Cultivating a Coaching Culture to Support Employee Mental Well-Being

To explore the evolving role of coaching in mental well-being, ICF spoke with Amy Smith, chief well-being officer, Deloitte Services LP, and Ellen Rudofsky, PCC, CPCC, senior manager and leadership and executive coach, from Deloitte Consulting LLP. Throughout this article, you’ll find insights from both Deloitte’s perspective on fostering a coaching culture and ICF’s 2024 Coaching Snapshot: Coaching and Mental Well-Being report, which gathered responses from 10,039 participants across 147 countries and all major world regions. The survey reveals both progress and challenges in how workplaces are supporting mental well-being.

Employees today face an increasing number of stressors that affect their mental health, productivity, and overall job satisfaction. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees experienced personal losses, new or exacerbated health concerns, financial instability, and other disruptions. At the same time, remote work and hybrid models, though providing flexibility, led to some blurred work-life boundaries, exacerbating feelings of burnout and disconnection.

As a result, 76% of workers in the U.S. alone reported at least one symptom of a mental health condition, with 84% of respondents saying their workplace conditions had contributed to at least one mental well-being challenge. As mental well-being becomes an increasing concern, the coaching landscape is shifting and organizations like Deloitte are seeing the benefits from cultivating a coaching culture.

Coaching’s Evolving Role in Mental Well-Being

New findings from the 2024 ICF Coaching Snapshot: Coaching and Mental Well-Being show that clients are increasingly turning to coaches for support with mental well-being. For this survey, mental well-being was defined as a person’s emotional and psychological state of overall health and happiness — encompassing resilience, positive emotions, and effective coping with life’s challenges.

In fact, an astonishing 85% of coaching professionals report that clients are asking for help with mental well-being, with business or career issues being the most commonly stated reasons for their poor mental well-being and subsequent requests for coaching support. This marks a significant shift in the coaching landscape.

Given these pervasive workplace challenges, it’s no surprise that the survey also reports that 72% of coach practitioners are keen to expand their services in this area.

While 77% of coach practitioners feel they have adequate resources and support to effectively address their client’s mental well-being, 72% of internal coaches acknowledge that more training is needed to support practitioners and their clients with their mental well-being. This gap highlights a growing need for development and knowledge-sharing within organizational coaching systems.

Inside Deloitte’s Internal Coaching Culture

While many organizations acknowledge the importance of supporting employee well-being, Deloitte US has a comprehensive and forward-thinking approach. According to Amy Smith, the organization has embraced a holistic understanding of well-being that extends beyond traditional workplace support, integrating a strong coaching culture which supports one of their shared values to “Take care of each other by looking out for one another and prioritizing respect, fairness, development, and well-being.”

The executive coaching journey within Deloitte* began in 2018, when Ellen Rudofsky, PCC, CPCC, a seasoned leadership and executive coach, identified internal coaching as a strategic opportunity aligned to the organization’s focus on creating the #1 talent experience for all practitioners. “With sponsorship from senior leadership, we started with a nine-month pilot providing 1:1 coaching support to a subset of managers and senior managers and employees returning from leaves of absence in one part of the business,” explains Ellen. The success of this initiative led to its expansion, and today, 1:1 executive coaching is offered to a subset of managers and senior managers across Deloitte*.

Navigating the Coach-Therapist Boundary

Survey findings i show encouraging trends, with 64% of internal coaches reporting that their organizations are investing more in employee well-being than they were five years ago. Additionally, over half (53%) believe that companies are experiencing positive returns from these well-being initiatives. Nevertheless, 72% of internal coaches indicated that additional training is necessary to meet the growing demand for mental well-being support effectively.

To provide high-quality support, Deloitte* invests in developing its executive coaches. Beyond standard ICF certification requirements, Deloitte’s executive coaches have obtained specialized training in critical areas such as resiliency, psychological safety, psychological awareness and response, mindfulness, and social and emotional intelligence. A particularly noteworthy training undertaken by the executive coaching team focused on providing additional tools and resources to equip the coaches with the skills needed to create a safe environment based on individual client needs thereby elevating coaching conversations and helping clients truly thrive.

A significant challenge emerging from the 2024 ICF Coaching Snapshot report is coaches’ need to understand and maintain appropriate boundaries between coaching and therapy. The most common challenge reported by coach practitioners when discussing mental well-being with clients is finding the balance between providing support and avoiding areas that require professional mental-health expertise. While coaching can effectively support personal and professional growth, certain mental-health concerns require professional intervention.

Deloitte addresses this challenge by maintaining clear boundaries between executive coaching and mental health support through a collaborative model between internal coaches and Deloitte’s Integrated Mental Health Services team which “offers eligible professionals clinical and performance psychology solutions designed to help them bring their best selves to work to thrive in Deloitte’s high-performance environment. Understanding the importance of knowing the line between coaching and therapy is crucial for both of our teams to do their best job,” shares Ellen. “Our executive coaches are trained to identify signs that a client may need to be referred to a therapist or psychologist, ensuring that employees receive the right level of support at the right time.”

How Coaches are Building Better Support Systems

Coaches are developing a robust toolkit to address the mental well-being of their clients. Mindfulness, visualization, and meditation are reported as the techniques most used by coaches to help support clients with their well-being.

Additionally, coaches are enhancing their awareness of the circumstances that require a different type of intervention based on the seriousness of the client’s need. For example, according to the 2024 ICF Coaching Snapshot, over the course of the last 12 months, 44% of coach practitioners said that they had referred one or more of their clients to a medical professional or therapist. Globally, there is an upward shift in these referrals, as only 4% stated that the need for referrals had decreased compared to 19% stating that it had increased.

However, the survey shows that the most effective strategies are those that are employed least frequently: self-reflection, self-growth, and self-care — currently employed by 6% of coaches globally — and strategies that are designed and tailored to the individual (employed by 5%).

The Strategy Behind Deloitte’s Success

At its core, Deloitte’s approach is rooted in a profound understanding of the nature of professional services. Recognizing that client-facing work can at times be stressful, the organization views holistic employee support as a strategic imperative. By endeavoring to prevent burnout and actively supporting mental well-being, Deloitte looks to help enable its professionals to bring their most effective, balanced selves to work.

The organization’s coaching culture represents more than a professional development strategy — it’s a comprehensive approach to human-centered workplace design.

Benefits of Coaching in Organizations

Many businesses are making improvements to support their employees’ well-being, and there is a reasonable level of agreement (53%) among coaches that companies are seeing an improved return on investment in providing more health and well-being support.

At the same time, coaches acknowledge that they might not be as equipped to deal with their client’s mental well-being as they could be and would likely benefit from more training on when they should refer clients to mental health professionals.

The 2024 ICF Coaching Snapshot: Coaching and Mental Well-Being report emphasizes the importance of equipping coaches with more tools, resources, and knowledge to support their clients effectively while knowing when to refer them to mental health professionals.

The survey further indicated that there would be benefits from increased sharing of best practices among coaches from around the world.

Moving Forward: A Call to Action

“As more and more people in the workplace seek to prioritize their mental well-being, coaching is a high-demand and proven method to address challenges,” states ICF CEO Magdalena Nowicka Mook.

According to Ellen, the strategic investment in employee support has yielded impressive results. “Across the programs where we offer 1:1 executive coaching, we have achieved over a 90% opt-in rate for executive coaching services, maintaining close to100% positive feedback from participants,” She shares that “consistent anecdotal feedback indicates executive coaching remains one of the most impactful experiences for our practitioners, fostering their growth as leaders, professionals, and individuals at Deloitte.” These metrics support Deloitte’s focus on fostering a healthy and supported workforce, which is linked to reducing burnout and improving organizational performance.

Mook concludes that, “For coaches eager to meet this need and mitigate the burnout epidemic, ICF’s coaching community, accredited training and credentialing, and resources can help equip them to embody the gold standard of the profession.”

Those coaches who want to stay on top of the latest trends and strategies in their profession can take a deeper dive into the full 2024 ICF Coaching Snapshot.

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*As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte Consulting LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of our legal structure. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.