Fostering a culture of coaching

Living in an age where technology is advancing quickly and organisations need to keep up with the pace, it is easy for the pressure of work to build up and for employees to end up leaving work stressed as a result of the demands placed on them.

Organisations are under increasing strain to balance business profitability, manage a high performing workforce while developing staff, boosting engagement and supporting employees’ work-life balance. Ensuring productivity is maintained at a fast pace and to a high standard can sometimes seem like a tall order!

To address the multitude of concerns organisations face today, many organisations are using coaching as a solutions based tool to influence the culture and performance of their organisation. 86% of companies who have used coaching say they made their investment back.

Unlocking talent and sources of productivity

We often find that coaching is used when there is disparity between what managers were originally trained to do and the requirements placed on them as a result of a fast paced and changing work environment. Many managers are promoted due to their technical expertise where there is an assumption that these individuals have by virtue of their technical skills, the ability to lead, or this is overlooked completely. So when they transition into the management space, they struggle to manage different people and personalities. While promotions are obviously encouraging and motivating to the employee and good for the business, not providing the right support can result in reduced engagement, poor productivity and a high turnover which can ultimately have a detrimental impact on business continuity and the bottom line. Coaching maximises the individual’s potential by unlocking talent and sources of productivity. As it is a results orientated process it drives high performance.

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Fostering behavioural and cultural change

As coaching focuses on professional challenges and business skills we commonly find that coaching given to managers and leaders can drive behavioural and cultural change in organisations by creating a culture of creativity and problem solving as well as enhancing organisational performance and providing a return on investment.

An empowered workforce

To have successful outcomes from coaching there must be mutual trust and respect from both parties. Coaching encourages the practice of self-coaching so the coachee is empowered and able to manage challenges for themselves during the coaching and beyond. Having a confidential and reflective space with a qualified and experienced coach allows individuals to question approaches, experiences, come to conclusions and set their own objectives, what we call a “strategic thinking partner”’. Thus encouraging managers to become solution orientated and promoting strategic thinking and apply a coaching approach with their teams. Some commonly cited benefits of coaching are an improvement in relationships and communication skills.

Business acumen and self-awareness

Having line managers who possess the business acumen and understand the importance of self-awareness and emotional intelligence in the workplace can significantly reduce work related stress and absence, which ultimately affects the organisation’s productivity and bottom line. In addition, developing a manager’s business skills will allow them to inspire and motivate their teams which will have a positive impact on organisations and drive a high performance culture and support the organisation’s goals.

Managing Director at Buzzcott, Kimberly Bradshaw has over 20 years’ experience supporting the development of organisations, teams and individuals in the UK and overseas through a variety of coaching interventions ranging from executive coaching, coaching support to executives and their families who are relocating internationally to career coaching.

In addition to being qualified as an executive coach Kimberly also has qualifications in cognitive behavioural coaching and NLP. With an MSc in organisational behaviour, Kimberly understands the impact businesses have on people and vice versa, this coupled with her own leadership experience and development work with senior teams and boards brings a unique perspective to her coaching. With this knowledge she works with individuals to focus on how they can deliver against organisational strategy whilst creating their own solutions for achievement and development. You can contact Kimberly on [email protected]

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