Coaching one-on-one as a senior management development strategy has been so successful that it has gone enterprise-wide to promote strategic alignment at all levels of the organization.
- By Ingrid Johnson

Organizational coaching initially developed into a one-on-one process involving mostly executive and senior leaders when managers had more confined responsibilities in hierarchal, siloed organizations. The business environment that exists today is flatter, global and interconnected, demanding a new leadership style.

As a result, coaching efforts had to adapt in order to deliver full value. It is now a talent development strategy that is increasingly applied enterprise-wide because management across the organization needs to enable organizational responsiveness and innovation. The impact of a successful business-wide coaching strategy can be profound because coaches help managers align decision making with the company’s strategic goals and drive change in fulfillment of mission and according to business values.

“Develop talent” is a mantra heard throughout the business world because it is a key strategy for talent retention and for helping leaders develop the decision-making skills for meeting the demands of an ever-changing business environment. It has become apparent that successful organizations develop talent across key functions, not just in the C-suite. Leaders, their managers, heads of key functional units and so on all need to understand how their leadership skills mesh with the organization’s strategic goals.

Coaching from an enterprise-wide perspective impacts the entire organization by considering how the leader fits within the broader organization and not just within a unit or function. The coached leaders then apply the organizational perspective in their leadership process and during performance reviews, decision making, goal setting, strategic planning and so on. Ultimately, a coaching culture is formed in which all talent participates in the development process, improving engagement and organizational outcomes.

The integration of the coaching effort into the broader leadership development program is needed in the transforming business environment. Leaders are asked to raise the level of employee engagement, manage resistance to frequent changes, and contribute to the development of an innovative culture. Change management requires adaptive leaders within business divisions driving the process rather than top-down leaders issuing directives.

A company that develops a coaching culture moves its workforce toward top performance. The success of a coached manager is multiplied because employees accept ownership of their role in corporate success and strive to reach full performance potential. Coaching as an element of talent development can keep leadership pipelines filled and raises the organization’s general performance level.

In addition, coaching cultures emphasize relationships, important in a connected, globalized environment. It is also an effective strategy for managing the multigenerational workforce where knowledge transfer is critical to sustainability but communication styles are different.

CEB is a member-based advisory company that works with companies to develop insights and solutions needed to respond to changing business conditions and to take advantage of opportunities as they arise. In 2014, Thomas Handcock with CEB interviewed Bill McLawhon, the head of leadership development at Facebook, to discuss the corporation’s approach and utilization of coaching programs. The leadership development strategy is focused on helping leaders develop the skills needed to manage the complex business. Facebook chose to implement enterprise-wide coaching by using different coaching modalities at the same time: executive coaching, leadership coaching and peer coaching.

One-on-one coaching is a springboard for initiating a broader coaching program that is linked to strategic business goals and outcomes. The question remains as to how the linkages are formed. As a talent development strategy, enterprise-wide coaching is linked to a number of people-related outcomes that include retention and turnover rates, engagement levels, productivity, leadership bench strength, leadership brand alignment, success of succession planning, and so on.

One of the challenges of coaching is finding meaningful methods of measurement to ensure the coaching programs are delivering results. Methods used include pre- and post-formal assessments and progress reports that report against a set of targets. Accountability and transparency are two critical requirements of a coaching effort designed for change management. A benefit of using specific business targets and desired outcomes is that the organization’s performance is measured as well as the leader’s performance at the business function, unit, department or enterprise level. Specific measures may include coachee satisfaction, results against goals and objectives, application of knowledge, productivity changes, improved customer relations, talent metrics improvements within management area (i.e. reduced turnover), leadership pipeline improvements, and so on. Enterprise-wide coaching programs should have the capability of measuring results by benchmarking and balanced scorecards, but they should not box in the coaching effort. Coaching strategies need to be as dynamic as the dynamic nature of the business environment.

Technology is simplifying the delivery of organization-wide coaching. The new perspective on coaching is leading to the emergence of companies like Chronus Corp. which blends cloud-based software and program best practices to deliver automated workflows, engagement tracking and program measurements. The system will enable the scaling of multiple programs across multiple locations while integrating them into the enterprise-wide system. One of the advantages of using a coaching program like this is that it makes it easier to deliver a consistent effort across the business.

Coaching strategies that are broadly aligned to the talent offer measurable value and can enhance all talent management efforts. It helps managers conduct more productive performance reviews, discovers and closes skills gaps, and produces bottom-line results. From one-on-one coaching of senior leaders to peer coaching, the quality process can increase employee engagement, improve talent retention, and lead to a better aligned workforce that consistently pursues company goals.

Effective coaching is a strategic move to align business talent and thus work processes. Approaching it as a one-on-one isolated event does not fit a business environment that needs global alignment across functions and units in order to achieve competitive success.