I spoke at a conference the other day and the topic included a discussion about creating a coaching culture. This is something I’m passionate about (ever increasingly). What can we do to create an environment where we are all responsible for coaching each other?
In most organizations, the expectation is clear that managers coach employees (e.g., performance-related coaching and sometimes development and career coaching). But this is a short-sighted view. Coaching is so much more powerful than that alone. While manager-employee coaching is crucial, if that is the only place we concentrate our efforts we miss out on the real value. I think we need to strive to create a culture where all employees are responsible for coaching. The goal is to uncover potential, deepen learning, improve performance, and enhance quality of life. The implications of this are that individually and organizationally we can produce extraordinary results.
What have you done in your organization to create a coaching culture? How have you successfully instilled a value that we owe it to ourselves and our organization to coach up, down, and across the company?
Related articles: Coaching – One Approach to Leadership Development; Guidelines for Assessing Organizational Culture
Tags: Beyond the Jargon, Calibra, coaching culture, Diane Hamilton, Executive Coaching, Leadership Development, work environment
