Build Your Bench Strength, Build Your Bottom Line- Part 2: Develop Your Existing Players with Coachability Culture

As you may have read in our previous posts, strong coachability culture enables companies to “build their benches” in two ways– they can (1) develop their existing players and (2) better retain existing talent. And ultimately, these two factors result in big gains for the business. In this post, we’ll hone in on how a coachability culture enables your organization to develop your current talent.

When the “players'' at your organization become highly coachable, research shows that they see improved individual performance, greater agility and adaptability, better decision-making, and enhanced innovation. Each of these qualities can prove profitable for an organization. 

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Improved performance and agility

Employees, open to feedback and learning, readily embrace opportunities to refine their skills and knowledge. This continuous learning translates into improved individual performance, empowering team members to tackle tasks with greater efficiency and effectiveness. In fact, our research indicates that highly coachable people perform 9% better than their less coachable peers.

That same study also shows that highly coachable people are 28% more adaptable and agile. When individuals learn to anticipate change and readily adjust to new situations, this results in a dynamic, flexible workforce capable of navigating evolving market demands. Thus, a coachability culture improves an organization’s ability to handle large-scale strategic change.

In a biopharmaceutical company where Coachability Consultants, Inc. (CCI) implemented a coachability culture, the organization reported that, twelve months after the CCI training program, individuals who elevated to highly coachable levels saw a 20% increase in their sales goal attainment as well as a 20% increase in their agility and adaptability. Their entire sales franchise grew 79% from the time prior to our coachability work.

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Better decision-making and innovative thinking

The benefits for existing talent don’t stop there. A coachability culture dismantles silos and promotes open communication. In this environment, teams make more informed decisions based on diverse perspectives and viewpoints. This leads to employees with better decision-making skills, reducing mistakes that can cost companies thousands. 

Ultimately, this open exchange of ideas and the freedom to experiment also stimulate innovation, allowing the company to develop new products, services, and processes that can improve the organization's competitiveness and profitability.

Adobe is an organization who has enjoyed positive outcomes from a culture where diverse perspectives are welcome. In 2021, the company shared that interns are instrumental in their research publication program. “In fact, nearly half of the technologies shipped in Adobe products in recent years have come from projects with interns or university collaborators,” Adobe reports. “And last year, more than half of the technology patents the Adobe Research team filed included an intern as an inventor.” 

Adobe proves that a company-wide willingness to coach and be coached stimulates fresh ideas from existing team members.

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Better leadership effectiveness

Coachability culture doesn’t just improve the players on your bench; it encourages effectiveness in their leaders as well. In fact, research shows highly coachable leaders are four times more likely to be rated as highly effective overall leaders versus leaders who are low in coachability. Highly coachable leaders also have 20% higher productivity and promotability ratings than leaders with low coachability.

So you want to develop your leaders? Develop their coachability.

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Develop Your Coachability Culture With CCI 

If your organization invests in creating a coachablility culture, your return will be remarkable growth within existing talent. Stay tuned to our blog to learn more about how a coachability culture can help you retain talent and attract new stars.

To learn more about how to increase coachability within yourself or your organization, explore the services we offer or contact us directly.

At Coachability Consultants, we believe that everyone can elevate to the level of highly coachable, and we are on a mission to help as many people as possible achieve that milestone.  

We look forward to getting in touch and getting you started on your coachability journey.

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Sources

Lessons learned after 21 years on Fortune’s list of 100 best companies to work for. Adobe Blog. (2021, April 12). https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2021/04/12/lessons-learned-21-years-on-fortune-100-best-companies

Folkman, J., Zenger, J., & Wilde, K. (2023). The New Leadership Frontier: Coachability. Zenger Folkman.

Weiss, J. A., & Merrigan, M. (2021, February 1). Employee coachability: New insights to increase employee adaptability, performance, and promotability in organizations. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. https://radar.brookes.ac.uk/radar/items/0fe54ff4-6d2a-40a2-bedd-28ce117595d8/1/

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