DO YOU HAVE A COACHING CULTURE?

If you are going to coach people within an organization, the first questions you need to find out are, “Does that organization has a coaching culture?” “What is the culture of the work environment in which the person is operating?” These context question are critical for your success as a coach. And do you know why? It’s because you and your client are operating within the boundaries of that culture.

Now the thing with cultures is that they are mostly invisible. Oh yes, they show up in the way people talk, act, and relate. They usually show up in architecture and how the office and work station structures have come to be. But while it can be externalized, the organizational culture is not an external thing. It is not “out there.” Culture is inside—in the mind’s of the people.

For this reason, we all learn our cultures. In fact, we are cultivated by parents, teachers, friends, peers, etc. to think, feel, speak, and act as we do. And to that degree, a culture is “how we do things around here.” So every family has its own unique culture, every school, every ethnic group, every business, every country, etc.