Creating a Coaching Culture- Part One

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May 4, 2009

I’m taking a strong position on coaching.  With so much said about human resources not being able to affect the bottom  line, creating and encouraging a coaching culture is one sure way we can bring value to the company. 

 Many companies take the approach of not addressing coaching in a formal way, hoping that their managers and other leaders will fall into the coaching role. And, while some are successful at this approach, there are others who do not know where to begin.  There are still others that think that coaching is when you train someone on your team to do some aspect of their job, or do it better. This  is certainly better than not coaching at all, but it is not really hitting the nail on the head.

 Coaching should be a developmental relationship- one that exists and grows over time.  A relationship where the coach certainly suggests training opportunities as one component of the employee’s development.  But, a good coach will take the relationship further. 

 Is there coaching at your company?  Is there a formal program or are managers left to fend for themselves?  Throw some comments at me to let me know what is working in your company or what is not working.

 Stay tuned for Part 2- Coaching:  Rules of Engagement and Part 3: How HR Can Enhance A Coaching Culture.

6 Comments

  • We don’t have a formal coaching program, however we always encourage our managers to “coach”.

    I think the difficulty we have with coaching is two fold. 1. The manager has to be trained to coach. It’s not easy, and can be very difficult for top performers to be great coaches (see Ted Williams). 2. It is a voluntary relationship. You can’t force someone to be coached, they have to want to be coached. That’s great when you have someone that wants to willingly enter into that relationship, but how do you determine someone’s ability to coach, if there are not willing participants.

    My thoughts yo.

  • No coaching here as far as I can tell. Definitely not enough communication. In the time I’ve been here (almost 1 month) they haven’t had a communication go out to the employees aside from managers. That’s nuts.

    And Trish, I don’t comment often, but I read every post in my reader. Trying to pare down my subscriptions so I can pay closer attention to those that I’m following. 🙂

  • We’re trying to get a coaching program going, trying really hard. Our office is only a year old and we’ve had a few managment changes already. Our corporate office rolled out a leadership training program a few weeks ago. That is having a nice impact but the one on one coaching between manager and employee has stalled in some departments. I think many managers are under the opinion that coaching is training and should be done by the Training Department. Other managers claim they just dont have time; to those managers, I dont support their performance related write-ups – coach your employees, provide them the tool and knowledge the need to get their jobs done, if they still fail then it’s their fault not ours.

    I think we have every personality under the sun in my office, makes for interesting attempts at anything 🙂

  • Thank you all for your comments. I am taking them all into consideration as I write Part 2 and Part 3 of this coaching series. Appreciate your time and feedback.

Comments are closed.

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About Trish

A former HR executive and HCM product leader with over 20 years of experience.

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