Research Paper: Coaching Culture and High Performance Organizations

Research Paper By Jay Kumar Hariharan
(Executive Coaching, INDIA)

This Article endeavors to craft a clear way forward for organizations to become high performance organizations that are customer centric and great places to work. It follows a spirit of inquiry and research to examine attributes that make a Hi –Po Organisation.The effect of Leadership and organizational culture in its success .It also defines and scopes coaching culture and its influence on crucial facets within an organization.

Based on a number of studies, there are a series of attributes that define Hi Po Organisations, the brand of leadership and Culture that is followed in these organizations is what makes them what exhibit enormous stake holder value .It is the purpose of this article to correlate a high performance culture with a coaching culture and advocate the same as a strategic advantage over competition in todays Volatile ,Uncertain,Complex and ambiguous (VUCA) climate .

To explain a High Performance organization,one needs to adopt a systems thinking perspective to understand an organization’s performance.Apart from the external environment –where a Hi Po organization is extremely customer centric and consistently adds increasing value to the client ,the organizational culture and Organizational structure are important factors in this mix.

Org design,strategy and processes are vital elements of org structure .Hi-Po orgs conceive and create structures that stimulate cross functional collaboration by reducing boundaries and fostering sharing of best practices and learning.Hi –Pos have a compelling strategic mindset that sets out SMART goals and help in balancing short term and long term goals and the tension arising between them due to the clarity around Objectives and the means. Processes that constitute a good and fair incentive structure,simplified work process,measuring what matters and striving to be a best practice organization with high interactive internal communication.

Org Culture –The Leadership culture in the org is that of High Trust and integrity, there is action focused decision making with powerful coaching and facilitation.People are challenged and stretched ,risk taking is not penalized and people are inspired and grown from within the ranks .Change readiness and adaptability is high in an execution rich environment.Hi po orgs are learning organizations that attract exceptional people and create a safe and secure workplace .They empower people and give them freedom to decide and act ,by establishing strong and meaningful values and operate with trust, openness and transparency .

For purposes of this article, the most effective factors identified for best outcomes for an organization are leadership development and permeating a culture that it can thrive in.

Strong Leadership and Cultural attributes in Hi Po’s :

The bottom line for leaders is that if they do not become conscious of the cultures in which they are embedded, those cultures will manage them. Cultural understanding is desirable for all of us, but it is essential to leaders if they are to lead. Edgar Schein, Ph.D., Professor at MIT and a recognized authority on Organizational Culture and Leadership

Put simply –Culture is “the way we do things here”. Organisational Culture is a system of shared values ,beliefs and assumptions about what’s important and appropriate in an organization. Organisation Values are supposed to be unique and widely shared in daily practice. There are notable links between organizational culture scores and important performance measures such as Profitability(ROE, ROA, ROI), Growth (Sales Growth, Market Share), Quality, Innovation, Customer and Employee Satisfaction. All Businesses in the future will depend exclusively on attracting and retaining the right quality of people

Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast Peter Drucker

Leadership and Culture are two sides of the same coin Edgar Schein

If Leadership Development is at the heart of an org’s competitive strategy,then Coaching Culture is at the core of Leadership Development .In setting the agenda forward, it helps to introspect on below mentioned questions:

• What kind of culture does a company in a particular business need to thrive in the next 10 years ?
• What should be the source of that differentiation?
• Can long term competitive advantage be maintained through exceptional performance of  people ?
• How much change in culture is an organisation capable of undertaking ?

What is Coaching Culture ?

Coaching culture is present when all members of the culture fearlessly engage in candid, respectful coaching conversations, unrestricted by reporting relationships, about how they can improve their working relationships and individual and collective work performance. All have learned to value and effectively use feedback as a powerful learning tool to produce personal and professional development, high-trust working relationships, continually-improving job performance, and ever-increasing customer satisfaction –Thomas Crane –The Heart of Coaching

What if people in an organization..

• Knew the mission of the business and their role in creating success?
• Knew organizational priorities and acted with a sense of urgency?
• Were committed to give their personal best efforts and did not hold back because of fear of failure?
• Freely contributed to organizational goals without worrying about who got credit?
• Consistently achieved the results that they were capable of achieving?
• Valued one another’s thoughts and ideas and treated their teammates with respect and compassion?
• Openly shared feedback with one another without fear of reprisal?
• Sought out and responded appropriately to performance feedback?
• Had fun at work?