Why organisations that have a coaching culture have a deliberate advantage

Developing deliberate leaders who coach, benefits teams and organisational results. However, the higher impact is felt when we consider developing deliberate leadership coaching cultures. Here we explore how organisations can benefit from doing so. We’ll delve into the advantages, some key principles and practices, and the stages involved in creating and sustaining it.

Let's start with some case studies.

Think Talent

Ainsley Johnstone is CEO of Think Talent, a specialist recruitment agency based in Melbourne, Australia. As work dried up through the pandemic and forced disruption, Ainsley had space to reconsider the direction of the business and bring back an idea she’d had many years earlier. She wanted to elevate her team’s performance and increase their sense of joy, happiness and engagement.

She thought about the tension she and the team had experienced. While a busy time meant intense periods of performance and stress, this did not result in high engagement. Individual targets, leading to lucrative rewards, didn’t help either. So, Ainsley abolished this model and went to team incentives and rewards. Thanks to her dedicated team, performance was just as high, but stress levels were more manageable and engagement was higher.

The role of the chief talent activator is a new addition to the Think Talent team, but it’s a role that Ainsley has had on her mind for many years. A fan of Gallup Strengths (Ainsley has hers proudly listed on her corporate bio), Ainsley wants to support her workforce by ensuring their unique talents are identified and leveraged. The chief talent activator works with the team to unlock performance gaps, help leverage strengths and, ultimately, drive high performance. This is complemented by a fair and egalitarian performance and reward structure that rewards team performance first and foremost.

This is a departure from most recruitment agencies and Think Talent’s former reward structure that rewarded individual performance before team performance. When Ainsley spoke to her team about changing the goals and making them more team-based, they were far happier, more focused and more engaged. There was an increase in overall team performance and higher levels of engagement among the Think Talent team.

The introduction of the chief talent activator hasn’t stopped Ainsley from coaching her team. It has freed her up to be a performer in the team, recruiting team members and supporting clients alongside her role as coach and CEO. She feels the team values this because her dual role of working on and in the business enables pace and growth with her team.

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Time Etc

Time Etc was established in 2007 and provides virtual assistants to organisations globally.

As the business experienced fast growth with expansion in the US market, Time Etc started to experience some growing pains. Founder and CEO Barnaby Lashbrooke describes these as typical small business cultural issues. They were recruiting and found that some people would leave after six months, others found their job stressful and there were some toxic behaviours in the workplace.

A survey revealed that the team sought support in goal setting, feedback, personal and professional opportunities, and autonomy from their manager. Lashbrooke says the list sounded like they needed a coach more than a manager. They wanted someone in their corner — people who were prepared to give feedback, good or bad, elevate them, help them to do their best, listen to them, support them and help them grow.

That feedback brought Time Etc to where it is today. Lashbrooke attributes their switch to coaches rather than managers as key in why Time Etc consistently ranks in the top 1% of teams globally in the Gallup Q12 survey. The company has a culture of coaching instead of management, high levels of engagement and low levels of turnover. The organisation now has a ratio of one coach to six employees. The coach’s mandate is simple: help employees be as productive as possible. These coaches still manage, but their focus is empowering and supporting employees to find their own way forward.

I asked Lashbrooke if coaching at Time Etc is more of a leadership style or philosophy. He believes it is authentic coaching. The coaches identify clearly as coaches rather than managers. Lashbrooke says this differentiation is a deliberate flag and point of difference in how they lead. Any pushback has been about a lack of discernment in selecting the right coaches. The essential qualities that Time Etc look for in their coaches are humility, determination, strong work ethic, grounded, understated, alignment with organisational values, and demonstrating a genuine desire to help others. The belief is that employees should be coached and not managed traditionally.[i]

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Chevron

Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly involved in oil and gas. HR industry analyst Josh Bersin has closely followed Chevron’s use of coaches in their learning and development offer. Since the program started in July 2020, more than 1,200 Chevron leaders have received personalised development, including coaching. More than 90% of these leaders say coaching makes them more effective at their jobs. In its Operational Excellence Management System, Chevron calls out that leaders are responsible for coaching, monitoring, and holding people accountable.[ii]

Chevron has also implemented the use of coaching circles. In this initiative, Chevron leaders gather in small global groups to discuss and learn through expert-facilitated discussions. These programs have now reached more than 3,000 Chevron leaders in fifteen languages.[iii] Chevron uses coaches as part of its leadership development suite of programs. As part of the Emerging Leader program, participants can select a coach who works with them to understand their leadership assessment and create a development plan. Chevron uses internal coaches that are certified in its programs.[iv]

Bersin states that other benefits at Chevron from implementing coaching include a 15% increase in employee recognition, a 12% improvement in business alignment, a 13% improvement in problem-solving, and a 16% improvement in strategic planning. Coaching has helped the company transform its entire performance management process.

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Beyond the best

As these examples show, there are huge advantages to developing leaders who coach, but we want to go beyond that. We aim to integrate coaching techniques as a way of being in organisations. The culture shifts when the entire organisation embraces coaching in all interactions, learning and growth. It moves from ‘growth at all costs’ to supported growth, and from unrelenting high performance to sustainable performance.

Teams feel less burnt out and more supported while developing themselves and achieving more. The coaching recipients experience noticeable growth, more confidence, focus and self-worth.[v]

Developing a deliberate leadership coaching culture promotes a coaching mindset among leaders resulting in higher performance and a definite clear advantage.

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[i] Lashbrooke, B. (2023, June 5) A company replaced all of its managers with coaches. Employees became 20% more productive–and much happier, Fortune Magazine. https://fortune.com/2023/06/05/company-replaced-managers-coaches-employee-productivity-much-happier-work-careers/

[ii] Chevron, Operational Excellence Management System. https://www.chevron.com/-/media/shared-media/documents/OEMS_Overview.pdf

[iii] Bersin, J. (2021) The Explosive Growth in Coaching: One of the Biggest Trends in Business. https://joshbersin.com/2021/10/the-explosive-growth-in-coaching-one-of-the-biggest-trends-in-business/

[iv] Ellis, R. K. (2022) Building Chevron’s Leadership Pipeline. Association for Talent Development.https://www.td.org/atd-blog/building-chevrons-leadership-pipeline

[v] Tompkins, M. W. (2018) Coaching in the Workplace. Journal of Practical Consulting, Vol 6, Iss 1, Pg 115-122.