If you’re going to coach people within an organization, the first question to ask is: Does the organization have a coaching culture? Additionally, it’s crucial to understand the broader context: What is the culture of the work environment in which the person is operating? These questions are essential for your success as a coach. But why are they so important? It’s because you and your client are operating within the boundaries of that culture.
Understanding Organizational Culture
One important aspect of culture is that it often remains invisible. Yes, it manifests in how people talk, act, and relate to each other. It can even be reflected in the office architecture and the structure of workstations. But despite these external signs, culture itself is not an external entity. Culture resides in the minds of people within the organization.
Because of this, we all learn and absorb our cultures. Parents, teachers, friends, and peers cultivate us to think, feel, speak, and act in certain ways. In a sense, a culture is simply “how we do things around here.” Whether it’s within a family, school, ethnic group, business, or country—every group has its own unique culture.
The Impact of Culture on Coaching
Returning to our initial question: What culture does my client live within? More specifically, does this organization have a coaching culture? This is vital to understand because the culture of your client’s organization will either support or hinder your coaching efforts.
For instance, imagine your client operates within a culture where mistakes are considered unacceptable. In such an environment, employees may feel compelled to hide or deny their errors. This creates a climate of fear, making it difficult for your coaching to succeed. Your client may feel threatened by feedback, become closed off, or resist the coaching process. In this case, it’s not the client who is the issue—it’s the organizational culture that creates the challenge.
What is a Coaching Culture?
At its core, a coaching culture encourages growth, development, and openness. It fosters an environment where people are allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Employees in such a culture feel comfortable speaking candidly and directly. In a coaching culture, effort is rewarded even if the desired results aren’t achieved immediately. Importantly, the culture places people first—whether employees or customers. It recognizes that organizational success depends on meeting the needs and expectations of its customers while treating them with respect and honor.
The Dangers of Coaching Without Understanding Culture
If you don’t understand the culture of the organization you’re working with, you’re essentially walking in blind. Your coaching efforts may inadvertently make things worse for your client. Sometimes, even the client may not fully grasp the cultural influences at play in their environment.
Without a supportive coaching culture, your coaching might still succeed—but with a cost. Often, a successful client will choose to leave the company in search of an organization with a coaching culture, where they can continue to grow and thrive. On the flip side, if coaching doesn’t work, the client may remain stuck, and HR or the recommending manager could conclude that coaching, in general, is ineffective. This creates a lose-lose situation.
What to Do If There’s No Coaching Culture
So, what if the organization doesn’t have a coaching culture? In this case, it’s important to communicate with the HR professional or manager who engaged you. Discuss the powerful influence that an organization’s culture has on the success of coaching. It can either make or break the process. Help them understand that the work environment includes many hidden, invisible factors that either enable or block people’s development.
From this consulting discussion, you can offer to coach the manager or senior leaders on how to create a coaching culture within the organization. If training is needed, consider bringing in one of the Neuro-Semantic trainers to provide leadership development or organizational change programs. This can help prepare the company for the necessary transformations to ensure coaching can thrive.
By helping to establish a coaching culture, you’ll be creating an environment where both individuals and the organization as a whole can succeed.
Curated by Danielle Tan.
Reference:
- [Certified_meta-coach] 2024 Morpheus#41 DO YOU HAVE A COACHING CULTURE? by L. Michael Hall, Ph.D. Executive Director, ISNS.
