According to the International Coaching Federation (ICF) coaching skills are considered essential competencies for first-time people managers. Coaching and developing others (44%), engaging and inspiring others (41%), and having emotional intelligence (35%) are the most valuable skills and competencies for first-time people managers according to respondents.
Only 36% of organizations offer coach-specific training to these new leaders. Managers/leaders using coaching skills are trained most often by L&D departments, HR departments, and internal coach practitioners. Sixty-five percent of organizations aim to expand the scope of managers/leaders using coaching skills in the next five years.
A business case can be made for investing in a strong coaching culture. Organizations with strong coaching cultures indicate recent revenues above that of their industry peer group (46% compared to 39% of other responding organizations) and report higher employee engagement (61% and 53%, respectively). Among those who have received coaching, a strong majority (80%) report positive impacts resulting from the coaching engagement. Among the areas where they report improvement are their work performance, communication skills, productivity, well-being, and business management strategies.
Imagine having a leader who is consistently underperforming. Replacing an employee comes at a high cost. So instead of replacing the company decides to make an investment in coaching. After a few months of intensive coaching clear results are noticeable, the leader is more responsive and clearer in giving direction, less authoritarian with direct reports. This fosters more genuine and authentic relationships with customers and employees and there is no further need to replace the leader. Creating awareness how leadership behaviors impact others and then operationalizing this into tangible results can help a leader and the company make vast progress in the right direction.