Cultures of Engagement Insights Paper

Leadership Insights Paper
Thomas E. Anderson, II
November 2015
Teaiiano Coaching
Solutions

CULTURES OF ENGAGEMENT INSIGHTS PAPER
2
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?”

3
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.

4
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

5
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

6
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.

7
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

8
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

9
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

10
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

11
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.

12
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.

13
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.

14
REFERENCES
Bibi, Z., Karim, J. & ud Din, S. (2013). Workplace Incivility and Counterproductive Work
Behavior: Moderating Role of Emotional Intelligence. Pakistan Journal of
Psychological Research, 28(2), pp.317-334.
Bradford, R.W, Duncan, J.P & Tarcy, B. (2000). Simplified Strategic Planning: A No-
Nonsense Guide for Busy People Who Want Results Fast! Worcester, MA: Chandler
House.
Burke, W.W. (2011). Organization Change: Theory and Practice, 3rd
ed. Washington, DC:
Sage Publications.
Daft, R.L. (2013). Organization Theory and Design, 11th
ed. Mason, OH: Southwestern
Cengage Learning.
Daft, R.L. (2011). The Leadership Experience, 5th
ed. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage
Learning.
Levinson, M.H. (2005). Using General Semantics to Enhance Organizational Leadership.
ETC, July, 250-260.
Nobles, D.G. (2012). Constructing a Coaching Model to Promote Well-being Based on
Attributes of Spiritual Leadership: Keeping Leaders Healthy. Journal of Practical
Consulting, 4, 1, pp.43-51.
Parris, M. A., Vickers, M. H., & Wilkes, L. (2008). Friendships under strain: The work-
personal life integration of middle managers. Community, Work & Family, 11(4),
405-418. doi:10.1080/13668800802361831.
Rampton, John. (2015, Feb 3). “Top 5 Challenges Facing Business Now”, Accessed from:
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/242432.

15
Sandhya, K. and Kumar, D.P. (2011). Employee Retention by Motivation. Indian Journal of
Science and Technology, 4,12, pp.1778-1782.
Scott, S. (2002). Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One
Conversation at a Time. New York, NY: Berkley Books.
Simpson, S. (2015, June 24). The Single Biggest Trap of Employee Engagement. [LinkedIn
Pulse Post]. Retrieved from: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/single-biggest-trap-
employee-engagement-steve-simpson.
Stoltzfus, T. (2005). Leadership Coaching: The Disciplines, Skills and Heart of a Christian
Coach. Virginia Beach, VA: Tony Stoltzfus.
Symptoms of a Wounded Spirit. (2014). Retrieved from:
http://www.codependencyfreedom.com
Tuleja, E.A. (2014). Developing Cultural Intelligence for Global Leadership Through
Mindfulness. Journal of Teaching in International Business, 25, 5-24.
Wilkinson, M. (2004). The Secrets of Facilitation: The S.M.A.R.T. Guide to Getting
Results with Groups. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Cultures of Engagement Insights Paper

Recommandé

Recommandé

Contenu connexe

Tendances

Tendances (20)

En vedette

En vedette (12)

Similaire à Cultures of Engagement Insights Paper

Similaire à Cultures of Engagement Insights Paper (20)

Cultures of Engagement Insights Paper