Leaders with a coaching style encourage the exchange of experience and knowledge, which in turn encourages positive collaboration. This creates an environment where team members feel safe to give and receive constructive feedback, both from the leader and from others. One of the signs that there is a cultural divide between functional areas is that the training client tends to blame or complain about another person or group. Usually, this means that the coachee is self-sealed within the process of creating meaning in the functional area.
The ability to examine the fundamental assumptions being made is minimal. At the leadership level, as coaching drives managers to better motivate their teams (and themselves) on a daily basis, a culture of coaching begins to develop in the company. Defined as a partnership involving a person with a specially trained coach, those who have experienced coaching understand that it is very different from “being trained”. Building a strong and lasting coaching culture requires effort, and coaching should not be perceived as a trendy program, if there is only a budget left or without an established strategy.
