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 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 existing coaches could continue to bring their unique skills to coaching engagements.

The healthcare system needed a partner that could provide sophisticated 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 open-enrollment training program for internal coaches.

Featured Solutions

Healthcare Leadership Development

Create growth and change with healthcare leadership development programs focusing on market disruptions to engage your organization and enact real change.

Customized Leadership Development

Drive business outcomes by partnering with us to create a customized leadership development program tailored to your organization's context and culture.

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

Program Impact

Coaches took a unique 360 assessment to provide insights into their coaching style. Beyond the classroom, the growing community of coaches within the system also gained access to live 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.”

Participants Say