Getting Started

It’s easy to see the benefits of a coaching culture, but not always easy to to begin the internal implementation plan to move forward.  Here’s a three step process that can help you begin building that coaching culture within your organization

Experience coaching yourself

Experience coaching and see for yourself how it can help you.  (… and the other members of your team!) It dramatically improves your team's receptivity to adopting coaching to know that you support it and have personally experienced the benefit.

Senior leaders are often reluctant to receive coaching. It's helpful to remember that coaching is not about “fixing a problem”.  It’s about learning and using that learning to accomplish a goal.  Everyone has goals, so everyone can benefit from coaching.  Research shows that about 30% of CEO’s engage a coach to help them.  The first step can either be a demonstration coaching session, or maybe a short coaching engagement focusing on a specific objective. 

Integrate basic coaching skills into your leadership style

The coaching industry has researched and identified a number of well understood concepts and core competencies which are used by professional coaches across global geographies and cultures.  Take advantage of our Coaching Out of the Boxprogram to learn these ideas and skills and to apply them in your everyday work and leadership

Build the Culture through Practice and Reinforcement

Coaching is a hands-on skill.  Coaching is learned by being coached, by learning coaching skills, and by practicing those skills. 

By definition, a culture touches everyone in an organization. The roots of a coaching culture will take hold as they become visibly important across the organization and as the new skills are reinforced and refined until they are completely and naturally integrated into the leadership culture.  Likewise, in organizations with a strong coaching culture, “everyone has a coach, and is a coach.”