Are you an organizational decision-maker that recognizes the capacity of coaching to empower, engage and develop employees? Does your company invest in their leaders, producing a positive lasting return on investment?

If your answer is positive, you certainly already know that the mean ROI for companies investing in coaching is 7 times the initial investment, with over a quarter reporting an ROI of 10 to 49 times, according to a global survey led by Price Waterhouse Coopers and the Association Resource Center.

Why such large returns?
When leaders are improving their performance, when leadership is effective, when teams overcome, when retention is improving, when change initiatives are successful, the whole organization reaches a high-performing level.

Change Management

Organizations are in a state of constant change!

How do leaders, managers, HR, and Talent Management practitioners empower their people to execute their organization’s vision and thrive in a world of constant change?

Coaching is one of the most helpful ways to develop change management capabilities, from large-scale initiatives (mergers and acquisitions, global expansion, downsizing) to changes at the team level (adopting new technology, team leadership transition).

One-on-one coaching, team coaching and work group coaching in change management can help individuals, teams and organizations around the top following reasons:

• Exploring and overcoming resistance ;
• Enhancing communication;
• Building resilience and change readiness;
• Finding processes and tools.

Using coaching to lead an agile culture is correlated with greater confidence in employee’s capabilities in planning and executing change. Managing and successfully introducing change was ranked fourth among ten valuable competencies for first time people manager by Millennial leaders.

ICF (International Coach Federation) & HCI (Human Capital Institute) have led a study about Building a Coaching Culture with Change Management:

Most organizations experience several large-scale change management initiatives at the same time. Often in change management, practitioners and change sponsors are focused on what needs to happen at the organizational level rather than the individual level. To successfully implement a new initiative, organizations need to build change management capabilities, so that their people drive and sustain change rather than see change as something that happens to them.

Although it was not among the most frequently cited change management activities, respondents rated coaching as one of the most helpful activities for supporting the goals of a change management initiative. When coaching is strategically incorporated into an organization’s portfolio of L&D activities for change management, those who design, implement and sustain the change can address individuals’ resistance to the change and develop the attitudes, behaviors and skills needed for the type of change.

Based on the results of this research, we offer the following recommendations:

• Organizational leaders must design, communicate and lead change with focus, clarity and consistency;
• Identify specific roles for those involved in a change management initiative and determine what knowledge and skills are important for each role and change management stage;
• Understand when and at what levels communication for a change management initiative breaks down. Those who were not involved at the start of a change management initiative may have different assumptions, expectations and levels of resistance than the change designers and sponsors;
• Consider how coaching can be a part of change management initiatives at every stage and introduce a variety of coaching activities based on the unique needs of the organization and the strategic and change management goals;
• Scale employee access to coaching by training managers/leaders on how to use coaching skills;
• Support the ongoing development of coaching skills, offer managers/leaders development opportunities to receive coach specific training and offer access to professional internal or external coach practitioners to deepen their coaching skills;
• Help managers/leaders understand that when they use coaching skills, they are present and focused on the conversation; actively listening to words, body language and tone; and asking questions to move the team member toward his or her goals;
• Help managers/leaders to determine when, where and how often to apply coaching skills. Without organizational support and feedback, they may not prioritize the use of the skillset in their managerial approach.

Let’s talk about your change management project or issues!

Building a coaching culture with managers and leaders

Are you ready for building a coaching culture with managers and leaders?

61% of organizations with a strong coaching culture are also classified as high-performing organizations They do value and invest in coaching, and want their managers/leaders using coaching skills in order to support employees at all levels in growing their skills, enhancing their value and reaching their professional goals.

Send me a message and let’s talk about training for managers to use coaching skills.

Here are the conclusions and recommendations suggested by ICF (International Coach Federation) & HCI (Human Capital Institute) as an outcome of their last research about Building a Coaching Culture with Managers and Leaders.

Strong coaching cultures are highlighted when organizations offer coaching to all employees, communicate coaching’s value and purpose, and maintain accountability for the process. Senior leaders, managers, employees and coach practitioners all play an important role in developing strong coaching cultures. Senior leaders need to role model coaching behaviors and allocate budget and resources. Managers need to participate in ongoing coaching competency training and dedicate time to coaching their team members. Employees need to adopt a growth mindset and own individual coaching outcomes. Internal and external professional coach practitioners deliver coaching and, at times, training around coaching skills. All of these stakeholders work together to build a strong coaching culture and to realize the benefits and outcomes of coaching behaviors.

By implementing the following recommendations, HR/TM/L&D professionals, business leaders, and employees can build a strong, sustainable coaching culture:

• Increase access to coaching:
  ~ Create equal opportunity for all employees to partner with professional coach practitioners;
  ~ Embed the practice at all levels with a combination of the three modalities.
• Communicate the value of coaching:
  ~ Assess and influence mindsets toward coaching. It needs to be seen as a developmental opportunity rather than remediation;
  ~ Consistently and constantly reiterate the purpose of coaching and measure and share impacts of organizational coaching outcomes;
• Enhance training opportunities:
  ~ Offer managers/leaders using coaching skills additional opportunities for accredited coach-specific training;
  ~ Support managers/leaders using coaching skills in their desire to obtain coaching credentials/certificates;
  ~ Provide managers/leaders using coaching skills examples, toolkits, videos, etc. on the coaching core competencies;
  ~ Support the expansion of mentor coaching, peer coaching and new communities of practice;
  ~ Provide managers/leaders access to credentialed internal or external coach practitioners to deepen their coaching skills.
• Hold all stakeholders accountable in a coaching culture:
  ~ Have standardized, organization-wide coaching agreements that define parameters of the coaching relationship. Have managers/ leaders using coaching skills, internal coach practitioners and employees acknowledge the agreements to ensure clear expectations and accountability;
  ~ Recognize that managers apply coaching skills in the moment (e.g., informally and unscheduled), along with at formal, scheduled times;
  ~ Incorporate coaching skills into job descriptions for managers and leaders, and hire and promote managers and leaders who are willing to use coaching skills and see the value in developing their direct reports;
  ~ Encourage employees be receptive to coaching and feedback, to trust their developmental process, and to adopt a growth mindset.