In the last blog of my “When to Build a Coaching Culture Series”, I discuss how do you build a coaching culture over time?
We’ve said that we are starting small in building a coaching culture. One starfish at a time.
But over time, as you expand this to more triads of leaders, there will be a ripple effect, and more people will become interested in getting the same results – lower stress levels, more time for strategic thinking, feelings of challenge and fulfilment.
Keep working with the people who want to learn.
They will be your biggest advocates, as they start to see higher productivity and engagement on their teams.
No culture change ever happens overnight, and it does take perseverance. But it’s worth sticking with it. You can’t treat this as a fad. It’s a long-term commitment to higher results.
That means that you need sponsorship (likely to be your early adopters), people who can advocate for the impact it’s having on them and their teams.
You’ll need to collect evidence (see the previous post about measuring success) that your sponsors can communicate to other stakeholders.
You’ll need some way of co-ordinating the logistical elements of the triad work.
And over time, you may want to think about how to bring the coaching/teaching in-house. With support, could your early adopters work with triads of their own?
Don’t stop until everyone is using a coach-approach to leadership.
And be sure that all newly promoted leaders get the opportunity to be coached and learn through triads. This is often where I see leadership falling down…where organisations neglect to provide guidance to new managers on how to lead. Just because they were good at their individual contributions does not mean that they will automatically be good at leading people. It will help that they have role models who use a coach approach, but they will likely need help in applying that for themselves.
If you wanted everyone in the organisation (not just leaders) to adopt a coach approach to supporting and challenging their peers, you might think about introducing action learning sets. But I’m going to stop there, as this might all of a sudden sound rather overwhelming. Start small, start anywhere, and these long-term additions can be introduced later on.
I’d love to hear your experiences of creating a coaching culture in your organisation. Where did you start? What have you learned? What would you share with others on this journey?
We’ve come to the end of this blog series. If you want to revisit the posts, here they are compiled in a handy eBook.
You know where I am if you need help! Call me on 07775 817344 or write to clare@clarenormancoachingasssociates.com.
