3 Benefits of a Coaching Culture as an Intern Sees It

Before coming to work at InsideOut Development, I had never even heard of the term “coaching culture.” In fact, the only form of coaching I was familiar with was in sports! Now, I’m more familiar with coaching and have seen the impact of a coaching culture. It’s helped me a lot in my first few months.

Here are the 3 elements of InsideOut Development’s coaching culture that impacted me.

Coaching and guidance were coming from all around—not just from my boss.

Many of my coworkers—even those from different departments—would coach me through my problems and ensure I was set up to succeed. Everyone genuinely cared about my success. Having so many employees so invested in me understanding the company, products, and projects helped me to feel welcomed. More importantly, it shortened my learning curve by at least a few weeks.

The effects of employee turnover were minimized.

Some turnover is inevitable, but with this coaching culture, when employees left, for whatever reason, there wasn’t a huge drop in productivity or knowledge. Even when a tenured employee leaves, the effect can be minimized if they were actively involved in coaching of other employees.

The company vision was closely aligned with the actual culture.

InsideOut’s coaching culture meant that almost every one of the senior leadership reached out to me personally within my first week! Not only did they come say hello and get to know me a little, but many of them also took an interest in what I would be working on and coached me through some problems I might encounter. After a few weeks I started to notice that this was just normal though; senior-level managers in other departments would have one-on-ones or go out to lunch with my colleagues and have a real, vested interest in their success.

Each company is unique. And the benefits of a coaching culture will manifest differently for each organization and individual. These three simply stood out to me because they made a big difference in how fast I became comfortable within my company.

What are some benefits you’ve seen from your company’s culture?

Check out this article by our founder, Alan Fine, to learn 3 quick tips to help your coaching culture stick.