Impactful Initiatives: The Ripple Effects of a Coaching Culture

Organizations that want to be successful should invest in creating a coaching culture. 

According to newly released research from the International Coach Federation (ICF) and the Human Capital Institute (HCI), coaching helps employees with important organizational initiatives that are vital to workplace transformation and organizational success. 

In the newly released Defining New Coaching Cultures report, the majority of respondents agreed that coaching helps employees with organizational initiatives such as:

• Upskilling
• Well-being
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
• Environmental, Social and Governance

When researchers asked respondents about the kind of coaching they want, leadership coaching was identified as the highest need.

The Ripple Effect of a Coaching Culture

Leaders benefit from the support that leadership coaching offers, and when leaders learn how to use a coach approach with their team members, it creates a cascading effect throughout their workplace. 

What we’ve seen is that when organizations establish a coaching culture, they win BIG. As the ICF and HCI researchers learned, coaching provides support for leaders and helps coachees reach their potential, adapt to changes or learn new skills. 

A coaching culture boosts success because it is conducive to establishing strong relationships built on trust, which then allows for productive conflict. 

This kind of environment is critical. Innovation, creativity and teamwork flourish when team members feel that they can:

• Share candid feedback and dissenting ideas. 
• Brainstorm new ideas, approaches and processes. 
• Challenge each other to do better or find new and different solutions.
• Find support from each other and their leaders. 

Consider, too, that when team members have strong relationships, the interactions they have with clients and potential clients are usually stronger as well. The ripple effect spreads from senior leadership to managers, team members and beyond. 

Ways to Build a Coaching Culture

There are steps that help to bring a coaching mindset to all levels of your organization. Here are some things to keep in mind as you strive to build an effective coaching culture:

1. Start with a solid foundation. A coaching culture flourishes most in a workplace built on trust, respect and accountability. Employees should feel safe, supported and able to have frank discussions without repercussions. Leaders should seek feedback and hear bad news–good conflict must be welcome and encouraged.
   
   (Pro tip: At Padraig, we find using the DiSC personal assessment tools helps our clients to better understand themselves and their coworkers, which builds trust and helps move from destructive to productive conflict.)
   
   
2. Support for coaching starts at the top. When leaders value coaching and invest in hiring leadership coaches and educating leaders to use a coach approach, it’s clear to team members that coaching is valued and valuable. Additionally, engaged manager support of coaching ensures a return on investment. The effects of using a coach approach will ripple throughout all departments at all levels.
   
   
3. Put coaching into action. It’s far more effective to offer professional leadership coaching to senior leaders, managers who have potential and key employees at various levels than to speak about its benefits. Then, as these early adopters see how coaching supports and benefits them, they can witness to the value of working with a leadership coach. Their peers and other employees will want to participate when they see how effective coaching elevates leadership and other positive effects.
   
   
4. Be patient. It takes time and consistent effort to implement a coaching culture. Even with strong leadership and financial investment in professional coaching, you won’t see the shift immediately – but when you do see it, it will be transformational.
   
   
5. Give leaders, HR professionals, managers and supervisors coaching tools to add to their toolkits. Using a coach approach to lead a team, and learning how to use in-the-moment coaching every day, is transformative.
   
   (Pro tip: Our one-day Padraig COACH Approach course helps leaders learn how to bring out the best in others and empower them to solve challenges, while our Emotionally Intelligent Leadership course boosts relational management skills.)
   
   
6. Move to real-time coaching and away from performance ratings. In a coaching culture, coaching is a continuous process. When vision, strategy, expectations, performance standards and accountability are clearly articulated, coaching helps anyone who is struggling to grow, develop and improve. Supporting employees to realize their full potential is far more effective than a system that punishes failure. 
   

Outcomes of a Coaching Culture

Introducing coaching throughout an organization offers a big return on investment. Evidence shows that organizations can expect:

• increased employee engagement.
• motivated team members.
• stronger team relationships.
• more effective change management.
• confident leaders who are capable of managing conflict and empowering others.
• improved overall performance, as employees benefit from personal development and support from peers and managers
  

Just as in the world of athletics and sports, having coaches who work with team members continually will drive success. A coaching culture in any business organization will help employees strive to improve and perform at their highest level. 

Coach’s Questions:

What’s holding you back from building a strong coaching culture? What would help you begin implementing things now? How would your organization look if coaching was the norm throughout the culture?