The business challenge:
We know that organisations and their leaders need to respond and adapt more quickly to cope with the changes in technology, globalisation, workforce trends, retaining talent, competition and regulations.
Because of this AGILITY, is becoming the foremost capability for organisations who have to be dynamic, adaptable and innovative to stay ahead and be successful. In fact, the IT world has been developing an ‘Agile’ approach to work for some years and now we are seeing more organisations considering how this can apply much more broadly across their business.
What is agility?
The Agile philosophy seeks to deliver value, creating/protecting opportunities at speed, by involving key stakeholders, customers and consumers, testing out new ideas and ways of working, constantly learning and iterating in a nimble way. You’ll hear ‘agile’ organisations talk about stand-up meetings, learning sprints and scrums.
Demands and needs are changing too quickly for the traditional, linear, well planned and lengthy approaches to organisational change, to remain effective.
There is growing research and understanding about how to create an agile organisation and a recognition that developing a coaching culture is at the core of developing agile capability across an organisation (Harvard Business Review April 2018). Only recently have we seen Google’s analysis of research data showing coaching is the number one capability of its most successful leaders.
Coaching is the number one capability of successful leaders
Why create a coaching culture?
We already know that creating a coaching culture adds value to bottom line performance. McKinsey research (2017) reports organisations with a coaching culture are 1.5 times more likely to financially outperform and 1.7 times more likely to outperform on non-financial measures. The case is clear.
Creating a coaching culture adds value to bottom line performance
We believe developing a great coaching culture and capability is about:
Creating the right environment for people to think differently, see new ways of tackling issues, develop a growth mind-set and build confidence.
Aligning the purpose and motivation of the organisation, with the team and individual - releasing engagement, potential and inspiring performance.
So, it’s no surprise it is becoming increasingly important for organisations to seriously consider how they create this capability and culture when agile working is critical to success.
Building a coaching culture
So how do you go about creating a coaching culture to raise performance, build agility and encourage innovation?
We share below the essential ingredients we’ve learnt over the last 20 years:
Top level sponsorship is vital.
Involve significant team members – ideally leaders with coaching and mentoring experience.
Create a clear vision and compelling reason why you’re bothering - describe how it helps to deliver the wider business strategy, what’s in it for leaders, employees, customers, stakeholders?
Outline your goals and create a strategic approach for achieving this – it’s not a one hit wonder, it will take time.
Ensure senior leaders role-model the right values, mindset and behaviours.
Develop managers and leaders to coach.
Develop an internal cohort of skilled coaches with ongoing CPD & supervision.
Build in agile processes like peer to peer feedback, learning cohorts and learning sessions to share ideas, iterate and move forwards.
Embed the coaching culture in organisational systems and processes.
Use external coaches selectively.
You’ll be likely to need external support and resource initially to kick start the development of a coaching culture, then you can reduce this as you develop capability and reach further into the organisation.
As experts in building coaching capability over the last 20 years, we have been helping organisations develop their managers and leaders to have great coaching conversations. We also train and develop internal expert coaches and provide ongoing supervision. For an overview of our programme please click here.
Testimonials
Here’s what our programme participants say.
““Our meetings are much more effective and creating real change in the organisation.””
““I have been overwhelmed with the response I have had from my team as I have stated to have coaching conversations, rather than tell them what to do. Now I’m not thinking for them, they are really stepping up, taking real responsibility and delivering so much more.””
““We are now retaining more of our talented employees.””
““It’s freed me from having to know it all.””
““I realised that the team have got so much more talent and I now know how to free their potential.””
““Our leaders have become more proactive.””
““There is greater engagement from involving others in thinking and decision-making.””
““Best course ever!””
““Amazing facilitators, so knowledgeable.””
““Created a brilliant and safe environment to really develop.””
We’d love to hear from you about how we could support you to raise performance, build agility and encourage innovation to meet the future challenges your organisation faces.
If you’d like a PDF version of this article please click here.
Contact us at:
Claire Hack
e: claire@downtoearth-development.co.uk
t: +44 (0) 7881 915657
w: downtoearth-development.co.uk
Wendy Oliver
e: wendy@oliverpurnell.co.uk
t: +44 (0) 7768 693304