It seems that every other Human Resources manager I meet these days talks about the work that they are doing to develop a ‘Coaching Culture’.
Now why would anyone (other than a consultant selling coaching) want to develop a coaching culture? A learning culture, maybe. A performance or achievement culture definitely.
But a coaching culture just seems to be putting one (admittedly fashionable) cart before the horse.
Now of course every manager should be coaching every member of their team. And they should be monitoring progress against a coaching plan every week to keep up the momentum. But this is not in order to establish a coaching culture – it is to establish a culture where everyone has the skills, passion and clarity that they need to do their best work. A culture where each manager can talk about what every member of their team is working on, this week and every week, to improve their performance at work and to enhance their career. It is about setting an expectation that people will learn and improve each and every week.
Now that is a culture worth developing!