How is your organization accelerating the development of a coaching mindset?

Coaching in the workplace is gaining momentum.  Leaders interested in achieving peak performance are fine-tuning their coaching skills and coaching is an integral part of the best leadership development programs.  Is this enough to embed coaching into the way of working? 

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of listening to David Clutterbuck on the topic of making a coaching leadership culture real in organizations.  He defined coaching leadership as the dialogue that moves mountains.  Organizations interested in “moving mountains” should be paying closer attention to how they develop and embed a coaching mindset in their organizations. 

One concrete way to do this is to have teams jointly develop their coaching skills.  Instead of the traditional approach of sending one or two team members to learn about “this coaching stuff” and having these individuals plant the seed, it is much more efficient to develop the team together.  Through a joint coaching development experience, the team can

·      share the learning journey with common tools

·      learn a common language

·      encourage, challenge and support each other in developing the skills

·      keep each other accountable for the application of a coaching mindset to a wide range of tasks and challenges

We start from the premise that Command, Control and Correct are no longer the most effective or efficient management tools; rather, leaders need to Involve, Inspire, and Innovate in the workplace to achieve peak performance. Coaching offers an excellent platform for leaders and team members to involve each other, inspire and be inspired, and innovate.  This translates into concrete business benefits.  Organizations interested in accelerating these benefits are developing the coaching skills of intact teams.  It will be an exciting journey to be part of a broader and deeper development of a coaching mindset in organizations.  How is your organization accelerating the development of a coaching mindset?

Laura Vargas

Senior Partner at Pertec Consulting

ACC- International Coaching Federation