Want to be more empowered, effective, and successful? Get a coach. Want those same attributes to define your company’s culture? Well, that’s another story.

Based on research conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership, “[L]eaders are confident that coaching cultures benefit the business in ways that include: increasing employee engagement, job satisfaction, morale, collaboration and teamwork. Yet, these same leaders recognize that their organizations may be out of step in their current use of coaching compared with the potential of coaching.”

So what we have here is the belief that while building a culture of coaching can and does bring huge benefits to companies, rarely do leaders implement the practice, despite having been trained in coaching skills. According to BlessingWhite’s research, “Few [companies] have succeeded in creating cultures where coaching of employees is a regular, fully supported, and rewarded managerial practice….They like to coach, know they should, but don’t get around to doing it with any regularity.”

Training, implementation, and sustainability—the key elements critical for success.

But how does an organization build this kind of culture, anyway?

According to extensive studies done by The Center for Creative Leadership, Personnel Today, Coaching Today, Business Management, BlessingWhite, International Coach Federation, and others, organizations must follow these nine steps in order to integrate coaching into an organization, sustain the coaching, and see the long-term positive results from creating a coaching culture.

9 Steps:

1. Find a sponsor or champion of the coaching initiative—a highly respected top executive with much influence. This creates buy-in.

2. Find leaders within the organization who can role-model coaching skills.

3. Link coaching outcomes to business goals. Coaching cannot be a stand-alone initiative. It must be aligned with the strategic goals of the company, with measurable results.

4. Train top leaders in coaching skills. Be sure that the training doesn’t just teach about coaching but actually trains leaders through hands-on practice and feedback.

5. Utilize external coaches. Any kind of culture change is a long-term process that benefits greatly from an unbiased, objective outside observer. An external coach will provide observation, insight, feedback, and accountability to stick with the changes desired.

6. Coach the managers and teams. Says BlessingWhite, “It’s common for managers to need coaching on coaching.” This goes for teams too. So, even if managers have been trained how to coach, they still need coaching from an external coach on their coaching, to ensure the implementation and sustainability of these new behaviors that drive culture change.

7. Recognize and reward. Because coaching shouldn’t be seen as a stand-alone imitative (do it, then forget it), role models of good coaching should be recognized and rewarded, and the benefits frequently highlighted. In fact, some leadership companies believe that coaching is so important for high performance, that it should be tied to compensation.

8. Incorporate coaching with other processes. For example, coaching must be integrated with processes such as talent management, job competencies, and learning and development. This way, coaching becomes fully engrained into the culture and moves from being merely a skill that is utilized on occasion to the regular way of doing things.

9. Regularly measure and evaluate. Like anything else that is important, coaching should be measured and evaluated on a regular basis. How is it working? What business results are seen? Where is coaching not being applied with diligence? How is it being tied into the overall vision and strategy of the organization?

While the above nine steps require much effort, time, and financial resources, the benefits of higher performance, effectiveness, engagement, satisfaction, and teamwork are worth it. Creating a sustainable culture of coaching is an investment with huge dividends for companies eager and motivated to see its power and results.

So I’m curious, has your company built this kind of culture? And if so, what have been the specific results? I’d like to hear your ideas in the box below.

Richard can care less what others think about him. Sure, he occasionally hears rumors that some people despise his brutal honesty—“straightforwardness,” he calls it. And that he is “difficult.” So what. He accepts nothing less than excellence. If a few whiners have to put up with the way he is, so be it. His sales are high. His customers love him. In fact, he’s responsible for the vast majority of the company’s profits.

Then his boss brings Terri in. A coach. Ha! He doesn’t need someone to soften him, change him. He’s already successful, and so is the company. So why mess with a good thing?

Thankfully, I have rarely worked with such a client. I would have my work cut out for me! If there’s one thing I’ve learned about coaching, it’s that skillful feedback, while necessary, doesn’t always work. Here are some common scenarios when one might as well keep thy mouth closed:

When the person is not motivated to change.

Richard is about as motivated as my kid is to clean the bathroom (that’ll be the day). Change can be dirty work, especially because it requires awareness on the individual to look deep inside the self and see what others see. I don’t know about you, but I usually look prettier when looking at my dirty bathroom mirror—before I’ve put my contacts in. Similarly, if people are not motivated to change, either because they don’t see themselves clearly or because they don’t see an obvious link between behavior change and reward, then feedback is pointless. Only those who care are likely to take steps forward.

When feedback comes from someone whose opinion they don’t care about.

Sure, some might desire feedback, but if it comes from someone they don’t care about, then it usually isn’t powerful enough to make a difference in their behavior. If Sue doesn’t care about Aunt Bea (she did make a scene at the wedding, after all), then the fact that Aunt Bea thinks Sue “talks too much” is probably inconsequential.  

When the feedback is not anonymous.

Anonymous feedback is powerful. On the other hand, when an individual knows who gives the feedback, he or she may dwell on the giver, not the content.

When the feedback comes from one individual.

Aside from anonymity, feedback’s power comes from numbers. When the same feedback is given by a group, rather than one individual, the recipient in question has a difficult time ignoring the “truth.” One of my clients is a powerhouse. She gets things done. In fact, she likes to get things done herself, rather than handing the task over to capable and passionate colleagues. Not until she received anonymous feedback from several individuals about her lack of “empowering the team,” as one stated, did she decide to take the necessary steps to change. Their perception of her didn’t match her own, and she was forced to consider this dichotomy.

When feedback isn’t followed up with support.

Many companies offer feedback, whether through informal conversations or formal reviews, but then don’t offer the necessary support. One remedy is coaching. Smart companies offer coaching, in addition to feedback, to provide the structure, support, and accountability needed for real change to happen, and to sustain the results.

So while feedback can be highly effectively, it doesn’t always lead to desirable results, as exemplified above. Certainly there are other scenarios I didn’t mention when feedback won’t work. What has been your experience? Please comment below.