Why and How to Build a Coaching Culture

A coaching culture is an environment where leaders and managers support employees’ growth, development, and performance through effective conversations and honest feedback built on trust.

There is a noticeable shift happening in the world of organizational development—a growing awareness that training alone does not create sustainable change. This realization is driving a transformation in how coaching is perceived. Increasingly, organizations are recognizing the long-term impact that coaching conversations can have on building trust, improving performance, and changing behaviors.

There is substantial evidence that a coaching culture not only strengthens trust within an organization but also leads to high performance. That’s why more and more organizations are placing a coaching culture at the heart of their organizational strategy.

A business can benefit from having a coaching culture in eight key ways:

1. It attracts the best talent.
2. It retains talented employees.
3. It promotes a growth mindset.
4. It increases employees’ sense of belonging within the organization.
5. It enhances employee well-being at work.
6. It leads to higher customer satisfaction.
7. It creates trust and psychological safety.
8. It boosts productivity and financial performance.

This is an excellent question. Creating a coaching culture has always been a good idea. However, in today’s rapidly changing world, employees have different expectations than they did in previous years. At the same time, the behaviors required for success are evolving.

Altogether, these factors are driving a significant shift in the type of culture that organizations need to thrive both now and in the future. The focus on acquiring knowledge and skills through learning is changing. Instead, successful companies are using coaching cultures to empower and support employees in their growth, development, and performance.

“Coaching is a powerful way to unlock people’s potential because it helps them find their own solutions by guiding their thinking.”

Some organizations focus only on using external coaches with official certifications. While this approach has value, it does not create a sustainable coaching culture within the organization.

For coaching to truly become part of an organization’s culture, leaders and managers must develop coaching capabilities themselves. This doesn’t mean that everyone in the organization needs to become a certified coach—it means that the ability to coach should be embedded throughout the organization. Leaders and managers should ensure that coaching conversations flow naturally across all levels of the organization.

To fully benefit from coaching, a mindset shift is required. It takes more than just hiring an external coach or focusing coaching efforts on a select group of individuals. To build a genuine coaching culture, coaching must become part of the organization’s DNA.

In addition to building coaching capability among leaders and managers, coaching should be embedded at every level of the organization. Peer coaching should be encouraged, and feedback should become a natural part of everyday work life.

1. Senior management must support coaching by providing the necessary time, space, and resources.
2. Leaders and managers must have the ability to coach effectively.
3. Coaching and feedback must be part of everyday work life.
4. Coaching conversations should foster trust and drive high performance.
5. Everyone in the organization should have access to coaching.

i) Training leaders and managers across the organization in coaching skills.
ii) Internal coaches who are available to support employees at all levels.
iii) External coaches who are hired to provide executive coaching within the organization.
iv) Internal champions who promote and drive the coaching culture at every level of the organization.

Building a coaching culture means creating broad-based support for the power of coaching and establishing a growth mindset within the organization to encourage everyday coaching conversations.

Senior leaders must understand and accept the business challenges and commit time, energy, and financial resources to coaching. This step is the most critical part of the process.

Create a strategy that emphasizes everything required to build a coaching culture within the organization. This strategy should align with the organization’s values and goals and include the budget, systems, policies, and technologies needed for effective implementation.

This step involves generating interest and excitement around creating a coaching culture. Present the strategy in a way that allows employees to see the benefits for themselves. Ensure that the necessary resources for executing the strategy are provided. Establish a network of internal champions who will continue to support the coaching culture.

Develop the mindset and ability to use coaching skills throughout the organization. Establish the three key foundations of a coaching culture (coaching capability among leaders and managers, internal coaches, and external coaches). Utilize online, offline, and on-the-job training tools and foster direct team interactions to meet workplace needs.

This step increases awareness at the individual, team, and organizational levels. Continuously assess progress at all levels and promote individual, team, and peer coaching to identify blind spots and plan for individual and organizational development.

Establish coaching conversations as a primary method for communication and performance management within the organization. Redesign performance management systems to include regular coaching conversations focused on improving performance. Ensure that the systems, policies, and technologies needed to support goal-setting and feedback from coaching conversations are in place. Foster trust through open and transparent communication channels for receiving feedback at all levels.

Embed the required behavioral changes into the organization to ensure that everyone has access to coaching. Ensure that leaders and managers know how to use the performance development system for effective coaching conversations and guiding employee performance. Regularly review and evaluate whether individuals and teams are in a cycle of growth and performance. Encourage the sharing of success stories across the organization and recognize and reward individuals who demonstrate positive coaching behaviors.

A strong coaching culture empowers employees, builds trust, and drives high performance—creating an environment where both individuals and the organization can thrive.

Taymour Miri is an ICF master coach and a Gallup certified strengths coach and more recently one of the first 136 coaches world wide to be awarded an Advanced Certificate in Team Coaching. He has 30 years’ experience in leadership roles and 20 years of experince in coaching. Taymour has trained over 1,500 coaches across five continents and is the founder of International Coaching Education (ICE).