SHRM26 Debrief · Leadership & Development · #2609

The Coaching Culture Paradox: Why Your Strategy is Failing to Deliver ROI and How to Fix It

with Laura Ashley-Timms

▶ Watch on the SHRM portal ~76 min, distilled

coaching culturemanager as coachGROW model

"We're spending more money than ever, and we're rubbish at it. It's our worst skill."

What it was about

Most coaching cultures fail to deliver ROI because organizations rely on executive coaching and a handful of internal coaches, reaching only about 1% of employees, and teach managers an executive-coaching model (GROW) that conflicts with their actual job. A manager-centered behavioral model called STAR (Stop, Think, Ask, Result) embeds coaching into the flow of work at scale and, per a randomized controlled trial with the London School of Economics, delivers a 74x ROI.

By the numbers

74x ROI (for every $1 invested, $74 returned)

LSE randomized controlled trial headline finding

82% of managers are accidental managers

CMI (Chartered Management Institute) statistic

6x improvement in retention numbers

LSE study results, STAR organizations vs. control group

Key notes

Stop relying on executive coaching and internal coaches alone to build a coaching culture. They only reach about 1% of employees and don't move organizational culture.
Recognize that the GROW model, while a good executive-coaching tool, is designed around the coachee's agenda and fails for line managers who have their own agenda, team agenda, and accountability for results.
Adopt the STAR model (Stop, Think, Ask, get a Result) to teach managers a behavior-change habit that fits into the flow of work rather than requiring separate coaching sessions.

The contrarian takeInvesting more in coaching, exec coaching, internal coaches, GROW-model manager training, does not build a coaching culture and may not move the needle at all. The very tools most organizations treat as their coaching-culture strategy are structurally incapable of doing so, because they were designed for the coachee's agenda, not the manager's day job.

Take this back Monday

Do this for your team

Teach managers the STAR habit (Stop, Think, Ask, Result) instead of GROW. It's a 2-minute check-in they can use in the flow of work.

Say this in your next leadership meeting

A London School of Economics RCT found manager-led STAR coaching delivers a 74x ROI — GROW-model training alone doesn't move the needle.

Watch out for

Believing that having internal coaches or an executive coaching program equals having a coaching culture. It only adds a few more people to the roughly 1-5% who get coached.
Teaching managers an executive-coaching model (GROW) that assumes no personal agenda, when line managers inherently have one, causing managers to say they 'don't have time to coach.'
Skipping the 'why' (linking coaching to strategy and organizational goals) and going straight to training, making the coaching culture feel like just 'a nice thing to have.'

Fun fact · Laura Ashley-Timms

She co-led the world's largest academic study on coaching culture with the London School of Economics.

If this landed, see these

↳ Go deeperGrow Your Bench Beyond the Training Room: How to Turn “Ready Now, Ready Next, and Future Ready” Talent into Leaders Ready to Step InExtends the same logic to succession: readiness built continuously, not through one training event.⇄ The counterpointA Fresh Manifesto: The Things We Think and Do Not Say About The Future of LeadershipPushes back: a 4-step habit isn't enough, real change needs dropping the ego armor.✦ The unexpected oneFrom Awareness to Advantage: Transforming Neurodiversity Into Organizational StrengthSame instinct, different lever: build support into the default system, skip the trigger.