Last week I was speaking to a client about challenges with starting new initiatives in her organisation. She mentioned that her HR team has many forward-looking ideas, and some of these are initiatives that many industry competitors have already implemented in their organisations - with success. However, the biggest challenge her team still faces is with the buy-in of the management team when these ideas are presented to them. The idea of dedicating resources, or effort, to implement these news ideas can sometimes outweigh the benefits we want to communicate!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Coaching has become an important tool within organisations for overall employee development in recent years. More and more, organisations are realising the benefits of coaching. According to the International Coach Federation (ICF) and Human Capital Institute (HCI), a robust coaching culture has been linked to higher employee engagement: 65% of employees are highly engaged in organisations with a strong coaching culture, compared to 52% of employees in other organisations. A similar study also showed that organisations with strong coaching culture reported better performance.

Now that we've established a business case for starting a coaching culture, what can we do about it in our respective organisations?

Address The Barriers To Start

Apart from the absence of a strong business case for the buy-in of the management team, lack of time, funding and accountability are few other reasons that organisations list as barriers for starting a coaching culture. Tackle these barriers by first ensuring that everyone—from senior executives to entry-level employees—understands the value of coaching to the organisation. Remember, the “WHY” always comes before the “HOW”. 

Equip The Leaders

When leaders are equipped with coaching skills, they’re empowered to coach their direct reports as well as their peers. Soft skills such as relationship building should be highlighted and opportunities for coaching should be available as part of their developmental plan.

Diversify Your Coaching Sources

External coaches often come with more experience but could have less in-depth knowledge of a company’s culture. Internal coaches and leaders bring better understanding of the organisational system and often have contextual perspective that’s key to coaching success. Companies benefit most when a combination of sources are leveraged, when forming a coaching culture.

Coaching Is For Everyone & Should Be Done Regularly

All staff from the senior management team to the executive-level should have access to coaching. This includes staff of all ages and experiences. Coaching should also be accomplished at regular intervals. Leaders can coach employees on almost a daily basis, while internal and external coaches can interact daily, weekly or monthly with a coachee, based on situational variables.

Establish A Community Of Practice

One way to support the development of leaders and internal coaches is by creating a coaching community that provides ongoing training, guidance and opportunities to explore innovative practices. This group would also strengthen the partnership with HR and foster an environment of continuous development and feedback.

Keep Costs Low

One sure way to secure buy-in from the management team to invest in a coaching culture is when cost is kept at a minimum. A ‘Train-the-trainer’  approach has been a valuable way of ensuring that money is spent on building important foundations of coaching, typically done by external coaches. As internal trainers or leaders are trained, they can cascade the learnings/practices down throughout the organisation; thereby generating cost savings in the long run.

Return On Investment

We’ve observed that when clear expectations for the outcomes of the coaching initiative are not well defined, the coaching culture collapses eventually and isn’t sustained. These coaching goals should also be communicated across all levels in the organisation.

We hope that the recommendations here benefit you in starting or enhancing a coaching culture in your organisation. We look forward to providing more tips and strategies in the area of organisational development in our upcoming articles. Stay tuned!

A performance coaching guide has been included below for you to gain some handlers on how to start practice coaching in your organisation. Do share with us how this guide has benefited you!