Coaching culture in organisations
This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.
See the original article in this link.
At a global level, the ICF – International Coaching Federation has developed several research projects on Coaching Culture and to illustrate its importance I like to highlight this phrase from the report “Creating a Coaching Culture” of the International Coaching Federation (ICF) y del Human Capital Institute (HCI) (2014):
“With a better understanding of why Coaching is so important, in terms of developing the company’s workforce as a whole, ensuring the competitive advantage through its people, the organisation can lay the foundation for a culture of coaching successful and lasting. As a result, the company can convey its commitment to the continuous development of its employees, helping to retain better talent and attract better candidates.”
Let’s review then the definition of coaching from the ICF – International Coaching Federation: “Coaching is a process of alliance with clients in which the stimulation of thinking and creativity is promoted, seeking the maximization of personal and professional potential.”
Coaching is a development process that involves structure, focused interaction in accordance with the objectives defined for the process and the use of appropriate strategies, tools and techniques that promote sustainable and desired change for the benefit of the coachee or client. The focus is on the future, on people’s potential and not on their past performance.
It differs from other interventions in companies such as formal or informal “mentoring”, which is a process of transferring knowledge or skills. Mentoring should be seen, not as a “substitute”, but as a complement to “Coaching”.
Coaching Culture
We already looked at the importance of a coaching culture, let’s now look at two definitions of what a coaching culture is.
- “A coaching culture is built by leadership beliefs and practices that at the organisational level reflect coaching as a strategic business driver and as a crucial tool for talent development.” ICF and HCI (2016) cite Blessing White, Inc (2009).
Another definition that includes more systemic thinking and shared value is that of Peter Hawkins, who in his book “Creating a Coaching Culture” tells us:
- “A coaching culture exists in an organisation when a coaching approach it’s a key aspect how leaders, managers and staff engage and develop their entire people and involve their interested parties, so they create a higher individual performance, of teams y organisational y shared value for all interested parties.”
Coaching Modalities
The three main Coaching modalities used in organisations are:
- External coach, professional with training in coaching, trained as a professional coach, and who practices it from outside organisations, that is, he is hired for specific processes on a one-off or continuous basis.
- Internal coach, professional with training in coaching and who practices it within an organisation. Whether or not it integrates it with other roles in the organisation.
- Coach Leader, uses coaching tools and competencies in his role as a leader.
Barriers to Implementation
The three main barriers to the implementation of a Coaching culture in organisations, identified in international studies, are:
- The lack of time.
- A limited ability to measure return on investment.
- Budget constraints.
For organisations to value coaching as a methodology or development tool, it is important that adequate knowledge about coaching and its benefits exists in the organisation, mainly at the level of senior management and the human resources department, since we observe that the greater the knowledge, the more coaching is used as a development tool and the more it expands to different levels of an organisation.
Author: Fatima Ribeiro
The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes, and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.
