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Becoming a First-Class Leader E-Zine - Issue No. 35/ June 2006

Dear Reader,

You may or may not be in a position to change the corporate culture of your organization. However, you most certainly feel the impact of the existing culture on your well-being and ability to perform well.

But what actually is a corporate culture? How does it come about and how can it be changed? What would be the benefits of a coaching culture?

These questions will be answered in today's article: "CCC - Cultivating a Coaching Culture".

Let's keep progressing!

Charlie Lang
Executive Coach and Founder of Progress-U Ltd.
Author of The Groupness Factor

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CCC - Cultivating a Coaching Culture

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by Charlie Lang

“A culture is made -- or destroyed -- by its articulate voices.”

This quote by the Russian-born American writer and novelist Ayn Rand gives us some hints on how culture is made.

Let's first have a look at the origins of corporate culture.

Awareness of corporate culture was created in the late 1970s and early 1980s with a number of management books on the subject. Perhaps the most popular book at the time was Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life by T.E. Deal and A.A. Kennedy, published in 1982. They defined "corporate culture" as "the way we do things around here ... a system of informal rules that spells out how people are to behave most of the time."

I particularly like this definition because of its simplicity and accuracy.

So two questions remain: What are the benefits of developing a coaching culture, and how can it be done?

Several studies have proved the effectiveness and great benefits of coaching. The key benefits include:

• Improved performance of coachees through the support and guidance of the coach
• Higher retention of top talent through a supportive and engaging environment
• Shift in engagement as coachees become increasingly empowered

In fact, once a functioning coaching culture is established, leadership actually becomes a more simple job. However, as in any cultural change, developing a corporate coaching culture requires considerable effort, resources, dedication, and commitment, particularly from top management.

The quotation at the beginning of this article says that culture is made or destroyed by the articulate voices of the members of a certain culture. Obviously, in a corporate setting, the most articulate voices, or let's say, the most influential voices, come from top management, particularly the head of the organization. Hence, what he or she says and does has a great impact on the development of any corporate culture. Being a role model, the head of the company should perhaps be the first to get a coach.

What it takes to develop a coaching culture

Successful examples of cultural transformations to coaching cultures suggest the creation of three levels of coaching:

1. External executive coaching for senior management
2. Dedicated internal coaches for middle management
3. Managers as coaches for staff

For smaller organizations, level 2 might not be required and could be replaced with level 1.

Level 1

The first level is the most simple one as you just need to look for qualified external coaches. For senior management, I recommend having a panel of coaches instead of just one single coach for all. Not every coach is necessarily 'good' for every executive. A panel of coaches also provides some choice for the senior managers and will make buy-in more likely.

Level 2

For level 2, you will need to have one or more people undergo a rather coach-specific training in order to become a qualified internal coach. I would consider   coach-specific training lasting 80-120 hours as appropriate to become an internal coach. Also, at least during the first and second years, the internal coach should work together with a mentor coach as support. Furthermore, the internal coach should spend at least 30% of the working time with coaching. To become a masterful coach, lots of practice is necessary.

The advantage of having an internal coach is not only the direct availability; it also means that managers would be supported in their efforts to coach their staff.

Level 3

To start coaching their staff, managers will need to undergo some coach training as well. A 1- or 2-day course won't make them perfect coaches but will provide them with the basic tools to start coaching their staff. Ideally, they receive some follow-up coaching during the first 3-6 months after they start coaching their people.

A coach specific assessment will help identify the already existing strengths before any coach-specific training. The assessment results can be used to create an individual development plan for the internal coach and/or the managers.

Conclusion

It is a proven fact that professional coaching is an effective method to improve engagement and retention, particularly of top talent. Transforming a corporate culture to a coaching culture needs, first of all, strong commitment from top management and then sufficient resources and efforts to drive the necessary developments on all three levels of coaching.

Do you want to learn the basic coaching skills for leaders in an interactive and experiential 1-day seminar? Then click here.

For more information related to Progress-U Leadership Training and Coaching, please click here.

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