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Coaching and mentoring
within organizational
culture
CMI LEVEL 7 COACHING AND MENTORING
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Contents Demonstrate the links between strategic performance and coaching and mentoring ......................... 2
Links between individual, team and departmental performance objectives and organizational
strategic performance objectives ....................................................................................................... 2
How the relationship between individual, team and departmental performance development links
to coaching .......................................................................................................................................... 4
TOP 10 BENEFITS OF MENTORING .................................................................................................. 5
How the relationship between individual, team and departmental performance development links
to mentoring ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Cost/benefit analysis of a coaching and mentoring process to support achievement of organizational
strategic performance objectives ....................................................................................................... 9
Impact of organizational culture on coaching and mentoring ............................................................. 13
How organizational culture can impact on coaching ........................................................................ 13
How organizational culture can impact on mentoring ..................................................................... 19
The current cultural influences that may inhibit coaching ............................................................... 21
The current cultural influences that may support coaching ............................................................. 25
The current cultural influences that may support mentoring .......................................................... 27
How coaching and mentoring can impact the organization ................................................................. 29
The use of coaching to contribute towards performance management .......................................... 29
PERHAPS IT’S TIME TO GET RID OF YOUR PERFORMANCE REVIEWS ........................................... 29
OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO THE NEW MODEL ........................................................................ 30
MEASURING MANAGEMENT’S PERFORMANCE ........................................................................... 30
A NEW PERFORMANCE SUCCESS PROCESS................................................................................... 31
SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 32
The use of mentoring to contribute towards performance management ....................................... 32
The need for board level endorsement of coaching ......................................................................... 35
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Demonstrate the links between strategic performance and coaching
and mentoring
Links between individual, team and departmental performance objectives and
organizational strategic performance objectives The fundamental aim of the strategic management is to generate strategic capability by ensuring that
the organisation has the skilled, committed and well motivated employees which it needs to achieve
sustained competitive advantages. It’s objective is to provide a sense of direction in an turbulent’s
environment, so that the business needs of the organization, and the individual and collective needs
of its employees, can be met by the development and implementation of coherent and practical
Human Resource policies and programme.
Team performance working involves the development of a number of interrelated processes that
together make an impact on the performance of the firm through its people in such areas as
productivity, quality, levels of customer service, growth, profits, and ultimately the delivery of
increased shareholder value. This is achieved by enhancing the skills and engaging the enthusiasm of
employees . The starting point is leadership, vision and benchmarking to create a sense of momentum
and direction.
What’s the secret to achieving greater organizational success? Strong Performance Management—
the processes you put in place to measure and reward the abilities of your workforce to meet and
exceed goals.
Improving morale, creating loyalty and increasing overall productivity in your employees through
performance management is the key to your company outperforming the competition. An
effective performance management system is at its best when it establishes a true pay-for-
performance culture which, in turn, develops employee engagement. The process for linking a
company’s compensation plan to individual or team performance includes setting, measuring and
rewarding achievable performance expectations.
There are many ways to approach the task of creating a performance management process, but most
are organized something like this:
• Individual goals and corporate strategy are defined and communicated company-wide.
• Progress on goals is monitored, and management provides coaching on performance.
• Individual performance is appraised with feedback and formal documentation.
• Compensation is given based upon performance. If performance meets or exceeds the desired
standard, a reward is given. If performance does not meet the desired standards, a
performance development plan is created to address the gap, and a new performance date is
scheduled.
Defining Goals
The first step in performance management is setting the stage correctly—defining individual goals and
aligning them with the corporate strategy. The process of setting goals should be a collaborative
process between a manager and his or her employees. Once the company-wide strategy is established,
individual goals should be created that support the “big picture”. Major job functions and
responsibilities, both shared and individual, should be addressed within a SMART goal framework.
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Specific: Well-defined to inform employees exactly what is expected, when, and how much.
Measurable: Provide milestones to track progress and motivate employees toward achievement.
Achievable: Success needs to be attainable with effort by an average employee, with a bit of a stretch.
Relevant: The goals should focus on the greatest impact to the overall corporate strategy. Timely: A
goal should be grounded within a time frame to create a sense of urgency for completion.
Monitoring Progress on Goals
Managers need to be aware of their employees’ progress on goals in order to step in with coaching
assistance or resources when it appears that goal targets may be missed or, even better, to
acknowledge successes with appropriate monetary or non-monetary rewards. In addition to the need
for managers to review the employees’ productivity, it’s also important for the employees to track
their own progress on goals. Having this information handy is helpful during the all-important
appraisal process to inform management of the steps involved in reaching a goal or to highlight
successes from earlier in the year. The secret to high performance: review individual and team goals
at least once a week or month to clarify your focus and use this information as a basis for performance
discussions. You can use the opportunity to review the progress and adjust timelines, request
additional resources if necessary, or even broaden the goal once more information is gathered from
other sources.
Appraisal Process
In order to get the most out of their employees, the appraisal process should include listening,
observing, giving constructive feedback, and providing recognition. Most performance
management solutions include writing assistants and coaching tools to help managers find just the
“right words” to give constructive analysis of the employee’s performance. The most important part
of the appraisal is to provide feedback about what the employee has successfully learned and still
needs to learn and create a plan to provide the opportunity for the employee to develop those
necessary skills. This can be an important factor not only in the employee's growth, but also in the
health of the entire organization since employees have a greater sense of loyalty to companies that
develop talent from within and thus become more engaged in their work. These development plans
also allows the company to create a pool of talent for strategic succession planning.
Pay-for-Performance Compensation
A successful pay-for-performance compensation strategy can be the key to retaining your top talent
and driving organizational performance that exceeds all expectations. At its core, pay-for-performance
serves to align your people with the goals and objectives of the company and motivate and reward
your top performers, while continuing to develop the under performers to become greater assets to
your organization.
It is important for an employee to know that if his or her work performance meets or exceeds
expectations that he or she will be rewarded for the hard work appropriately through pay raises,
bonuses or other rewards (flexible schedule or time-off, gifts, recognition through awards, etc.) Pay
for performance compensation structures not only account for the individual, but also for the working
environment and performance of the team as well, encouraging the employees to band together to
reach the common goal.
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How the relationship between individual, team and departmental performance
development links to coaching Coaching and mentoring can provide an array of benefits for organizations of all sizes, especially small
businesses. When conducted in an efficient and productive manner, coaching and mentoring provides
employees a way to connect, learn and grow within the company and along their own career paths.
Significance
Coaching and mentoring involve pairing experienced professionals with employees that could use help
adapting to the environment and culture of the workplace. This can include pairing a mentor with new
employees to help them settle into the surroundings and get off to a good start. Coaching often comes
in play when a new employee or current employee can benefit from personal guidance on specific job
duties, processes or responsibilities. Small businesses can also use mentors to help develop other
employees along a specific career path, such as management.
Retention
On an organizational level, coaching and mentoring can provide a host of benefits. Mentoring and
coaching can help encourage loyalty to the company. When experienced professionals help mold the
career of and provide opportunities for mentees, these individuals may feel a greater sense of
connection and commitment to the business. Coaching helps an employee feel comfortable with
management and encourages open communication, resulting in a positive work experience. This can
allow the company to save money that would have otherwise been spent on the continual recruitment
and training of replacement employees.
Personal Development
Taking advantage of the expertise and knowledge of experienced employees and professionals can
help bring younger or less experienced employees up to speed. This results in better efficiency across
the organization when bringing on new employees. In addition, coaching and mentoring can help
guide an employee along on her career path resulting in an employee well versed on company
expectations. Coaching specifically allows individuals to resolve issues and concerns within the
boundaries of a trusted and confidential relationship. This can help reduce frustrations on a personal
level and improve the job satisfaction of the individual, providing a benefit for the organization.
Team Efficiency
On top of developing employees, coaching and mentoring can improve the function of the team,
department and entire organization. Coaching and mentoring allows managers to identify the
weaknesses and strengths of each employee. This allows the organization to capitalize on the
resources at hand to keep the whole team working smoothly when employees request vacation or
take a sick day.
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TOP 10 BENEFITS OF MENTORING Would-be successful business owners need assistance from others who have an intimate knowledge
of how business works. Many small business owners try to get that information from business books
and classes. While these can be helpful on their own, they are more helpful alongside business
mentoring. In a business mentoring relationship, a seasoned business owner meets with a new or
potential business owner one-on-one to give advice and boost morale.
Advice
The biggest benefit of having a business mentor is having someone you can ask questions and get
advice. As a new business owner, you are likely to get more advice than you ask for from people like
family members, friends and the people who own the store next door. While some of their advice may
be sound, your mentor can help you sort out which you should follow while advising you on more
complicated business matters that your friends or family would not know how to solve.
Perspective
Business mentors can help you look at problems and situations from perspectives that you would not
have thought of on your own. For example, as a new business owner, you may have trouble looking
at your business through the eyes of a customer, potential investor or government official. Your
business mentor, who has dealt with these people often, can help you understand how your business
will look to these individuals.
Improving Skills
Mentors are not like advisers and consultants, who care only about the business venture. Instead,
business mentors help you develop your business skills. For example, if your employees are constantly
complaining that they don't understand project directions, your business mentor can work with you
to help you improve how you communicate with your staff. This way, you will have a better
understanding of how to communicate with your staff both now and in the future.
Venting
Owning a business can be stressful and frustrating. As a business owner you'll often need to vent with
someone you trust. Business owners cannot vent to their partners, employees or customers without
causing instability in the structure of the business. However, once you vent to a mentor, you can often
start the process of working with the mentor to solve the cause of your frustration. For example, if
lazy employees are plaguing your business, you may need to vent to your mentor before you can think
positively enough about the employees in order to develop a plan to motivate them.
Networking
Business mentors can put you in touch with contacts who can help you make your business more
successful. The more networking you do, the more people you meet. And the more people you meet,
the greater the odds are that you will have someone in your rolodex who can help you solve business
problems. For example, your business mentor may introduce you to another of his mentees, an award-
winning recent college grad who is looking for an entry level position in web design. Perhaps you are
looking for someone to help you design your new company's website. Thanks to the mentor's contact,
your search for a valuable asset may have just become easier.
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Methods and Strategies
In addition to simply giving advice and helping improve your personal business skills, business mentors
can prepare you with a library of methods and strategies that you can pull from throughout your
career as a business owner. They can not only tell you, from experience, how important it is to create
a positive environment and boost morale, but they can also give you strategies for doing so. For
example, mentors can help you learn strategies for observing employees to see if they are happy at
work, dealing with irate customers or handling financial problems.
Long-Lasting Relationships
Although some mentor-mentee relationships are short-lived, if you hit it off with your mentor, you
can foster a long-lasting relationship through which you and your mentor can continue to collaborate
for the rest of your career. This will give you the consistency and resources you need to maintain a
successful business.
Confidence
Knowing that you have a credible mentor to turn to can give you confidence when facing difficult
business situations. Similarly, good mentors will praise you when you have made good decisions.
Praise can enable you to see yourself as a wise and experienced business person. Seeing yourself
confidently this way will help you stand your ground when you must defend or stand by your business
decisions.
Encouragement
Starting a business is difficult, and many business owners face challenges early in the process.
However, many business owners go through the same types of struggles. Hearing first-hand from your
mentor about her experiences will help you realize that the struggles you are going through now will
prepare you to be a better businessperson in the future.
Benefits for Mentors
Mentees are not the only people who benefit from business mentoring. Business mentors also
experience benefits thanks to collaborative learning. By helping others improve their business skills,
business mentors may improve their own skills. They may be inspired with new ideas, meet new
contacts and learn new business strategies from their mentees.
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How the relationship between individual, team and departmental performance
development links to mentoring Finding great talent is hard, but what’s even more challenging is keeping the talent you
have engaged so they will stay. Unless you continually reinvest in developing your employees with
successful on-boarding and ongoing training—helping them reach their full potential—they may leave
and you will find yourself back at square one trying to procure more talent. This process can be a time-
consuming, stress-inducing cycle. Despite this knowledge, it doesn’t seem that organizations are
making a lot of progress in this area.
In 2012, Gallup reported that only 30% of employees in the U.S., and just 13% of employees outside
of the U.S., feel engaged with their companies. Now, just three years later, these figures have not
improved in any significant way. Even though statistics show that it is worth a company’s effort and
resources to develop employees in order to retain them, there is still a gap. According to the
Wasp small business report, 56% of businesses plan on hiring in the next 12 months while 82 % plan
on developing employees more.
Research also suggests that having effective managers can improve employee engagement.
Organizations rely on talented and inspiring managers that have the ability to keep employees
engaged and that help staff achieve strategic imperatives. But not everyone who is promoted to
manager has these skills. Gallup research also revealed that only one in 10 people have an existing
talent to manage. Others may possess a few manager-level qualities, such as making decisions,
building relationships, creating clear accountability, being assertive, and motivating others. But, the
qualities that are missing can make a huge difference in employee engagement.
An employee helps a customer fasten the strap of an Apple Inc. Apple Watch Sport at an iStudio store
in Bangkok. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
Fortunately, most of these talents can be learned or strengthened according to Gallup. It is therefore
critical that an organization have a plan in place that focuses on developing effective managers. The
process of developing employees for greater roles and responsibilities accomplishes two goals:
keeping employees engaged and energized about their future with the company and ensuring the
organization has a new generation of managers who are prepared to inspire and lead, which in turn
increases levels of employee engagement.
Here are eight ways to develop employees, keep them engaged, and increase the probability they will
remain with the organization:
1. Create Individual Development Plans: The first step in developing employees is to create a
development plan. It is important to sit down with the employee and discuss individual
interests and career goals. This conversation will help identify the development activities that
individual should be undertaking. After all, not everyone shares the same goals or has the
same perspective about what they want to achieve in their career. Still others may be unsure
about what they want to do. The development plan should provide a roadmap for the
employee that includes measurable goals and a realistic timeframe for achieving each goal.
Taking time to discuss and add detail to the employee development plan or blueprint will
increase the likelihood for a return-on-investment for all involved.
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2. Provide Performance Metrics: It is essential to set specific quantitative metrics to help an
employee understand where they need to be or what they can realistically achieve. Then, as
these performance metrics are met, the bar can be raised so the employee feels a continued
sense of accomplishment. Before running a marathon, a runner first sets shorter goals and
then works their way up, running further and further and building the muscles and power
needed to eventually get them to that marathon goal. A manager work with the employee to
decide where he or she is now in relation to achieving key performance objectives that will
eventually lead them to where they want to be and need to be. Measuring progress also
provides evidence of how these activities are working.
3. Provide Opportunities Outside of Job Function: Today’s organizations have become so
compartmentalized that employees believe they can only operate within their department or
function. However, to truly develop an employee for a larger role in the company, they need
to understand how all aspects of the organization work. Create opportunities for an employee
to take on new responsibilities outside their job function. This cross-training will increase their
awareness and knowledge of the organization and help them work more effectively with
others because they have a new understanding of what other employees do for the company.
The additional responsibility will put them in new situations, add challenges, expand skill sets,
and encourage them to think on their feet, which will also improve their chances for success
in any future roles they take on. This type of development also creates energy and excitement
in the workplace.
4. Give Constructive Feedback: Feedback does not mean criticizing, chiding, or disapproving.
Instead, it should be constructive in nature and include specific recommendations for further
improvement and development. Feedback should also be delivered regularly and tied to data
or examples such as the performance metrics or the individual development plan. Only using
feedback for employee reviews can result in missed opportunities to guide an employee
through the professional development process. Employees want to know how they are doing.
If feedback is used as a tool for growth and recognition, and not a tool to knock the employee
down, it will make a measurable difference.
5. Remove Barriers: Many organizations are rigid in their organizational structure and processes,
which can make it challenging to implement some cross-functional development and facilitate
dynamic growth and high-performance training. It’s up to leadership to bridge silos, knock
down walls, and design a system that encourages a fluid approach to learning and working.
Today’s generation of workers are used to change and enjoy open work environments that let
them explore. Take the barriers away and watch people flourish.
6. Link to a Professional Network: Help employees access additional contacts that can help
them grow. Introduce them to other professionals that can serve as mentors or coaches, sign
them up for professional industry associations, send them to training courses and workshops,
and create and attend networking events. Getting them connected to a network offers a way
to get additional support, advice, and information on how to grow professionally and
personally. It also gives the organization another ambassador for the business.
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7. Outlay Resources: From day one, an employee is an investment that the organization is
making and from which it expects a return. To get the most out of employees requires making
further investments along the way. Although many of the tactics on this list do not necessarily
require dollars to implement, resources are still being used in the form of time and focus.
Other employee development activities, including training, online learning programs, and
coaching are well worth the monetary resource investment dollar. Whatever the resource,
this additional investment is necessary and valuable when it is thoughtfully aligned with the
organization’s strategic goals and the individual development plans designed around key
talent.
8. Set the Example: An employee will see the value of the development process when they see
their current leadership continue to develop personally and professionally. By modeling this
behavior, leaders build credibility and the trust necessary to encourage employees to
participate in development-building activities. It shows employees that development is part
of the organization’s culture. It sends the message that it’s important for, and expected from,
everyone in the organization to be part of a continual improvement process that nurtures
from within. If you want to compete with big brands, you have to emulate big brands.
These eight employee development tactics can be implemented within any size organization and will
work effectively to shape a company’s future leadership. Whether an organization leverages a few or
all of the tactics listed here, it is critical that each is used consistently, communicated clearly, and
championed by leadership.
Cost/benefit analysis of a coaching and mentoring process to support achievement of
organizational strategic performance objectives Coaching and coaches can add an enormous amount of value to organisations and employees,
touching every facet of work, behaviour and leadership. Knowing where and how coaching can benefit
organisation and employee alike can add significant support to conversations with stakeholders and
decision makers when it comes to implementing coaching programmes and coaching.
Benefits – individuals and teams
Improved performance
and productivity
Coaching brings out the best in in individuals and in teams,
something that training doesn’t even aspire to do, so how
could it?
Employee development Creating long-term learning and behavioural change, not
sending people on a short more skills based training, which
may or may not be the issue.
Improved learning Retention rates achieved through self-discovery and
coaching are far greater than training alone or e-learning.
Coaching focuses on learning to enable application to the
work place.
Improved relationships By asking questions shows they are valued. By gaining their
input and opinion they feel included.
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Improved quality of life for
individuals
Improved relationships and success gained through
coaching will change their perception of themselves and the
workplace.
A life skill Once a person undergoes coach development, it is a skill
that they have for life and can transfer to their social and
family lives.
Benefits - organisations
More time for the manager Employees who undergo coaching become more
responsible in finding their own solutions, having
less dependency on their line manager.
More creative ideas A coaching culture is naturally more creative and
focuses on options and opportunities, people will
not fear sharing thoughts or ideas.
Better use of people, skills and
resources (potential)
We all have hidden resources and abilities, coaching
encourages these to the fore, contributing to
problem solving and greater application of skills.
Greater employee engagement People undertaking coaching will feel valued and
invested in, as someone is giving their time and
expertise to help them. Coaching helps people
discover their own motivation as it taps into their
core values.
Culture change Coaching principles underpin a management style
that leads to a high performing culture. Coaching is
an enabler of cultural change.
Better able to deal with
organisational change
Organisations who have coaching in their
organisations are better able to approach change
and have mechanisms to enable change to be
explored and embedded.
Greater skilled workforce Higher general level of skills and behaviours in the
organisation.
Leaders with wider leadership
styles
Leaders who don’t simply use directive as their only
approach. Leaders who coach are developing other
continually.
Reduced development and
training costs
Once coaching is established as a development
opportunity, will reduce need for external
development and costs.
Employee Value Proposition Advertising that your organisation uses coaching,
can be advertised to attract new employees.
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Mentoring
Similarly with mentoring benefits can be significant at various levels
For mentees:
• Provides impartial advice and encouragement outside of immediate line management
• Develops a longer term supportive relationship
• Assists with problem solving especially around leadership or career development
• Improves self-confidence
• Offers professional development
• Encourages reflection on practice
For mentors:
• Opportunity to reflect on own mentoring approaches
• Enhances job satisfaction
• Develops professional internal and external relationships
• Enhances peer recognition
• It uses your accrued experience, making it available to a new person
• Develops your understanding of the organisation and the way it works
• Enables you to practice and enhance your interpersonal skills
• It provides personal satisfaction through supporting the development of others
Costs and investment in coaching
Unfortunately coaching is not free, at least not at first. To set up coaching programmes to develop
internal coaches costs time and money to achieve. Those undertaking the development may require
2-3 days training and then practice their coaching skills on a handful of learners, keeping records and
then the actual time commitment to the individual coaching sessions. This is even before the coaching
becomes part of the organisational culture.
Time is often cited as one of the main reasons where coaching is perceived to not be practicable –
time to get people trained, manager not having sufficient time to coach, or time to give people to have
structured coaching sessions. We can’t get away from the fact that yes coaching does take more time
than traditional directive approaches to getting things done. The key difference is that in coaching and
to some degree mentoring, learners are learning to do things differently and more permanently.
Learners go through a thinking process that embeds changes that can be repeated. A manager who
tells an employee how to do something, impedes the learning by their well intended ‘spoon feeding’
of answers. Each time the employee has an issue their natural inclination will be to return to the source
of their answer – their manager, rather than necessarily learning for themselves.
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There is also the element of the time the coach is required to coach or mentor their learner, or the
manager away from their operational tasks and roles. It must be noted that there is huge value to
both the coach and manager by undertaking a coaching approach. There is significant learning for
them around communication skills, relationship building, understanding their team, developing
awareness of their emotional intelligence of themselves and their team. The physical act of devoting
time to someone will impact upon their wider motivation and organisational engagement.
There are two main areas which need to be addressed in relation to the financial investment onto
coaching – use of external coaches and developing internal coaches.
The use of external coaches or executive coaches can be expensive. Several coaching sessions might
be up to a couple of thousand pounds. If this cost is seen as an investment which can be directly
applied to the workplace and people then the cost should be more naturally seen as an investment in
the entire company. There is plenty of evidence that those who undertake coaching apply a greater
percentage of their learning than those who undertake training alone. Coaching is about behavioural
change, behavioural change can lead to cultural change. Training is unlikely too. Also if someone can
do the job but for some reason they aren’t the cost of using an external coach if appropriate is certainly
cheaper than having to recruit a new person in to do the role.
The majority of people have the fundamental skills to develop into effective workplace coaches. But
to make that step requires further training of skills, practices, processes and behaviours. Time away
from the working environment immersed in a purposeful coaching programme where people can
safely practice has huge advantages. Coach develop requires awareness and learning of deeper
communication and relationship skills being able to practice, reflect, be provided feedback and re-
practice takes time and investment. Getting the right organisation in to deliver this training is an
investment. From this company though employees will get great insight into coaching and their whole
confidence in the field will change.
Whilst investing in training is a cost, coaching is quite unique in that the skills learnt can be transferred
and applied to any conversation, relationship, project or team. This makes coaching quite unique. In
this way the investment should be seen as an investment in the wider organisation too, therefore the
costs more readily explained and justified.
Being able to align coaching outcomes and goals to business objectives and plans will more effectively
demonstrate the role and added value it can bring. Many organisations are very focussed on the return
on investment of any training and development, being able identify the tangible value through clear
objectives to both the training and coaching will always demonstrate business thinking to your
coaching argument or strategy.
Costs always need to be considered when coaching, but with careful research, knowledge of the
organisation and stakeholders it is possible to use a strong business case for its use. As more leaders
experience the benefits of effective coaching and mentoring so the recognition of its business value
and therefore the preparedness to invest can only increase.
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Impact of organizational culture on coaching and mentoring
How organizational culture can impact on coaching Coaching is no longer restricted to private conversations for the privileged few at the top. It’s not just
a perk for rising stars. Today coaching is woven into the culture of the organization and impacts people
at every level.
The research is clear... coaching improves performance, collaboration and output. For more than 20
years, coaching has been a key component of leadership development programs and nearly all large
organizations develop top performers by using external coaches or developing internal
coaches.1 Developing a coaching culture is a game changer that shifts the way people work together.
Companies with strong coaching cultures have much higher employee engagement, greater revenue
growth and radical improvement of results.2
You know you have a strong coaching culture when coaching conversations flow in all directions—
upwards, downwards and sideways. Learning becomes a way of life as people actively seek feedback
and support. Drawing strength from diversity, people share power and make collaborative decisions
that speed up the change process. A strong coaching culture offers customized support at every level,
and as a result, people fully engage in crucial, candid, respectful conversations.
Despite feeling energized by the changes that coaching brings to your organization, you may harbor
some doubts...
• Our people already have basic coaching skills…isn’t that enough?
• We’ve invested so much time and money in coaching… what’s the return?
• Isn’t there a faster, more efficient way to create a resilient culture?
• Aren’t people more likely to leave the organization once they are coached?
• People might feel good about coaching, but does it really impact performance?
Leadership that Works has developed a complete Coaching Culture Assessment to help you answer
these questions and more. As one of the world’s leading coach training organizations, our coach
consultants have the experience to support you in developing your organization’s coaching culture.
Ready to create agility in your team, your division, and your entire organization? You’ll discover new
ways to:
• Increase employee engagement at all levels
• Develop high potential leaders into peak performers
• Drive organizational change by collaborating with all stakeholders
• Embrace and leverage diversity to attract and retain top talent
• Develop a collaborative leadership team that can face the most challenging circumstances
How do you get a high return on your investment when you develop a coaching culture? We use a
customized approach following the 7 steps below to move your organization forward.
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7 Steps to develop a coaching culture
1. Perform a coaching culture assessment
2. Address resistance to change
3. Select a pool of external coaches
4. Develop internal coaches
5. Expand leadership capacity
6. Align policies and procedures
7. Evaluate the program and measure the results
1. Perform a coaching culture assessment
To build a world-class coaching culture, we start with a rigorous assessment. The Coaching Culture
Assessment reveals strengths and opportunities, and helps you anticipate the challenges of
developing a coaching culture.
As part of the assessment, we interview key players to determine:
• how well is coaching understood and integrated into performance and talent management?
• what competencies does the organization need to develop within five years?
• how well is coaching embedded in the policies and procedures in your organization?
If you have started embedding coaching in your culture already, you’ll get an overview of perceptions
within the organization of:
• what behavior changes and performance improvements are most needed now?
• how effective are your internal and externally sourced coaches?
• how does coaching support the achievement of your organization’s objectives and outcomes?
After the Coaching Culture Assessment, we create a customized program that helps you develop the
next generation of leaders and reach your goals. Throughout the process, you will be supported by a
team of highly experienced coaching consultants who have a long track record of achieving results.
“We were like crabs in a bucket, pulling each other down. Since the coaching program, we are more
trusting, more supportive, more respectful. We are achieving a lot more because we actually like
working together.”
2. Address resistance to change
Most organizations handle many change initiatives at once. They undertake six sigma audits, launch a
bold diversity initiative, move into lean manufacturing, and get serious about social responsibility. The
pace of change is not slowing down anytime soon.
The resistance to change is real. Many people perceive change as painful. Addressing push-back is
often the most difficult part of any change initiative. When change is implemented across complex
systems, diverse cultures, and high-speed environments, the challenges increase. The majority of time
spent implementing change initiatives is in getting people on board. For example, resistance to
coaching often sounds like, “We don’t have time for coaching,” or, “Our top performers don’t want to
be coached,” or “Our culture is too fast-paced, too high pressure, too demanding for coaching.”
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How do you deal with people who don’t want change? We address resistance to change, not by
squelching it, but by getting curious about the positive intentions underneath the resistance. Naming
the fears and normalizing the emotional impact helps people feel understood. They get a sense that
they are valued and once they experience the power of coaching, they become the ambassadors for
a system-wide coaching culture.
Add coaching skills to any change initiative and the resistance actually fuels the process. Coaching
tools enable teams to harness the energy and expand the options. As people engage in the change
process, the transition becomes exciting rather than painful. We help you identify early adopters who
have the power to influence the culture and can make change less stressful. A coaching culture helps
build social capital as people expand their connections and go beyond the traditional departmental
boundaries.
“We’ve had three CEOs in three years. The last thing we needed was another consultant telling us how
we had to change. But the coaching initiative was completely different. The coaches listened and they
believed us. Instead of ramming solutions down our throats, they trusted us and helped us figure out
what we needed to do next.”
3. Select a pool of external coaches
We use rigorous selection criteria to produce a pool of extraordinary coaches who work primarily with
senior leaders. Together we select a diverse team of external coaches who have credibility, cultural
awareness, emotional intelligence and a wide range of experience. When coaches provide senior
leaders with a profound experience of coaching, they in turn commit to coaching as a strategy that
permeates all systems and relationships.
External coaches support the senior team to improve both personal and organizational performance,
including:
• Using assessment tools to build on leadership strengths
• Achieving personal career and leadership goals
• Building collaborative leadership teams
• Creating a custom plan with a roadmap to achieve organizational goals
• Addressing roadblocks and challenges as they emerge
Research shows that 35% of new executives fail within the first 18 months.3 Many of these failed
leaders state that they did not know how to get the support they needed. Executive coaches have the
tools to support successful transition to a higher role.
At every level, the coach and client agree upfront on meaningful goals, both personal and
organizational. Results-oriented coaching produces measurable outcomes.
“I was a controlling micro-manager. Coaching helped me change my beliefs about people and their
capabilities. Believing my direct reports can create their own solutions changed everything. Coaching
has freed up my time.”
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4. Develop internal coaches
Many of the functions of external coaches will be taken over by internal coaches once your
organization builds internal capacity. By training internal leaders to coach, you create a more scalable,
sustainable and robust approach to driving change. Because they understand the organization’s
culture, landscape, and interests, internal coaches significantly increase retention, engagement,
productivity and performance.
The selection process includes identifying early adopters and influencers who will serve as strong
ambassadors for the coaching program. When leaders from many levels and many departments
become internal coaches, they enhance the credibility and sustainability of the program.
Research shows that internal coaches do as good a job as external coaches, and in many cases a better
job, when they receive high quality coach training. The only area where this is sometimes not the case
is with the senior executive team. When it comes to sensitive issues, senior leaders often prefer
working with external coaches.
Many organizations find they can save 70% of coaching costs by developing internal coaches. It takes
time up front to develop internal coaches, but the benefits are long term. Developing a coaching
culture is a cost effective way to attract, develop and retain top talent.
For example, when a leader on the verge of derailment works with an external coach, the likelihood
of leaving the organization increases. The opposite is true when working with an internal coach, where
retention increases.4 One study shows that not only are those who get coaching more likely to stay
with the organization, but their direct reports are 30% less likely to leave.5
“I was considering leaving the organization, because I didn’t fit in. After working with my coach, I
realized that I’m the one who gets to determine if I fit in. My relationships with my boss and co-workers
changed completely.”
5. Expand leadership capacity
Leaders who receive coaching are more likely to be promoted, create work-life balance, and develop
their successor. People become even more valuable when they become internal coaches, and more
valuable still when they are selected to teach coaching skills throughout the organization. To
continuously reinforce the coaching mindset, a peer coaching program is established, giving people
opportunities to coach across departments. In addition to expanding leadership capacity, coaching
impacts how people run their meetings, organize their time, and interact in daily conversations.
The least costly and fastest way to build a coaching culture is to provide an immersion in coach training
along with formal peer coaching program. As team members learn to coach each other, they develop
very deep connections. Peer coaching provides the framework for creating powerful relationships and
networks across the organization. When the organization invests in people, they feel valued. Hostility,
distrust and burnout disappear as coaches collaborate to build sustainable leaders.
Our global team has deep experience in leading coaching seminars, facilitating change, developing
leaders, and expanding collaboration. Developing a coaching culture includes a progression of
programs:
Leaders as Coaches: We train leaders to have coaching conversations with direct reports and peers.
Coaching leads to greater engagement, personal responsibility and accountability, resulting in
improved team performance.
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Train the Trainer: The most efficient way to really learn something is to teach it. In this program,
internal coaches learn how to teach coaching skills. When leaders build coaching skills in their people,
their own coaching skills improve dramatically. Those on the training team become ambassadors for
creating a coaching culture which has a broad systemic impact across the board.
Mentoring: We provide mentoring to help leaders address the unique challenges they face in creating
a coaching culture. Ambassadors also get feedback on their coaching, facilitation, and training skills.
Mentors also help troubleshoot the implementation process and support the application of coaching
skills throughout the organization. For long-term sustainability, internal coaches become internal
mentors to expand competencies organization-wide.
To optimize results, we use a blended learning platform with both in-person and online components.
The focus is primarily on experiential learning and applying coaching skills in the workplace. To
mitigate concerns that training takes too much time away from work, leaders learn and work at the
same time, using coaching skills in real sessions to resolve real issues.
“I thought I was already a great coach. But the train-the-trainer program woke me up to my enormous
power. This was the most exciting learning experience I’ve ever had. I was totally surprised by how
much we accomplished during our coaching practice sessions."
6. Align policies and procedures
Creating a coaching culture is much more than just getting people to do a lot of coaching. To ensure
the development of a coaching culture, a policy review is crucial. Which of your HR policies are already
conducive to creating a respectful, energized, coaching culture and which need revision?
• Performance Reviews: How are coaching skills reinforced during performance reviews? What
support do managers need to give inspirational feedback, share power and increase active
involvement?
• Key Competencies: What competencies does the organization need to develop within the next
5 years to reach their goals? How are coaching skills embedded in each of the competencies?
• Diversity and Inclusion: What policies ensure that people at all levels have access to coaching
and development opportunities?
• Reward System: How does your reward system support coaching and collaboration rather
than internal competition?
• Job Descriptions: Do your job descriptions state explicitly that coaching, mentoring and
developing people are part of everyone’s job description?
• Selection and Promotion Criteria: How does the selection and promotion criteria reinforce the
coaching culture strategy?
Analysis of policies and procedures lead to recommendations and an implementation plan.
“The internal competition here was intense with people undermining each other left and right. Our
policies were creating a lot of internal stress until we changed the way we reward and promote people.
Instead of making each other look bad, now our people support each other’s professional
development.”
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7. Evaluate the program and measure the results
You spend a lot on coaching… what’s the return on investment?
Leaders consistently rate coaching highly as a preferred method of development because it not only
expands capability, but builds cohesiveness. The investment in coaching is increasing, but few
organizations formally evaluate the coaching process or identify the return on investment.
What gets measured gets done. So what’s the best way to measure the impact of coaching? What
metrics do you put in place to support the development of a coaching culture?
When you review key performance indicators and identify the top priorities, you can hone in on the
specific outcomes you will measure. Some expected outcomes of creating a coaching culture are:
• expanded leadership skills are developed
• key challenges are addressed collaboratively
• coaching empowers people to take responsibility
But how do you measure these outcomes? To assess how well the organization has created the ideal
culture and accomplished the desired goals, we tailor metrics to your organization, which can include:
• changed behaviors: competency development, relationship building
• achievement of goals: personal, team and organizational objectives
• expanded creativity: product or service development
• improved service: customer satisfaction, industry leadership
When you invest in creating a coaching culture your return can be measured many ways. Traditionally
the return on financial investment is all that matters: increase in shareholder value, sales, market
share and profitability. More robust ways to measure return on investment include:
• leadership and talent development: can be measured in terms of increase in promotions from
within, lower recruitment costs, increased employee retention, filling the pipeline for
succession planning
• relationship building: can be measured in terms of increase in loyalty, expansion of networks,
sharing on social media, increase in recommendations and testimonials.
• employee engagement: can be measured in terms of reduction in turnover, absenteeism,
safety incidents, quality defects, shrinkage and grievances.
The most common method of evaluating the success of a coaching program is to use your existing
appraisal system, followed by measurement of Key Performance Indicators, 360 feedback, and
employee feedback forms.
A thorough evaluation of your coaching program includes:
• Progress on participants’ personal goals
• Progress on organizational goals
• Mastery of core competencies and changes in key behaviors
• Feedback for each coach on strengths and development opportunities
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• Recommendations for the next generation coaching program
“We had no idea how to measure the impact of coaching. The coaching culture initiative helped us put
key metrics in place and we all know what to do to meet targets quickly.”
And that’s only the beginning…
In all our programs the learning is profound. The impact is amplified by team bonding, laughter and
elements of surprise. The learning adventure deepens by slowing down for reflection. In so doing,
people connect with their personal power and their capacity to lead change. The excitement about
the impact of coaching goes viral. Once set in motion, there is no stopping people who have created
an agile coaching culture.
Coaching expands beyond the inner landscape of an organization as people naturally use coaching
skills in conversations with board members, customers, vendors, and more.
Not only does coaching contribute to personal and organizational transformation, it impacts the triple
bottom line: people, planet and profits. Coaching serves as a springboard to address the major social,
economic, and environmental challenges of our times.
How organizational culture can impact on mentoring As we’ve seen in some recent posts, mentoring has clear benefits both for protégés and mentors.
But what about for organizations? They’re normally the ones footing the bill for any formal corporate
mentoring program, so what’s the payback? Here are 7 key benefits of mentoring for organizations.
1. Develop New Leaders
KPMG’s Leaders Engaging Leaders program pairs 60 top managers with members of the management
committee, the board of directors, and national managing partners. The benefit for these 60 protégés
is that they have access to people at the very top level of the company, gaining sponsors who can help
them find their way to senior positions.
The benefit for KPMG is that it helps the company’s senior leaders see who the most talented people
are a couple of rungs down the ladder, and prepare those people for advancement. It’s led to several
promotions, including one protégé being promoted to the board of directors.
Erick Kostner, manager of Organizational Development at Sigma Aldrich, says of their Everwise
workplace mentoring program: “When we choose to invest in our people with a program like this
we’re doing it for two reasons. First, to increase their ability to lead in a complex environment and
second to anchor them to the organization. I think that this program is successful on both fronts.”
2. Retain Your Best Talent
As Koshner touched on above, corporate mentoring significantly improves employee retention. The
link between mentoring and talent retention is proven not only by several academic studies, but in
real corporate success stories. Within GlaxoSmithKline’s finance division, for example, turnover
among participants in its mentoring program was just 2%, compared with 27.5% among other
employees.
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We’ve previously referred to data published in Harvard Business Review which shows that young high
achievers are considering leaving their posts – with a lack of mentoring as one of the key reasons. A
comprehensive enterprise mentoring program can help you hold onto those people and give them the
long-term support they want.
Erick Koshner agrees: “I think that [mentoring] may have an even bigger impact on retention as it’s
giving us an excellent way to demonstrate our commitment to these emerging leaders in a way that
shows a great deal of respect to the talent they bring.”
3. Increase Diversity
Large companies like IBM, Ernst & Young and Kraft Foods have specific crosscultural mentoring
programs to increase diversity. Studies have found that formal corporate mentoring programs are one
of the most critical ways of retaining women and people from traditionally underrepresented
communities, and can contribute significantly to their development in leadership roles. If you want to
see similar benefits in your organization, a mentoring program is a good place to start.
4. Improve Employee Satisfaction
Numerous studies have found that mentoring increases employee satisfaction. One example, a study
of military personnel, found that those with mentors had significantly higher job satisfaction than
those without mentors. Happier employees are good for companies in a multitude of ways, including
higher productivity and lower turnover.
5. Transmit Corporate Culture
Every company or organization has its own culture. When Canada’s defense agency DRDC analyzed
the effectiveness of its mentoring program, it listed the transmission of organizational culture as one
of the key benefits.
“A strong corporate culture provides members with a collective core values base, thereby providing
implicit knowledge of what is expected, valued and likely rewarded by the organization,” wrote the
report’s author. Surveys of mentees found a “statistically significant effect for increasing their
understanding of organizational culture.”
6. Recruit New Talent
As well as holding onto your best staff, you can also attract the best new recruits by having a successful
mentorship program. As that HBR data shows, millennials are looking for mentoring and other long-
term development from their employers, so if you can provide that, it’s a powerful way to attract
top talent.
7. Have “Deep Sensors”
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh identified one of the more overlooked benefits of
workplace mentoring as positioning “deep sensors” within the organization.
What they meant was that executives can get a better sense of workforce mood and attitude through
their relationships with protégés, gaining “early warning signals” of potential problems. While
mentors must treat any specific information passed on by a protégé as confidential, the general
insights can help managers stay more in tune with what’s happening at different levels of the
organization.
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The current cultural influences that may inhibit coaching The definition of culture has many veins spread throughout the world. It could be group/family norms,
espoused values, rules of the game, shared meanings, formal rituals and celebrations. Regardless of
how you describe it, culture is embedded in the thinking and therefore meaning making of the
individual and the organization. Interestingly, this thinking and meaning making has an implicit belief
that how “I” think or make meaning is the correct way to do so. Moreover, “I” rarely will explicitly
reveal the assumptions implicit to my cultural underpinnings. Hence, the individuals can clash without
understanding why.
An Example
One of my clients involved massive frustration in the system. The individual in question was viewed
as short-tempered and inappropriate in how he responded to supervisors, peers, and direct reports.
A 360 was provided as proof.
If I had taken the 360 as gospel or proof of incompetence, it would not have taken long to turn down
the contract. Instead, I asked to meet with all of those that had provided feedback in the 360. My
intent was to unravel the ratings and more important to understand the inconsistencies in the direct
feedback provided at the end of the report. Looking for what was not revealed in the 360 report, I
observed the following:
Senior Supervisor: White male, proud to be Southern Baptist, Post Graduate
Education
Immediate Supervisor: Upper Class Puerto Rican, Post Graduate Education
Client: Working Class Puerto Rican, Rose through the ranks
Direct Reports: White male, Working Class American,
Post Graduate Education
Black Female, Working class American,
Post Graduate Education
Black Female, Working class American,
Post Graduate Education
As I interviewed each of the team, individually and in groups, it became clear that a series of cultural
underpinnings were clashing within the group. In brief, the following was determined:
The Client was raised with the core concept that emotional expressiveness is simply good
communications. Being passionate in all of its forms indicates engagement with the other person.
The Senior and Immediate Supervisor as well as the White Male direct report viewed emotional
expressiveness as out of control and an act of bad behavior. The immediate supervisor had coached
the client to leave the room whenever he was becoming emotional within the conversation. The White
Male direct report felt that when the emotions were flaring, it was a dangerous situation.
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The two black females felt disrespected. Just when the conversations were getting to the real issues
with emotions flaring on all sides, the client would leave the room and return calmed and stoic.
The client felt he was being torn apart as no matter what he did, it was deemed wrong or
inappropriate.
The Intervention
The coaching intervention became how to bring these cultural assumptions to the forefront to at least
create awareness of them and possibly to create a new dynamic between everyone. The first meeting
was with the client and the two supervisors to reveal the core cultural assumptions each of them had.
The second meeting was with the direct reports and the client. The third meeting was with the entire
team.
The initial reaction by the supervisors was expected. Cultural issues are often viewed as irrelevant or
nonexistent. It is literally like a fish does not understand water until taken from it. In this situation, I
asked for a suspension of moral judgement and simply asked if there were ever any times that
passionate conversations might be useful in the organization. I did not wait for an answer and noted I
wanted them to ponder the question.
The meeting with the direct reports was revealing. When the two black females noted that they
preferred to go “toe-to-toe” with their supervisor, the while male was visibly surprised. This opened
the conversation to a new understanding of how external cultural influences were not revealed and
yet were playing havoc on the system. The two black females wanted passionate engagement and to
iron out all emotions. The white male was uncomfortable with passionate emotions and preferred the
client to “tone-down” the conversations. In a matter of five minutes, the system created a new
understanding and an agreed upon system of communicating that satisfied everyone. Moreover, the
client was relieved.
The next step was to bring the entire system into play. As the direct reports explained their feedback
on the 360 and what had been discovered in their meeting, the supervisors were stunned and curious.
I reminded them of the question I had left with them: are there any times or situations where
passionate emotions would be acceptable in this organization?
Both supervisors noted that it had not occurred to them that anger or other aggressive emotional
expressions would be deemed appropriate in any situation. However, having heard from the direct
reports, it was clear that different levels in the organization might have different cultural norms for
engaging.
Seven years later, the senior supervisors have retired, the client is well entrenched in the organization
as an ambidextrous leader that can culturally shape shift throughout the organization, having learned
to negotiate how the supervisor, peers, and direct reports prefer to engage him. He is comfortable in
who he is and yet understands that engagement means more than face-to-face communications. It
means understanding the underlying cultural influences that might undermine effective leadership,
follower-ship, and communications.
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A Look Deeper into the Organization.
The above example is more common than most organizations like to acknowledge. As coaches, it is
imperative to apply a cross-cultural lens to any situation. This urgency is more apparent now than
ever. Cultural influences, in the form of regressive behavior, surfaces most frequently when there is
high degrees of stress in the system. The many metaphors comparing the present business
environment to “permanent white waters” and “chaos is the new norm” suggests that little time is
being applied to coaching being anything more than a behavioral adjustment. As coaches, I encourage
looking beyond the obvious to what is implicit or embedded in the system in the form of unspoken
cultural differences.
Global Considerations
Another example of the cultural impact on coaching comes from global clients. Herein, the issue can
become a little more difficult as the organization will have people spread all over the world. For
example, I was at a workshop where several U.S. Citizens were working in Brazil for a Japanese
organization. In another case, I was working for a global U. S. Corporation where the employees were
American, British, Indian, Irish, Pakistani, Filipino, German and more. Understanding all of the cultural
differences would have been more a quagmire than the client was willing to wade into. Instead, we
focused on the core issue of conflict resolution.
As a coach, the point of contact for coaching is to find the issue that can make the most (and hopefully)
permanent change. In this case, conflict was a common interest for everyone.
Intercultural Conflict Style
The Intercultural Conflict Style (ICS) Inventory is an assessment and training tool for identifying core
approaches for resolving conflict across cultural and ethnic differences. The ICS assesses conflict in
accordance with cross cultural styles by measuring the degree of direct versus indirect approach and
emotional restraint versus emotional expressiveness during times of conflict.
The benefit of the assessment tool was that it refocused the teams energy from blame and shame for
inappropriate behavior surrounding conflict to what are the different styles within each culture.
Suddenly, the team had a model to realize that everyone was behaving in accordance with their
homeland culture. More importantly, they began to realize that no one was attempting to disrespect
anyone. At issue was not having an adequate foundation for cultural differences in handling conflictual
situations.
See Figure 1.
Figure 1. Intercultural Conflict Style Parameters
Contact Style Emotional Expressiveness
Direct Conflict Style Patterns
• Meaning “inside” the verbal message
• Precise, explicit language use
• Reliance on face-to-face resolution of
disagreements
Emotional Expressiveness
• Overt display of emotions
• Control emotions by “externalizing”
• Visible display of feelings through
nonverbal behavior
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• Speaking your mind
• Verbally assert difference of opinion
• Persuasion through reasoned
argument
• Substantive disagreement focus
• Expansive vocalization
• Sensitive to constraints on expressing
own feelings
• Relational trust through emotional
commitment
• Emotional information necessary for
credibility
Indirect Conflict Style Patterns
• Meaning “outside” the verbal message
• Ambiguity and vagueness in language
use
• Reliance on third parties for resolution
of disagreements
• Discretion in voicing goals
• “Talk around” disagreements
• Persuasion through face work
• Relationship repair focus
Emotional Restraint
• Disguises display of emotions
• Control emotions by “internalizing”
• Minimal display of feelings through
nonverbal behavior
• Constrained vocalizations
• Sensitive to hurting feelings of other
party
• Relational trust through emotional
maturity
• Emotional suppression necessary for
credibility
Once the team looked at the descriptions, each was to think about a recent conflict with someone
from another nationality and review how that country tends to handle conflict. See Figure 2.
Figure 2. Geographical Application of ICS
Direct & Emotional Restraint =
Discussion---Talk at
Indirect & Emotional Restraint =
Accommodation---Talk About
• USA & Canada
• Eurocentric: Great Britain, Sweden,
Norway, Denmark, Germany
• Asia Pacific: Australia & New Zealand
• Native American
• Latin America: Mexico, Costa Rica,
Peru
• Asia: China, Japan, Thailand,
Indonesia, & Malaysia
Direct & Emotional Expressive =
Engagement---Talk with
Indirect & Emotional Expressive =
Dynamic---Talk Around
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• African American
• Euro: France, Greece, Italy, Spain
• Central/Latin America: Cuba, Puerto
Rico
• Asia: Russia
• Middle East: Israel
• Arab, Mid East: Kuwait, Egypt, Saudi
Arabia, Lebanon
• Asia: Pakistan
The impact was an immediate release of tension between the team members. What had been
considered bad behavior and disrespect, was named framed as differences in nationality. From this
point the coaching focused on individual and team use of the information in very specific situations.
Conclusion
Culture permeates every organization especially in a world where each organization is a bounty of
nationalities. It is no longer possible to hire Americans without getting the entire cultural heritage of
the individuals. If embraced, we build a global organization maximizing it human capital. If not, we
find ourselves as coaches feeling like we are in an Abbott & Costello comedy of “who’s on first”.
The current cultural influences that may support coaching Do you believe you have more potential than your current performance level? And if yes, what’s the
cost of opportunity of not using that potential more often?
If you think like the overwhelming majority of the 200 senior executives I spoke to at a recent
conference, then you answered yes to the first question, and a lot of money and time for the second.
This is problematic on a variety of fronts, and coaching has proved to be one of the best means of
addressing it. Coaching is a business imperative, not a nice perk. It helps leaders achieve their personal
best, swiftly adjust to the demands of their environment, and expand their personal level of impact.
If you lead a human resources department, you need to think about how you can create a culture
of coaching that will help your organization to reach its potential.
Coaching culture enables radical transformation by fostering certain types of conversations on a daily
basis. It creates a climate where people learn how to:
• Give and receive feedback.
• Support and stretch someone’s thinking.
• Challenge people’s performance plateau.
• Engage in development conversations that are short in length but strong in impact.
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Here are 3 steps to consider for deploying this type of coaching culture:
1. Make the case for coaching by allowing key influencers to experience its power.
Don’t assert the value of coaching. Instead, demonstrate its value, particularly in situations that are
painful for the business’ leaders. You want the influencer to be able to say something to the effect of:
“I’ve been struggling with this for the last 3 weeks. It’s amazing that in only 30 minutes with you, I’ve
found alternative ways of handling this. I have new-found confidence!”
2. Integrate coaching as a core element of your talent and leadership development strategy.
Before trying to embed coaching in your culture, start by integrating coaching in your leadership and
talent development framework. Embed coaching in some of your leadership programs for targeted
populations, like high potentials, senior managers, and senior experts. It’s equivalent to learning how
to walk before you run. It also exposes your organization to a critical mass of adopters.
3. Equip HR professionals with coaching skills.
The ideal situation arises when business leaders and HR professionals exhibit coaching skills and a
coaching mindset on their own. Contrary to popular belief, coaching isn’t exclusively for development
purposes — it’s also for everyday challenges.
The performance of your organization will always be determined by the effectiveness of every single
employee. In this context, coaching can address 80% of routine obstacles in less than 20 minutes, as
opposed to other forms of management that may force people to do things that feel unnatural or
leave them pondering for weeks. The more that your HR department can experience this and
exemplify the benefits, the better it will be for the entire organization.
Outcomes
I saw first-hand how one of our clients in the banking sector benefited from deploying some of these
3 phases. The CHRO set out to introduce coaching throughout the organization, particularly
responding to feedback in a recent survey that revealed issues around engagement, motivation, and
a general malaise in the organization stemming from a transition in leadership.
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Some 500 managers spent 2 hours, by increments of 30 minutes over a 3-month period, addressing
their particular needs with a coach over the phone: preparing for a big meeting, thinking through a
tricky situation, and finding emotional balance in a supportive partnership.
A follow-up survey showed this initiative’s success. The 500 managers reported collectively that
simple coaching conversations were worth the equivalent of 3 million euros based on an aggregated
value of time spared, decisions made, actions taken, proposals won, and conflicts managed.
This was the lever the CHRO was waiting for to formally present a coaching curriculum that leaders
could use with their teams to increase the organization’s overall performance.
Coaching culture delivers a great promise — a high performance environment that holds people
accountable for delivering results, while fostering a climate of full engagement, personal
development, and mutual support. If you take the steps necessary to make it happen in your
organization, the dividends could be exponential.
The current cultural influences that may support mentoring In his excellent new book, “Helping Children Succeed,” author Paul Tough notes that a caring connection is a prerequisite for learning. Teachers who create warm, empathic classroom environments can, as David Brooks, recently noted in his discussion of the book, “guide [students] back toward calmness,…teachers who motivate their students to show up every day and throw themselves into school life may not even realize how good they are, because emotional engagement is not something we measure and stress.” Brooks argues for a a more “caring culture so students feel loved while they improve; a culture of belonging, so fragile students feel their work has value. … Many teachers sense that students are more emotionally vulnerable today. Social policy has to find a hundred ways to nurture loving relationships. Today we have to fortify the heart if we’re going to educate the mind.” This brings us to mentoring, and the vital role that both natural mentors (e.g., caring teachers, coaches) and formal mentors (i.e., assigned through a program) can play in fortifying the heart of children who may be sensitive to rejection. We’ve all met rejection sensitive kids (and adults)—they seem prickly and overly sensitive to even the smallest of perceived slights. Rejection sensitive people may have had unreliable, neglectful, and insensitive relationships with their parents or others. As a defensive strategy, they often become hypersensitive, selectively attending to and guarding against signs of difficulty and rejection so they can head them off at the pass. Columbia University psychology professor, Geraldine Downey, defines rejection sensitivity as a “…pattern of defensively expecting, readily perceiving and overreacting to rejection…” (Downey, LeBolt, Rincon, & Freitas,, 1998, pp.1076). It has been associated with maladjustment across a variety of domains, including social, emotional, behavioral and school.
While some rejection sensitive youth may react with hostility others become overly accommodating to avoid situations that could lead to confrontation and loss of relationship. In fact, in one of the few studies exploring rejection sensitivity in mentoring relationships, Grossman, Chan, Schwartz, & Rhodes (2011) found that youth higher in rejection sensitivity were less likely than youth with lower rejection sensitivity to be in relationships that terminated prematurely. As we reasoned, mentors may have sensed the youth’s vulnerability, or that mentees were overly accommodating to avoid problems. Less is known, however, about whether mentors can actually reduce rejection sensitivity. Research and theory suggest that enduring supportive mentoring relationships may help rejection sensitive youth gain confidence and trust in relationships.
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And mentoring may provide a perfect context for high rejection sensitive youth to feel accepted and supported. By being thoughtful, caring and consistent, mentors can challenge views that youth may hold of adults as untrustworthy and rejecting. Moreover, by acting as a sounding board and providing a model for interpretation of perceived slights and effective communication, mentors can help adolescents better understand, more clearly express, and more effectively regulate both their positive and their negative emotions. In this way, a mentoring relationship can become a “corrective experience” for youth who have experienced unsatisfactory relationships with parents or other caregivers. Positive experiences are thought to then generalize, enabling youth to interact with others more effectively.
In a recent study, my colleagues and I drew on data from a large-scale, national evaluation of Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) to explore whether mentoring can lead to actual reductions in rejection sensitivity (Kanchewa, Yovienne, Schwartz, Herrera, & Rhodes, in press). The results were encouraging–they suggested that trusting mentoring relationships led to reductions in youth’s rejection sensitivity over time. Such reductions, in turn, were associated with higher levels of assertiveness with peers and more prosocial behavior, as well as improvements in youth’s relationships with their teachers. The findings suggest that previous associations between mentoring and improved relationships might be accounted for, at least in part, by reductions in rejection sensitivity.
These results have implications for mentoring practice. First, it should be noted that a relatively large proportion of youth in this study presented with high levels of rejection sensitivity. As we noted, “Program staff and mentors should be made aware of the behavioral risks and challenges posed by such youth. For example, youth higher in rejection sensitivity may be more likely to interpret ambiguous gestures, such as canceled or missed meetings or even their mentor being distracted during a meeting, as clear signs of rejection from their mentor. By addressing such issues in mentor training, programs may be able to decrease the likelihood that these vulnerable youth will feel rejected by mentors and increase the likelihood of forming a trusting relationship and, thus, reaping beneficial effects. More generally, these findings suggest the importance of providing mentors with training around relationship building.” Evidence-based training, such as Mentoring Central, which delves into issues of trust and empathy, may be particularly helpful in this regard.
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How coaching and mentoring can impact the organization
The use of coaching to contribute towards performance management The current model of Performance Management uses the annual or twice-a-year “Performance
Review” to provide employees with feedback on their job performance. The problem with this system
is that it’s disruptive and counterproductive. In fact, experts are now critical of this model and are
questioning its effectiveness.
According to Dr. Samuel A. Culbert, professor of management at the UCLA Anderson School of
Management, “A one-side-accountable, boss-administered review is little more than a dysfunctional
pretense. It’s a negative to corporate performance, an obstacle to straight-talk relationships, and a
prime cause of low morale at work. Even the mere knowledge that such an event will take place
damages daily communications and teamwork.”
And Dr. Culbert is not alone in his viewpoint. Joris Luijke, VP of HR/Talent at the Australian software
development company, Atlassian agrees. He says, “The twice a year model (of performance reviews)
did exactly the opposite to what we wanted to accomplish. Instead of an inspiring discussion about
how to enhance people’s performance, the reviews caused disruptions, anxiety and de-motivated
team members and managers. Also, even though our model was extremely lean and simple, the time
investment was significant.”
Perhaps this is because managers rarely give performance reviews and appraisals in an environment
where true coaching and feedback to employees can take place. While they may believe that they are
coaching, they are really just giving one-way feedback about work-related performance. In actuality
they hold reviews in an environment that is not conducive to coaching and use language and processes
that do not align with a coaching model. And employees know it. That’s why employees are likely to
distrust the feedback they receive and tend to approach their performance reviews with
apprehension. As a result, performance reviews rarely achieve what they set out to accomplish.
PERHAPS IT’S TIME TO GET RID OF YOUR PERFORMANCE REVIEWS The Performance Management System goal should be to provide on-going coaching and feedback to
employees with the aim of developing and improving employee performance. This requires that
employees receive feedback about their job performance in relation to their goals, their approach to
innovation and the opportunities before them to create value for their department and its
customers. Compare this to the process for readying Olympic athletes for top performance. Olympic
athletes don’t receive reviews a couple of times of year. If they did, they’d fail. Rather, they receive
on-going coaching. This type of feedback creates an immediateawareness of what they’re doing right
and what they need to do to overcome barriers and do even better. With this in mind, perhaps it’s
time to throw out this current process of Performance Reviews and replace it with a more effective
method for developing performance.
There are progressive companies out there that have moved away from traditional performance
reviews, in favor of creating cultures of coaching, feedback, development, and high
performance. Such organizations have managed to re-shape their cultures to ones based on coaching;
where everyone in a leadership role is trained on how to coach. In this way, leaders give their
employees constantperformance feedback, which in turn, engages employees and creates a desire to
continuously improve. According to Ken Blanchard, a global leader in leadership training, it is “the
breakfast of champions.” This is because, rather than once or twice yearly, coaching happens
throughout the year; possibly every day. And because it is on-going, it eliminates the need for formal
annual appraisals and reviews.
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One such company is Atlassian, an Australian software development company. On the basis of their
concerns with their traditional approach to performance appraisal and managing performance and
their inability to find viable alternatives out there, they made innovative changes that have worked
well. To begin, they analyzed their traditional performance review model in detail. They asked what
made people perform better and what parts of the reviews worked well. They talked at length with
other tech companies about their experiences and asked if the negative aspects of reviews, mainly
related to de-motivation and the high levels of anxiety, tend to disappear after a while and found out
that they don’t.
As a result, they replaced the traditional performance review structure with a more lightweight,
continuous model. They incorporated the constructive aspects of reviews in the existing one-on-one
meetings but used their regular weekly one-on-one meetings with team members as an opportunity
for feedback and coaching. Now, every month, one of these meetings is dedicated to a discussion on
how the person can enhance their own performance and play to their strengths. In so doing, they
removed the unconstructive focus on ratings and distribution curves.
Atlassian also modified their compensation system by eliminating individual bonuses, paying top
market salaries rather than bonuses, and offering stock options to all employees so people will benefit
from the company’s growth/increased value over time.
OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO THE NEW MODEL I’ve often heard that managers resist the concept of on-going coaching because they believe it is too
time-consuming. Actually, it is quite the opposite. Managing poor employee performance is extremely
time consuming. This is because managers have to provide written reviews, spend time with
employees to discuss these reviews, monitor progress made based on these reviews and provide
corrective feedback as required. In contrast, on-going coaching might take 5 minutes of a manager’s
time every week. Yet it is a powerful force in demonstrating the concern the Manager has for the
employee’s development. With such enhanced and regular communication and interaction, corrective
measures are more easily and seamlessly applied and results are visible fairly quickly.
MEASURING MANAGEMENT’S PERFORMANCE Most Performance Management Systems focus on employee performance and rarely touch on
management’s performance. Yet managers cannot achieve their performance goals on their own.
They accomplish their goals through their employees. If they’re not constantly coaching their
employees, how can they be certain their goals will be met?
Management’s performance is generally assessed on their ability to:
• Create value-added products, services and ideas
• Engage staff in creating new ways of working and new work processes
• Ensure their customers are satisfied
To achieve these goals, managers must be trained to ask staff:
• What are you working on? (i.e., not just about the day-to-day job but about any ideas for
change, improvement, etc.)
• What are the potentials? (of their ideas)
• What are the applications this might have in the future? (i.e., To improve the department, its
customers and employees)
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• What are your challenges? (So the manager can immediately explore, with the employee,
ideas on how to overcome these challenges)
• How can I help? (Which is a critical element in coaching)
These questions ensure that managers fully engage their employees by involving them, informing
them and inspiring them. It leads to greater empowerment among staff because it unleashes their
creativity. As management consultant Peter Drucker once said, “So much of what we call management
consists in making it difficult for people to work.” Therefore, in our jobs as managers, we must actually:
develop people, support them, and then get out of the way.
A NEW PERFORMANCE SUCCESS PROCESS The thing with traditional reviews is that, despite good intentions, these reviews tend to focus mainly
on two sections: the manager rating and the employee’s weaknesses. As a result, even if a person
receives a “good” rating, most of the interview time will be consumed by justifying why the person
didn’t get an “outstanding” rating. This limits the value of these sessions.
Therefore, it makes more sense to discuss specific topics as separate conversations; dispensed
continuously throughout the year, in bite-sized chunks. These conversations provide the employee
with more complete feedback about strengths, weaknesses, and/or career development. The
outcome is that the feedback to employees becomes more actionable and motivational and provides
an opportunity for managers to mentor and coach for success.
So how do you begin?
1. Rip apart the traditional performance review
Start by analyzing your existing Performance Management System and identifying what is working
and what is not. Incorporate the constructive aspects of reviews into existing one-on-one
meetings and coaching opportunities and create a policy that requires all managers to engage in
on-going, one-to-one coaching sessions with their employees on a regular basis. More often is
better. Consider doing it at least monthly.
2. Provide managers with tools and training to conduct coaching and on-going staff
development conversations.
Possibly split the review sections into bite-sized chunks of separate conversations and allow
managers to incorporate them with their own coaching topics as well as business plan objectives.
Ask managers to allocate one of the weekly one-on-one meetings to a coaching topic.Train your
managers to provide coaching that focuses on goals and objectives rather than competencies.
Create conversation guides to help everyone stay on topic, and to supply tips and tricks on how
to facilitate the conversations.
3. Support performance with appropriate compensation strategies
Consider how the compensation structure is working to support the productivity goals and
objectives for your organization and look for ways to optimize it.
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SUMMARY It’s time for traditional performance management systems to change towards a newer, more
effective, coaching system that focuses on employee achievement of measurable goals and objectives
rather than formalized annual appraisal systems that only communicate one-way.
The ideal process for managing performance is one that successfully motivates and supports staff to
contribute to the achievement of the goals and objectives of the organization. A continuing process
that encourages on-going communication and coaching between managers and their employees has
many benefits and advantages over traditional Performance Management.
Re-think how your organization manages employee performance. Create performance terms that
identify how each employee’s efforts link to the organization’s mission, vision, values and overall
business plan. Then give employees feedback about their individual performance and coach them to
succeed. With continuous feedback and coaching it will become easier to realize organizational
performance goals because employees are more aware of what’s necessary for them to improve and
managers are able to incorporate on-going changes to the business plan throughout the year into
every employee’s performance deliverables.
The use of mentoring to contribute towards performance management In today's fast-paced, competitive workplace, managers are expected to function more as
collaborative and interactive professionals than as supervisors controlling their subordinates. The
traditional boss-employee relationship has been replaced by a model in which the partnerships
between managers and their employees - as well as those among managers across the organization -
are a vital tool for enhancing performance. These strategic partnerships are relationships of shared
power, with managers acting as leaders, role models and mentors rather than bosses or supervisors.
Mentoring is a method of teaching and learning that can occur among all types of individuals across
all kinds of knowledge bases and settings. In the workplace, mentoring normally consists of teaching,
giving feedback, coaching on the job, counseling through change and structuring ongoing contact over
a designated time period, but regardless of the method, mentoring is an effective teaching and
learning technique.
In the workplace, there are typically several key players involved in a mentoring program. The mentor
is the guide with the experience, skills or knowledge in a specific area who is able, willing and available
to share this knowledge with another individual. Successful mentors possess specific competencies,
many of which overlap with management competencies. Since the mentor role is instrumental to the
relationship, most successful mentoring programs offer mentor training to ensure a productive
outcome to the mentoring relationship.
The mentee is the learner or protégé who lacks experience, knowledge, or skills in a specific area and
who looks to another individual to gain what is lacking. In most mentoring programs, the mentee
undergoes an orientation or training program to prepare him or her to succeed in the relationship.
The mentee normally possesses the following characteristics.
• A willingness to assume responsibility for his or her own growth and learning.
• A demonstrated ability to succeed.
• A record of seeking new responsibilities or assignments.
• A receptivity to feedback.
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• A willingness to participate in regular meetings with the mentor.
The goals of mentoring can be focused in a variety of ways, including skill development, career
development or organizational/cultural development. Mentoring for skill development helps a
mentee develop one or more needed skills or competencies. The mentor provides information and
suggests ways in which the mentee can practice new skills without risk. Mentoring for career
development stresses upward mobility and career enhancement as opposed to behaviors and
activities that promote skill performance. In this case, the mentor typically comes from a higher level
within the organization and the focus is on the mentee's career path. Mentoring for
organizational/cultural development involves understanding the organization and its culture, vision,
history and status in the marketplace. Mentors in this relationship share the organization's history,
evolution and culture with the mentee as well as provide suggestions and resources.
Mentoring methods
The appropriate mentoring method for a given workplace depends upon the company's unique goals,
the company culture and the needs of the program's participants.
Traditional mentoring. Traditional mentoring typically involves the senior individual teaching or
tutoring the new hire or less experienced employee. The emphasis is not as much on partnership as it
is on long-term career development. In this model, a newly hired management trainee may be linked
with an executive that is higher up in the company. As the mentee mirrors the mentor and grows into
a higher rank, the mentee becomes an independent member of the mentor's circle of colleagues and
peers.
Formal or facilitated mentoring. Formal mentoring establishes a structure designed to create effective
mentoring relationships, guide the desired change in those involved, and evaluate the results. When
a mentoring program is sponsored by an organization, an official environment is established in which
mentoring can flourish. Such support can ensure that there is a system for handling conflicts and for
defining specific objectives and guidelines for the mentoring process.
Peer mentoring. Peer mentoring focuses on acquiring a specific skill. It is usually more short-term, and
concludes once the skill is acquired. Peer mentoring is often easier and more efficient than traditional
mentoring. Hearing feedback from a peer who possesses the desired skill or knowledge may be easier
than hearing feedback given from an authority figure. In peer mentoring, roles are more likely to
interchange. For example, a mentor for one skill may be a learner in another skill, or a mentee may
have consecutive mentors for different skill sets.
Peer mentoring can also take the form of a joint venture in which both members pursue development
in an area in which they both wish to develop. In a peer relationship, the mentor and mentee see each
other as fellow learners rather than as teacher and student. Peer mentoring is characterized by
reciprocity, collegiality, equality and interchangeability.
Mentoring in teams or learning groups. Team or group mentoring is a relatively new adaptation of the
traditional mentor-protégé relationship. Teams are often created by bringing together individuals who
have already benefited from peer mentoring but who see a need to broaden their expertise. It is also
a more targeted, cost-effective approach to corporate training programs.
Elements in the mentoring process
Although formalizing the mentoring process may put off some employees, structuring a mentoring
program has been shown to render the program more effective, with greater participation.
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Establishing goals for the mentoring program drives the method of mentoring chosen by the
organization as well as the focus of the mentor-mentee meetings. The goals should target one or more
groups within the organization and focus on one or more areas. Mentoring often complements an
existing program, and the goals of the mentoring program should be aligned with the organization's
goals and mission.
Determining the selection criteria for matching mentors and mentees involves assessing the
competencies required of a successful mentor as well as the abilities required for the mentee to grow
from the experience. Once the selection criteria are determined, individuals should be nominated
and/or complete a related application form.
Training is critical to ensuring the success of ongoing, structured mentoring programs. Training should
address both the mentor and the mentee in order to set expectations, educate both partners about
the process, and provide resources for help during the mentoring process. Training for mentors should
include communication skills as well as planning and time management skills. Training for mentees
should emphasize how to receive and use feedback.
Creating a contract or development plan is the foundation of the mentor-mentee relationship. It
outlines the agreement between the two members and describes how the developmental goals of the
mentee will be achieved. An agreement includes the focus or goal of the relationship, a confidentiality
agreement, the duration of the relationship, the frequency of meetings and the roles of the mentor
and mentee.
Collecting data to assess needed improvements and to ensure success of the mentoring program is
another important component. Evaluation and revision should be a continuing process and should be
shared across the organization to recruit new participants and to demonstrate the organizational
support of the program.
The benefits of all types of mentoring are proven and numerous. Mentor and mentee benefits are
often parallel, reflecting the collaborative nature of the relationship. On the whole, mentoring
enriches relationships and contributes to a collaborative, respectful environment.
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The need for board level endorsement of coaching When we invited each member of our company’s board of directors to begin mentoring a high-
potential manager, we were thinking mainly about the benefit to the managers from being guided by
experienced board members. What we didn’t realize was that the board members would find the
experience just as valuable.
After our company, Exelis, was spun off from ITT Corporation in 2011, we looked for ways to make use
of our board members’ leadership skills in developing the company’s future leaders. We wanted to
help our next generation of senior executives reach their potential, and at the same time we aimed to
increase our bench strength.
At a brainstorming session, the concept of a mentorship program emerged: We would ask each
director to coach, teach, counsel, sponsor, and support one of 10 high-potential leaders for one to
two years.
A lot of companies have mentorship programs, but we’re not aware of other companies our size —
we’re a $5.5 billion defense and aerospace firm — asking directors to establish one-on-one
relationships with specific managers.
Questions arose immediately: Would board members be receptive to this type of program? Would
they have enough flexibility in their schedules to make it work? And we knew there were risks, such
as that a protégé’s personality might not match the mentor’s. The consequences could be serious —
a bad pairing might derail a protégé’s career. Also, what if, during a conversation with a mentor, a
protégé divulged corporate information that the senior team wasn’t ready to share?
Our nonexecutive board chairman, Ralph Hake, acknowledges that he was skeptical of the program at
first, but he ultimately endorsed it enthusiastically, and all of the other directors signed on and agreed
to make time in their schedules.
To address the bad-match risk, we used our performance-review process to assess the strengths,
personalities, and developmental needs of the 10 employees we had selected for the program and
used that data to pair each employee with a board member.
As for the question about divulging unauthorized information: We decided, after some debate, that
the company’s leaders really had nothing to hide from the board and, in any case, needed to trust
managers to be responsible with information. This decision turned out to have lasting benefits, which
we’ll get to below.
The 10 employees raised a number of questions of their own: Should the mentor or the protégé drive
the process? What if a protégé disagrees with a mentor’s advice? And — this is always an awkward
issue to talk about — what if a protégé doesn’t personally like his or her mentor?
It has taken a while, but by now we’ve established some answers, which have been published in an
internal guidebook to the program:
• Although mentors and protégés need to work together to reach defined goals, protégés
should take the lead in keeping in touch with mentors on a regular basis.
• Protégés should listen to mentors’ suggestions and take appropriate action when possible,
but they should also respectfully challenge and question mentors when necessary.
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• Mutual admiration and liking are pluses, but they’re not prerequisites for successful
mentoring. What matters most is that the mentor sees the protégé as having potential, and
the protégé admires the mentor and recognizes the value of the director’s expertise.
After a year of the program, we found that mentors and protégés were able to maintain relationships
despite the pressures of high-level responsibilities. “We both made the relationship a priority and
were deliberate and disciplined in connecting regularly,” reports protégé Courtney Reynolds,
communications director for Exelis’s Electronic Systems division.
We also found that there was a healthy flow of information between protégés and mentors. Reynolds’
mentor is board member Herman Bulls, international director and chairman for public institutions at
JLL, formerly known as Jones Lang LaSalle. Bulls says: “Courtney understood that I was her advocate
and not her supervisor. We both maintained a level of maturity to know which topics we could explore
freely and what we should avoid to maintain the integrity of the company and our respective roles
within it.”
As expected, protégés benefited enormously from the program. Protégés reported that they had
learned and grown through mentors’ listening, teaching, and encouragement. Mentors challenged
protégés, built their self-confidence, counseled protégés about problems, and acted as role models.
Protégés gained important personal contacts and got valuable experience observing and interacting
with successful senior leaders, acquiring knowledge and learning personal strategies on such topics as
time management.
“I have learned more about what a CEO of a public company must do, how boards interact, and how
best to communicate the top priorities and accomplishments of my organization to the board,” says
Pam Drew, SVP and president of Exelis’s Information Systems division.
Another protégé, deputy general counsel Rachel Semanchik, says the program “has provided me with
an excellent understanding of the expectations that board members have of the company’s senior
leaders.”
What surprised us is how much the mentors benefited. They reported that they increased their
mentoring and coaching skills, enjoyed the satisfaction of “giving back” and making a difference in
protégés’ lives, and broadened their own professional networks. They also absorbed new technical
knowledge from these savvy employees. “I have learned a great deal about Exelis in this process,” says
board member Billie Williamson, a former chief diversity officer and executive team member for Ernst
& Young. Learning more about the company “has made me a more effective board member,” she says.
The company as a whole has benefited too. We’ve seen several companywide improvements:
• Better individual performance: Protégés have demonstrated greater commitment,
loyalty, and productivity.
• Better mentoring throughout the company: Most of our participating executives have taken
a cue from the program and begun mentoring managers further down in the organization.
• Better governance: Directors have now mentored a total of 22 managers, giving board
members the kind of understanding of future leaders that they couldn’t have gleaned from
the occasional dinner or board presentation. Now, when we do talent or succession reviews,
the board knows the leaders both professionally and personally.
• Greater insight and oversight: The board has a much better understanding of the businesses,
resulting in a much richer dialogue with management during board meetings.
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• Greater trust: The board’s oversight role is a source of a natural tension between directors
and the top management team. This program has increased trust levels between the board
and senior leaders as both sides have learned to communicate more frankly with each other.
As a consequence, we plan to expand the number of leaders mentored by the board in the next several
years.
Ask a successful person what the most influential force in his or her life has been, and you’ll probably
hear the story of a person who took an interest in the individual’s development and provided coaching,
teaching, counseling, and support. Relationships like these are too often a matter of pure chance —
some people find mentors, while others don’t. But it doesn’t have to be that way. A systematic
program drawing on the expertise of board members can ensure that your company’s future leaders
get the mentoring they need — and deserve.
