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Key Takeaways
- Good managers know not only how to be a good coach, but how to create a coaching culture where everyone contributes.
- A coaching culture is more than structured conversations. It's how open communication is, how you encourage collaboration and how your team manage ambiguity.
- Building a coaching culture is an essential role of managers as it can unlock continuous improvement in individual and team performance.
Test Your Skills in Building a Coaching Culture
As a manager, building a coaching culture in your team can help drive continuous improvement in performance. It's also likely to develop stronger bonds, and enable more effective collaboration among team members.
We’ve used research from the Mind Tools Impact and Insights Team to create a 17-question assessment tool, to help you assess your recent experiences with building a coaching culture at work.
Your Self-Assessment
Coming up are 17 questions that ask about actions that contribute to, or detract from, building a coaching culture. To answer them, consider your experiences over the past three months.
Be as honest with yourself as you can. There are no right or wrong responses, and you’ll have a chance to review and change your answers before you submit them.
Look at the statements below and choose how much you agree with each by selecting the most appropriate answer.
When you have completed the diagnostic, press “Calculate my total.”
Your Result
Take a moment to reflect on your result. Does it surprise you, or confirm what you already knew? Think about what you’d like to focus on.
For example, if your result shows that you’re not currently demonstrating the attributes you need to build a coaching culture, consider what your obstacles are to narrow your focus in developing your skills.
If you are already confident at building a coaching culture, you can use this resource to identify ways you can get even better!
Let's Act
Having reflected on your score, pick one of the following areas to take action on in the next week or two:
- How openly you communicate with your team. (See questions 1, 2, 3, and 4.)
- Your approach to decision-making - have you included others? (See questions 5, 6, 7, and 8.)
- Your focus on personal development in your conversations with your team (See questions 14, 15, 16, and 17.)
Take Your Learning Further
Build consensus around team goals
By involving team members in goal-setting, you increase buy-in and commitment. Use the Consensus-Oriented Decision-Making (CODM) model, developed by psychologist Dr Tim Hartnett, to build agreement on team objectives.
Create meaningful connections among team members
Find common ground with your team members to build rapport. Trust is the foundation of all relationships, but is especially important when you build relationships centered on a coaching culture.
Provide tailored development conversations
Actively identify and provide learning opportunities for your team members. This could include on-the-job challenges, mentoring relationships or formal training programs. Tailor these opportunities to individual strengths, interests and career aspirations.
