Managers are human too – why to implement coaching organizational culture in the company

I let out a deep breath slowly and sank deeper into the armchair. I let its shape take over some of the tension that I shared with the client next to me due to my empathy. – What did you think then? – I asked calmly. With her absent eyes, she looked at an undefinable point behind me. She breathed quickly and shallow, her clearly clenched jaws moved slightly as if she had to bite and crush every word that she put out.

Her stance was slouched, she was bending forward, her shoulders were slightly raised and squeezed together, which made her look even smaller than she really was. In her hands she squeezed the glass and for a moment I wondered how long the vessel would withstand the pressure of her fingers.

 – … I failed again, fucked it all up.“ she replied after a long moment, and slightly breaking the tone of her voice indicating me the enormous effort that she uttered those words.

This is not an extraordinary situation. A lot of emotions are swept through the coach’s office, often emotions that clients can not find under other circumstances. This kind of client is the director of a large international company. Assertive and hard, she is considered to have everything under control and works great under pressure. But she is also a man, a man of flesh and bone, despite that every day in the company, he rarely admits to it and give himself permission to be a man.

It’s different in the office. Here you can let down your guard. Allow difficult emotions, a sense of failure, you can curse or spite the boss. You can take a deep breath and let it out, be yourself. The atmosphere of trust which is so characteristic of coaching allows for respite, it also gives you the chance to work on what really limits you, bothers you and/or hurts. A Coach does not evaluate, he/she observes, asks, gives feedback, accepts the client as he is. And every customer, above all, is a human being. Companies often forget about it, they prepare their employees a set of useful, but often uncomfortable masks, which, depending on their owner, have very different expiration dates.

Coaching has a few useful tools, but above all, it’s a relationship. A relationship focused on the extraction of potential by seeing the client as he really is and not what he claims to be. When coaching, we try to support our clients in such a manner that the change that was made at the session regarding their problem is a change that then carries over to their daily lives. We help them develop a more effective, more flexible method of operation, but we also work outside the office.

We implement coaching culture to organizations to let experience openness and relationship not only in coaching room but we brought it over to the clients organization’s everyday life. Where employees have trust and respect, where they can build relationships that extend beyond the walls of the office, where they can share not only successes but also difficulties. Where they would learn from each other and support each other. In addition to specific actions, we try to bring to the organization a certain way of thinking about effectiveness – effectiveness based on building a sincere, good-feeling team together.

Before this idea can enter permanently into the DNA of the organization, the work often begins for several hours of coaching sessions, during which people can be themselves, they can experience acceptance and understanding. They can find space for their problems, imperfections and doubts, and then begin to overcome them and turn them into success.

Author: Grzegorz Zawiłowski