The benefits of leadership coaching are wide ranging—from personal and professional development to a measurable impact on an organization’s bottom line. Coaching has an immediate and direct effect on individual performance, helping business leaders become more effective, self-aware, and strategic. The benefits of coaching aren’t limited to individual development; they extend to the entire organization.

Here are five organizational benefits of coaching:

Company Culture

Culture is the common beliefs, practices, and values of an organization. It is the spoken and unspoken rules passed on to new employees. Culture is one of the leading indicators of employee satisfaction, and one of the main reasons employees stay with an organization. It has a major effect on a company’s success or failure, and it is heavily informed by the behaviors of the leaders in the organization.

Leadership coaching can significantly shape company culture. Coaching can help business leaders establish and reinforce positive behaviors that support the culture. Through coaching leaders can also glean how some behaviors may detract from the culture while providing guidance to change these behaviors. If culture is the shared, everyday habits of an organization, then leadership coaching can make or break these everyday habits.

Team Performance

The success of a business significantly depends on team performance. Supporting your team leaders with professional coaching can help your teams work more effectively and efficiently. Coaching team leaders can set clear, measurable goals and help them develop project management skills to ensure team projects are delivered on time. Coaching can help team leaders improve their communication skills to ensure that all stakeholders and team members are informed and engaged. Coaching can drive collaboration within teams and unlock innovation, fostering skills to bring people together and contribute their collective expertise toward a common goal.

Employee Retention

Employee turnover is expensive. The Center for American Progress determined that the average cost to a company of losing a highly skilled employee is 213 percent of that employee’s annual compensation. Many employees leave due to a lack of career development opportunities. Ninety-two percent think having access to professional development is important, second only to compensation. Leadership coaching provides a powerful career development experience, helping leaders develop valuable new skills that can open up opportunities for promotion and advancement.

At the same time, coaching helps leaders become better managers, which can boost employee engagement and retention throughout the organization. According to Gallup, more than 50 percent of Americans have left a job to get away from their manager at some point in their career. Managers who take advantage of coaching foster better working relationships with their direct reports and more effectively prioritize tasks. Coaching can help managers build trust, with tools to communicate honestly and openly, and bring out the best in others. Coaching produces leaders that people want to follow.

Feedback

Coaching helps business leaders build emotional intelligence, with greater self-awareness, empathy, and self-control. Professional coaches provide observations and feedback about individual performance and assist leaders with developing strategies for personal improvement. Coaches also model behaviors that managers can use to support and develop their direct reports. Asking probing questions, active listening without judgement, and providing actionable feedback are all coaching skills that a manager can use to have more effective performance conversations with their team. Leadership coaching creates a foundation for managers to provide better feedback to help their employees thrive and reach their potential.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Leadership coaching can help companies build a more diverse talent pipeline, providing a valuable development opportunity for underrepresented populations to gain valuable leadership skills. Coaching can also help individual leaders develop empathy, which encourages them to examine biases and consider different perspectives. Coaching can prepare leaders for difficult, respectful conversations about differences and reinforce leadership behaviors that ensure employees are treated equitably and with a sense of belonging, inclusion, and value.

Leadership coaching is an excellent way to support individual development, with benefits that extend throughout the entire organization. If you would like to bring leadership coaching to your organization or if you’re looking to measure the impact of coaching, contact Sounding Board.