Gallup’s recent State of the Global Workplace report reveals that 41% of employees experience significant stress, with those working under poor management practices nearly 60% more likely to feel disengaged and overwhelmed.
So why is it, that despite the evidence that coaching is good for people and good for business, that it is not embraced more widely in organisations and organisations are struggling to create human-centric practices. What is getting in the way?
Time
I have worked in the corporate world for 25 years and I’ve been coaching for ten. I am in a privileged position to hear what is really happening under the surface for individuals, what makes them thrive and of the challenges that they face as they try to navigate politics, process and pressure – to succeed.
There is a common theme of time pressure. Back-to-back meetings, little if no time to take a step back to think and constantly on the treadmill. Making time to coach team members takes time, whether it is to delegate more of their work, or to support them with their career development.
Why is the time pressure there? Ultimately due to financial pressures and the drive of the organisation to grow and provide a return to shareholders, being asked to do more with less.
Financial pressures
Money is currency, and business growth fuels investment for future development and providing a return to shareholders – hopefully making a difference in the world along the way. How this money is invested is another question entirely, however it remains that financial targets for most organisations remain at the top of the list.
The challenge for building a human-centric leadership culture is that commercially, learning and development budgets are often under immense pressure and can be the first thing to go when the going gets tough. Developing individuals is seen as important but not an essential component of driving top and bottom-line success.
So what can be done?
We therefore find ourselves in a cycle where we know what needs to be done, yet commercial and financial pressures get in the way of taking a step back, creating space and leading with a coaching approach.
Rather than focusing on plasters to cover up the cracks and programmes to deal with the stress in the system, we must take a long hard look at the bigger picture – and what we can do, to make a coaching culture make commercial sense.
Nudge forward with micro conversations
Embedding a coaching approach in day-to-day activities is essential for building a human-centric culture. However, I would go further than this if we really want to make a significant difference in the world of work, we need to find a way that embeds a coaching culture as an essential way of doing business.
A commercial lens
What if we could apply a commercial lens to developing a coaching culture? Not one where an increase in revenue is as an indirect result of greater commitment to the organisation, or reduced turnover, which has been proven and discussed extensively, The ROI Of Executive Coaching: A Comprehensive Guide, but through a direct link to the ability of an organisation win more profitable work, through better conversations with their customers and a human approach to doing business.
A human approach to sales
As a former global client leader from KPMG, I was effectively in sales. I had never dreamt of a career in sales, but that is where I landed – and I was pretty good at it. Opening up new relationships, expanding accounts and playing a key role in the growth of the sector. I was frequently asked why I was good at what I do – which got me thinking… what was it that I did that enabled me to build trusted relationships, get curious and offer insight at the right time – that spoke to the needs of our customers?
And when I unpicked the approach that I took, I realised that the skills that I had developed as an executive coach, were exactly those that I used when opening new doors and building customer relationships.
- Firstly, having confidence in who I was and the value that I might be able to bring to my potential clients. Knowing who I was and what I stood for was important.
- My ability to create a “container” of trust – what does this mean? The ability for those I connected with to see that I was interested in their success, not just my own and feel psychologically safe in our conversations.
- The skills of listening first and getting curious, through deeper questioning and showing interest, in both their business and personal success.
- Being comfortable with silence, offering challenge and creating insight through the power of conversation are at the heart of this very human approach.
- Adapting through uncertainty, no two conversations are ever the same, but trusting the process, my experience and preparation.
- And last, but by no means least, my laser-sharp focus on actions and who will do what next, to move the dial forward.
To sell is HUMAN
As I deepened my research into sales – and what the sales professionals say about the characteristics needed to be successful in front of customers, I realised that there was a stark similarity.
To quote a few, Dan Pink highlights how “Top salespeople have strong emotional intelligence, but don’t let it sweep them away, they are curious and ask questions that drive to the core of what the other person is thinking”.
Lance Tyson, in THE HUMAN SALES FACTOR, covers similar themes. Selling from the inside out, “Human-to human selling, at its heart, means first connecting with the human voice inside the mirror (yourself) before you can connect with any human outside of the window (your customers)”.
In SELLING LIKE WE’RE HUMAN, Sarah Santacroce discusses the importance of being confident in yourself and knowing your own value and how a beautiful sales conversation is as much as how you make your customers feel and following the conversation as you ditch any sales script.
A commercial-coaching approach
We don’t all need to be qualified coaches to adopt the principles of coaching. Yet I strongly believe that by putting a commercial lens on a coaching approach, organisations can create a coaching culture, that isn’t just good for their people, but essential for business too.
For example, at The Human Advantage, our HUMAN framework draws on coaching principles, yet fundamentally has commercial conversations at its heart. Creating ONE approach to develop yourself, your teams AND your client relationships.
How you show up
Understand others
Mindset matters
Act and adapt
Next steps (and negotiate)
These are not skills that are developed overnight, but evolve over time, with practice, experimentation and reflection. With the support of expert coaches and timely intervention, a coaching approach is possible, drawing on real-life experiences to shift the dial to a more human-centric way of doing business.
