How to overcome the 7 barriers to coaching in the workplace.

The changing world has shown how volatile, uncertain, and complex the world is, and how urgent the need for organisations to become rapidly more agile and adaptable is.

This need for urgent and continuous change has become an organisational constant and will only be achieved when leaders and people work together in collaborative ways that are built on trust and an appreciation of everyone’s differences and individual talents.

It is well established that a culture that has leadership coaching at its heart enables individuals to feel understood, valued and more willing to give their discretionary effort.

Coaching provides a background landscape that allows for working and learning together, unlocks potential and talent, and empowers individuals to be the very best they can be.

This describes the kind of workplace that every leader aspires to achieve, and many organisations are engaged in culture change programmes that are helping them move towards a systemic organisational coaching landscape. However, it’s natural that any kind of change will be met with resistance of some kind.

When introducing coaching as a way of working and leading in an organisation, there are several barriers to coaching in the workplace which can occur. These organisational barriers can be effectively mitigated but they do require some thought as to how best to do that.

In this article we look at seven classic barriers to organisational coaching and offer some ideas about how to minimise their impact:

The organisational barriers considered here are:

1. Lack of leadership buy-in at the top
2. Lack of understanding and appreciation of the power of coaching
3. Insufficient time and resources dedicated to coaching training and development
4. Over-complicating the process
5. People not fully understanding what coaching is or how it will benefit them
6. Coaching is not fully integrated into organisational systems and processes
7. Little or no evaluation of the benefits of coaching at all levels

1. Lack of leadership buy-in at the top

A key barrier to developing a coaching culture is that senior management only pays lip service to the coaching. They may not practice what they preach and don’t necessarily present as exemplars of best coaching practice, which isn’t a good start as the rest of the organisation will be watching. A good practice is to get the CEO and other senior leaders to tell their coaching stories and to lead by example. They should attend – or at least introduce – coaching skills training programmes. They should be seen to be practising good coaching techniques with their teams and individuals. If the top team find such potential behavioural changes challenging, then they will need to work on themselves first both as a team and as individuals. The type of leadership where coaching thrives must be seen to be supportive, motivating, and collaborative and where the emphasis is on leading for empowerment and individual responsibility.

2. Lack of understanding and appreciation of the power of coaching

There needs to be clear and unambiguous communication about what a coaching culture is, what coaching can achieve and the enormous benefits it can bring to individuals, teams and to the organisation as a whole. Coaching must be positioned as part of a wider culture change process that has the intention of retaining and attracting talent, unlocking the potential of all, and helping shape a new style of organisation that thrives on learning, inclusion, and mutual collaboration across all levels. Many people, including leaders, still regard coaching as a remedial intervention for poor performers and this is not the case. Of course, coaching can help poor performers improve, but fundamentally coaching is about helping everyone achieve their true potential at work. Remember you do not need to be ill to get better. Leaders will need a thorough understanding of the benefits of coaching and a communication brief to help them promote it with one clear and informed voice.

3. Insufficient time and resources dedicated to coach training and development

It’s essential that time and resources are allocated to equipping leaders with the key coaching skills they will need to demonstrate coaching behaviours within the workplace. Many organisations underestimate this, so leaders don’t become competent or build enough confidence to coach and as such revert back to their original style which undermines the effort to introduce coaching as the default way of working. A recent CIPD survey showed that only 5% of organisations have properly trained all their leaders as coaches. Once leaders have been trained, their development has only just started as they need to continuously practice and improve their coaching capability. This will call for lots of practice and self-facilitated learning groups where leaders can share their coaching experiences and learn from each other.

4. Over-complicating the process

Line managers don’t have to be highly trained coaches, and a well-designed three-day programme, such as our Leader as Coach programme, will be sufficient for many. A selected few might attend a five-day programme if there is a requirement for an in-house cadre of coaches, our ILM Level 5 programme is purpose-built for this need. However, the critical skills of listening, structuring, giving feedback and appropriate challenge are all straightforward and do not require leaders to learn a load of techniques and tools. First and foremost, effective coaching is simple and is about raising awareness and empowering the coachee to become more responsible for their choices and actions. Leaders can learn additional techniques as they develop their skills but at its heart, coaching is about developing appreciative and collaborative working relationships. In fact, coaching at its best is invisible, but present in every conversation – just five or six minutes of coaching in the corridor, by the desk or before a meeting can often be more effective than thirty minutes of well-meant advice.

5. People not fully understanding or preparing for what coaching is or how it will benefit them

There is often a tendency in organisations for coaching to become a top-down approach where managers and leaders ‘do coaching’ to others without taking the time to make sure everyone fully appreciates the benefits to them personally. ‘Readiness for coaching’ is often a missing piece of the coaching process in organisations and yet it is a critical one. People may feel fear or mistrust in the coaching process, misunderstand what coaching is intended for or have anxiety that their own performance is under scrutiny. They may lack effective coachee skills such as self-awareness, and the ability to self-reflect or to accept and act on feedback. To help overcome this, a basic ‘Coachee Readiness’ training programme may be introduced which will help coachees fully understand the coaching process, their role in it and what the benefits might be for them. In this way, coachees can feel that they are a partner in the coaching process, and this will help nurture more collaborative and effective coaching relationships with their coach. Effective coaching is a two-way effort with both the coach and coachee both understanding and undertaking their respective roles.

5. Coaching is not fully integrated into organisational systems and processes

If coaching is to be a key part of the organisational culture, then it must be a key part of organisational processes. The lack of inclusion of coaching in organisational processes is a common operational barrier. As the saying goes, what gets measured gets done. When this doesn’t happen, then coaching becomes a ‘nice to have’ intervention which some line managers will use effectively whilst others – who may be challenged by the collaborative and non-directive nature of coaching – will choose to ignore. This potentially divisive situation can undermine coaching as a key part of the organisation’s culture. To prevent this from happening, coaching should be integrated into management 1:1s, performance reviews and annual development conversations. Coaching must be part of the performance management system. Leaders should be measured and rewarded for the coaching they are doing, and the 360 feedback they get from their teams on how they are integrating coaching into day-to-day team management. Coaching refresher training and self-facilitated support groups should be established, and the attendance of leaders encouraged and monitored.

7. Little or no evaluation of the benefits of coaching at all levels

Introducing a coaching way of working into an organisation can take several years, involve a lot of effort, and require considerable (highly worthwhile) investment. Without effective evaluation, the leadership team might not get a clear view of the benefits of the investment in coaching over time. This may result in a reduction of time and money invested in coach training and development and reduce the effectiveness of the changes required. Therefore, it is important that a clear evaluation process is established at the outset to provide clear measures and evidence of the success and value of the investment. There are several theoretical models for evaluation and regardless of which is chosen, additional organisational evaluation should be added by creating bespoke measures which include how well coaching is being integrated into the daily life of the organisation

Whilst the 7 barriers to coaching described above can have a significant impact on developing a coaching culture, careful forward planning can mitigate these effects.

The key to success is to think ahead and to create a coherent l coaching strategy at the outset, which is kept under regular review and adjusted accordingly to ensure coaching delivers the huge value you know it can. If you are wanting to discuss how to create a coaching strategy that works then connect with us to talk with one of our consultants.