Elevating Leadership: Empowering Managers through High-Performance Coaching

The Challenge

A provincial government agency was struggling with challenges stemming from ineffective management practices, resulting in low employee engagement and poor communication. These issues further disrupted team dynamics, hindered productivity and performance, and limited both adaptability and innovation. 

The agency identified the need to invest in a coaching culture to build better communication, improve team connections, boost overall performance and establish a more resilient, agile, and motivated workforce capable of thriving in a transforming business landscape.  

The Solution

Our team designed and conducted a comprehensive High-Performance Coaching program for managers in the provincial government agency. The program was structured to provide a foundation of knowledge, attitudes, and skills around the ‘What’ and ‘How’ of High-Performance Coaching. Managers were required to embody the characteristics of coaching leadership; adopt a coaching mindset; model service excellence; and deliver on the behaviors of High-Performance Coaching.

The guiding principles for the design were based on the following:  

• Enable – Build knowledge and skills; know when, why, and how to confidently apply and execute   
• Connect – Connect as a team of managers; embody and take pride in work accomplishments; share and learn from one another; build community; and share best practices and support  
• Practice – Create opportunities to practice and embody new skills. Managers immerse themselves in virtual sessions followed by deliberate practice through myPractice, our unique reinforce and sustainment training program 
• Energize – Create excitement and enthusiasm about developing a High-Performance Coaching culture. Leave sessions confident, energized to execute back in role

Key Components of a High-Performance Coaching Program:

• Learned skills self-assessment survey to identify development needs
• Independent participant preparation of pre-workshop assignments
• In-class training focusing on foundational coaching skills for managers, conducted by experienced facilitators
• Post training program to reinforce and sustain learning from the in-class session, managers participated in myPractice our unique solution that offers private, one-on-one, reinforcement sessions with experienced performance coaches over the phone. The myPractice sessions included realistic practice scenarios, tailored feedback anchored to in-class skills, and collaborative action planning for ongoing skill development, ensuring managers could confidently apply and refine their new skills

To further sustain the High-Performance Coaching for managers and to facilitate future training and reinforcement programs, the client was provided the program design, graphic representations of coaching models, and a participant workbook with job aids, tools, and templates.  

The Results

The implementation of the High-Performance Coaching program led to significant positive outcomes for the organization. Managers gained confidence and competence in applying High-Performance Coaching techniques, creating a stronger sense of community and support among managers which promoted shared learning and best practices. With newly acquired coaching abilities, managers can identify individual strengths and weaknesses, provide tailored feedback, and support personal and professional growth for their team.  

The myPractice sessions ensured sustained learning and practical application of skills, and managers left sessions feeling energized and motivated to execute their new skills in their roles. Additionally, the program promoted improved employee retention, increased productivity, enhanced organizational culture, better decision-making, greater agility, and a stronger talent pipeline.