Nurturing A Coaching Culture

Jerry, who worked as a manager in several restaurants in the US was very popular among the waiters in his restaurant. So much so that whenever he moved to a new job, the waiters would follow him there because they loved him for his positive and motivational attitude. When asked as to how he remained positive at all times, he replied, "Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always choose to learn from it."

- S. Ajay Kumar

Human Capital spoke to John Mattone, recognised as the top three coaching authorities in the world along with Marshall Goldsmith and Tony Robbins by Globalgurus.org to understand the intricacies of coaching and the firsthand experience of dealing with the Late Steve Jobs.

Q The learning and development industry has undergone rapid and significant change. With microlearning in demand off late, do we need to build a coaching culture? How best can a coach collaborate to create a value add?

A Regardless of any initiatives in the world of leadership and Human Resource Development, my experience has been that the coaching culture created should be one whose tenets are identical to driving the business. And, this is where a lot of coaches make a mistake. For instance, I was asked as to how I have grown my coaching to be right at the top in the world, and, the reason behind this is the top executives the world over are eager to know as to what I am going to do to drive results, and, literally the tenets are identical to how businesses run and this I believe is non-negotiable. A coaching culture which is implemented and sustained can literally drive a business to the next level in terms of them achieving their mission, executing a strategy, being vigilant and so on. In fact, all the elements of what a business operator does are identical to what coaching does. And, I have experienced this first hand while working with Steve Jobs a few years ago. The very reason he brought me in was I was result-oriented.

When you partner with an executive or an organisation, the partnership should always be around person of value to drive results apart from trust and credibility. If you can co-create a partnership wherein the clients see that you can add value from a result stand-point then it is all good.