Case Study: Creating a coaching culture to empower learning

Right Management have been working with National Galleries of Scotland since 2017, providing a range of support to meet their specific challenges. In 2021, they decided to reshape their people strategy, vision and mission and wanted to create a coaching culture that would provide their leaders with a safe and secure environment to develop on an ongoing basis.

Their overarching aims as an organisation were to:

• achieve an empowered, trusted and engaged workforce
• help people achieve their potential
• drive a culture of learning in response to engagement survey results
• provide the tools and confidence to both managers and leaders
  

The solution

National Galleries recognised the uniqueness of their organisational culture, and wanted to ensure that any coaching support would have a real benefit for their workforce. Time was immediately identified a major blocker, as the daily responsibilities of each leader meant they had very little time to engage with a coach during their 9-5 working day.

To combat this, we enlisted the support of coaches from a variety of time zones to ensure each leader could speak with someone outside of their normal working hours. Support was then piloted to a small cohort of 4 female leaders.

The flexibility of the coaching being provided ensured that each employee:

• had the option to pick a coach that was right for them
• could focus on general development topics or choose to drill down on very specific areas of focus
• felt empowered to target their own unique development areas
• benefited from full confidentiality
• had a safe space to reflect

At the end of the pilot, all participants had the opportunity to share feedback prior to the support being rolled out to the wider organisation:

• “The sessions have renewed my sense of self-confidence and faith in the work I do.”
• “I feel a weight has been lifted and that I will have the confidence to progress solutions in a constructive way.”
• “Having the chance to focus on my own leadership style, the challenges I face, and some quite specific issues has really helped my sense of wellbeing.”
• “We covered so much ground in a short space of time, but it never felt rushed, and I always felt supported and safe.”

Utilising feedback attained from the pilot meant National Galleries could adapt the support offering to ensure it met the overarching needs of their leadership team and would play a key role in establishing a learning culture within the organisation.

The impact

Coaching support has since been rolled out to all leaders and the wider leadership population, with over 30 managers being supported as well. 55 coaching sessions have taken place thus far, with a further 30 scheduled throughout 2024.

National Galleries now have insight into the key areas their leaders and managers are looking for support in, allowing them to understand the overarching goals and development areas of their leadership population.

Since implementing coaching support, National Galleries have seen and reported:

• a coaching culture being embedded within their leadership population
• higher quality conversations between line managers and direct reports
• improved performance and engagement across the board
• an increased sense of resilience and wellbeing in leaders and managers
• recognition and appreciation from employees that National Galleries values their development
• leaders feeling increasingly capable of dealing with ongoing challenges and more comfortable in their role

National Galleries have since extended their agreement and investment in coaching for 2024 and beyond and are looking at how it could be used in a career coaching capacity for their wider workforce.

“The flexibility Right Management’s coaching support is really valued in our organisation. Employees have the freedom to engage with coaching when they want, placing every element of the support within their control. It’s been really good from an operational point of view.”