" The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands during moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at time of challenge and controversy "
Developing Coaching Cultures
Sharman and Freas in their 2004 Harvard Business Review article, comment that they “...have yet to find a company that can’t benefit from more candour, less denial, richer communication, conscious development of talent, and disciplined leaders who show compassion for people.”
Research shows that creating a coaching culture will enable: continual identification of better ways of working; increased sharing of knowledge; better ability to adapt, embed change and rapidly become competent in new ways of doing things; increased productivity and efficiency; improved confidence and ownership by employees; greater awareness amongst individuals of how they can make a difference and what that means to their current performance; people interested in a long-term future with the organisation ensuring greater retention of talent.
For those organisations seeking to achieve a coaching culture, Executive Performance can work with the organisation and support them through the necessary steps, which will encompass the following areas:
- Building experience of, belief in, and modelling of a non-directive leadership and coaching style amongst the leaders of the organisation
- Defining what a ‘coaching culture’ means to the organisation: what would people be seeing, saying, doing and feeling that they are not now?
- Examining the existing culture of the organisation. What needs to change for it to be compatible with coaching?
- Integrating coaching into strategy, measures and processes
- Providing evidence that coaching has an impact on performance. Experimenting with a greater degree of coaching in one part of the organisation where its effects can be measured.
- Providing external coaching to managers to give them the experience and skills to coach their teams
- Promoting coaching as an investment in excellence and reward people for knowledge sharing
- Ensuring managers use a coaching style in the way they manage their staff on a day-to-day basis and view developing others and creating a learning environment as one of their key roles