Coaching Culture FAQs

A coaching culture is founded on the guiding principles of coaching, which are on curiosity, compassion and courage. Coaching approaches are woven into everyday conversations with the intention of being of service to others. People feel supported and encouraged to bring all they have to offer to all that they do. The tempo of the organization is calmer because people are more centered and focused on working with leverage points—the actions that make the biggest difference with the most focused effort. As a result, learning “in the moment” from day-to-day experiences becomes a way of life. And change is embraced as a creative challenge to break new ground.

People are avoiding critical day-to-day conversations.

People tend to avoid conversations that have an emotional overlay because they don’t know how to engage in them without risking a negative reaction. Teaching people how to take a coaching approach to their day-to-day conversations gives people the perspective and tools they need to have much more productive and appreciative conversations, so they are more willing to step into the conversations that count the most.

A merger is planned, or is underway and it isn’t going well.

Mergers tend to stall out when limiting stories on both sides create an “us and them” dynamic. Instilling “in the moment” coaching skills on both sides of that divide will motivate everyone to create a new shared coaching culture as they take a coaching approach to work out the details. Better yet, prepare people for the merger by instilling coaching skills before the integration activities begin.

Your leaders are telling everyone what to do… and it isn’t working.

Often leaders can sense that the traditional "direct and correct" approach to leadership aren’t as effective as they used to be, but they don’t know what to do differently. Embracing coaching-based leadership doesn’t replace telling people what to do—it just gives leaders a whole new set of tools to work with when the job at hand is inspiring, developing and supporting others to learn “in the moment.”

Your younger workers are leaving.

Everyone knows that millennials want coaching. The challenge is, the coaching that they are often getting is the “here’s what your problem is, now fix it” methodology. That’s not what they had in mind at all. What they’re looking for is coaching that inspires them to do more, be more and make a more significant contribution. Cylient’s Untying the Knot® approach to “in the moment” coaching and feedback teaches leaders how to deliver the kind of coaching millennials want. It’s the kind of coaching that keeps your younger works happy, so you can keep them.

The organization is too busy to take on another initiative.

Change of any kind gets bogged down when people lack the skills to resolve differences, find common ground and address the issues that keep things from moving forward. If it seems like there is a huge backlog of unfinished initiatives, it’s a sign that your organization needs to learn how to take a coaching approach to implementing change. Instilling “in the moment” coaching and feedback provides people at the forefront of any change initiative with what they need to take the actions needed to get things moving forward.

One of the fastest and most effective ways of instilling a coaching culture is to train people to use coaching skills to support the attainment of a major change initiative, such as transitioning to no-rater performance support, changing a business model, or building a shared culture after a merger. “In the moment” coaching enables everyone in the change effort to quickly and effectively address the kinds of sticky issues that can cause change to stall out.

Everything changes and evolves, including coaching. It’s likely that since your last coaching model was adopted, many things have changed in your organization, including your approach to marketing and sales, your IT systems and much more. If your old coaching model isn’t delivering the results your organization expects (and needs), it’s probably time to look for your coaching 2.0 approach. Cylient’s Untying the Knot approach to coaching is often used as the next level up in coaching because it builds on older coaching models, without negating them.

Feedback is great for pointing out when something isn’t working, but it’s not that helpful for moving people into meaningful action. That’s why it’s essential to learn coaching approaches first, so coaching and feedback can be effectively paired to deliver lasting behavior change. At Cylient, we use our Coaching in the Moment® workshop to establish the foundation of coaching in organizations and deepen the learning with our Feedback in the Moment® workshop. Both workshops use Cylient’s Untying the Knot model, so feedback and coaching are offered together. Read our blog post, Feedback or Coaching: Which Comes First? to learn more.

“In the moment” coaching simply means that you and your leaders have the skills to coach anyone, at any time. The fastest, most cost-effective way to do this is to wire up a coaching culture that teaches people to integrate coaching approaches into day-to-day conversations, so your organization has a solid foundation to build upon. Watch CEO Dianna Anderson explain more with this video:

Why "in the Moment" Coaching Needs to Be the Foundation from Cylient on Vimeo.

Creating a coaching culture, like coaching itself, reflects the unique needs of the organization, so everyone approaches the initiative slightly differently. We’re happy to coach you and your team through how to take a coaching approach to instilling a coaching culture in a way that aligns with the unique needs of your organization. Some organizations start at the top and move down, while others work with divisions or tiers of managers—such as middle managers—that seem more open to embracing coaching, while others integrate coaching skills workshops into existing learning paths.

Planning to reinforce the learning is key. We can help you with that too. Cylient offers a full complement of reinforcement offerings so you can build a network of reinforcement that works for your organization. We are happy to be thinking partners with you and your team to establish a clear path forward for embedding coaching-based leadership in your organization. Request a conversation with a Cylient coach now.

It’s great if your most senior leaders understand the importance of building a coaching culture and actively support the effort. It’s not necessary, though. It’s more common that coaching-based leadership catches on somewhere in the middle of the organization with influential leaders at the VP and Director levels who are struggling to make significant change happen and appreciate the value that coaching-based leadership delivers. As momentum builds, coaching quickly spreads to other areas, including executive leaders.

Transitioning to coaching-based leadership is a huge change. One that has to be supported over time to ensure that coaching becomes a part of the organization’s DNA. That’s why we built an entire system for instilling coaching as a way of life. We will work with you to craft what will work best for your organization, which can include:

• Establish the foundation of coaching with our Coaching in the Moment workshop
• Use our Application Sessions, 8-week Coach-the-Coach email series (that includes audio and videos), our Coaching in the Moment blog, and Coaching Moments app to reinforce the learning
• Deepen the learning with our Feedback in the Moment workshop, followed by our network of learning reinforcement options
• License our intellectual property to build internal support and connect our Untying the Knot approach to coaching with your learning curriculum
• Train your trainers to deliver our workshops

You can find more information about Cylient and how to instill coaching cultures on our Resources page. If you have more questions, don’t hesitate to reach out at info@cylient.com, or reach out to Contact Us.

Our Coaching in the Moment workshop can be offered as:

• An in-person classroom setting experience
• A synchronous, virtual setting
• A four-week learning experience through our digital learning

Our Feedback in the Moment workshop can be offered as:

• An in-person classroom setting experience
• A synchronous, virtual setting