How To Create A Coaching Culture With ‘Self-Made’ Leaders

Forbes Leadership How To Create A Coaching Culture With ‘Self-Made’ Leaders Expert Panel® Forbes Councils Member Forbes Coaches Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Click to save this article.

You’ll be asked to sign into your Forbes account. Nov 22, 2023, 02:15pm EST Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin getty Creating a “coaching culture” has emerged as a powerful tool for employee engagement, development and retention, as well as overall organizational success. However, when CEOs and C-suite executives perceive themselves as being “self-made” and haven’t personally experienced the benefits of coaching, trying to instill such a culture can pose unique challenges—but not insurmountable ones.

Below, 15 Forbes Coaches Council members share tips for fostering a coaching culture that benefits employees at all levels, even when top leadership lacks direct experience with coaching. Using these strategies can help leaders bridge the gap between their own experience and the culture they wish to build to create a workplace environment where coaching becomes a transformative force for professional growth and organizational excellence across the board. 1.

Show The ROI To Get C-Suite Buy-In A coaching culture isn’t just about individual success; it’s about elevating the entire team. If the C-suite hasn’t experienced coaching, the first step is to get them to buy into the value it brings to the organization as a whole. Show them the return on investment: increased productivity, employee retention and even revenue growth.

Once they see the numbers, their tune might change. – Doug Holt , The Powerful Man 2. Share The Business Benefits Start by sharing the business benefits of instilling a coaching culture.

The C-suite team will be more open to establishing this culture if they know they will get a return on their investment in coaching. Trying a coaching pilot with the most interested executive team members can also give them the experiential benefit of something new that they can share with their colleagues. – Evan Roth , Roth Consultancy International, LLC.

3. Set Coaching As A Performance Metric Instilling any cultural change requires top-to-bottom accountability. It needs to be a performance metric for leaders to coach employees and for employees to actively seek out coaching for growth opportunities.

– Luke Feldmeier , Online Leadership Training – Career and Leadership Accelerator for Engineers MORE FOR YOU Sam Altman Agrees To Return As OpenAI CEO OpenAI Announces Fired CEO Sam Altman Is Returning After All OpenAI’s New Board Includes Ex-Salesforce CEO, Quora Boss And A Former Treasury Secretary 4. Encourage Mentorship If leaders are being honest with themselves, even without a formal coaching relationship, chances are they were mentored by someone along the way. Encouraging a strong mentoring culture, inside and outside of the organization, with the option of a coaching engagement can be a more multidimensional approach that also enhances leadership succession when both mentoring and coaching are incorporated.

– Sherre DeMao , BizGrowth Inc Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify? 5. Remind Leaders Of Their ‘Coaches’ While it is possible that an executive has never had a formal coach, I am sure they have had people in their careers and lives who have coached them at times.

Tap into those moments, and executives will remember how powerful those moments were and be open to creating a coaching culture at their organization. – Michele Cohen , Lead to Growth Coaching 6. Seek Support From A Trusted Coaching Advocate I would start with someone who is trusted by the CEO and believes in the positive impact of coaching.

I would seek their support in influencing the CEO to launch a coaching program for his second line. If everything went well, this would be a good beginning for the coaching culture. – Abdulaziz Al-Roomi , Global Legacy Management Consulting & Training 7.

Debunk The ‘Self-Made’ Myth It’s increasingly rare to encounter a C-suite composed of executives who haven’t benefited from coaching. That said, there are still organizations where the myth of the self-made leader prevails, and that’s the real challenge—debunking the myth that some people rise to the top entirely on their own. Even if they didn’t benefit from coaching, chances are they got a lot of support along the way.

– Carol Geffner , CB Vision LLC. 8. Implement These Three Practices Although they may not have been formally coached, most “self-made” leaders are still committed to developing leaders in their companies.

To do so, they can weave three practices into their organization’s values and day-to-day operations: 1. Model effective coaching behaviors (they know what these behaviors are); 2. support building coaching skills at all levels; and 3.

value continuous improvement as needs evolve. – Sandy Schwan , Evolving Strategies LLC 9. Give Executives A Dose Of Humility Culture is a mirror of leadership.

So if the executives believe they are too good to be coached, then that will become the norm for the rest of the organization. To build coachability in all, you need a dose of humility. Put the executives through an experience that expertly exposes their blind spots, reminds them of the fact they are human and imperfect, and triggers the growth mindset.

– Alex Draper , DX Learning Solutions 10. Acknowledge Self-Made Executives’ Skepticism To cultivate a coaching culture, acknowledge the skepticism of self-made executives. Emphasize the value of personal growth, enhanced leadership and team performance.

Encourage leaders to lead by example, engage in coaching and provide coaching training. Demonstrate the impact of coaching to benefit all employees. – Jonathan H.

Westover, Ph. D , Human Capital Innovations 11. Demystify What Coaching Really Is First, it is important to demystify what coaching really is.

Coaching has often been perceived as a remedy tool for underperformers. However, it is just as important for top performers, including executives. Changing this false narrative is an important step in creating a coaching culture.

Next is to have coaching embedded as part of the learning and development strategy, requiring buy-in across the board. – Fred Gatty , Gatts Consulting 12. Eradicate Unconscious Incompetence Eradicate unconscious incompetence (“I don’t know what I don’t know”) through knowledge sessions about the purpose, benefits and opportunities coaching presents.

It is difficult to create buy-in if the inherent culture does not acknowledge the value of coaching. Skillful, informal coaching of the executives to get them to the point of acceptance will allow for the formation of a coaching culture. – Arthi Rabikrisson , Prerna Advisory 13.

Ask Executives How They Coached Themselves Even “self-made” leaders might have silently coached themselves through trials. To seed a coaching culture, pivot this introspection outward. Ask executives, “How did you self-coach?” Their insights can become the cornerstone of companywide change.

If they’ve coached themselves to success, imagine the amplification when the approach is integrated and scaled! Lead inward, expand outward. – Svetlana Dimovski, PhD, ICF-PCC, NBC-HWC , Dharma Growth, LLC 14. Consider Virtual Coaching Options Even if the C-suite executives are self-made, instilling an enthusiasm for growth and learning in teams helps to create a culture where teams feel more engaged and self-motivated.

These days, there are even virtual coaching options—from gamification to five-day online team challenges—that also foster a spirit of collaboration and fun. – Meridith Alexander , G. R.

I. T. Mindset Academy 15.

Train Management On Coaching Leadership Styles Check out the 2014 Ridler & Co case study of developing coaching inside the Big Four accounting firms. Train your layers of management to expand into coaching leadership styles. Train them on the basic coaching skills of listening, asking powerful questions and articulating what’s going on.

Support peer networking and coaching exchange in these middle layers. Rewards executives with external coaching support. – Duncan Skelton , Duncan Skelton Coaching Ltd Check out my website .

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