Making Coaching a Positive Development Opportunity

Client Profile & Challenge: American Healthcare System

When a major US-based healthcare system first engaged us, it had an active internal coaching program. However, the program was unstructured and there was no assessment process. Across the organization, many leaders perceived coaching as a tool to correct poor performance, so being coached was viewed negatively, rather than seen as a leadership development opportunity.

The healthcare system wanted to improve the skills of its coaches, assess coaching outcomes, increase the number of active coaches, and shift the culture so that coaching was viewed as a positive opportunity for those participating in it. At the same time, the organization wanted to ensure that its existing coaches could continue to bring their unique skills to coaching engagements.

The healthcare system needed a partner that could provide sophisticated coaching training to existing and new coaches, plus collaborate as it sought to create a more coaching-focused culture.

Solution & Results

We offered the healthcare system a customized version of our coach training for leaders and leaned our decades of coaching experience and expertise.

Featured Solutions

Leadership Coaching Services

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Customized Leadership Development

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Since the partnership, the number of internal coaches in the healthcare system has more than doubled since it engaged with us. Coaching engagements are tracked and managed via internal online software and automated assessments, providing ongoing feedback on coaching activities and outcomes. The appeal of coaching has grown within the organization, as well.

During the training, the system’s internal coaches worked in groups of 4 with one of our certified, world-class leadership coaches and got intensive, hands-on practice and rich feedback on their coaching effectiveness.

Program Impact

The internal coaches took a unique, customized 360 assessment to provide insights into their coaching style. Beyond the classroom, the growing community of coaches within the system also gained access to our extensive library of webinars on topics such as creating accountability and handling resistance to coaching.

“The bottom line that it came to is being able to help develop our leaders in the organization,” said a healthcare system leader who was himself an experienced, certified coach, before we engaged with the system. “Understanding that the way to do that is not just through the classroom, but in supporting them outside the classroom. And one of those ways is in a formal coaching relationship.” We were happy to help support the organization in building a more coaching-oriented culture.

Participants Say