501: How to Build a Coaching Culture, with Andrea Wanerstrand

Nov 23, 2020

Andrea Wanerstrand, a seasoned leadership coach at Microsoft with over 15 years of international experience, dives into the transformative power of coaching cultures. She explores Microsoft’s journey towards a 'learn-it' mindset, shifting from traditional management to supportive leadership. Andrea highlights the link between coaching practices and organizational success, including increased revenue, and discusses innovative training strategies, such as micro-learning and ongoing community engagement, that empower employees and elevate performance.

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INSIGHT

Coaching Culture & Revenue

Organizations with strong coaching cultures report higher revenue than their peers.
Strong coaching cultures utilize all three coaching modalities more effectively.

INSIGHT

Three Coaching Modalities

Three coaching modalities exist: coaching services, coaching capabilities, and coaching champions.
Coaching capabilities focus on managers using coaching skills, not becoming professional coaches.

ANECDOTE

Microsoft's Culture Shift

Satya Nadella shifted Microsoft's culture to a growth mindset, focusing on learning.
This cultural change involved moving from a "know-it-all" to a "learn-it-all" mentality.

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Andrea Wanerstrand: Microsoft & International Coach Federation

Andrea Wanerstrand is a leadership coach and head of Microsoft Worldwide Learning Coaching Programs. Andrea has 15+ years of international experience in organizations ranging from 50 to over 150,000+ employees. She has a multi-industry background including technology solutions and services, business management consulting, and telecommunications.

Andrea’s expertise is in leading the development and management of large-scale global coaching & leadership development programs specializing in customer centric organizations. In addition to leading the global coaching programs at Microsoft, she is an International Coaching Federation (ICF) PCC certified leadership coach, serves as a current Board Member on the ICF Global Board of Directors, and is a Fellow at the Institute of Coaching – Harvard McLean.

In this conversation, Andrea and I discuss how the conversation about coaching culture started at Microsoft and how they began to bring this intention into practice. Plus, she shares what worked in designed programs for Microsoft leaders that helped in developing coaching skills and support the success of the entire organization.

Key Points

In their report on Building a Coaching Culture with Managers and Leadership, the International Coach Federation and Human Capital Institute say:

Organizations with a strong coaching culture report recent revenue above their industry peer group (51% of organizations compared to 38% of other responding organizations).

Sixty-four percent of respondents in organizations with strong coaching cultures report the presence of all three modalities, compared to 33% of respondents in organizations without strong coaching cultures.

Three modalities of coaching:

Coaching Services: formal global solutions for engaging with point in time development focused coaching (can leverage internal or external coaches).
Coaching Capabilities: in the moment leadership behavior that facilitates empowerment, learning and activates a growth mindset.
Coaching Champions: A common framework and approach to create and support a community of leaders/manager as well as internal coaches who are held to common standards and practices fostering coaching capabilities.

Resources Mentioned

Andrea Wanerstrand

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