Challenge
Despite significant investment in new digital tools and agile frameworks, the client struggled with low trust, siloed decision-making, and a command-and-control leadership style that inhibited innovation. Annual engagement surveys showed only 58% of employees felt empowered to act, and leadership-effectiveness ratings averaged 3.2/5. Escalations to senior executives clogged management forums, delaying decisions by up to four weeks. Front-line teams reported frustration with slow approvals and lack of coaching support. The board mandated a scalable, behavior-based culture change to embed coaching mindsets, strengthen frontline accountability, and build a continuous-learning ecosystem.
Solution
The company designed a multi-tier coaching program anchored in four pillars:
Executive Coaching: 50 C-suite and senior VPs received one-on-one coaching from certified ICF-accredited coaches over six months. Each engagement began with a 360° feedback assessment and co-created leadership growth plan focused on active listening, giving constructive feedback, and modeling vulnerability. Executive sponsors shared progress in quarterly leadership forums, reinforcing coaching as a strategic priority.
Leader-as-Coach Certification: 1,150 mid-level and frontline managers completed a four-day ‘Leader-as-Coach’ certification program combining interactive workshops, peer-coaching triads, and supervised practice sessions. The curriculum covered core coaching skills—powerful questioning, empathetic listening, and action-focused feedback—and included role-plays based on real-world telecom scenarios.
Peer-Coaching Networks: Organized 120 cross-functional coaching circles of 10 leaders each, meeting monthly to practice skills, share challenges, and reinforce new behaviors. Circles were facilitated by internal coach-mentors trained in group dynamics. Participation tracked via a coaching portal achieved 95% completion, with average satisfaction ratings of 4.6/5.
Performance Integration & Analytics: Coaching competencies—number of coaching conversations, peer-feedback scores, and coaching-driven business outcomes—were embedded into quarterly performance-review templates and leadership dashboards. Real-time pulse surveys captured coaching impact on team engagement, and people-analytics models linked coaching activity to reductions in escalation rates and faster project delivery cycles.
Results
- Employee engagement scores rose from 58% to 80% within 12 months, lifting NPS and reducing voluntary turnover by 12% [1].
- Leadership-effectiveness ratings improved from 3.2 to 3.8 out of 5, as measured by biannual 360° surveys [1].
- Internal escalation rates declined by 35%, accelerating decision-cycle times by 50% and saving teams an estimated 10,000 work hours [2].
- Peer-coaching circle participation hit 95% completion, with an average satisfaction rating of 4.6/5.
- Overall program ROI exceeded 200%, yielding $12 million in productivity gains and faster time-to-market for strategic initiatives.
Introduction & Business Context
A global telecom with 80,000 employees across 30 countries recognized that digital investments and agile frameworks alone weren’t shifting its culture. Leadership surveys highlighted low psychological safety, slow decision-making, and limited upward feedback—barriers to the customer-centric and collaborative behaviors required for 5G and IoT market leadership.
In focus groups, front-line teams described a sense of ‘fear of failure’ and reliance on hierarchical approvals. The executive committee set clear culture-change goals: boost engagement to 75%, halve escalation rates, and cultivate coaching mindsets at every leadership level.
Diagnostic & Framework Design
Over eight weeks, Company conducted:
360° Assessments: of 200 senior and mid-level leaders, revealing coaching skill gaps.
Network-Analysis Diagnostics: to map collaboration patterns and identify bottlenecks in decision flows.
Focus Groups & Pulse Surveys: with 1,000 employees to capture attitudes toward leadership and feedback culture.
Insights showed that leaders spent only 5% of their time on coaching conversations and that escalations to senior management were triggered by unclear decision rights.
Using these insights and ICF core competencies, we co-created a coaching framework that balanced depth (executive coaching) with scale (leader-as-coach certification) and sustained momentum (peer networks and analytics).
Program Delivery & Tools
The program launched with an executive coaching cohort of 50 leaders. Each coach engagement included pre-work assessments, bi-weekly 90-minute sessions, and post-session reflections logged in a coaching portal. For managers, the Leader-as-Coach certification combined:
Instructor-Led Workshops: Deep dives on coaching models and practice.
Virtual Practice Labs: Live role-plays with feedback.
Micro-Learning Modules: On-demand videos and reflection prompts.
Coaching-circle facilitation guides and session templates were hosted in the portal, enabling consistency and tracking across 120 circles.
Embedding Coaching in Performance & Analytics
To ensure behavior change, coaching KPIs were integrated into the Talent Management System and quarterly Performance Review Templates. Leaders had explicit objectives, such as 'Conduct 15 coaching conversations per quarter' and 'Achieve ≥4.0 peer-feedback score.' A Power BI dashboard surfaced real-time metrics on coaching activity, engagement impact, and escalation trends.
People-analytics models linked coaching volumes to business outcomes—teams with high coaching activity showed 20% faster project completion and 15% higher customer satisfaction scores in NPS surveys.
Pilot Outcomes & Scale-Up
The six-month pilot covered 500 managers across five regions. Key outcomes included:
20% rise in engagement: in pilot teams, verified by pulse surveys.
30% fewer escalations: reducing decision-cycle times from 10 days to 5 days.
85% pilot-cohort satisfaction: with coaching content and delivery.
Based on pilot success, the initiative scaled to 1,200 leaders globally, leveraging an internal Coach-Mentor certification to build capacity and ensure sustainability.
Business Impact & Strategic Next Steps
Within 12 months of full rollout, the program delivered:
Engagement: from 58% to 80%.
Leadership-effectiveness: from 3.2 to 3.8/5.
Escalation reduction: of 35%, saving 10,000 work hours.
ROI: of over 200%, equating to $12 million in productivity gains.
Phase 2 will introduce AI-powered coaching chatbots for just-in-time skill reinforcement, integrate coaching data into the talent-mobility engine for personalized development paths, and launch a digital community platform for peer sharing of success stories and best practices.
Lessons Learned & Conclusion
- Dual-track approach: combining deep executive coaching with scalable manager certification drives strategic alignment and grassroots change.
- Embed in systems: integrating coaching KPIs into performance reviews and dashboards ensures accountability and practice.
- Leverage technology: a coaching portal and analytics dashboards enable transparency, measurement, and continuous improvement.
- Build internal capability: training coach-mentors creates a self-sustaining ecosystem and reduces reliance on external coaches.