How To Create A Coaching Culture
How To Create A Coaching Culture
Now what I am not saying is that the company wants to adopts a "brainwashing" mentality to embed the culture in all that they do and that this is the only management style they adopt!
What I am saying here is that they want to achieve results "By creating a certain culture" to their
ways of workings and coaching has been identified as one of the major approaches they want to use.
I'd like to share some of thoughts with you on this.
Who knows?
You might want to go down this route as well.
When developing a coaching strategy it is first useful to look at the 3 main applications of coaching in the workplace:
Short Term - Performance Enhancement/On the job
Medium Term - Job Development and skills enhancement
Longer Term - Career management, succession planning, professional growth
When formulating a coaching strategy the powers that be need to answer the following questions with regards to each:
* What plan do we have in place for the short, medium and long term? If any? How are we improving the effectiveness of our staff at each stage?
* What are our goals and objectives for each stage?
* If we improved each stage by 30% what would this mean to the customer?
* How committed are we to each stage? Which one is most important to us as a business?
If your company has immediate performance issues you are obviously going to look at the shorter term.
If your company has high staff turnover rates you will want to look at ways to keep them and develop them and hence a medium/long term plan is required.
It's horses for courses!
Coaching is a powerful management tool and one which should become a natural component of your ongoing interactions with employees.
Coaching is powerful because the end result of effective coaching can be any and all of the following:
* High morale and productivity
* Empowered staff who function independently
* Motivated workforce
* Well trained employees
* Employees who work as a team
So, after you have formulated the "why" it is now time to look at the "how".
You know, I just love going into companies to first work out the "why" and then the "how". It is a great satisfaction for me as a HR Consultant and trainer to see initial thoughts on paper become a fully blown project plan!
I digress!
So back to the implementation plan!
In 95% of the companies that I have consulted with the end product has been some sort of company wide "training programme".
When I say programme I mean that to spread the "coaching culture" XYZ company are implementing a:
- Leadership development programme
or
- Management development programme
or
- Coaching for managers programme
or
- Customer service excellence programme
Coaching forms a large part of the above programmes.
Indeed on all of the programmes that I have set up and delivered in companies there is always an element of "know thyself" in them whether it be managerial styles, leadership style, learning styles etc
Coaching is more than just learning "How to coach models"
It's all about understanding other people and how to communicate and get the best out of others.
I see so many "coaching" training courses just concentrate on the "how to coach" approach.
This, in my opinion, is wrong.
Coaching is conducted between two or more people who see the world in different ways, have different values, beliefs, opinions, learning styles and everybody absorbs information in different ways as well!
In implementing a coaching culture it is very important that all of the "management" of the company go through the programme.
Right the way from the very top to the supervisors and team leaders on the shop floor it is very important for staff buy in to know that the MD or Senior Management have also had to build a 2 metre tower made out of dry spaghetti and marsh mallows in less than 15 minutes!!!!
No matter what programme is used your staff should be equipped with the right skills, knowledge and behaviours that will enable them to coach:
WALKING THE FLOOR
This is "managing by walking around and observing". Being able to give immediate feedback and informal coaching whilst carrying out the normal day to day duties.
CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS
By listening in/role plays and observing you will be able to provide feedback to your team on their customer interactions, you'll help them develop and improve customer service skills.
FOCUSED OR ONE TO ONE
By spending 30 minutes every month reviewing results, you'll help staff focus on priorities.
FORMAL COACHING AND PERFORMANCE
Can be part of your performance management system.
HOTSPOTS for coaching culture failure:
1. No commitment from the top. If you have not got this question why?
2. Coaching must become a way of life. As soon as it becomes and activity that only comes out at appraisal time you are in deep trouble!
3. Lack of budget - training and development costs money
4. Lack of persistence. This is an investment in the future.
5. Lack of regular 121's. If the staff are not having regular 121's each month they will view the programme as just lip service
6. Using in house trainers who deliver all types of training. You need to make a big bang impact by using coaching professionals
Coaching is most successful when an organisation captures and implements best practice, and develops a competency framework related to best practice and meeting its goals.
The relationship between these factors is shown below where the highest impact for coaching is seen in the context of Best Practice and Competencies Development
There are three other areas that need careful consideration:
Management Style
If the management style is one of command and control, a teacher-pupil relationship, coaching struggles to move beyond the classroom.
Organisational Maturity
For an organisation that is purely focused on outputs, coaching will be viewed as another transactional activity, rather than an instinctive and normal process.
Learning Organisation
By definition, coaching is a closed loop feedback model. Coaching will only be of value if we learn from the feedback we are given and change our behaviour as a consequence.
The above areas are all highly interconnected.
A weakness in one area tends to be reflected as a weakness in another, which explains why many organisations cannot escape the vicious circle of trying to embed coaching through a series of
coaching courses one after another, rather than the virtuous spiral of a coaching mentality driving learning opportunities that produce best practice, which is reinforced and developed through further coaching.
5 WAYS TO GET IT RIGHT
1. Every person with line management responsibility goes through the programme
2. Everyone in the company knows "WHY" you are doing this and what the end result is
3. Excellent communication all throughout the programme including successes
4. A commitment that EVERYONE receives formal coaching at least once per month
5. Listen to your staff to find out what is working and what isn't with the strategy. Like with most things your foot soldiers will tell you what needs to be done to make it an overwhelming success. Hold focus groups before, during and after the implementation.
Is coaching on your list of priorities? If it isn't, it should be. All organisations know that their success depends on having great people doing a great job. This sounds a simple objective, but as we all know, it is not necessarily easy to put into place.
If coaching is on your list of priorities, how do you ensure coaching is part of the way you and your organisation work, rather than the latest fad that fails to be sustainable in the long-term?
I hope that gives you some idea of how to implement a coaching culture. I have tried to be as generic as I can because there isn't a one size fits all approach!
How To Create A Coaching Culture - To learn more about this author, visit Sean McPheat's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
One of my ongoing pieces of HR Consulting work at the moment is helping to create a coaching culture within an organisation.
Now what I am not saying is that the company wants to adopts a "brainwashing" mentality to embed the culture in all that they do and that this is the only management style they adopt!
What I am saying here is that they want to achieve results "By creating a certain culture" to their
ways of workings and coaching has been identified as one of the major approaches they want to use.
I'd like to share some of thoughts with you on this.
Who knows?
You might want to go down this route as well.
When developing a coaching strategy it is first useful to look at the 3 main applications of coaching in the workplace:
Short Term - Performance Enhancement/On the job
Medium Term - Job Development and skills enhancement
Longer Term - Career management, succession planning, professional growth
When formulating a coaching strategy the powers that be need to answer the following questions with regards to each:
* What plan do we have in place for the short, medium and long term? If any? How are we improving the effectiveness of our staff at each stage?
* What are our goals and objectives for each stage?
* If we improved each stage by 30% what would this mean to the customer?
* How committed are we to each stage? Which one is most important to us as a business?
If your company has immediate performance issues you are obviously going to look at the shorter term.
If your company has high staff turnover rates you will want to look at ways to keep them and develop them and hence a medium/long term plan is required.
It's horses for courses!
Coaching is a powerful management tool and one which should become a natural component of your ongoing interactions with employees.
Coaching is powerful because the end result of effective coaching can be any and all of the following:
* High morale and productivity
* Empowered staff who function independently
* Motivated workforce
* Well trained employees
* Employees who work as a team
So, after you have formulated the "why" it is now time to look at the "how".
You know, I just love going into companies to first work out the "why" and then the "how". It is a great satisfaction for me as a HR Consultant and trainer to see initial thoughts on paper become a fully blown project plan!
I digress!
So back to the implementation plan!
In 95% of the companies that I have consulted with the end product has been some sort of company wide "training programme".
When I say programme I mean that to spread the "coaching culture" XYZ company are implementing a:
- Leadership development programme
or
- Management development programme
or
- Coaching for managers programme
or
- Customer service excellence programme
Coaching forms a large part of the above programmes.
Indeed on all of the programmes that I have set up and delivered in companies there is always an element of "know thyself" in them whether it be managerial styles, leadership style, learning styles etc
Coaching is more than just learning "How to coach models"
It's all about understanding other people and how to communicate and get the best out of others.
I see so many "coaching" training courses just concentrate on the "how to coach" approach.
This, in my opinion, is wrong.
Coaching is conducted between two or more people who see the world in different ways, have different values, beliefs, opinions, learning styles and everybody absorbs information in different ways as well!
In implementing a coaching culture it is very important that all of the "management" of the company go through the programme.
Right the way from the very top to the supervisors and team leaders on the shop floor it is very important for staff buy in to know that the MD or Senior Management have also had to build a 2 metre tower made out of dry spaghetti and marsh mallows in less than 15 minutes!!!!
No matter what programme is used your staff should be equipped with the right skills, knowledge and behaviours that will enable them to coach:
WALKING THE FLOOR
This is "managing by walking around and observing". Being able to give immediate feedback and informal coaching whilst carrying out the normal day to day duties.
CUSTOMER INTERACTIONS
By listening in/role plays and observing you will be able to provide feedback to your team on their customer interactions, you'll help them develop and improve customer service skills.
FOCUSED OR ONE TO ONE
By spending 30 minutes every month reviewing results, you'll help staff focus on priorities.
FORMAL COACHING AND PERFORMANCE
Can be part of your performance management system.
HOTSPOTS for coaching culture failure:
1. No commitment from the top. If you have not got this question why?
2. Coaching must become a way of life. As soon as it becomes and activity that only comes out at appraisal time you are in deep trouble!
3. Lack of budget - training and development costs money
4. Lack of persistence. This is an investment in the future.
5. Lack of regular 121's. If the staff are not having regular 121's each month they will view the programme as just lip service
6. Using in house trainers who deliver all types of training. You need to make a big bang impact by using coaching professionals
Coaching is most successful when an organisation captures and implements best practice, and develops a competency framework related to best practice and meeting its goals.
The relationship between these factors is shown below where the highest impact for coaching is seen in the context of Best Practice and Competencies Development
There are three other areas that need careful consideration:
Management Style
If the management style is one of command and control, a teacher-pupil relationship, coaching struggles to move beyond the classroom.
Organisational Maturity
For an organisation that is purely focused on outputs, coaching will be viewed as another transactional activity, rather than an instinctive and normal process.
Learning Organisation
By definition, coaching is a closed loop feedback model. Coaching will only be of value if we learn from the feedback we are given and change our behaviour as a consequence.
The above areas are all highly interconnected.
A weakness in one area tends to be reflected as a weakness in another, which explains why many organisations cannot escape the vicious circle of trying to embed coaching through a series of
coaching courses one after another, rather than the virtuous spiral of a coaching mentality driving learning opportunities that produce best practice, which is reinforced and developed through further coaching.
5 WAYS TO GET IT RIGHT
1. Every person with line management responsibility goes through the programme
2. Everyone in the company knows "WHY" you are doing this and what the end result is
3. Excellent communication all throughout the programme including successes
4. A commitment that EVERYONE receives formal coaching at least once per month
5. Listen to your staff to find out what is working and what isn't with the strategy. Like with most things your foot soldiers will tell you what needs to be done to make it an overwhelming success. Hold focus groups before, during and after the implementation.
Is coaching on your list of priorities? If it isn't, it should be. All organisations know that their success depends on having great people doing a great job. This sounds a simple objective, but as we all know, it is not necessarily easy to put into place.
If coaching is on your list of priorities, how do you ensure coaching is part of the way you and your organisation work, rather than the latest fad that fails to be sustainable in the long-term?
I hope that gives you some idea of how to implement a coaching culture. I have tried to be as generic as I can because there isn't a one size fits all approach!
How To Create A Coaching Culture - To learn more about this author, visit Sean McPheat's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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