Creating a coaching culture
A coaching culture (sometimes also referred to as a coaching and mentoring culture) is one where coaching behaviours are instinctive to the way people think and behave. It is closely associated with high performance amongst leadership teams, with retention of talent, effective decision-making, employee engagement and organizational agility.
Four levels of a coaching culture
Clutterbuck and Megginson identified four levels of a coaching culture:
At the nascent stage, an organisation shows little or no commitment to creating a coaching culture. While some coaching may happen, it is highly inconsistent in both frequency and quality. Top managers present poor role models and coaching behaviours tend to be abandoned in the face of more urgent, if less important, demands on managers’ time. Any executive coaching provided is uncoordinated and typically the result of severe performance problems with a few individuals or a status boost for senior managers incapable of (or unwilling to engage in) self-development. People tend to avoid tackling difficult behavioural or ethical issues, out of embarrassment, ineptitude, fear, or a combination of all three.
At the tactical stage, the organisation has recognised the value of establishing a coaching culture, but there is little understanding of what that means, or what will be involved. Top management sees the issue as primarily one for HR. There are systems in place to train coaches and/or mentors, and there are numerous discrete HR systems such as succession planning and appraisal, but the links between these and the coaching process are at best tenuous. There is a broad understanding among individual contributors and managers of the potential benefits of coaching, but commitment to coaching behaviours as integral to management style is low. People recognise the need to tackle difficult behavioural or ethical issues, but will only do so in environments where they feel very safe.
At the strategic stage, there has been considerable effort expended to educate managers and employees in the value of coaching and to give people the competence (and therefore confidence) to coach in a variety of situations. Managers are rewarded/ punished for delivery/ non-delivery of coaching, typically linked to formal appraisal of direct reports. Top management have accepted the need to demonstrate good practice and most, if not all, set an example by coaching others. They spend time getting across to employees how coaching behaviours support the key business drivers. However, while the formal coaching process works well (in part because it is measured), the informal process creaks at the joints. There are plans to integrate coaching and mentoring with the wider portfolio of HR systems and, at a mechanical level, these largely work. People are willing to confront difficult behavioural or ethical issues on an ad hoc basis and there are good role models for doing so with both resolution and compassion.
At the embedded stage, people at all levels are engaged in coaching, both formal and informal, with colleagues both within the same function and across functions and levels. Some senior executives are mentored by more junior people and there is widespread use of 360° feedback at all levels to provide insights, into areas, where the individual can benefit from coaching help. Much, if not most, of this coaching and mentoring is informal, but people are sufficiently knowledgeable and skilled to avoid most of the downsides to informal mentoring. Coaching and mentoring are so seamlessly built into the structure of HR systems that they occur automatically. The skills of learning dialogue are sufficiently widespread that people are able to raise difficult or controversial issues, knowing that their motivations will be respected and that colleagues will see it as an opportunity to improve, either personally, or organisationally, or both.
Clutterbuck, D & Megginson, D (2005) Making Coaching Work: Creating a coaching culture, CIPD, Wimbledon
© David Clutterbuck, 2015
Prof David Clutterbuck
Coaching and Mentoring International Ltd
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