From Commander to Coach


Is encouraging a coaching culture throughout the organisation the best way of achieving a solid return on investment? Because of how coaching specifically fosters personal responsibility, and creates a strong ripple effect that keeps travelling, influencing, supporting and empowering?


At a time of practically full employment, retention and loyalty grow where people feel valued. And that is a value way beyond that which can be marked with beanbags and free food! It is more about valuing their input, their voice, their contribution, which a coaching culture actively seeks to unearth and utilise.


The coaching style of leadership encourages the whole workforce, from the greenest new hire all the way to the board, to own their experience in the fullest sense, to speak up, and to keep adapting, innovating and growing to meet the needs of the rapidly evolving business environment.


Orlaith Carmody, Coach and Consultant


Why a Coaching Culture can


transform the workplace. At one time, the Commander was the all-out boss. He stood on the prow of the ship, had the map inside his head, eye-glass securely in place, and knew exactly where he was going. His barked orders were obeyed at all costs.


Think actor Russell Crowe, looking moody and masterful in the movie Master and Commander!


It is an analogy I love to use to describe how much we have changed. Today, no one will follow someone blindly simply because he or she has the word ‘boss’ on the door. Most want to follow someone whose vision and values are aligned with their own, and who coaches them to be the best they can be.


Working patterns are shifting. Digitisation and artificial intelligence has taken and will continue to remove traditional jobs from the employment mix. Factor in a leadership shortage, as baby boomers retire in their droves, the millennials with their strong desire for purpose, add Gen Z’s needs for affirmation and feedback, and the shift begins to look very interesting from a coaching and mentoring angle.


On a company level, there is a clear need for learning and development – to hold on to that organisational memory, to support all the change, to innovate and respond in an agile way and so on – and to encourage employees to prioritise learning.


Packed and hectic schedules may have historically been the reason for poor take-up on learning offerings but the 2019 Workplace Learning Report from Linkedin suggests employees want to self-direct and design their own learning, rather than having it ‘bolted on’ from time-to-time.


The report also suggests that 2020 will be a big year for L&D with budgets strengthening. So, the question is, where should this budget be focused to get the best return?


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There is also the cost to consider of carrying poor performance from embedded and protected long-serving staff members, who may have resisted training or embracing change. Coaching is a way of empowering them to re-engage with their own development, and to work out, for themselves, if they want to stay and become a net contributor again.


The evidence is strong. A Europe-wide survey carried out by the International Coaching Federation found that 83% of employees who took part reported a greater loyalty and commitment to their organisations following coaching; 80% felt they had improved self-confidence and better workplace relationships; 70% said they took greater responsibility.


Starting out on the coaching culture journey is not easy, where it hasn’t featured strongly before, and requires a really dedicated champion who can win over the ‘commanders’.


While supervising a coach, she described to me how she introduced a coaching culture in her organisation in the financial sector and I was struck by her grit and courage.


She firstly undertook a Diploma in Professional Coaching herself, committing six months and a lot of her personal time to the project, while continuing with her HR role. She then presented internally to a group of senior managers an overview of coaching and what it could achieve, based on the classic Whitmore definition “Coaching is unlocking people’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them”.


She won their support, and the next stage was to achieve buyin from the mid-level managers she wanted to focus on, in order that they would understand the impact of coaching on themselves and their own performance.


Following her presentation to this group, 40 of them signed up for coaching, and she then had to reflect on the ethical considerations of a HR manager also being the coach and strains on her time.


She dedicated one day a week to the coaching, finding it challenging but very rewarding, and is considering the introduction of one-day Coaching for Managers training programmes, and the introduction of Coaching Circles.


A woman on a mission, you have to admire her vision and her tenacity to become a change agent.


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