How Improving Workplace Safety Increases Profits

Improving workplace safety cuts risks, increases efficiency, and supports stronger profits across the entire organization

Companies don’t succeed just by following rules; they succeed by building good habits.

Research shows that when organizations improve their safety habits, the positive changes spread throughout the entire culture.

Workplace Safety Increased Profits

We’ve seen with clients like Linde Engineering that when leaders and teams build strong coaching skills, safety performance gets better, communication improves, and business results follow.

A great example is Paul O’Neill’s work at Alcoa. When he made safety the main focus, it led to more open communication, better problem-solving, and stronger teamwork at every level.

The results were impressive: operations became safer, people felt more empowered, and profits increased significantly.

Why Coaching Improves Safety

Coaching helps build two key qualities needed for safe performance:

Awareness of ourselves, others, and the situation
Responsibility, which means taking ownership of actions and their consequences

Sir John Whitmore said that awareness brings clarity, and responsibility leads to better choices. Together, these qualities help people make decisions that keep themselves and others safe. Coaching turns safety from just a set of rules into a shared way of thinking.

A Proven Approach: Linde Engineering

Performance Consultants works closely with Linde Engineering to embed a Coaching Style of Management that strengthens behavioural safety.

The traditional approach of teaching safety through compliance training reduced accidents, but it didn’t lead to a big drop in fatal incidents. Linde Engineering saw that the next step needed to focus on behaviour.

Together, we introduced a new way of working:

Leaders involve teams by asking better questions, not just giving instructions
People learn from their experiences without placing blame
Safety conversations become open, regular, and constructive
Responsibility is shared by everyone, not just handed off to others
This approach built a real learning organisation where trust and ownership help people make safer decisions every day.

“One of the most well-thought-out programmes I’ve been involved with… it will affect our performance in a positive way.”
James M. Suddarth, Construction Engineering, Mechanical

What started with 7,000 employees in Construction and Manufacturing has now grown across The Linde Group, with many people using interactive e-learning modules.

Coaching for Safety Performance Programme

Our Workplace Safety Performance program includes:

Three 2-day workshops
Six interactive e-learning modules

This learning journey gives leaders and teams practical coaching skills they can use right away in safety conversations, site work, and daily decisions.

Chat to us or check our Calendar for the next dates.

Discover how to overcome entrenched dependent cultures.

– 5 mins read –

The Performance Curve

Early in my career I joined a huge global organization in the oil and gas sector. Its culture was very much in the Dependent zone as illustrated by The Performance Curve.

When our MD Tiffany Gaskell polled the audience at the recent Corporate L&D Summit in Barcelona, she found that most of the delegates also identified their organizational culture as Dependent. I found this curious, not least because my personal experience was about a decade ago. It doesn’t seem much has changed.

The stickiness of Dependent cultures can be attributed to a number of factors. For me, the most prevalent, and arguably the most deeply ingrained in our society, is how we are educated. The excellent Ken Robinson Ted Talk ‘Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ points out that a theme of the school system is that it conditions children to be compliant and to avoid taking risks.

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The boom in executive coaching
– Financial Times

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In schools, compliance is rewarded with smiles and stars, non-compliance is punished with frowns and detention, innovation is not encouraged because it’s not in the curriculum. This is the reality for us (in the UK at least), from the ages of 4 to 16 – the most impressionable time of our lives. The respect for rule and order is important for a functioning society but it’s also creating a world where businesses are built on the same paradigms.

The upshot is that people in Dependent cultures are often waiting to be told what to do, managers see their role as command and control, and corporate politics abounds. Of course, it’s a complex issue but our experience is that mindsets such as these, stifle engagement, innovation and ultimately dampen an organization’s potential.

If you’re reading this you are on our website, so you’re probably aware that coaching might have a part to play in tackling this trickiest of challenges. Shifting an organization along The Performance Curve requires a systemic change, leaders that are able to lead a transformation and walk-the-talk. It’s also not just about a single enlightened leader asking good questions, empowering and developing their team, it needs to happen all at once, in one big push.

My point is really, a simple one. If you’re looking to change your organization’s culture, don’t go in softly. Think broader than a single Level 1 coaching programme for your executive team, consider how the feeling and the environment will change to foster the mindsets and behaviours of Interdependence.

If you would like to talk about how your organization could move up the curve, please get in touch.

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How can you bring coaching into your organization?

Sir John and his colleagues at Performance Consultants were the first to take coaching into the workplace and coined the term “performance coaching” in the early 1980s. We continue to lead the field in performance improvement through coaching leadership training.

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

Performance Consultants China Managing Director, Jeffrey Wu, talks about leading through COVID-19

– 5 mins read –

What has Performance Consultants been doing in China to help leaders and organizations navigate through the crisis and beyond?

Covid-19 has had a profound impact on business and everyday life throughout China. While we have managed to contain the spread of the virus, the road to domestic recovery is full of complexity and uncertainty. The news now is dominated by imported cases of the virus in citizens returning home from abroad and the extent of asymptomatic cases remains unclear.

As a result, social distancing is still in full effect for the whole of China, with only a partial re-opening of schools under way, in a closely controlled approach. Many of the restrictions on hospitality industries are still in place. For months we have been living in this changed world. Our “new normal” is uncertain, and uncharted. This sense of ambiguity is resonating as never before and we are understanding that we are all inter-linked and dependent on each other. Within China and globally, we need to work together and nurture an interdependent mindset to get through this crisis.

In the face of these challenges, PCI China together with our local associates have been actively helping leaders and organizations on multiple fronts.

In collaboration with leading training institutions and management magazines, we’ve hosted a series of online podcasts on leadership in a time of crisis and uncertainty. We have looked at how leaders and organizations can develop a “trust” mindset and build high-performing teams while working remotely. With entrepreneurs, we have been exploring approaches to transform their business in the face of Covid-19 challenges. For me, these sessions and the feedback from attendees have shown how a coaching approach is truly the right direction for leaders in these turbulent times, enabling organizations to release the creativity and potential in their people and build the interdependent cultures essential to both productivity and the human spirit.

Our local associates are also contributing in similar ways. For example, one of our associates Daniel Zhao has been collaborating with two of his fellow coaches, donating their time and effort to create an online workshop, titled “Creating Meaningful Work”, which aims to help organizational leaders to find deeper meaning in their personal mission and work. Many of our colleagues in coaching have been making similar efforts to help our clients and communities.

With traditional face-to-face training at a stand-still, we have launched a number of online learning products and services to enable coaches and organizations to continue, or to accelerate their development in this rapidly-changing landscape. The online workshop version of the Coaching for Performance Level 1 program has received rave reviews from participants. We have also launched GROW Training for Leaders in China. These flexible and efficient self-paced learning solutions have provided a much-needed option for organizations looking to promote a coaching leadership style in junior managers. And we have also recorded a full-length video podcast programme to further share the knowledge and real-life application of a coaching leadership style in small and medium-sized organizations and teams.

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What advice can you give for leaders working in other countries?

Here’s what we have learned from China’s experiences in dealing with Covid-19 and its impact:

Those working in learning and development are not going to be able to deliver in-person learning in most places due to social distancing. This is expected to last for a while. Many people worry about the effectiveness of an online workshop but we have seen this is highly effective. Done right, the experience and learning from a virtual workshop can be as powerful as in-person, and people living in isolation are sustained and inspired by the genuine human connection that technology enables. In the midst of this great change, there is an opportunity to equip people with the skills needed in this “VUCA world”.
The crisis can serve as a springboard to build a more interdependent way of working into the business. With people working from home in extended fashion, traditional “command and control” management reveals its limitations. Forward-looking leaders are using a coaching leadership style to create better partnership working and a purpose-driven team that can deliver higher performance.

What opportunities do you see for multinational organizations that have a presence in China?

The virus has shown us that, now more than ever, we need to work together and find creative ways to cooperate. Already, all around the world we are seeing examples where humankind is rising to meet this challenge and extraordinary new ways of thinking are opening up.

At the same time, the virus is leaving no individual, organization or nation unaffected and this time is fraught with anxiety and heightening geopolitical sensitivities. Before Covid-19, many countries around the world were seeing rising nationalist sentiment and in some cases this is being exacerbated by leaders, leading many to fear the end of globalization even as others argue this has never been more important.

In many ways this is a crisis of trust and interdependence is our opportunity.

Faced with these opposing forces and the volatile environment, the old adage to “think global, act local” applies. Multinationals will need to place greater trust in their Chinese management team, who will have much better awareness of local nuance and how to navigate the current complexities.

The Chinese government is still fully committed to multilateralism and China’s domestic market continues to present very attractive opportunities for multinational organizations. I believe those foreign brands that can foster deeper connection with Chinese values in the post-pandemic world, while remaining true to their vision and mission, will have a decisive edge over their competitors. And, by being open to working in collaborative ways they may not have conceived of pre-Covid-19, these businesses can make a major contribution to the world’s recovery.

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It is our mission to support leaders to rise to the challenge created by COVID-19. Get in touch to find out how we can help you.

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How can you bring coaching into your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

Tiffany Gaskell keynote speaking Barcelona 2019

We asked our MD, Tiffany Gaskell, for some reflections on 2019 and the year ahead.

– 5 mins read –

What are the two words that sum this year up for you, and what do they tell you about 2020?

My two words would be surprising and exciting. And what they tell me about 2020 is that everything is possible. Our mission is to enable a leadership that is fit for the 21st Century. One that is ethical, sustainable and profitable. This is finally becoming a mainstream requirement and that is exciting.

Where do you think coaching is now versus 2018?

Coaching has gone mainstream in 2019 and we at Performance Consultants continue to light the way. We have received a massive amount of support through respected organizations and our clients who now recognize coaching as fundamental to the transformational leadership needed today.

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The boom in executive coaching
– Financial Times

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What is the biggest challenge you have seen to coaching this year?

In April, the publication of Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell signalled to me that the term ‘coach’ is becoming commonplace at world-leading companies like Google. Unfortunately, the activity and philosophy of ‘coaching’ continues to be confused with the activity and philosophy of ‘mentoring’. For me, the latter sells the management style of leaders advising or telling a junior person what to do. This approach stifles empowerment and entrepreneurialism and is the opposite of coaching. The confusion means we often spend our initial meetings with clients educating them about what a coaching leadership style actually is.

What are the two key things you focused on this year?

Scale and relationships. ‘Scale’ because we have invested heavily in new digital products that support our flagship programmes Coaching for Performance and Licensed to Lead. And ‘relationships’ because our strategic focus has been to create stronger partnerships with clients. We really want to be holding hands with our clients over the longer term so we can help them to embed high-performance coaching cultures. In the past I think we have sometimes been guilty of delivering great programmes and moving on – simply because we were set up as more of a training company than a consultancy. Now we have added in consultancy so that we can support our clients in a broader sense and with deeper partnerships. With this comes the ability to effect lasting change on whole organizations.

You mentioned digital products, what are they?

We have been busy! There are three new digital products this year. Without going into too much detail, there is GROW Digital Training for Leaders – a standalone or part-facilitated online programme which focuses on the GROW Model.

Then we have Impact 360 – a new kind of 360 assessment that benchmarks leaders and companies against our Performance Curve. The tool allows people to see how they can move towards the Interdependent Coaching Culture that is the key to high performance. Thousands of people will be using Impact 360 in 2020. I am particularly excited about this because we will gather data from different industries on business culture and how it impacts the bottom-line.

The third new product is our bespoke habit-building ‘nudge’ programme. We have created a digitally delivered daily challenge or reflection to build new habits. Leaders and coaches are encouraged to do something differently every day, built around our in-person or online workshops.

What new clients have you signed up in 2019?

Some of them I can’t talk about but they’re big. Game-changers. Those I can mention by name are Heineken, Lidl, Anglo American and Collins Aerospace – companies with global reach and the vision and commitment to tap into the potential of their people. Also, the Performance Consultants European group, together with our local partner in Brussels, won the Framework contract to provide coaching to the European Union (EU) institutions, bodies and agencies such as the Commission, Parliament and Council.

In China, under our great MD, Jeffrey Wu, the operation has really taken off! Chinese organizations are starting to wake up to the power of coaching – it’s extraordinary.

What are your predictions for 2020?

We are growing. By the end of next year we will be a bigger business with more clients. I suppose I would say that, but it’s true. I think 2019 has been a tough year geopolitically and I don’t see any signs of that changing in 2020. The environment and sustainability are increasingly going to play a role in business strategy as well. Enlightened leaders make better choices for future generations and coaching will continue to play a role.

What are your personal highlights?

My personal highlights are being interviewed by Michael Lewis, bestselling author of The Big Short. As an ex-banker, this was a major deal for me. I think I should have been interviewing him! And being included as a thought leader in the Special Report on Coaching and Leadership for the Association for Coaching which is coming out January 2020.

Anything else?

Yes, I would like to acknowledge the extraordinary work of all of our team globally. It is an honour to do this work and to do it with like-minded people who are passionate about it, thank you! I can’t wait to see what we will achieve together in 2020!

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How can you bring coaching into your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

Discover how coaching fits in a leadership model.

– 3 mins read –

Douglas Conant, former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, has defined his seven essential practices of leadership in the ConantLeadership Flywheel. These seven practices make up a flywheel, shown in the diagram below, and he summarizes them as “tough-minded on standards and tender-hearted with people”.

We love how Inspire Trust is the foundation practice, at the centre of the flywheel, and that the number 1 pillar is Clarify Higher Purpose – a meaningful journey is key to a fulfilling life.

The ConantLeadership Flywheel

So where would you assign a coaching approach in this wheel? Our answer is that it fits across ALL areas of the wheel, and supports every aspect.

Looking at Build Vitality as an example, the coaching approach acknowledges that vitality is within each human being in the form of power sources and strengths and these are unique to each individual. With the right tools and environment, people can tap into these to build vitality.

The coaching approach explores these power sources and strengths to raise awareness and to collate a pool of resources the individual can draw upon as and when they need. In this way, we are tapping into potential that allows for the person to come from a place of strength and energy.

Creating an optimal environment, for example with the right amount of support and challenge, celebration of achievements, constructive feedback and focus on strengths and power sources will enable people to thrive and create a high energy culture.

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Our experience tells us that a coaching approach supports and enhances all of the seven practices in the wheel. Should we be lobbying for coaching to be foundation practice number eight? Can you be a successful leader without it? At Performance Consultants International, we believe that the best leaders have a fully integrated coaching approach in order to deliver the very best from both them and their employees.

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meeting your needs

How can you bring coaching into your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

Discover how to respond to coronavirus, leading to uncertain times.

– 5 mins read –

We are living in extraordinary times. Coronavirus (COVID-19) has stopped normal life as we know it in its tracks. As I write this, all but one country in the world is infected. This is the first threat in history that requires us to come together and form a collective response – it is not “us against them” but rather “we are all in it together”. The word for threat in Mandarin also means opportunity. We must find the courage and resolve within ourselves to respond to this threat by finding the opportunity within. What an extraordinary moment in history that we find ourselves at – such is the interdependency of the modern world that we can now truly turn to face this threat together.

In the stark light of a threat that endangers the lives and livelihood of every single one of us, our values and attitudes are shifting in seismic ways – this is humanity’s collective moment to pause. This is the moment to stop, take stock and realign with our internal values. It is by trusting ourselves and digging deep that we will find the courage and inspiration to be our best selves and shine in the face of this threat.

Herein lies the opportunity because, however long this lasts, we will surely be living in a different world afterwards, the question is what will that new world look like? This is where inspirational leadership – leadership that is guided by purpose and values – is key to create the bridge to the future. Leaders in organizations everywhere need to find the ability to provide the way forwards for the people they lead. This will take courage, love and humility.

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“The capacity is there. The crisis is the catalyst”
Sir John Whitmore

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Supporting leaders everywhere in these uncertain times is now our mission. With global supply chains disrupted and ways of working turned upside down, the ability to lead in uncertain times will create resilience throughout organizations. We will continue to support leaders to rise to the challenge and bring their people with them.

However you choose to use this time, and wherever you choose to start, the team at Performance Consultants are here to support you. Here we are delighted to set out some of the ways that we can partner with you to seize this opportunity. Click or tap on the image to begin.

It is our mission to support leaders to rise to the challenge created by COVID-19. Get in touch to find out how we can help you.

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How can you bring a coaching into your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

millennials leaders coaching style leadership teams high performance

Discover why a coaching style of leadership is important to a millennial workforce

– 3 mins read –

The latest research into the millennial workforce* shows business has some way to go to achieve its potential for positive social impact. More than three quarters of millennials believe business should be a force for good on issues such as economic and social progress, conflict, inequality and corruption but, according to the research, big business is only meeting these expectations for 59 per cent of under-35 year olds.

The survey also shows that, after a year of global instability, millennials are less likely to want to leave the security of their jobs than previously, providing a huge opportunity for employers to engage. With many millennials now emerging leaders, holding senior management positions and managing people and teams, they have the opportunity to effect change in the workplace with huge potential gains for business if this potential can be successfully realized.

A coaching style of leadership strengthens purpose and performance

The search for meaning and purpose at work is not restricted to the millennial generation. With older workers also motivated by a sense of higher purpose, organizations are discovering how a coaching style of leadership nurtures high-performing, collaborative teams focused on a shared vision that will enable the organization to achieve its purpose.

In Coaching for Performance, Sir John Whitmore and his team at Performance Consultants explain how a coaching style of leadership creates the conditions for high performance. The 25th Anniversary Edition of Sir John’s bestselling book presents The Performance Curve (see figure below), a model that maps the culture of an organization and relates this to the conditions for low, medium or high performance. The Performance Curve enhances understanding of how a coaching culture is a high-performance culture, enabling a collaborative workforce with shared values to flourish.

the performance curve coaching style of leadership whitmore performance consultants

COACHING TRAINING FOR LEADERS CREATED BY SIR JOHN WHITMORE

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The latest findings from the International Coach Federation (ICF) and Human Capital Institute (HCI), Building a Coaching Culture with Millennial Leaders, shows how emerging leaders benefit from partnering with a coach and receiving training on how to use coaching skills with their peers and teams, while leaders at all ages want to develop a coaching style of leadership.

COACHING MINDSET The leader believes that the coachee is capable, resourceful, and full of potential. Believing in the dormant capability of a person will build their self-belief and self-motivation and enable them to flourish. And with that mindset, you can coach them to make their own powerful choices and find enjoyment in their performance and their success.
Extract from the Glossary of Coaching Terms, Coaching for Performance, Fifth Edition

According to the ICF and HCI’s report, the most effective leaders are those with the quality of emotional intelligence who use a collaborative coaching style of management. The research finds that organizations are looking to expand the scope of leaders using coaching skills, and highlights the business case for building a strong coaching culture:

Respondents whose organizations had strong coaching cultures reported that 61 per cent of their employees are highly engaged, compared to 53 per cent from organizations without strong coaching cultures.
Forty-six per cent of respondents in organizations with strong coaching cultures reported above-average 2016 revenue growth in relation to industry peers, versus 39 per cent of respondents from all other organizations.

A coaching style of leadership is about partnership, collaboration and believing in potential. It is leading for others rather than for oneself. With more organizations providing individual coaching (1:1 coaching) for the millennial generation and training them to develop their own coaching style, business really does have the potential to be a force for positive change and the opportunity to build a high-performing workforce motivated by a strong sense of higher purpose and the knowledge that the work they do matters.

*Deloitte Millennial Survey 2017, based on the views of almost 8,000 millennials (college or university graduates in full-time employment and born after 1982) in 30 countries in September 2016.

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For more information on 1:1 leadership coaching, coaching skills training for managers and leaders and our Coaching for Performance: Leadership Programme, please contact James Neville.

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How can you bring a coaching leadership style into your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

The Performance Curve | Performance Consultants International

David Brown explains how transformational leaders create high-performance cultures.

– 5 mins read –

David Brown is CEO of Performance Consultants International, the company he co-founded with Sir John Whitmore, the father of coaching in the workplace. David has been instrumental in shaping the global performance, leadership and coaching industry for over 20 years. He was awarded the rarely bestowed Igniting Social Progress Award by the ICF Foundation in recognition of the global impact of his vision for raising performance in the workplace, and his belief in the power of individuals and organizations to create a better future.

What your grandmother could teach your organization

I invite you to think of a person you loved being with when you were young. Not a parent but perhaps a teacher, grandparent, friend of the family or other adult who positively influenced you. If I ask you to remember how you felt when you were with that person, the chances are that you’ll recall feeling listened to, that you had their full attention. You would say that although you were young this older person believed in you and treated you as an equal, and if they challenged you it was with trust and respect. To quote Maya Angelou:

We’ve run this exercise all over the world and we’ve found people everywhere have broadly the same response. And the result is they felt their potential to be limitless.

This is what high emotional intelligence feels like. It’s the ability to relate to others from a paradigm of trust rather than fear. How does this compare to the leaders in your organization? If you are one of those leaders, how do you measure up?

COACHING TRAINING FOR LEADERS CREATED BY SIR JOHN WHITMORE

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“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Maya Angelou

Leaders set the tone

In organizations, the leaders set the tone for everybody else. Studies by the Hay Group have shown they are the greatest influence on an organization’s culture and bottom-line performance, which they can affect by as much as 30%! Meanwhile, according to The Conference Board CEO Challenge:

“the cultural DNA of an organization is critical to success, from operational efficiency to better customer service, to greater talent attraction and retention, to higher levels of business performance and breakthroughs in innovation.”

So it seems crazy how very few organizations take a proactive approach to creating and measuring their culture.

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The Performance Curve

The Performance Curve focuses on the collective prevailing mindset of the culture and how this creates the conditions for performance. It provides a useful tool for organizations or individuals to gain an immediate idea of where they are operating, either from the perspective of “this is the culture of my organization” or “this is the culture I create”. Of course, different parts of an organization can operate on different parts of the curve! You can use this awareness, to see what needs to change in order to improve performance.

The leader who is emotionally intelligent will create a high-performance culture through their way of being. A high-performance culture is often described as a “collective mentality” where there is a strong community spirit and collaboration around a shared sense of purpose. This interdependent culture, where people are able to grow and fulfil their potential, is the most highly evolved as seen on The Performance Curve.

If you’re very lucky you may have experienced this culture, but the chances are greater that you are more familiar with the other prevailing mindsets identified by The Performance Curve: impulsive; dependent; independent; inter-dependent. Each of these stages follows the process of individual psychological development which sees a reactive, short-term “Whatever happens, happens” way of being (impulsive) progress through dependence and “following the rules”, typified by behaviours such as judgement and blame, to independence which can be high-performing but carries the risks that it is too individualist. The ultimate stage is interdependence, a collective mentality supported by the leader I have described.

There are challenges to changing culture, even if there is a clear view of the benefits of a more mature and evolved state. It can push people out of their comfort zone, especially as giving people trust and ownership can feel like losing power for leaders, however they soon find they get this back in multiple from a team that is empowered and responsible and operating in a more agile way that is responsive to customers.

Coaching is bigger than coaching

A coaching style of leadership is the enabler for a high-performance culture because it shifts the organizational mindset to interdependence.

As Stephen Covey said in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:

Something your grandmother or that wise older person knew all along.

“Whether you are the president of the company or the janitor, the moment you step from independence into interdependence in any capacity, you step into a leadership role.”
Stephen Covey

Coaching for Performance book for high-performance cultures

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“Chapter 2: Creating High-performance Cultures”, Coaching for Performance, Sir John Whitmore and Performance Consultants

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How can you create a high-performance culture in your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

Discover how to face up to the cultural challenge, and how organizations are risking their future.

– 5 mins read –

Observing the speed with which an organization of Kodak’s history and calibre is overtaken by disruptive innovation, and reading research by Innosight that estimates “three-quarters of today’s S&P 500 will be replaced by 2027″ (reported by @HBR), it’s no wonder big organizations are scrambling for answers to these new threats.

I was reflecting on this after speaking at the Corporate L&D Summit hosted by Luxatia International – a great opportunity to connect with fellow senior professionals to share ideas and concerns.

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The boom in executive coaching
– Financial Times

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I talked about The Performance Curve which we use to measure company culture and bottom-line performance. It maps culture states from Impulsive to Interdependent, showing how the quality of interactions between leaders and their direct reports releases untapped potential, in the right-hand quadrant. Our experience working with leaders using a coaching style of management, as pioneered by Sir John Whitmore, has shown how this can be achieved.

When I took the opportunity to poll the audience to gauge where delegates felt their organizations were on The Performance Curve, the vast majority of people in the room felt that their companies had a Dependent Culture. This tends to be characterized by a “command and control” paradigm. Dependent Cultures are typically the second phase of organizational maturity where the introduction of processes and systems to curtail inconsistency and mitigate risk, simultaneously stifle innovation and autonomy with employees expected to “follow the rules.”

While there is a rational justification for a Dependent Culture, the risks of limiting employee performance and organizational progress are obvious.

Change needs to come from the top down however, conventional leadership mindsets are the key challenge for today’s organizations – a view echoed in the conversations that took place at last week’s Summit.

Enabling leaders to empower their teams can only happen by shifting mindsets, which is where we see the power of Coaching for Performance. The motivation has to be intrinsic and systemic; meaning everyone, from the CEO to the new hire, recognizes the power of coaching practices in unleashing potential for both people and organizations.

It’s frequently neglected but an essential part of all transformations whether these are Agile, Digital or Innovation. The alternative for organizations is a slow decline and eventual irrelevance in a market where change is accelerating and disruption is constant.

If you’re looking to improve your business culture and performance, or would like a copy of my presentation, get in touch – [email protected].

Finally, I highly recommend Luxatia International’s Corporate L&D Summit. The quality of content and conversations was exceptional and the event provided a refreshing mix of interactive presentations, exercises and case studies.

The author Tiffany Gaskell is Performance Consultants’ Global Director of Coaching and Leadership.

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How can you bring coaching into your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

Tiffany Gaskell describes the most powerful way of investing in learning and development to create transformational leaders and maximize productivity in a fast-moving world.

– 8 mins read –

The latest research shows over 80% of organizations use coaching and believe in its benefits.¹ However, there is still a broad lack of understanding of what coaching is and how to use coaching to maximize results – another recent study found that only 30% of people surveyed actually understood what coaching was.² Even those organizations already embarked on creating a coaching culture acknowledge the opportunities for development are huge, with growing awareness of the different types of coaching and most effective applications.³

Among the growing awareness and interest in coaching, organizations are missing a trick. It is well-known that the greatest influencers of an organization’s culture are its leaders: studies show that leadership behaviour impacts bottom-line performance by up to 30 per cent.⁴ External executive coaching is rightly seen as one of the most effective forms of leadership development,⁵ with many organizations choosing to invest in it, however helping leaders to develop a coaching leadership style is overlooked.

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“It is a weight off my shoulders, my team is more self-sufficient.”
“People come up with solutions that are wildly different. And they have full ownership and are acting with commitment.”
“They figure out through the process what they want to do and then have the excitement and energy for next steps.”
In-house Coaching for Performance participants

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What is transformational leadership?

A “transformational leader” is a leader who can engage and inspire by using transformational soft skills that create high performance in themselves, their teams and their whole organization. Transformational leaders are the leaders of tomorrow and will enable their teams and whole organizations to rise to the complexity and multiple challenges of today’s business world.

If, instead of coaching an individual leader to improve their own performance, coaching skills are leveraged to create a transformational leadership style and taught to leaders, the organization will achieve a maximum return on their investment in coaching.

According to the recent survey by the Leadership Institute at the London Business School, today’s leaders find themselves fire-fighting and unable to spend time on strategy and planning. In such an environment, leaders need to be supported to break the pattern and, instead of solving problems for others, develop others to solve their own problems. Leaders who are able to do this will find themselves freed from fire-fighting to attend to those overarching strategic opportunities where they can make a difference.

“If leaders manage by the principles of coaching, they get the job done to a higher standard and develop their people simultaneously. It sounds too good to be true to have 250 days a year of getting the job done and 250 days a year of employee development per person, but that is precisely what a coaching leader does get.”
Sir John Whitmore, Co-Founder, Performance Consultants

Transformational leaders achieve a triple win

A leader leveraging coaching skills to create a high performance culture creates 250 development days per year for employees:

It is clear that transformational leaders achieve a triple win. The leader develops themself and gains the skills to develop their teams; groups of leaders from the same organization undergo the same leadership development, focused on finding their personal connection to leadership. This creates a shared language which they take with them into the workplace. They in turn develop others. This is what we mean by transformational leaders.

The return on investment is significant, with transformational leaders reporting an average 800% ROI. For one cohort of 17 leaders, this represented US$1,245,000 which came from improvements in bottom-line profitability and cost reductions. One participant reported that by delegating more and trusting in his team, the culture of the team had strengthened. This in turn impacted productivity which he estimated to have improved by at least 10% or US$350,000 per year.

Leaders with coaching skills create a high-performance culture

With organizations typically missing out on approximately 60% of the talent available to them,⁶ a coaching leadership style enables leaders and organizations to harness the full potential of their employees by inspiring and engaging them in a way that shifts the relationship and moves the culture to one of high performance. To help leaders and organizations reflect on the culture being created in their organization, we developed The Performance Curve model which we published in Coaching for Performance, Fifth Edition. The four stages of The Performance Curve are described by our CEO David Brown in his thoughts on Creating the Conditions for High Performance.

By leveraging coaching skills to create a high-performance culture that is led by transformational leaders, the investment in coaching benefits everybody, not only the few, and organization most of all.

Never has this new leadership been more relevant with leaders and organizations challenged to evolve by society, including employees who want to find fulfilment and purpose in their work. Equally, customers demand that companies act with integrity. Meeting these extended demands requires leaders today to be able to inspire and engage, with results that are truly transformational.

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The author Tiffany Gaskell is Performance Consultants’ Global Director of Coaching and Leadership.

¹ Leadership Institute, London Business School (2017) Leadership Survey 2017 – Navigating Uncertainty: Global leadership challenges, London Business School.
² The International Coach Federation (ICF) 2017 Global Consumer Awareness Study showed consumers struggle to differentiate between coaching, consulting, mentoring, counselling etc. 66% indicated they were aware of professional business and/or life coaching, however when presented with definitions for five personal and organizational support professions only 30% understood what coaching is, many getting it confused with mentoring.
³ Mann, Clive (2016) 6th Ridler Report: Strategic trends in the use of coaching, Ridler & Co.
⁴ Hay Group and others.
⁵ Leadership Institute, London Business School (2017) Leadership Survey 2017 – Navigating Uncertainty: Global leadership challenges, London Business School.
⁶ Research by Performance Consultants International.

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Connect with us:

meeting your needs

How can you develop transformational leadership in your organization?

Select one of the options shown. Or get in touch and one of our world-class leadership development consultants will work with you to create a tailored transformation programme that meets your specific needs.

Attend a Coaching Course – experience the benefits of coaching first hand. See our Global Training Calendar to find the right course for you
Transformational Leader Pathway – learn how to be a leader–coach with a coaching leadership style that creates a culture of high performance for you, your team and entire organization
Performance Coach Certification – become a coach or take your coaching skills to the next level so that you can practise transformational leadership coaching
Individual Coaching (1:1) – take your leadership to the next level with a tailored, fast-track professional development coaching programme
Team Development – unlock the next level of potential in your team with team coaching

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