Developing a coaching culture in your organisation

Professor David Gray

Objectives

By the end of this session you will be able to:• Distinguish between coaching, mentoring, and consultancy• Identify how organisations and individuals benefit from coaching• Agree on the criteria for selecting a good coach• Agree on ways of moving your organisation towards a coaching

culture

Your experience of coaching

• What proportion of the group have used a coach?• Was this coaching or mentoring or consultancy?• Was the coach/mentor internal or external?• What did you benefit from coaching?• What did the organisation benefit?• Were there any drawbacks/negative experiences of coaching?

Coaching or mentoring?

Coaching Mentoring

A short-term relationship Can be a long-term relationship

Structured with regular meetings Informal, meeting ‘as necessary’

Focus on specific issues and goals

Wide-ranging in focus

Focus on performance and development issues

Focus on career and personal development

Focus on the present Focus on the future

Coaching or consultancy?

A coach….. A management consultant….

Helps the client identify a range of options

Also gets client to consider a range of options

Helps the client identify their perspectives and goals

Gives advice

Helps the client identify options for action

Makes recommendations

Can be broad in terms of work but also life and personal issues

Is very business focused

Coaching, mentoring and consultancy

High personal content

Low personal content

Low business focus

High business focus

Life coaching

Sports coaching

Business coachingMentoring

Consulting

Selecting coaches: internal or external coaches?

An Internal Coach An External Coach

Pros Understands the internal culture and major issues

Usually on hand and available

Can help to promote a coaching culture in the organisation

Has experience with the problems and obstacles within the organisation

More likely to be professionally trained as a coach

Can bring an outsider’s perspective

Does not have vested interests or agendas inside the organisation

Can provide external benchmarking criteria

Coachees are more likely to be honest and straight forward

Easier to maintain confidentialityHas access to external networks

Selecting coaches: internal or external coaches?

An Internal Coach An External Coach

Cons Often, lack training in coaching

Potential conflict between role as coach and role as line manager or HR staff

May be too much a part of the organisational culture to be objective and innovative

Confidentiality may be harder to keep

The coaching might be too informal

Can be expensiveMay lack knowledge of the business

Less known by the organisation so higher risk

Organisation has more concern about corporate confidentiality

Drawing up a coaching culture checklist

• Examine and amend the scoring system as necessary• Apply the checklist to your organisation: what is the total score?• Moving your organisation forward:

Which elements need improving? What steps should be taken to achieve this?