The past few years have indicated an irrefutable truth: organizations and businesses are navigating tumultuous waters. The global COVID-19 pandemic set a new precedent for uncertainty, instability, disruption, and change.
Businesses everywhere are still adapting to the pace of change. From a brimming burnout and connection crisis to tightening budgets, rising inflation, and impending layoffs, the global workforce is grappling with a slew of complexities and issues. Prior to 2020, organizations might’ve braced for impact but navigated safely back on course. But now, change is one of the only constants organizations can count on.
On the precipice of continued economic uncertainty, tides have risen, waves are cresting, and gale-force winds are tossing precious cargo about. . Your organizational vessel requires people on board who are capable of withstanding the strongest storms — the burnout crisis, rising inflation, organizational restructuring, and colleague attrition among them. There can be no passive passengers on your ship.
Coaching, or rather, a culture of coaching at all levels of an organization is how you help your team and organization safely get to shore. Building this culture in your organization is a key investment — one that creates resourceful employees that are prepared regardless of whether a tsunami of uncertainty strikes.
Equip everyone with a coaching culture compass so your team can row in the same direction.
A robust resource to build resilience — especially when times are tough
Coaching culture is a combination of two powerful organizational tools. First, there’s coaching, which is a dedicated practice where individuals uncover strengths and build resiliency using proven behavioral science techniques. Second, there’s culture, which represents a cascading framework where leaders equipped with key mindsets model successful behaviors and drive organizational performance.
Treading water until the economy turns around is simply not an option for future-minded organizations. Indeed, it will be companies that support, upskill, and equip employees during good times that thrive when challenges arise. Investing in the development of strong coaching culture is not just a competitive advantage; it’s a business imperative. Coaching culture is the infrastructure organizations need to build adaptable, innovative, and future-minded leaders and employees who can thrive in the good times and overcome difficult seasons.
“Coaching is one of the tools that enable us to be more proactive in building this resilience around change, which is something that’s not going away in the workforce. ”
Tina Gupta, VP of Talent & Employee Experience, WarnerMedia + BetterUp customer
Coaching culture is often the antidote to lack of connection, employee dissatisfaction, and lack of belonging, all of which are key factors that cause employees to react negatively to uncertainty.
Employees with lower levels of belonging have a 313% stronger intention to quit and are 176% more likely to be seriously searching for another job.
They’re not bluffing, either.
People with low belonging follow through with their departures — and quit their jobs 39% more often.
Here’s better news: belonging is the second-highest predictor of intent to stay, and BetterUp members with the highest levels of belonging have 34% higher intent to stay. To retain, encourage, and support employees through an economic downturn and other workforce challenges, employers must be prepared to instill strong coaching culture values.
That investment offers much in return.
3 benefits of a coaching culture
So, why should you invest in building a coaching culture at your organization?
It creates lasting behavior change
Investing in a coaching culture as a business pays off. It empowers people to lean on and help one another rather than overburdening HR leaders and relying on company infrastructure to do so.
Data shows that traditional, one-off training has no staying power — employees forget 75% of what they learn within three weeks. Science shows us that lasting behavior change happens over time in bite-sized pieces.
It’s scalable — and personalized to the employee
The practice fits into the flow of employee days and addresses the whole person (especially since we can’t fully compartmentalize our professional and personal selves). Coaching provides a two-pronged approach by helping employees while empowering and enabling HR leaders to invest in solutions with long-lasting results.
With shifting challenges and companies re-evaluating priorities, employees must learn how to do more with less, while still being offered the support they need to continue to stay engaged and happy at work.
It creates positive cascading impacts across the business
When managers gain the opportunity to seek coaching and implement coaching-based support and resources, it helps individual contributors, which in turn helps teams. It is an investment that scales and supports the whole organization’s growth.
Companies that are high in coaching culture have happier, more committed, and more dedicated people, and their teams report:
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11% more trust;
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26% less team conflict and 25% more confidence in discussion problem solving with coworkers;
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22% greater agility in response to new challenges; and:
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24% greater ability to generate and apply new and useful solutions to hard challenges
To be without those attributes is to impede progress and stifle growth. Without a strong coaching culture, productivity, employee retention, and organizational success are at risk.
In short, challenging times present an incredible opportunity for organizations to take the lead. Emphasizing behavioral skills is invaluable when resources are limited or uncertain — while competitors are hoping their employees will tread water, an investment in strong coaching culture helps protect your organization from rippling negative impacts in times of great challenge.
"Coaching has really enabled us to focus on how we build that change resilience so when there are changes or anything that’s occurring in the workplace, people are ready and they have the tools and they understand what they’re feeling and how they’re reacting."
Tina Gupta, VP of Talent & Employee Experience, WarnerMedia + BetterUp customer
So, how do you build a strong coaching culture?
Regardless of where you are now, developing a strong coaching culture in your organization is not only possible — it’s well within grasp with the right amount of commitment to the cause. Some interventions that have proven impactful are:
Adopt a growth mindset. Instilling a mindset of flexibility and failure as an opportunity for learning — especially amid constant change, means growth for every employee at your organization.
Build future-mindedness. Encourage organizational leadership to approach the future with pragmatism and optimism. Individuals who balance optimistic action with thoughtful pragmatism and create space to reflect on and ready themselves for potential outcomes tend to be more successful, hopeful, and less stressed than their peers. Those employees will be the ones who drive organizational success.
Implement coaching. BetterUp delivers value with components of coaching we believe are responsible for our best outcomes: exemplary coaches, cutting-edge technology, evidence-based practices rooted in the latest in behavioral science, and of course, personalization. Coaching is a powerful tool to drive organizational growth and progress.
Invest in employee support. Benefits that address employee well-being, facilitate connections, and support building mental fitness is not just nice to have. They’re imperative (even according to the U.S. Surgeon General!). When we invest in building workplaces that are engines of well-being, employees will believe they have the workplace resources and support necessary to flourish.
Despite the turbulent seasons we are all navigating, companies have an incredible opportunity to evolve and grow into organizations that can withstand present-day difficulties and thrive well into the future.
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