How coaching can affect your company culture

Created by Robert Quinn and Kim Cameron, the ‘Competing Values Framework’ is a great way of mapping where your company culture is right now and where you want it to be going forward.

But how do you figure out where your company fits on the graph? Let’s briefly go over the two axes.

Internal & External

Internal cultures are ones focused on integration, collaboration and unity. Senior leaders prioritise the success of the whole team rather than individuals, putting the focus on establishing harmonious internal relationships and processes.

External cultures are more focused on the individual, prioritising differentiation, competition and rivalry. This might sound like an undesirable culture, but many thrive in more competitive environments and for companies seeking growth, it might be the best culture to find those that operate the most efficiently.

Flexibility & Stability

Flexible cultures are built to adapt to new situations and changes, where employees are free to explore new opportunities and develop.

Stable cultures, on the other hand, prioritise structure and rules, which gives organisations a strength and durability. You might often find that younger businesses like startups will have a flexible culture in order to find their footing as an organisation, but older enterprises will often put a focus on keeping the ship steady.

Clan Culture

Let’s start at the top left, Clan Culture prioritises flexibility with a focus on the internal team and stakeholders. Ever heard the phrase “we’re like a family”? Well, organisations with a Clan Culture take that statement and run with it.

For Clan Culture companies, there isn’t a definite hierarchy. Everyone brings their expertise, supports each other and collaborates to help the whole unit succeed.

Though it’s not without its faults, Clan Culture companies can create too much collaboration, causing unnecessary chatter and banter which can limit productivity. Having a tightly-knit unit can also make it difficult for tough decisions to be made.

Hierarchy Culture

Next up is Hierarchy Culture. Companies that place themselves here are more structured and prioritise processes and procedures when it comes to work and decision making. Hierarchy Cultures work well for employees that need to work within a system and thrive on established – and establishing – rules and formal procedures. This is often good for employees who want security and predictability in their role.

An organisation with a Hierarchy Culture might often find that the rigidity of processes and rules stops them from finding new avenues of growth as employees will rarely think outside the box.

It’s true that following processes and previously established rules can often make the environment for employees feel inflexible so it’s important to not let a Hierarchy Culture cause employees to feel unsupported.

Market Culture

Market Cultures are for organisations that put results above anything else. It’s for companies that set goals and reach them, rewarding those that helped and even punishing those who didn’t. In Market Cultures, leaders can often be more demanding and goal-focused but are happy to reward their employees when results match targets.

A focus on competition like in Market Cultures can cause friction between teams and individuals and with the wrong leadership can lead to toxicity.

It’s important to note that with this constant pressure to succeed, the employees who work to attain these goals and succeed might suffer from severe levels of burnout as well.

Create Culture

Create Culture is exactly what it says on the tin. It prioritises new ideas, innovations, adaptability, “moving fast and breaking things”, and is always looking ahead to the future. In the exact opposite way to Hierarchy cultures, leadership welcomes and even encourages new ideas and aren’t afraid to take risks.

For employees who want to grow, develop and learn, this culture is great but often that desire to take risks can backfire. Some companies can’t afford too many risks that don’t pay off and similarly to market culture, employees’ expectation to constantly evolve and develop new ideas might cause them to burn out.

How can Coaching help?

The most important factor contributing to your organisation success is your employees having the support they need. Whether it’s internal or external, everyone – from the most senior of leaders to the newest recruits – need an avenue to find support and development.

Wherever you might place your company’s culture, having a programme of development opportunities is key to success and that all starts with coaching.

Creating a Coaching Culture

A coaching culture is a culture that puts employees’ growth and development, the key to an organisation’s success, first. Even in the most competitive organisations, by making sure individuals have an avenue of support through a coach, you can avoid the risk of burnout whilst still helping individuals meet the organisation’s goals if you’re a Market Culture, or by assisting in the development of new ideas and strategies if you’re a Create Culture.

There is a key throughline between coaching and commercial success.

In collaborative, internal environments like Clan and Hierarchy, having a system where teams can grow and develop through external coaching is vital to help organisations continue to thrive.

It’s especially important to consider coaching if your teams undergo any training. Research shows that complementing training with reinforced coaching quadrupled the increase in productivity from 22% to 88%.

If you’ve already implemented training into your development strategy, you might notice the phenomenon of “training decay”. This is where right after training, new skills and ideas are taken in and used but as time goes on, employees will quickly shift back to the way they were before the training took place.

Implementing training for skills and strategies is best when it’s coupled with consistent reinforcement through coaching.

By introducing coaching to senior leaders and those in management positions, it gives them an opportunity to find strategies to help them reach their goals whilst continuing to develop the skills and knowledge they get from training sessions.

If you would like to learn more about coaching, or introducing a culture of coaching and development, get in touch with us.