Fiona Eldridge and Dr Sabine Dembkowski

ten success factors for bringing it to life

Creating a coaching culture:

There are key success factors which should form part of the planning

process, and which can be used as a framework for organisations about

to embark on the implementation of a coaching culture.

Coach the Coach

Coaching today

Coach the Coach • Issue 4

Coach the Coach • ©Fenman Limited 2004

Coaching is subject to much media

attention, and the use of coaching

within organisations has increased

significantly in Europe. The recent

2004 Training and Development

Survey

from the CIPD

1

indicated

that 78 per cent of its UK survey

respondents reported using

coaching as part of their learning

and development activities.

However, the figures may not be as

high in other European countries.

Organisations that use coaching

have had a variety of experiences.

Although the use of coaching

for individuals within the

organisation may be on the

increase, organisations are still

challenged to create a coaching

culture to create a new way of

management. A few pioneers have

adopted this new style, but many

others are still struggling to find

ways of moving away from old

‘command and control’ habits.

This is especially the case within

the German-speaking world and

Eastern Europe – where organisa-

tions have yet to begin the journey.

The following success factors can

be used by organisations

themselves, or by external

coaching consultants assisting

organisations to develop a

coaching culture.

Success factor: link to the

business strategy

For example, if the business

strategy requires high growth, the

first question is ‘What is the

appropriate culture to enable the

high growth?’ In assessing their

current culture, organisations may

identify that they do not have a

‘high performance culture’ or

‘coaching culture’. The reasons for

this will certainly vary. Coaching

is by no means the ‘be all and end

all’, but it is certainly a critical

part of the picture. Without

leaders at all levels within the

organisation who can work with

their people to draw out their

greatest performance, high growth

will not be sustainable.

Success factor: identify a

sponsor

Any initiative that is linked to the

business strategy, and has

fundamental implications for the

culture of an organisation, needs

a sponsor within the organisation

to act as its champion. In the

ideal scenario, the sponsor is a

member of the board and/or a

highly respected top executive.

This may be a delicate issue; in

some organisations it is still

common for top executives to use

coaches but keep them hidden –

seeing coaching as for their private

benefit and a ‘secret weapon’ in

their arsenal for achieving

success within the organisation

and beyond. We have come

across a great variety of practices

and have been subject to instruc-

tions like ‘Never show your

business card at Reception.’

Of course, it is important for

individual coaches and

coaching organisations to respect

confidentiality. However, the

introduction of a coaching culture

will require those who have

experienced its benefits to become

willing advocates for the benefits

of coaching, rather than hiding

their coaches away. A good

sponsor will be someone who has

first-hand experience of coaching

and can see its benefits for the

wider organisation.

At a minimum, it is essential to

provide clear communication to

those who will most immediately

benefit – top executives who have

an allocated budget for coaching.

Coaching can be promoted in

feedback discussions during annual

appraisals and/or as an option that

is offered after a management

audit or assessment. It is important

to be clear about the steps the

executive needs to take in order to

enjoy executive coaching, and

about the budget allocation for

coaching – how much does the

company cover from centralised

budgets and what might need to be

covered by the business unit or the

department?

Success factor: integrate

coaching modules into the

leadership programme

Organisations that are committed

to creating a coaching culture go

one step further, and integrate

coaching modules into their

leadership development

programmes. External executive

coaches analyse the curriculum for

leadership development and work

with HR, the training division and

other trainers to ensure a well-

integrated approach so that the

leaders of an organisation are able

to adapt a coaching mindset. In

addition, some members of the

organisation may become fully

qualified coaches themselves.

However, roles and responsibilities

of internal and external coaches

need to be clearly defined. In

our experience, the top-executive

team remains best served by

external coaches.

Success factor: develop

evaluation strategies

We have come across a lack of

clarity about desired outcomes for

coaching. This leads to organisa-

tions being unclear about how to

evaluate coaches and the outcome

of specific coaching programmes.

Some are content with ‘happy

sheets’ – simple feedback about the

coaching relationship which

provides little more than a

statement that the coachee enjoyed

the coaching. Others like to have a

statement of to what extent the

goals set at the beginning were

met. Very few have started to

implement measures of ROI for

coaching. For example, at present

there is still a preconception in

some organisations that coaching

is too expensive. In absolute terms,

at first sight it may indeed be

cheaper to send executives on yet

another training programme. The

question should be ‘Expensive in

relation to what?’ It triggers us to

adapt the old management saying

‘If you think coaching is expensive,

try incompetence.’ The costs of

coaching have to be put into

perspective in relation to the

outcome. Measures of return of

experience and ROI become

critical to ensure support from the

top and future allocation of a

budget for executive coaching.

These have to be carefully

prepared, and it is essential to be

precise about the goal of the

coaching programme for the

organisation and the goals for each

individual coaching programme.

Only if the organisation and

coaches adhere to good practice

can good evaluation strategies be

developed.

The introduction of a coaching

culture to any organisation raises

the same challenges as other

culture change programmes. It is

not sufficient merely to announce

it, provide information and assume

that the change will take place.

Planning is essential to introduce

any new initiative. It is important

to examine all the costs and

benefits and to anticipate and plan

for resistance.

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank international colleagues who inspired them with their writing, freely gave their

time and/or shared first-hand experiences and thoughts. Special thanks go to Diane Foster (USA), Stefan Oberli

(Switzerland), Hupert Krögler (Germany), Dr Fritsch (Germany) and Tim Price (UK).

Reference

1 The 2004 Training and Development Survey report is available to download from the CIPD website at

www.cipd.co.uk/surveys. See also Eric Parsloe and Jessica Rolph, ‘Coaching: Survey Respondents have

their Say’, Training Journal, pp. 36-38, June 2004.

Fiona Eldridge

is director of The Coaching and Communication Centre, a master

practitioner and a certified trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). She is also

a member of EMCC. Fiona has appeared on television and radio and is a frequent

contributor to newspapers and journals in the sphere of education.

The Coaching and Communication Centre

•

Telephone: +44 (0) 20 8347 2877

•

E-mail: enquiries@coachingandcommunication.com

•

Website: www.coachingandcommunication.com

Sabine Dembkowski

is based in Cologne, Germany. She is director of The Coaching

Centre. She trained as a coach with various institutions in the US (LoreInternational),

UK (School of Coaching) and Germany. Before becoming a coach she worked as a top

management consultant for A.T. Kearney and Monitor Company in London. Today she

supports leaders across Europe in organisations such as Roland Berger, Citibank,

Procter & Gamble, Metro, and Merck.

The Coaching Centre

•

Telephone: +49 (0) 221 285 9605

•

E-mail: sabinedembkowski@thecoachingcentre.com

•

Website: www.thecoachingcentre.com

major international coaching

organisations have defined

criteria and also operate a

professional code of ethics. Has

the coach completed just one

coach training, or have they been

through several programmes?

s

Description of a coaching

concept

– does the coach have a

coherent and proven coaching

concept which they utilise in

assignments?

s

Continuous education

– does

the coach invest on a continuous

basis in their own personal

development? What exactly

does the coach do to keep their

knowledge and performance

up to date?

s

Supervision

– does the coach

have supervision?

s

Experience as an executive

coach

– who does the coach

work for? At what level?

s

References

– there are

organisations that are satisfied

with a reference list, but many

choose to speak directly to the

reference organisations before

entering into a contract.

s

Adherence to ethical standards

–

does the coach belong to a well-

respected coaching organisation

such as the European Mentoring

and Coaching Council (EMCC),

and adhere to its ethical and

professional standards?

Success factor: create a

coach pool

Once coaches have met the criteria,

they are entered into a coach

pool. We have found that many

organisations prefer to operate a

pool arrangement so that individual

executives have a choice of coach.

In addition, should an initial

coaching relationship not work

for any reason, there are then

other coaches who can be brought

in without having to seek out new

individuals. To ensure efficiency of

the operation of a coach pool, it is

useful to define a standard for a

coach profile. Each individual coach

will have to fill in and submit a

standard form back to the organisa-

tion. When the HR department

receives a request for a coach, it is

then possible to complete some pre-

selection on the basis of the profiles.

A selection of profiles is then sent to

the interested executive. The next

step is to arrange a ‘get to know

each other’ meeting. Ultimately,

which coach is selected is the

decision of the individual executive.

A good coach pool database

contains information about, for

example, whom the coach has met

for a ‘get to know each other’

interview, conversion rate, and

feedback received from the

executives. Coaches with a good

standing within the database are

likely to be more actively promoted,

while those who do not receive

assignments may be stood down

from the list.

Success factor: active

communication with the

coach pool

Organisations who are serious about

developing a performance/coaching

culture seek active dialogue with

their coach pool. Regular meetings

are arranged two to three times a

year, at which representatives from

the organisation talk about recent

developments. These may include

new strategic directions, demands

and expectations conveyed to

executives, current initiatives (for

example, management audits),

and the key take-aways for the

organisation, plans for measuring

the return on investment (ROI)

for executive coaching and so on.

Coaches share the latest

developments in their community

and best-practice examples. In this

way a joint learning culture is

created and communication is

enhanced and maintained.

Success factor: ensure strict

confidentiality

It is pivotal for the coaching

relationship that the content of

coaching sessions is subject to

strict confidentiality between coach

and coachee. Those who initiate

coaching on the HR side can be

informed about the process and

general progress, but the content

is not revealed.

If it is known that information

about content is leaking through

the organisation, trust in the

instrument is broken. It would be

an extreme challenge to rebuild it.

The only time when a confidence

may be legitimately broken is in a

situation where the coachee reveals

illegal activity. The ground rules

concerning confidentiality need to

be underlined when establishing

the initial coaching contract – both

with the organisation and with the

individual.

Success factor: develop an

integrated communication plan

Once the organisation has

decided to offer coaching to the

executives, it needs to be

communicated actively within the

organisation. How coaching and

its benefits can be communicated is

a matter of creativity. We have

come across various practices,

ranging from displaying the offer

of external executive coaching on

the organisation’s intranet

(including a short video from the

sponsor in the organisation, in

which he stated how beneficial

coaching was for him and the

impact it had on his personal

corporate career), to clear

information in the annual

education programme and a slot

in the agenda of important

company events such as a quarterly

meeting (where a coach and a

coachee talked about their work).

Success factor: start offering

coaching at the top

All too often, coaching is regarded

as a method of fixing something that

is broken. In our experience, this is

particularly so within the German-

speaking world – where coaching may

be introduced to improve the

performance of under-performing

executives or as a precursor to

beginning capability proceedings.

When used in this way, coaching has

a problem orientation rather than a

solution orientation. In the UK and

USA the view is more balanced, and

organisations have started to realise

the benefit of utilising executive

coaches for the development of the

human potential of their top talents.

Starting at the top sends a strong

signal to the organisation and helps

to address preconceptions. In

addition, it has another significant

benefit: top executives and those with

high potential become role models

and essential multipliers of good

practice, which may eliminate

coaching requirements at middle-

management level.

Success factor: define quality

criteria and standards for selection

This is a major topic that could fill a

whole module in itself. The market

is supplied with an enormous number

of coaches. In Germany, for example,

it is estimated that there are about

30,000 to 50,000 individuals who

call themselves a coach. Each year

more coaches stream out into the

market from the many coaching

courses in existence. Of course, not

all target themselves at the corporate

market; many prefer to work with

individuals on personal issues as life

coaches. However, the corporate

sector is viewed as the most lucrative

to enter, and hence many new coaches

will be heading straight for the major

corporations on graduation from

their courses.

With time an ever-present pressure

within organisations, it is, of

course, tempting to use a familiar

face. Perhaps a successful trainer

within the organisation is now

offering coaching. There are benefits

here – the trainer will know the

organisation, its values and customs.

Coaching can be used as a very good

way of complementing training by

embedding the new learning in

practice.

However, cautionary tales abound,

and in conversations with those

responsible for selecting coaches we

have heard stories of coaches not

meeting the expectations of executives

and a whole new cohort of coaches

having to be appointed. It is

important to establish a clear set of

criteria when appointing your

coaches, to ensure that they meet

organisational and individual

executive expectations. Be very clear

about the intended outcomes of

coaching – for example, is it ‘nice to

have’ additional support for

executives which could be withdrawn

at short notice, or is it part of a wider

cultural change? The outcomes can,

and should, define the nature of the

coaches you choose.

There are a variety of criteria and

quality standards that organisations

have defined as needing to be met by

coaches. The most common ones we

have identified are listed below:

s

‘Fit’

– does the person fit into the

organisation?

s

Educational and professional

background

– has the coach skills

and experience of business which

will complement their coaching?

s

Coach training

– where was the

coach trained? Has the coach been

through a respected training

programme? Training programmes

are not yet standardised and there

is a major discussion about

standards for coach training. The

Creating a coaching culture: ten success factors for bringing it to life

Coach the Coach

Coach the Coach

there may be preconceptions about coaching

Within organisations