The Benefits of a Coaching Culture

Building an internal coaching culture is similar to running a top-tier medical center — focused on proactive care, continuous learning, and long-term well-being. Just as hospitals prioritize early intervention, personalized treatment, and ongoing support, a coaching culture proactively nurtures employees, addresses workplace challenges before they escalate, and fosters organizational health.

Increasingly, organizations are trading in reactive, top-down leadership approaches for a proactive, growth-oriented coaching model. Embracing a coaching culture allows organizations to be agile amid rapid change while nurturing a workplace environment where employees feel valued and heard. As a result, teams are more productive and efficient, and experience significantly less turnover.

What Is a Coaching Culture?

Trust, accountability, and encouragement are the foundations of a coaching culture. A coaching culture can also be identified when it becomes an organization’s default mode of operation.

Within a coaching culture, individuals and teams receive support for ongoing learning and growth and feel empowered to engage in open communication and feedback about processes and procedures for the good of the organization.

The most commonly reported benefits of a coaching culture include:

• Strengthened bench strength within the organization.
• Enhanced team and employee performance.
• Higher retention rates for valued staff.
• Increased productivity and profitability.

Diagnosing the Problem with MD Anderson

As a globally renowned oncology center, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) excels at diagnosing a specific issue — cancer.

In 2017, organization leaders leveraged their diagnostic expertise to better understand what factors contributed to turnover and employee disengagement among its staff of 25,000 people, including more than 1,900 faculty members working in more than 25 buildings located in Houston and Central Texas, USA.

An institution-wide survey asked staff about challenges, job satisfaction, and perceptions about workplace culture. Results revealed that employee engagement lagged at 67%, team collaboration hovered at 65%, and only 65% of employees had a favorable view of teamwork within the institution.

Simultaneously, MD Anderson leaders conducted an extensive review of published research, which confirmed coaching could create the transformational change necessary to achieve the Center’s mission of eliminating cancer in Texas, the U.S., and worldwide. Multiple studies validated that coaching produces positive, sustainable behavior change.

However, the true impact of improved leader behavior extends beyond individual transformation and trickles down to drive higher overall effectiveness, increased performance and productivity, job satisfaction, and, as a result, less turnover.

Combining results from the staff survey and the body of research, MD Anderson executives identified a need to focus on leader retention within the first two years of a person’s start date.

Implementing a Cure

Just as oncologists create a treatment plan after a diagnosis, MD Anderson designed a treatment — to address low engagement, poor morale, and high turnover. Their cure: developing an internal ICF-accredited Coaching Leadership Institute.

The coaching program initially launched as a five-month framework and quickly expanded to 10 months, comprising 105 hours of training. At its core, the mission of the internal coaching program is to develop “relentlessly learning leaders.”

The core curriculum teaches fundamental leadership skills and behaviors necessary to succeed at the current leadership level. The first level of learning prepares leaders for advancement before opportunities arise.

The program features a strategic balance of individual and team-based growth. Individuals learn core leadership competencies, including greater self-awareness. Team-based curricula reinforce collaboration, emphasizing that no one works alone and highlighting how the team contributes to the organization’s mission and vision.

Nearly 45 leaders participate in the program annually. A colleague must nominate a participant, who must then receive approval from their manager and division. An internal CoachFINDER tool — a platform to match coaches and coaches — has leveled the playing field for coaching access to encourage employees to seek growth while enabling coaches to gain practical experience supporting their ICF credentials.

Once employees begin the program, they meet with their coach at least once every three to four weeks at the start of an engagement. Then, sessions move to a monthly cadence or stretch to five to six weeks between meetings.

Defining Measurable Benefits and Outcomes

Just like oncology doctors rely on imaging and blood chemistry panels to determine if the prescribed treatment plan is working, organizational leaders use measurement tools to measure the benefits of a coaching culture.

At MD Anderson, the results are clear — a coaching culture is curing the center’s most significant pain points.

A 2023 follow-up survey revealed that MD Anderson has experienced a:

• 48% decrease in turnover among coached leaders (12%) compared to the control group (23%).
• 41% higher promotion rates for coached individuals (31%) versus their control counterparts (22%).
• 86% favorability in teamwork in 2023, up from 65% in 2017.
• 84% employee engagement in leadership, rising from 61% in 2017 to 84% in 2023.
• 86% team collaboration, an increase from 65% in 2017.

Today, coaching is seen as essential to leadership at MD Anderson and is integrated into annual performance evaluations. Leaders are assessed on “Capacity Building,” which includes the competency of “Coach and Develop.” The impact of coaching is evident, with manager ratings for Capacity Building consistently averaging between 2.50 and 2.55 on a 3.00 scale from 2021 to 2023.

Not only is MD Anderson seeing results internally with increased retention, engagement, and internal promotion rates, it is recognized as an industry leader for its program. Their coaching program has earned multiple awards including an ICF Coaching Impact Award for Distinguished Organization.

The Leadership Institute, focused on fostering “relentlessly learning leaders,” plays a key role in MD Anderson’s mission to eliminate cancer in Texas, across the nation, and worldwide.