How to create a business coaching culture in FIVE steps:

1. Start at the top

Executives will have to be seen engaging with their teams and others during 1 to 1 sessions. Failing to be seen creates an “us and them” division between employees and management, cuts off conversation, undermines morale, and reduces productivity.

A good executive will roam around the working area to be seen, to be accessible to answer questions, and get a handle on what is happening among employees. If they shut themselves away in their office all day, they would become distanced and detached from what is going on, for this reason, executives must have an open-door policy so that employees feel welcome to approach them with questions or problems.

2. Invest to train coaches

It can be productive for a business to decide on one coaching model to progress with. This enables continuity in the 1-to-1 business coaching sessions and gives you a framework to work within; it does not explain to you how to coach, but it will give you a roadmap on how to get to your planned target.

To build a successful coaching culture, you need to invest in training your people to coach.

A coach who has little or no training, or performs half-heartedly and with no passion, will end up doing more harm than good. It can cause upsets, conflicts, focus on the wrong objectives, and provide poor advice on how to overcome barriers to progression (the individual makes little progress or even goes backward in their development) … The list is long.

Coaching is not simply a case of listening to someone’s problems and offering advice, there is much more to providing effective coaching. Excellent coaches take years to develop and refine their skills, and never stop learning through additional courses and self-development.

3. Start small

Creating a coaching culture is like learning how to walk before you can run? Develop interest by each coach having two or three coachees. This allows you to refine your coaching ability and builds curiosity.

4. Get employees to buy into your vision

Get your employees to buy into your vision of a true coaching culture and what you are looking to accomplish.

A true coaching culture has no limits and can go up, down, or across a business.

Once the process gain momentum, it becomes far easier for a coaching culture to root itself within the business and include all that it does. Employees will no longer be surprised when an executive schedules a coaching session. They must embrace it and must be disappointed if it does not happen because of the benefits to them, as well as to the business.

5. Get executives to champion your vision

If everyone does not buy into your vision -

“Told you it wouldn’t last...” “I knew all along it was just a fad...”

If the buy-in is championed by executives and management, the coaching culture will continue to grow and embed itself into the business.

People soon start to forget things they have learned. One-off events are usually an expensive waste of time, only providing a short-term benefit if any, and employees look at them as only provided because the business is trying things without a clear vision of the road ahead.

Calculate your return on investment (ROI) and reward employees accordingly.