances between people. It is relationships of mutual respect, trust, openness, directness when required, and the ability to bracket personal judgements which counts.
It is a massive oversimplification to suggest coaching is literally only about asking people questions in a real-world work context. This might feel slightly artificial, forced, and a little intimidating in some situations or cultural contexts.
In a business context, coaching might be happening almost indiscernibly, as an integral ingredient of a wider conversation about a business issue. Such conversations may not be entirely non-directive but there be moments when coaching moments present themselves.
In any productive working relationship, the container for coaching is dialogue, in which both parties can ask questions, share and seek feedback, share reactions, thoughts, and feelings. As long as the intent and effect of dialogue is collaboration, learning, improvement, and development, then in a sense, you are probably engaged in coaching at certain points.
In the context of constant need for change, and technology-driven transformation, it has never been more important for coaching to be evident in organizational culture. There is ample and robust evidence that coaching enables large scale change, grows employee engagement, and enhances both performance and wellbeing.
It is a mistake to assume that individual access to a commoditized coaching service via an app (the technologies to make these AI-based are already being developed), or to external coaches virtually on Zoom, is a way to build a coaching culture.
AI coaching apps, virtual coach platforms and other transactional tools might augment the kind of coaching that managers and leaders need to do. They can't replace it.
To the extent that your organization needs people to do the work, you also need them to know how and when to demonstrate coaching skill. The most impactful coaching moments in the daily stream of activity of any team or business can be fleeting and precious. They can be moments in our working lives that we don't forget.
Would you want to, indeed is it even possible, for you to outsource those moments in your own working life to a mobile app or someone you will only ever 'meet' on a virtual platform?
Or would you want someone who actually works with you, who knows you, knows about your industry, to show they care enough about you and your performance, to give you both the support, and the challenge that you need, at exactly the times when it makes the biggest difference?
COACHING FOR PERFORMANCE: DEVELOP PEOPLE, ENABLE CHANGE, GET RESULTS
Workshops, consultancy for culture change efforts, and programmes are designed to suit the organization's context.
Targeted business outcomes: enhanced performance in teams and individuals, achievement of business goals, enhanced productivity and employee engagement, career development, strategy execution.
- Learn basic skills of coaching, including application of a robust performance coaching
methodology.
- Line managers will learn about to support a coaching culture.
- Learn how to use coaching ‘on the job’ as part of doing real work, rather than to treat
it as an ‘additional’ activity which creates more work.
- Use experiential methods and role play to show line managers what works.
댓글