cultures of engagement insights paper

Leadership Insights Paper

Thomas E. Anderson, II

November 2015

Teaiiano Coaching Solutions

CULTURES OF ENGAGEMENT INSIGHTS PAPER

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

For decades, great focus has been placed on the benefits of executive coaching and

leadership coaching for managers and leaders. While leadership coaching is crucial for

organizational success, it is the aim of this article to zoom out and show how coaching

can benefit the entire organization by creating an atmosphere or culture of engagement.

In an effort to bridge the gap between coaching skills and organizational outcomes, this

insights paper:

Discusses how organizations can use key coaching skills to improve employee

communication satisfaction, increase engagement and maximize employee

performance.

Explains how these coaching disciplines create an environment that accelerates

organization goal achievement through increased employee engagement and

improved employee performance.

Zeroes in on the impact of giving and receiving feedback: two skills that represent

a convergence of communication that satisfies employees and benefits

organizations and a key coaching competency.

This insights paper represents a convergence of communication preferences,

communication satisfaction and coaching skills such as open questioning, mindful

reflection and active listening. Although Cultures of Engagement does not go in depth

with the how-to of coaching techniques, most leaders know these techniques or can easily

learn the skills. This article answers the question:

“How do key coaching competencies impact and improve organizations?”


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GLEANINGS FROM THE EMPLOYEE EXODUS

Forbes and Entrepreneur magazine confirm that hiring and retaining key talent is a top

challenge for organizations of all sizes. According to Entrepreneur:

56% of businesses with 101-499 employees listed hiring as their biggest challenge

Hiring is just as important as growing revenue in businesses of 50-100 employees

29% of small businesses reported that hiring is a top challenge (Rampton, 2015).

Employees are exiting companies in greater volumes and frequencies. Not all of them are

departing, but the exodus is making managers take notice and ask “why are my

employees leaving?”

Employee turnover is largely due to dissatisfaction which leads to disengagement.

Gallup estimates that “actively disengaged employees” – the least productive – cost the

American economy $350 billion per year in lost productivity (including absences, illness

and other problems resulting from active disengagement). When workers encounter

motivational challenges, they tend to disengage from their work environments. Employee

disengagement and turnover intention represent two root causes of the hiring challenge

that can be addressed with coaching skills that provide alternatives to these challenges.

Leaders and managers can take action using 3 coaching skills: mindful reflection, quality

feedback and trust-building. These skills positively affect employee engagement and lead

to outcomes such as shared decision making, an employee learning orientation and

communication satisfaction.


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THE LEGACY OF INDUSTRIAL CAPITALISM

To understand the role of coaching in organizations, it’s important to understand that the

shift in organizational theory over the last century has drifted away from the

mechanistic, bureaucratic organization of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and toward a

more organic, networked form of organization. The shadow side of organization has

resulted in byproducts among employees such as lack of purpose, feelings of misuse and

abuse, substance addiction, low self-esteem, sabotage and a host of counterproductive

work behaviors (CWB) and personal/family issues that have negatively impacted lives of

employees and their families (Symptoms of a Wounded Spirit; Bibi, Karim & ud Din, 2013).

Most importantly for executive leadership, these problems hinder organizational

performance. Humanistic values have moved organizational theory toward a more people-

centric model that favors such disciplines as customer journey mapping and employee

wellbeing.

TRUE COACHING REFLECTS (AND PRODUCES) A RELATIONAL CULTURE

In that shift, people – both customers and employees – are becoming a central focus in

organizational goal achievement. Richard Daft (2013) defines organizations as “social

entities that are goal-directed and designed as deliberately structured and coordinated

activity systems and are linked to the external environment.” Daft goes on to say:

“An organization is not a building or a set of policies or

procedures; organizations are made up of people and their

relationships with one another. An organization exists when

people interact with one another to perform essential


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functions that help attain goals. An organization is a means to

an end” (Daft, 2013, p.12).

Coaching recognizes and respects the people that make up the organization.

Organizational coaching and coaching cultures produce healthier relationships between

both customers and organizational members. A coaching culture aligns with Daft’s

definition of organization as a relational culture. Coaching builds relationships.

Relationships engage organizational members. Effective coaching builds relationships

between people, departments and concepts within the organization.

The bureaucratic model of organization has its strengths, limitations and appropriate

settings, just as does the decentralized model. However, treating workers as “hired

hands” within a closed system and occasionally issuing, top-down communication and

directives through a memo, has run its course. Organizations are changing to adapt to the

post-industrial age and the knowledge economy. Innovative leaders are adapting to this

new situation by integrating key coaching competencies and mobilizing coaching skills

within their organizational cultures.

THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF COACHING

Electricity. Gasoline. Automobiles. The I-Phone. Each of these horizontal innovations

changed the face of the world we live in. In fact, iPhones have prompted school districts

across the United States to reevaluate the use of technology in the classroom. As we

speak, coaching is changing the face of organization.

Coaching represents a major innovation, one which is quickly decentralizing throughout

industries and consequently, organizations. Through coaching, organizations not only

build the type of cultures they can be proud of, but also create cultures that produce


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engagement, and most importantly reengagement, without putting undue strain on

managers, employees or executive leadership. Coaching has emerged as an alternative to

top-down communication and the concept of organization as an end in itself. It accounts

for the relational dynamic and produces various outcomes that align with not only

humanistic thought, but also factors that lead to higher employee productivity such as

highly engaged employees with a thriving sense of wellbeing.

WHAT IS COACHING?

The International Coaching Federation, or ICF, officially defines coaching as

“partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to

maximize their personal and professional potential.” Coaching functions in various ways

within organizational life. One way to think about coaching is through the following six

functions:

1. Coaching is a service that supports achievement of business and personal goals.

2. Coaching is a solution that keeps clients moving forward toward their agenda and

growth goals.

3. Coaching is a set of techniques including open questions, the G.R.O.W. model,

unpacking, reframing, and S.M.A.R.T.Y. goals.

4. Coaching is a process that guides coachees to unleash their creativity and

maximize their full potential.

5. Coaching is a discipline that organizations integrate into business operations to

improve performance and achievement.

6. Coaching is a movement that exists alongside other disciplines such as counseling,

mentoring, consulting and facilitation.


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HOW COACHING BENEFITS ORGANIZATIONS

Within an organizational context, coaching sessions are designed to improve job

performance and productivity from a holistic approach. Fortune 500 companies, such as

Walt Disney, Apple, Continental, Harley Davidson, have integrated coaching for

executives into HR operations. Other companies have successfully integrated coaching at

lower levels of the organization to guide employees in making positive change on their

jobs, in their lives and in their careers.

Organizational leaders mobilize coaches, along with their accompanying coaching skills

and techniques, as a way to address the complexities of change through practices such as

collective intelligence, strategic thinking and conflict resolution. Several coaching skills

and techniques align with employees’ values and often subconscious desires for such

things as satisfying communication, and timely, actionable feedback. Coaching skills such

as mindful reflection, quality feedback, and building trust lead to outcomes such as

shared decision making, encouraging learning, and communication satisfaction.

Communication that satisfies employees begins with authentic conversations. Susan Scott

(2002) makes a bold claim that “the conversation is the relationship”. If an organization is

made up of people and their relationships to one another, conversations serve as the

barometer measuring the quality of interactions among organizational members. Coaching

encourages and preserves the free flow of knowledge and information between

supervisors and employees, between different departments and teams within the

organization, and even between colleagues who operate on a peer level. Conversations

are also important between the four generations that currently exist within the


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workforce. Coaching works to increase understanding, while minimizing communication

barriers.

THE VALUE OF MINDFUL REFLECTION

Effective coaching requires the discipline of mindful reflection. Tuleja (2014) explains

that one practices mindfulness, or sense-making, by “reflectively paying attention

through monitoring personal feelings, thoughts and actions [to] make sense of […]

situations, events and actions…by removing a rigid or fixed mindset” (p.7). Mindfulness is

the exact opposite of mindlessness where there exists “no need to think about what

you’re doing because it comes naturally and is accepted and expected” with no reason to

question one’s assumptions because of the expectation that things will continue

uninterrupted on auto-pilot (Tuleja, 2014, p.8). Given the global realities of change,

mindlessness among employees and leaders works against strategic goals. Coaching guides

employees and leaders in practicing the discipline of mindful reflection as a springboard

to personal change. Managing personal change is one factor that accelerates

organizational change (Burke, 2011, p.2016).

Tuleja (2014) describes mindfulness in the context of cultural intelligence, the

components of which include: listening, observing, behavior modification, alteration of

communication preferences, and reflective thinking to resolve cognitive dissonance.

These five components also align with coaching skills, techniques and/or outcomes.

Cognitive dissonance resolution allows everyone from line-workers to global leaders to

discover their own answers, which facilitates a more lasting learning experience and

maximizes the commitment to selected actions (Tuleja, 2014; Wilkinson, 2004, pp.2-6).

Mindfulness requires emotional intelligence and the ability to delay one’s reaction in


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order to take in environmental cues, listen, observe and reflect (Levinson, 2005, p.251;

Tuleja, 2014, p.7).

FEEDBACK: COMMUNICATION THAT SATISFIES

In interviews with leaders across industries that asked them about their ideal

communication situations, receiving quality feedback was the most popular response.

Feedback is a component of two-way communication, which generates an overall sense of

communication satisfaction for followers. In fact, feedback represents a unique

convergence of three important benefits and/or outcomes: what employees desire from

supervisor communication, what benefits organizations and an important skill coaches

specialize in. Instruments such as pulse surveys and the 360 degree anonymous feedback

exercise are valuable tools that managers use to generate quick feedback and gain

implementable insights. However, these assessments should not replace face-to-face

feedback. Workers desire feedback that is positive, constructive, timely, immediate and

given in time to make adjustments.

Giving Employee Feedback

Followers prefer open, semi-official two-way dialogue and discussion that takes place at

least on a monthly basis. The preference also includes unstructured conversations as well

as structured settings. Employees desire feedback that occurs in addition to official

performance reviews. Leaders can use the following five tips to guide themselves in

giving feedback to followers:

1) Frequency: employees want more instances of feedback than managers think they

give


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2) Quality: managers should explain strengths of the employee’s performance and

suggest improvements

3) Quantity: employees want timely and immediate feedback

4) Setting: managers should consider the degree of formality and create a balance

between formal/informal and structured/unstructured environments

5) Actionability: employees desire easily implementable feedback.

Receiving Employee Feedback

Just as employees like receiving feedback from their leaders, they also enjoy providing

feedback, with the ability to speak freely with their leaders. Leaders can use this

feedback to inform organizational strategy. Feedback reengages employees by giving

them a voice and valuing their input.

Receiving employee feedback produces another strategic outcome, addressing an area of

long-term profitability, which is a concern of every CEO. By involving people in the

information gathering process, leaders gain an understanding of customers, competitors

and the overall conditions of the marketplace. Robert Bradford and J. Peter Duncan

(1999) explain that employees are the best sources about information about the outside

world if leaders take time to listen to their people (p.54). The feedback-seeking leader

increases employee buy in, resulting in long-term gains for the company.

Feedback as a Trust-building Coaching Discipline

Leaders who solicit feedback build and preserve trust between themselves and their

employees. While serving as Director of Strategic Leadership of U.S. Cellular, Jim

Gustafson coached his employees on a daily basis to explore possibilities, achieve their

potential and maximize their contribution to the company. He intentionally changed


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leadership behavior to use appreciative inquiry, work with followers to create more

authentic communication and inspire a more collaborative and trusting environment

(Daft, 2011, p.468). When it comes to feedback, followers want it frequently, specifically

and descriptively. Most of all, they desire feedback delivered in a way that positions them

to take action. The value of building trust through feedback loops increases

exponentially in times of change.

During periods of organizational change, employees need encouragement to try new

things. Mistakes increase as both leaders and followers explore new ways of thinking,

learn to take on new responsibilities, and perform new job tasks. However, most people

have an innate fear of making mistakes. More aptly, the anxiety associated with receiving

negative consequences for mistakes causes many employees to play the blame game.

Employers also shun mistakes, viewing them as a waste of money and time. However,

leaders can make sense of mistakes and encourage employees to learn from them. This

communicates to employees that the only bad mistake is the one they fail to learn from.

Followers, especially lower performers, require more encouragement than higher

performers. Even a high performer engaging in a new task or taking on a new

responsibility needs encouragement as they learn. Leaders should provide coaching that

encourages them to critically assess what they have learned and provides feedback to

prevent repeating mistakes. Leaders can build trust by inviting employees into the

conversation by allowing them to share their feedback without fear of recourse. Mistakes

can be costly, however, the larger cost is not learning from them. Coaching discourages

blaming and encourages learning. It provides a process for delivering effective feedback

in a way that allays an employee’s fear of failure, by turning mistakes into learning

opportunities.


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WHAT MAKES COACHING WORK

The most important coaching competency is not really a skill or technique, rather it is an

attitude. For coaching to work as effectively as possible, one must develop the heart of a

coach. The coaching manager must believe the best in their employees (Stoltzfus, 2005;

Nobles, 2012). This attitude of belief in coachees makes coaching work. This sense of

optimism is the bedrock of effective coaching relationships. Without it, coaching skills

and techniques result in a zero-sum game.


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12 KEY INSIGHTS

1. Effective manager-employee communication positively impacts employee engagement.

2. Coaching provides managers with strategies for open, two-way communication, which

motivates workers and provides an alternative to top-down, one-way communication.

3. Leaders and managers can take action using 3 coaching skills that positively affect

employee engagement.

4. Coaching facilitates learning and increases an employee’s commitment to action,

especially in times of change.

5. Receiving feedback is the #1 interaction that employees desire with their managers.

6. Leaders can use employee feedback to inform organizational strategy.

7. Leaders, who solicit feedback, build trust with employees. (This is especially true in

times of change).

8. Challenges, such as lack of purpose and work-life conflict, lead to disengagement.

9. Managers can intervene at the point of employee dissatisfaction to minimize

disengagement and turnover intention.

10. Organizations can mobilize coaching skills to build cultures of engagement without

putting undue strain on managers, employees or executive leadership.

11. Managers can decrease work-life conflict through the effective use of coaching

techniques.

12. Leaders can build coaching cultures to address the complexities of change.


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