Coaching, Training and Culture

Organizational culture can be described as the personality of an organization, guiding how employees communicate and work. This term can be used to define the general character of an organization, and includes core values, ethics, and codes of conduct. Organizational culture may be communicated in mission statements, architectural styles, office décor, work clothes and employee titles.

Some questions provide insight into organizational culture:

• What must people do to be promoted?
• Are employees expected to be readily mobile?
• Do the employees generally trust management?
• Can employees and management easily communicate?
• Are organizational values aligned with local cultural values?
• Who can be trained? Does training bring respect or alienation?
• What are the real consequences for employees who show initiative?

Organizational culture is indicated by the age of the organization, its history, customers and management structure. Industry and market information can be used to identify an organization's growth, strategy, business opportunities and financial performance.

Cultural values and relationship habits can enhance or limit organizational development. Employees who betray or ignore cultural rules may alienate themselves from their peers and managers. Efforts to improve long-term staff quality must address potential cultural chasms. Creating and maintaining a consistent corporate culture across multiple locations, with standard procedures, objectives and staff attitudes, is a daunting management task.

Efforts towards cultural consistency may be complicated in joint ventures with Central European governments, whose culture may be different to, and perhaps clash with, organizational culture.

High staff retention helps create and maintain corporate culture. Organizations committed to staff development reap employee commitment. Common options for employee development are organizational training, independent training and in-house training. Many organizations choose a combination of these to maximize staff coverage, cost-effectiveness, quality of content and employee retention.

In-house coaching and training provides solutions for many skill gaps, and can focus on individuals who show potential, entry-level staff and older managers.

In-House Coaching and Training

Success, relationship and team coaching are little known occupations in Central and Eastern Europe. Coaching is a new profession, treated with initial surprise. The word "coaching" is difficult to translate into Central European languages, avoiding the words for counseling, consulting and therapy.

Although a single independent coaching and training company may not satisfy every staff development need, in-house training offers many benefits. Cost-effective in-house skill training can be integrated into daily work, with excellent results. A training program often starts with courses that immediately improve bottom line profits - sales training, stress control and communication are notable examples - and expands to fill other organizational and management needs.

Employee orientation and follow-up training can reinforce corporate policies and objectives while contributing to operational efficiency. However, creating a dedicated in-house training program is a difficult task for many smaller and mid-size Central European organizations.

One challenge is a scarcity of good local trainers. A potential trainer with business experience can earn far more in as a manager than as a trainer; and inexperienced trainers may not be very effective.

Many qualified managers would make good trainers, but are in limited supply. Most organizations are reluctant to move their most competent managers into full-time training. Instead, they generally hire young, inexperienced university graduates as instructors and hope that they somehow develop into effective trainers.

After a company finds competent trainers, the company needs a tailored curriculum and training materials. Although some trainers are also excellent program developers, most trainers use materials supplied by third-party providers.

Third-party training materials cannot reflect the local culture and specific organizational needs reduce the benefits of local training. Some companies offer commercial training aids in Polish, Czech, Croatian, etc, which are merely translations of existing (often outdated) English manuals. Their relevance, quality and cultural applicability can be poor.

The best in-house training programs generally employ experienced expert trainers, who supervise and mentor local trainers who learn as assistants and apprentices.

Local Outsourcing

Most training companies in Central and East Europe offer basic staff development, language instruction and clerical training. Local training companies can be a resource for teaching core skills and are useful for smaller companies that cannot maintain training departments.

It is often difficult to find training companies that provide qualified trainers who can teach in the local language, with culturally specific training aids, especially outside major cities. (Training companies also have trouble finding and keeping competent trainers.)

Overseas Training

While local training programs can be effective, overseas work and study programs are a solution for developing high-potential staff. In addition to the benefits of education and cultural understanding, foreign training often brings status, which can boost a manager's effectiveness.

Overseas training can be transformative. However, transformed individuals may leave the organization.

Combining Strategies

Training strategies require an intimate knowledge of goals and resources. Some useful questions to help identify training goals and resources are:

1. What are the attrition rates amongst professionals?
2. What is the organization's size and overall objectives?
3. What are the performance objectives for each workgroup?
4. What will likely happen if each workgroup is not trained?
5. What are the essential missing competencies?
6. What curricula and training aids are required?

Successful organizations often combine development options to maximize the number of staff trained, cost-effectiveness, quality of content, and employee retention. In-house and locally provided training are presently the most popular options for staff development.

Local training companies often provide low-cost and ready-made solutions. In-house training is often the most cost-effective way to reach the broadest number of staff. Many organizations combine outsourcing with in-house training, and organizational coaching is slowly becoming mainstream.

Organizations can order tailored telephone coaching and training programs to meet their needs.

In-house Training . Emergency Planning . Other Resources

Systemic Coach Training

Systemic Solutions applies systemic coaching to provide effective telephone coaching, training and mentorship programs. We coach and train people to resolve physical, emotional, mental and relationship challenges.

If you are interested in adding telephone coaching to your skills, we offer training programs with many levels of application. While designed for professionals in health, education and psychology; we welcome friendly, stable people who wish to learn systems thinking and systemic coaching.

This program coaches you to coach people to gain clarity, dissolve relationship issues and find a deep understanding of "what makes sense." You'll help them solve success and relationship problems and fulfill their dreams.

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