Organisations that foster a coaching culture empower their employees to grow, innovate, and thrive. At Upwrd, we work with clients to help them foster a coaching-first environment that encourages open communication, skill development, and continuous learning. Unlike traditional management structures that focus on hierarchy and directive leadership, a coaching culture prioritises collaboration, feedback, and personal development.
When leaders embrace coaching, employees feel valued, engaged, and motivated to perform at their best. Research shows that companies with strong coaching cultures experience higher employee satisfaction, motivation and retention, improved leadership effectiveness and succession pipeline, and overall performance and productivity follows suit.
Research by the International Coaching Federation shows that 65% of staff in companies where coaching is valued are highly engaged.
So, how can your organisation transition to a coaching culture?
Below you’ll find our step-by-step guide to making it happen. But first…
Why a Coaching Culture Matters
A coaching culture is more than just implementing coaching skills training – it’s about creating an environment where continuous learning and growth are embedded into everyday interactions. Here’s why it matters:
Increases Employee Engagement & Retention
Employees who receive ongoing coaching feel more valued, supported, and invested in their work. This leads to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover rates.
Strengthens Leadership Pipelines & Succession Planning
A coaching-first culture ensures that future leaders are continuously developed, making it easier to promote from within.
Encourages Problem-Solving & Independent Thinking
When employees receive coaching, they become more confident in decision-making and problem-solving, reducing reliance on top-down management.
Drives a Culture of Continuous Improvement
A coaching mindset encourages regular feedback, innovation, and adaptability, making teams more resilient in fast-changing environments.
Your step-by-step guide to implement a Coaching Culture at your organisation
1. Train Leaders and Managers to be great coaches
A coaching culture starts at the very top. Senior leaders must shift from directive leadership to a coaching approach with their direct reports, and indeed with all staff.
- Invest in leadership coaching programmes to teach core coaching skills.
- Encourage managers to ask powerful questions rather than providing immediate answers.
- Equip leaders with active listening techniques and constructive feedback frameworks.
A coaching-first leadership style helps employees feel heard, trusted, and empowered to take ownership of their roles.
2. Encourage Peer Coaching
Coaching shouldn’t be limited to executives – middle managers, line managers and employees should also be encouraged to coach each other.
- Introduce peer coaching sessions, where employees can share challenges and brainstorm solutions together.
- Create a program that pairs employees more experienced at coaching with developing team members.
- Recognise, praise and reward employees who demonstrate strong coaching behaviours.
Peer coaching fosters collaboration and helps create a more engaged and connected workforce.
3. Integrate Coaching into Performance Reviews
Traditional performance appraisals focus on evaluation and past performance. A coaching culture shifts this approach to growth-focused conversations.
- Make feedback continuous, rather than limiting it to annual reviews.
- Encourage two-way discussions, where employees also give feedback to their managers.
- Use goal-setting frameworks (such as SMART goals or OKRs) to create actionable development plans.
By embedding coaching into performance discussions, organisations ensure that employees are continually learning and improving.
4. Provide Access to Professional Coaches
While internal coaching is certainly incredibly valuable, external coaches can offer additional objectivity and expertise. Equally, sometimes colleagues might wish to be coached on matters that they’d be more open to talking to an external party about – such as conflict, wellbeing or personal life challenges.
A mix of internal and external coaching creates a well-rounded development approach for employees.
5. Signpost to Further Learning Opportunities
Some employees will take to coaching like a duck-to-water. Some won’t. For those who want further learning and development on their coaching mindset and skills, it’s worth pointing them in the right direction. There are many great in-depth accredited coaching training courses and, often, staff in your organisation might be able to take advantage of the Apprenticeship Levy.
6. Recognise and Reward Coaching Behaviours
To sustain a coaching culture, organisations must actively recognise and incentivise coaching efforts.
- Celebrate managers and employees who demonstrate strong coaching skills.
- Include coaching effectiveness as a key performance metric.
- Encourage employees to share success stories of how coaching has positively impacted their work.
By reinforcing coaching behaviours, organisations create a self-sustaining culture where growth and development become the norm.
Overcoming Common Challenges
Transitioning to a coaching culture isn’t always easy. Here are some common challenges that we see in our work with clients and how we’ve worked with those clients to address them:
Leaders resist coaching because they’re used to directive management.
Solution: Provide training on the benefits of coaching and equip leaders with practical tools.
Employees see coaching as something that is being implemented because they’re failing or doing a bad job.
Solution: Reframe coaching as a growth opportunity, not a performance issue.
Time constraints make coaching feel like an added burden.
Solution: Integrate coaching into daily interactions rather than treating it as a separate, formal task.
Building a coaching culture requires commitment from leadership, a shift in mindset, and continuous reinforcement. But the rewards – higher engagement, stronger leadership, and a more resilient workforce – are SO worth the effort.
If your organisation wants to embrace a coaching culture, start by equipping leaders and managers with coaching skills, encouraging peer coaching, integrating coaching into performance reviews, and recognising coaching behaviours.
Want to create a coaching culture in your organisation? Let’s chat about how we can help.
About the author: Jimi Wall is the Founder & CEO of Upwrd – a coaching-first cultural, leadership and team development business that works with people-first institutions and organisations. Jimi has an extensive background in Higher Education, having previously worked as Organisational Development Manager at City St George’s University of London, and as Client Director in Executive Education at London Business School. Upwrd provides coaching, facilitation and training support to a wide range of UK Universities and private sector organisations.
This article has been kindly repurposed from Upwrd and you can read the original here.