What comes to mind when we think of a “coaching culture”? Sweat? Working out? Getting “pumped up”? While all of these may be true in a gym setting, for the purposes of this month’s topic we will focus on the workplace. When we think of a coach we usually think of someone in athletics, and here at UK the most obvious might be one of the coaches for our sports teams. In the role of coach we may give feedback—good or bad; help “tweak” skills, motivate or inspire, and give practice drills or homework to reinforce technique. So far so good, but how does a coaching culture help performance in the workplace? Elise Foster, a guest speaker during UK Healthcare’s Leadership Week, pointed out the importance of developing a coaching culture and its impact on leadership development. As co-author of “The Multiplier Effect: Tapping the Genius Inside Our Schools”, Elise introduces a set of behaviors that significantly increases a leader’s ability to maximize the potential of others. Her workshops are supported with executive coaching and assessments to provide measurable results. Why? Because coaching makes a difference. A “coaching culture” is an organizational development model that provides the structure that defines how the organization’s members can best interact with their working environment and how the best results are obtained and measured.” In other words, coaching provides one-on-one support to anchor new behavior and release old, ineffective behavior, thus changing the work culture.
In the Center for Creative Leadership’s (CCL) research white paper “Creating Coaching Cultures: What Business Leaders Expect and Strategies to Get There” the benefits are innumerable. They include but are not limited to:
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increase in employee engagement, -
job satisfaction morale, -
collaboration, and -
teamwork -
increase in productivity -
reduction in staff turnover -
transparency in communication -
development of all talent -
effective performance management
To develop a coaching culture CCL’s research shows five strategies that represent a departure from past coaching models to a more encompassing cultural shift that is strategic and measureable.
Strategy 1: “Seed” the company with leaders who model the coaching approach. This means be intentional with selecting the right people so that they can reinforce the behavior you want to see.
Strategy 2: Link coaching outcomes to business strategies. Measuring the impact of coaching is imperative for making the case that coaching is “an integral part of the business with shared accountability”.
Strategy 3: Coach senior leadership teams in creating culture change. Understanding that an organization’s culture is a direct correlation of leadership, senior leaders must be engaged. To get their support it is important that they are involved in team coaching so they can get feedback and gain insights on the change practice.
Strategy 4: Recognize and reward coaching culture behaviors. Communication is fundamental and critical to the success of any cultural change. As with any new initiative it is important to recognize those who are game changers and those that are modelling the behavior desired, so celebrate their accomplishments.
Strategy 5: Integrate coaching with other people-management processes. Coaching is not a stand-alone activity; it must be integrated with other people management solutions such as learning and development, talent management, and job competency models.
Ultimately, creating a coaching culture helps organizations achieve their strategic objectives as well as increase business outcomes. By introducing coaching competencies into the workplace it creates a culture that is adaptive in its continuous process of talent development and learning.
Recommended Workshops and Reading
Communicating with Success
During this workshop, we will explore basic communication issues. By the end of the session, participants will be able to:
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Define the three communication modes. -
Cite barriers to effective communication. -
Explain the concept of distinct communication styles. -
Define active listening. -
Use active listening techniques. -
Define non verbal communication issues. -
Use non-verbal techniques to improve workplace communication. -
Currently, there are not any scheduled sessions. Please contact HRT&D via email if you are interested in attending.
Coaching for Best Results
In this seminar, we will focus on supporting coaching skills in new hire training. We will be paying special attention to:
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How to teach new hire employees their site/specialty workflows required of their new positions. -
How to provide support and coaching during the initial few days that the user is live. -
How to provide ongoing coaching and mentoring.
To accomplish those goals we will learn how to:
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Plan on-the-job training topics. -
Write clear training objectives that include task, condition and standards. -
Introduce the purpose of the training using attention, motivation and overview steps. -
Apply the Demonstration/Performance training method. -
Write a lesson plan that captures your training objectives, strategy, references and handouts and simultaneously documents training conducted for future reference.
Currently, there are not any scheduled sessions. Please contact HRT&D via email if you are interested in attending.
Providing Exceptional Customer Service
One of the most important and challenging objectives in any business today is to provide services that consistently meet (and exceed) customer expectations. The imperative to identify and address customer expectations stems from a foundational principle: Satisfied customers will lead to increased customer loyalty, retention and more business. Expectations are constantly evolving because improvements in service shift customer demands. While customers initially appreciate better service, they quickly get used to, expect, and demand them. This class is designed to:
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Define good and bad customer service. -
Identify who our customers are. -
Describe four service levels of customer service. -
Practice the Exceptional Service Equation to provide excellent customer service. -
Discuss the importance of listening. -
Develop strategies to deal effectively with upset and/or difficult customers. -
Prepare an action plan for more effective customer service.
Class Date and Time
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Tuesday, November 11, 2014 beginning at 8:30am
The Multiplier Effect by Liz Wiseman, Lois Allen and Elise Foster
When you become a Multiplier, your whole team succeeds! Why do some leaders double their team’s effectiveness, while others seem to drain the energy right out of the room? Using insights gained from more than 100 interviews with school leaders, this book pinpoints the five disciplines that define how Multipliers bring out the best across their schools. By practicing these disciplines, you’ll learn how to:
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Attract top teachers to your school -
Create an intense environment that demands people’s best thinking -
Drive sound decisions by constructing debate and decision-making forums -
Give your team a sense of ownership for responsibilities and results
Coaching Staff for Success: Moving From Top Down Management to Collaboration and Coaching by Donna Price
Coaching Staff for Success is a guide for managers that are ready to shift their management style from top down, controlling and micro-management to one of collaboration, and performance focused. Coaching Staff for Success gives managers a simple to use approach for working with staff that changes the workplace culture, overall. When managers are coaching and not just telling, they learn more about the workflow, outcomes, challenges and their staff. With more information they are able to create better results for the organization. Improving the work environment benefits the organization beyond the one staff member/manager relationship. Benefits are seen in company bottom line results, team performance and individual performance. Employee engagement increases and performance. The outcomes as a result of implementing a coaching staff approach throughout the company are tremendous.
Coaching Skills for Leaders in the Workplace: How to Develop, Motivate and Get the Best from Your Staff by Jackie Arnold
As a leader, senior manager or executive, you are often required to act as a coach or mentor for your staff. This book will enable you to set up coaching programs that can make a significant difference to staff retention and motivation. It will give you the knowledge and skills you need to encourage your staff to grow so that you can get on with your own essential leadership role. In this book you'll discover how to:
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become an effective leader and coach -
distinguish between coaching and mentoring -
establish the right coaching climate -
develop effective communication skills -
set up the first coaching session -
present a business case for coaching
You'll also find out the various coaching models available and equip yourself with useful tools and exercises that you can employ in your coaching sessions.