Create a coaching culture to support resilience

Coaching will be at the heart of sustaining resilience and wellbeing going forwards in organisations and the means of support for individuals beyond the pandemic.

The challenges of lockdown and Covid-19 are still here. If you haven’t begun developing and acting on new ways of working, now is the time.

The world of work is very different for almost everyone now.

Organisations and people must start to adapt and move into using coaching as a positive and supportive way to deal with the consequences of Covid-19 personally and professionally.

Using coaching in-house (or externally through coaches such as me) requires some thinking about and introducing a coaching culture. That’s the starting point.

Old ways of developing people, focusing too heavily on training and courses don’t stack up now. Old ways of managing and the systems they support all need a refresh. People are dispersed and are largely going to remain so.

Coaching is here. And it will help meet the challenges people and organisations face in 2021 and beyond.

Challenges need some new capabilities

People we know need to look after their wellbeing, as do their organisations, right now. A survey of professionals I took part in in the summer revealed that wellbeing is the number one priority for everyone as the pandemic moves through over the next 12 months.

Individuals need to learn personal resilience and how to sustain it.

Resilience varies between people and at differing levels over time. It needs to be learned, along with techniques and useful habits - capabilities won’t just ‘happen’. They will need to be developed.

Build personal resilience

Resilience is the capacity to build, learn from and overcome a challenge.

Coaching for resilience makes a difference

Resilience is the capacity to recover quickly, learn from and bounce forwards from difficulties or adversity. Everyone can learn resilience skills and they are primarily thinking skills.

Four parallel approaches

1. Manager coaching. Managers will need to afford more power, choice and responsibility in the hands of their people. Develop managers to coach skilfully and effectively as an in-built way of working. This is to develop a coaching approach rather than confine it to formal 1-2-1s or performance situations.

2. Adapt systems. Organisations need to take the time and commitment to develop resilience into working practices, systems and to help their staff develop resilience skills.

3. Flex and adapt as a behavioural value. Adaptability is also one of the foundations of personal resilience. Being able to flex to new and emerging situations and environments is a key component. Adaptability applies both to organisational systems and processes as well as individuals. Since it is individuals who create the systems and processes in the first place, it follows that organisations must develop cultures that allow for the right conditions for individual and team learning and support.

4. Create the right environment. Leadership and the whole L and D eco-system needs to work together to understand coaching and create the right environment for it to be developed and used to support resilience and wellbeing.

Make it sustainable

The ability to be able to maintain and grow a coaching culture over a period of time is part of the change. Effective leadership commitment and management practices that are values-led are needed.

How do you do this?

Old ways of working are no longer fit for purpose. Don’t even go there!

And command and control systems are even more outdated. Again, don’t go there.

New ways of working depend on trust, empowerment and engagement. And in situations where people are dispersed and remote. Perfect scenarios for good coaching, where more choice, responsibility and accountability lie in the hands of people.

Anyone who understands managing change will recognise that some people embrace change positively, others need some encouragement and ultimately will get there, and others will struggle and resist. This is not about people needing training. ‘Training’ is not going to cut it for several reasons.

Building resilience through coaching matters

Key to managing change, including resistance, is to keep the direction of travel in line with the mission, vision and strategic objectives of the organisation. That means coaching must align and focus with these in every day conversations. Managers need to have the confidence and capability to use coaching in a range of scenarios, formal and informal, individually and with teams to do this.

Coaching is the intervention that pulls the strands together

A coaching culture, where people know how to coach and how to be coached will support resilience and wellbeing.

It will strengthen capability and engagement.

Call to action

Introduce and develop coaching as a core management skill.

Create the mind-set.

Here is a link to a template learning workshop that I can provide via coaching or a webinar. It’s an outline to be adapted ot fit time available and key take aways needed.

Get in touch if you would like to discuss having coaching to support your resilience.