What's a "Coaching Culture"?

What’s a “Coaching Culture”?


Posted on April 3, 2012 by Richard Andrews - Executive Coach and Coach Supervisor


I strongly believe that leaders and organisations would benefit massively if coaching was adopted much more widely as a management style, but I’m hearing more and more people talking about “embedding a coaching culture”. Sounds good, but what do they mean?


Without questioning the idea that a culture can somehow be “embedded” in an organisation, rather than flowing from its people, what exactly is meant by a “coaching culture”?


Hardingham (2004) suggests a coaching culture is “A culture where people coach each other all the time as a natural part of meetings, reviews and one to one discussions of all kinds”. ( Link to Hardingham’s book )


Hmm, I think I understand what she’s driving at, but “all the time” – really? I believe that leaders (not to mention many others) need a range of styles, as Goleman (2000) argues. ( Link to Goleman’s article )


Others ascribe great powers to a coaching culture; Crane states: “In a COACHING CULTURE, all members of the culture fearlessly engage in candid, respectful coaching conversations, unrestricted by reporting relationships, about how they can improve their working relationships and individual and collective work performance. All have learned to value and effectively use feedback as a powerful learning tool to produce personal and professional development, high-trust working relationships, continually-improving job performance, and ever-increasing customer satisfaction.” ( Link to Crane’s site )


Wow! Let’s be honest here; I’m a massive fan of coaching, but I have to use a lot of imagination to believe that it can do all of these things. Quite apart from anything else, there must be a limit to how much job performance and customer satisfaction can continue to improve – it can’t go on for ever!


I do like this less evangelical definition offered by Yates: “An organisation with a coaching culture can be described as one which adopts coaching practices as an integral way of managing and developing people. It recognises the value of using a coaching approach to grow and develop its people in order to grow and develop the organisation itself.” ( Link to Yates’ site )


She acknowledges the value of coaching, but she does appear to allow the existence of other ways of managing and developing people. This to me is a better reflection of real life for people working in organisations; yes, a coaching approach can substantially benefit individuals and their organisations, but there is space for other approaches, depending on the circumstances.


OK – I’ve got that off my chest now. In future entries, I’ll discuss how coaching can be encouraged and nurtured in organisations, so that its undoubted benefits can be realised.


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