Coaching Circles Boost the Development of Growth Cultures

In this article (click on link below), Tony Schwartz makes a critical distinction between building a culture focused on performance and one focused on creating a culture of growth.

“A true growth culture focuses on deeper issues connected to how people feel, and how they behave as a result. In a growth culture, people build their capacity to see through blind spots; acknowledge insecurities and shortcomings rather than unconsciously acting them out; and spend less energy defending their personal value so they have more energy available to create external value. How people feel — and make other people feel — becomes as important as how much they know.¨

This is such a beautiful endorsement of the contribution that coaching circles make to bringing about this shift in people. As true change agents, coaching circle participants then spread their growth mindset and conscious leadership influence throughout the rest of the organization thereby fueling what Schwartz calls a growth culture.

Schwartz goes on to say that building a growth culture requires a blend of individual and organizational components that correspond exactly to what coaching circles are designed to do:

1. “An environment that feels safe, allowing people to be vulnerable and take responsibility for their shortcomings.
2. A focus on continuous learning through inquiry, curiosity and transparency, in place of judgment, certainty and self-protection.
3. Time-limited, manageable experiments with new behaviors in order to test our unconscious assumption that changing the status quo is dangerous and likely to have negative consequences.
4. Continuous feedback grounded in a shared commitment to helping each other grow and get better.”

 

Click HERE to read the full article: “Create a Growth Culture, Not a Performance-Obsessed One” by Tony Schwartz, Harvard Business Review, March 7, 2018