How to Build a Coaching Culture in 5 Steps

Summary

Building a coaching culture requires more than teaching managers how to coach. Yet DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2027 shows that only 25% of leaders say their manager coaches them effectively. Organizations can close this gap by securing senior leadership support, developing coaching skills at every level, creating opportunities to practice, establishing accountability, and measuring impact. Together, these five steps make coaching part of everyday work and help strengthen engagement, development, and performance.

Most organizations don’t have a performance problem. They have a development problem, and more specifically, a coaching gap.

DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2027 reveals just how significant that gap is: Only 25% of leaders say their manager coaches them effectively. And with so few leaders receiving effective coaching, organizations can't afford to leave development to chance.

That gap matters. Because in a world where skills expire quickly and expectations keep rising, the ability to grow people—consistently and at scale—separates high-performing organizations from the rest. In other words, if your leaders can’t coach, your business can’t adapt. Organizations that prioritize coaching empower their leaders, strengthen team performance, and drive lasting results.

Building a coaching culture means making development part of everyday work, not something reserved for formal performance conversations. It requires leaders with strong coaching skills, employees who feel comfortable seeking feedback, and organizational practices that reinforce continuous growth.

What Is a Coaching Culture?

In workplaces with a coaching culture, coaching is embedded in everyday work, fostering continuous learning, development, and growth.

At its core, a coaching culture marks a shift from traditional hierarchical structures to a more empowering, cooperative approach. It involves open communication, active listening, and thoughtful questioning to unleash the potential of individuals and teams.

And importantly, it’s not hierarchical. One of the biggest false assumptions is that coaching is top-down, with a senior, more experienced employee supporting someone more junior. In a healthy, effective coaching culture, all team members, regardless of their level or role, help each other to be their best selves by creating a safe space for everyone to learn, practice new skills, and grow. 

While the coaching relationship between leader and direct report is critical, coaching can also happen:

• Between peers
• From employees to leaders
• Across project teams
• During everyday problem-solving discussions

The key is that everyone needs feedback to grow. They also need to be open to learning. After all, leaders aren’t experts in everything. They, too, need coaching and feedback from others, regardless of where they sit in the org chart.

What Does a Coaching Culture Look Like?

Let’s be clear: This isn’t about making work feel nicer. It’s about driving performance. For a coaching culture to work, leaders need the competence and confidence to coach, motivate, and develop others. They must learn to have better conversations that consider both the practical and personal needs of the person being coached.

In thriving coaching cultures, several behaviors are consistently present:

• Leaders ask questions instead of immediately providing answers.
• Employees feel comfortable asking for feedback.
• Teams regularly reflect on successes and failures.
• Managers focus on development, not just performance outcomes.
• Coaching conversations occur at all levels of the organization.

Organizations that get this right don’t treat coaching as an event—it shows up in everyday conversations, decisions, and priorities.

Ultimately, coaching cultures are built on trust, curiosity, and a shared commitment to growth. These behaviors make coaching a consistent part of how people work together, rather than an occasional development activity.

What Are the Benefits of Creating a Coaching Culture?

Creating a coaching culture isn’t just about making employees happier; it drives measurable business performance. DDI's research consistently links effective coaching to stronger development outcomes, talent retention, and organizational performance, and the Global Leadership Forecast 2027 also shows how coaching relates to trust and engagement.

Coaching Builds Trust and Engagement

The benefits of coaching go beyond helping leaders develop new skills. Quality coaching can strengthen the relationships and engagement that support performance.

DDI's research shows that leaders who believe their managers coach them effectively are 9X more likely to trust their managers than those who don't. Employees whose managers strongly support their development are also 4.8X more likely to strongly trust their manager.

Coaching also plays an important role in leader engagement. Only 9% of leaders are fully engaged, and effective manager coaching is closely associated with stronger engagement.

Effective coaching shouldn't depend on whether someone happens to have a naturally supportive manager. Organizations need to develop coaching capability consistently across leadership levels so more employees can benefit from the trust, engagement, and growth it supports.

Coaching Strengthens Leadership Development and Performance

Effective coaching helps leaders do more than develop new skills. It strengthens their ability to navigate difficult situations, support their teams, and apply what they learn on the job.

DDI's research shows just how much effective manager coaching matters. Compared with leaders who receive no coaching, leaders whose managers are effective coaches are:

• 2.3X more likely to say they consistently bring out the best in their teams (43% vs. 19%).
• 3.2X more likely to feel very prepared to handle high-stakes conversations (41% vs. 13%).
• 5.6X more likely to rate their development programs as high quality (45% vs. 8%).

These leaders also report applying 15% more of what they learn back on the job.

For organizations, the value extends beyond individual development. When leaders receive effective coaching, they're better positioned to handle challenging conversations, support team performance, and translate learning into everyday leadership behaviors. That's what makes coaching essential to building stronger leadership capability across the organization.

Why Effective Manager Coaching Matters

A strong coaching culture starts with managers who know how to coach. They're uniquely positioned to support development because they understand their team members' work, see the challenges they face, and can provide feedback and guidance in the moment.

Yet DDI's data reveals a significant gap: Only 1 in 4 leaders say their manager is an effective coach; among individual contributors, that number drops to just 17%.

For organizations, this creates a challenge that goes beyond individual development. When coaching depends on whether employees happen to have an effective manager, opportunities for growth and support can vary significantly across teams.

Building a coaching culture helps close that gap by making coaching an organizational expectation. Leaders at every level learn to ask thoughtful questions, provide meaningful feedback, and create opportunities for employees to practice and grow. Over time, coaching becomes part of how teams work together, rather than something individual managers choose to do.

How Do Leaders Develop Coaching Skills?

Building a coaching culture starts by equipping leaders with the skills they need to coach effectively. Many organizations assume coaching is an intuitive skill, but in reality, coaching requires practice, structure, and feedback.

At DDI, we often teach leaders a simple framework for coaching conversations known as the ACE model:

Ask

Leaders ask open-ended questions to better understand the employee’s goals, challenges, and perspectives.

Connect

Leaders build trust by demonstrating empathy and a genuine interest in the employee’s development.

Energize

Leaders help employees identify solutions, set goals, and take ownership of their growth.

This approach helps leaders shift from problem solvers to capability builders, empowering employees to think critically and develop their own solutions.

As leadership expectations continue to evolve, coaching skills are becoming increasingly important. In fact, 83% of HR organizations anticipate a significant increase in leadership skills needs over the next five years. Developing coaching capabilities is one of the most effective ways organizations can prepare leaders for these growing demands.

How Do You Build a Coaching Culture?

Creating a coaching culture requires intentional effort and sustained leadership commitment. Below are five key steps organizations can take:

1. Get senior-level support.

To be successful, culture change initiatives often need to start at the top. Senior leaders need to allocate time to coach in meetings, one-on-ones, and informal conversations. But most importantly, a senior leader must be seen to “walk the walk.”

Three key factors can help leaders increase their coaching effectiveness: 

• Managers and/or formal mentors set a positive example with coaching. 
• Leaders use objective assessments to gather feedback on their coaching skills and to guide their development. 
• Leaders see the impact of coaching on their overall effectiveness. 

When senior leaders champion coaching, not just in words but in action, it sets a powerful example for the entire organization.

2. Give all leaders coaching skills.

The second step is to give leaders at every level coaching skills. In addition, ensure that people in informal leadership roles (such as project managers and Agile leaders) have coaching skills. What’s the best way to do this? At a minimum, train every formal and informal leader in the core leadership skills.

The core skills are a combination of emotional intelligence and coaching that will enable people to prepare for an assignment or to learn and improve for the future. Ideally, leaders can also access additional resources that support their development.

As such, many companies have built robust learning journeys to train their leaders to become capable coaches. The result? You take a big step towards creating a coaching culture that gets you the benefits mentioned earlier.

3. Encourage employees to apply coaching skills on the job.

The next step, after training, is to apply the skills on the job. The adage is simple but true: Practice makes perfect. But how can leaders get the coaching practice they need to be successful?

First, leaders need an action plan. While it is common to have development activities for a group of learners, it is important that every leader has a personalized follow-up plan that connects behavior with the organization’s business priorities. Some companies offer small group follow-up sessions for leaders to discuss coaching opportunities and share experiences and lessons learned.

Others leverage peer coaching, online coaching simulations, or apps that can provide feedback in a minute or two. Above all, it’s critical to create an environment and action plan that enable and encourage everyone to practice, apply their learning, and get feedback on their progress.

Consider how athletes and artists hone their talents. They practice regularly (daily!) and for extended periods. They ask for and expect feedback from others. A similar level of commitment and dedication is required to become a good coach. And when that commitment is combined with opportunities to coach, you’re well on your way toward creating a coaching culture.

4. Create accountability.

Everyone needs to be held accountable for their role in creating a successful coaching culture. Often, leaders alone are held responsible for coaching and teaching their teams to coach one another. But in a true coaching culture, everyone is responsible for coaching and being coached, regardless of their level.

An outcome of effective coaching is that leaders develop teams that feel supported and empowered to make decisions. The resulting accountability system encourages employees to take ownership of their performance and encourages managers to take ownership of how they coach others.

How will you know if your organization has this level of accountability? When every employee at every level is having coaching conversations on a regular basis.

5. Measure for effectiveness and ROI.

Finally, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness and ROI of your company’s coaching efforts. Who is coaching successfully? How often are coaching conversations occurring? What business outcomes are improving as a result? Tapping into this information will help you understand what elements of a coaching culture are working well and what areas need improvement.

The first step in measuring ROI is to identify metrics that your coaching culture should influence. Common metrics include employee engagement and retention, productivity, and customer satisfaction.

Then, collect quantitative and qualitative data over time on the metrics you’ve identified and analyze them to spot improvements and trends. If you can link coaching to improvements in business results, you’ll showcase the value of a coaching culture. By measuring the ROI of a coaching culture, organizations make data-driven decisions, optimize their coaching programs, and continuously improve employee development and performance. This benefits individual employees and contributes to the organization’s overall success and growth.

What Role Do Leaders Play in a Coaching Culture?

Leaders are key to building and nurturing a thriving coaching culture that boosts employee development and drives organizational success.

By acting as coaching role models, they inspire and motivate their teams, demonstrating a commitment to coaching that others want to adopt. When leaders engage in coaching conversations, they show that coaching is a valued part of growth.

Leaders should also provide resources and support. They can provide training to enhance coaching skills and knowledge, and set aside time for practice and feedback.

Weaving coaching into performance discussions is also critical. This practice encourages regular feedback, goal setting, and development planning, making coaching a natural part of the performance management process and embedding a coaching mindset into the organization’s culture.

What Challenges Can Prevent a Coaching Culture?

Changing organizational culture is hard work—it requires behavior change. Corporate culture has countless layers that accumulate over time. Organizational culture includes rituals, symbols, work space layout and decor, expressed values, unconscious assumptions, and much more. Basically, everything someone experiences when they interact with the organization is "bits and pieces" of the company’s culture.

So, how can you build an effective coaching culture within the existing culture? Here are five things you can do:

1. Encourage stakeholder support.

Internal communications are an important step in getting everyone on the same page about why creating a coaching culture is important. And C-suite support is crucial. Your C-suite should communicate across the organization about why coaching is valuable and how leaders can do it.

2. Highlight and reward the good.

The goal is to make effective coaching so effortless and normalized that it becomes an unconscious cultural habit. But how can this be done? Leaders must do more than convey the message that coaching is important. They need to be positive examples of good coaches for others to see in action. Highlighting and rewarding positive coaching examples and outcomes is a great way to reinforce the message.

3. Clearly explain the benefits.

One of the biggest barriers to coaching is the belief that there isn’t time for it.

Convincing leaders that coaching is expected from everyone requires a clear explanation of the benefits. And these benefits differ for each business, and possibly even for each team and its leader. But touching on these points is crucial in getting everyone on board.

4. Don’t make coaching an evaluation tool.

Employees aren’t always excited about coaching. Many perceive coaching as a form of negative feedback—for example, “You are not doing something right, so let me tell you how to improve.”

The objective of coaching is to achieve better results; it is not meant to be an evaluation tool. Furthermore, building a coaching culture is about being coached, and it requires that all employees become coaches for their peers.

The objections to coaching from individual contributors are the same as those from leaders:

• I don’t have time.
• I don’t have the opportunity.
• I don’t know how.

It is important to show people that they will not need to take on additional work. Rather, they need to adjust their routines to incorporate coaching.

5. Promote coaching as a mindset.

After everybody understands the concept of creating a coaching culture, they may expect a detailed plan of what they ought to do.

Unfortunately, it’s not that straightforward. Building a coaching culture is about promoting a coaching mindset. It’s also about developing leaders who can handle situations in the moment, rather than holding intervention-like meetings with some coaching, just to check a box.

A Healthy Coaching Culture and Organizational Culture

While they may not know it, leaders are telling us they want and need to be part of a coaching culture. The best way to develop and practice coaching skills is to engage in group development in a supportive environment.

If your organization is already investing time and money in workplace coaching, don’t stop at isolated efforts. Build a culture where coaching happens at every level and as part of everyday work. The result? Stronger productivity, deeper engagement, better performance, and a healthier overall organizational culture.

About the Author
Verity Creedy is Vice President of DDI’s Product Management team and an award-winning blogger. Verity is obsessed with building powerful development experiences for leaders, trying to hold a decent plank for two minutes, and keeping indoor plants alive for more than six months.