Developing Coaching Skills for the Workplace

Developing Coaching Skills for the Workplace Creative Writing on Developing Coaching Skills for the Workplace: A coaching culture is an organizational progress model. It provides the structure that defines how the organization’s members can smoothly interact with their work atmosphere. It also encompasses how to achieve the best results from the coaching experience and apply it in the organization. Culture within an organization serves as the backbone for coaching to take place amicably and acceptably by all members. Several methods exist for developing a coaching culture in an organization. This study will take an in-depth analysis of two ways of developing a coaching culture in an organization. The first one is to bring in managers and leaders who can role model the coaching process. This is because, in trying to change an already entrenched culture in an organization, at some point the issue of scale comes up. In coaching, scale presents a challenge in the senses that, a large number of people need to initiate, grow and sustain cultural change. This calls for selecting the right people, invest in their development and site them as role models for the new coaching tradition. This creates a cycle whereby those who have already been coached take the mantle and pass it to those behind them. Studies have proven this method to be highly efficient in creating a coaching culture within an organization. It also has the advantage of cost effectiveness since it involves training select groups of people, as opposed to all the employees in the organization (Anderson, 13). Another way of establishing a coaching culture in an organization is to link coaching outcomes to the business. This calls for closing the gap between the effectiveness of coaching outcomes and overall business objectives. For this to be done effectively, strategic goals and tactics need to be developed around coaching, and specific` performance metrics be developed for coaching behaviors. By doing this, the coaching process is given impetus as individuals feel the link between what the organization expects from the coaching process and what they are involved in. The best way to achieve coaching success through this method is probably by aligning management behavior with organizational objectives. It is usually axiomatic that senior management’s individual behavior and the overall team behavior models and shapes the organizational culture (Anderson, 14). In most cases, the behavior exhibited by the senior management is what other members of staff tend to consequently follow. In this case, for the coaching culture to take root, the top management both individually and collectively need to recreate their image. They need to remodel themselves along a culture geared towards coaching and learning (Anderson, 14). In conclusion, it is clear that, coaching is one of the ways of increasing knowledge and competence within an organization. For coaching to be conducted effectively, it should be done in a systematic manner. Several ways exist for conducting coaching at an overall organizational level. From the two methods discussed above, it is clear that, for a cultural change to occur, the top management needs to be proactive. For one, they need to act as role models in the coaching process so that other employees’ can follow. They also need to come up with policies that link coaching programs to the overall organizational objectives. This way, an organization can be transformed towards one in which a coaching is accepted as the norm.