"The Impact of Coaching on Organisational Success: By a workplace coach"

You only have to scroll LinkedIn for a few minutes to find many posts referring to workplace culture, or learning and development in leadership. An organisation that recognises the benefits of coaching- say has a "coaching culture", is one where all employees are given permission to both recognise their areas for development and be given time and space for them to be worked through. When I think of this last point, I immediately consider the impact of how a staff member feels when they are invested in, when they are developed, when they are valued?

All sounds wonderful doesn't it? But you are probably wondering how this benefits the organisation, and most importantly the performance indicators. Whitmore (p 203-5 1992) lists many benefits to coaching for the employee and employer. These include; improved relationships and engagement; retention; better use of people and their knowledge; greater adaptability and a high performance culture. If we are seeing productive and skilled, developed personnel in the organisation, that is a huge benefit to how the business works and performs, because in theory you are getting the right people, feeling motivated in the right places. Organisationally, this also has huge benefit, because if teams are working together according to their strengths they are performing better overall and are happier, which also impact overall performance. A happy workforce is a productive one.

Staff retention is then the other benefit to the organisation here because if those people are happy and developed in their work, for the most part they wouldn’t wish to leave that organisation where they feel valued and happy. In industries where recruitment is a harder process these days, think teaching, health services etc, then retaining and growing your staff and future leaders internally keeps recruitment costs down.

Having been a coach in a large public sector organisation, one of the biggest benefits I have seen is an increased resilience in everyone I have worked with, regardless of their initial requirement for coaching. I have recognised that the coaching approach, one where the client is front and centre, leading their ideas and goals increases their confidence in their own abilities to problem solve. This in turn, assisted by their development and goal setting during coaching makes for staff who come out of the process less burnt-out, full of ideas for continuous improvement, and a thirst for developing themselves further at work. A large percentage of my clients have gone on to seek and be successful in internal promotion both during and within the 6 months following coaching. In the post-Covid era, wellbeing is becoming a really important consideration for organisations. Why I love coaching is because it isn't advising people, it's empowering them, to do what they need to do. Coaching is certainly a proven tool to build resilience within the workplace.

The rationale for coaching in the organisation is in summary; you are getting developed, happy and more skilled leaders, who are more likely to stay in the organisation, decreasing further recruitment costs but also increasing the performance and productivity of your company.

Please reach out if you are looking for a skilled coach to support your staff and organisation, using the Contact Us section. I will be happy to chat through with you about the benefits Coaching can bring to your workplace.