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Coaching Culture

A coaching culture is good for business

An organization’s end goal is to achieve success. Whatever the definition of success for the organization is, it is the leader’s responsibility to achieve it. And the success of course begins with strategy.

Strategy defines the process of how an organization achieves success. But the leader’s ability to execute this strategy is dependent on the organizational culture. A positive culture will aid the achievement of this strategy while a negative culture will impede it.

Peter Drucker was famous for this alleged quote: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” That means a powerful and empowering culture was a surer route to organizational success. Many leaders of successful businesses are quick to attribute their company’s success to their organization’s culture or the shared values within the organization. An organization’s culture may be one of its strongest assets, as well as its biggest liability. So, if you care about the success of your organization, you need to care about the culture.

Three levels of organizational culture

Edgar Schein of the MIT Sloan School of Management has introduced the most widely used model for organizational culture – Artifacts and Behaviors, Values, and Assumptions. The three levels are similar to an iceberg where only 10% i.e. the Artifacts and Behaviors, are visible above the water. The second and third levels – Values and Assumptions are below the surface and usually invisible.

  • Artifacts and Behaviors are tangible, evident, or verbally identifiable elements such as organizational structures and processes, branding, job titles, and so forth.
  • Values are strategies, goals, and philosophies declared and endorsed by the organization.
  • Assumptions are the unconscious beliefs people within the organization hold to be true.

Hence, culture is shaped by visible and invisible forces; some of which leaders can control. It is in this invisible aspect of an organization, the values, and assumptions that culture can be deeply entrenched. The good news is that by changing the behaviors – the visible stuff, we can change the assumptions and values – the invisible stuff.

So if you start with behavior first, culture will follow!

What can you achieve with a coaching culture?

Renowned British organizational development experts define a coaching culture “as one in which the predominant style is managing and working together, and where a commitment to grow the organization is embedded in a parallel commitment to grow the people in the organization.”*

Hence, the coaching culture believes that improving the organization’s performance will only happen through its people. These may be some of what you will likely hear in an organization with a coaching culture:

  1. People will talk positively about their work experiences.
  2. People are encouraged to find opportunities for learning in their daily work.
  3. People will take responsibility for their mistakes, learn from them, and be willing to share what they know with others.
  4. Feedback is open and will be given and accepted without compunction.

In short, a coaching culture can help an organization achieve success in many ways. First, it helps the leader to execute strategy by providing them with feedback and support for their goals. Second, it helps employees to grow by providing them with feedback on their performance, as well as opportunities for learning and development.

What might be the typical barriers?

  1. Managers may lack the confidence to coach. To properly coach, managers must have the necessary training and support tools to help them continually develop their coaching skills. Organizations can develop some managers as role models for good coaching behaviors and as master coaches to assist other internal coaches.
  2. Coaching is seen as a time-consuming activity. For managers, telling people what to do will be quicker than committing time to coach their teams. The time invested in coaching will produce payback when managers are freed from repeating the same things.

Survey results of the 2020 ICF Global Coaching Study found that the top three obstacles to building a strong coaching culture inside an organization were *:

  1. Limited support from senior leaders (50%).
  2. Inability to measure the impact of coaching (42%).
  3. Lack of budget for coaching activities (38%).

In conclusion, to achieve success, businesses need to adopt a coaching culture. A coaching culture will ensure that everyone in the organization, from the CEO to the front-line employees, is focused on continuously improving performance. A coaching style of managing people results in happier and more engaged employees, and ultimately, a more successful business. Additionally, you need tools to help you capture all the data for activities that are taking place during and between coaching sessions, track employee performance, and finally measure the impact of coaching.

MigiACE is a data-driven AI-powered coaching platform that is designed to do exactly that:

  • Assess for Clarity.
  • Coach with Impact.
  • Elevate with Insights.

Check out how MigiACE works! Or contact us to learn more.

References:

  • Clutterbuck, D. Megginson, D. and Bajer, A. (2016) ‘Building and Sustaining a Coaching Culture’, CIPD London.
  • https://www.peoplemattersglobal.com/article/executive-coaching/4-secrets-to-build-a-strong-coaching-culture-within-your-organization-30066
  • https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2022/01/18/how-to-build-a-coaching-culture-to-drive-high-performance/
  • https://open.lib.umn.edu/organizationalbehavior/chapter/15-2-understanding-organizational-culture/
  • https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/edgar-scheins-three-levels-organizational-culture-hattangadi/