The Top 5 Indicators of a Successful Coaching Culture

In the past 6 months of this year, we have observed an unusual upward trend of local and regional organizations needing to have their leadership teams sensitized & trained on the essence of coaching and how to embed it as a culture.  It is evident that the new normal is calling for organizations to develop human-centered leadership that will keep staff motivated, engaged, and highly productive during and beyond these anomalous times.

Whilst more organizations are looking to embrace coaching as a leadership approach, many mistakenly equate supporting employees using coaching or doing a one-off training with the top tier of leaders to embedding a coaching culture. These amongst other misconceptions have limited organizations from fully experiencing the organizational transformation brought about by embedding coaching as a culture.

So, what does a successful coaching culture look like?

To help leaders understand what embedding a coaching culture is and its characteristics, we listed 5 indicators of a successful coaching culture – derived from our 5 Pillared framework that is anchored on the ICF gold standard. We invite you to read through the pointers below and give yourself an organizational score against these markers:

1. A Leadership Committed to Coaching:

According to the ICF 2020 global Study, limited support from senior leaders ranked top amongst potential barriers to building a strong coaching culture inside an organization. Leadership committed to coaching is critical for success. In this case, the leaders consume coaching and have been trained to lead with coaching. Their lingo and general way of leadership reflect the coaching philosophy and mindset.

2. All Leaders are trained in Coaching:

To effectively have the coaching mindset embraced across the organization, leaders must be trained in how to coach and not left to work it out for themselves simply because they are managers. For effective reach and impact, the number of leaders to be trained should be an adequate number, informed by the leader-staff ratio. An organization may explore training their leaders through a global program that would have the leaders become certified coaches. They may also explore foundational coaching programs for coaching leaders which require less financial and time investment but have the leaders equipped with the priority coaching skills needed.

3. Clear Coaching Policy and a Coaching Management System (CMS)

Having a Coaching policy document and Coaching Management system guides the organization on how to manage coaching in the organization. The clarity and standards created through the system allow the team to seamlessly engage with coaching and help the organization track the uptake of coaching internally.

4. Measures Coaching Delivery and Impact Regularly

Inability to measure the impact of coaching is one of the second top potential barriers to building a strong coaching culture in an organization (ICF 2020 global Study). With an agenda to address this need, CDI- Africa Coaching Group has designed a coaching capability assessment that allows organizations to assess their organizational coaching index and track progress annually.

5. Coaching is not seen as separate from work rather as part of work

With coaching entrenched in the everyday business of an organization, all employees and leaders appreciate the benefits of the practice and invest in everyday formal and informal coaching conversations with the understanding that it moves the team closer to achieving the organization’s strategic goals. Based on these 5 priority indicators, what is your organizational score on a scale of one to ten? Learn more on how you can strengthen any of the above-stated indicators, here.

Source: CDI-Africa Coaching Group