Creating a Coaching Culture
WLPD expands Professional Development offerings to include this powerful tool
Georgia Tech faculty and staff are offered a wide variety of learning resources to include courses, signature programming, podcast,s and more all dedicated to helping them grow and L.O.V.E. GT (Living Our Values Every Day) through Workplace Learning & Professional Development. The newest opportunity, coaching, is a powerful, solution-oriented practice focused on future performance and achievement.
“Coaching is a useful way of developing skills and boosting performance,” says LaTrese Ferguson, director of Workplace Learning & Professional Development.
“Expanding our service offerings to include coaching resources serves to further grow and nurture our talent and aids us in creating an Institute culture we can all be proud of.”
Through one-on-one sessions, a coach will help explore self-identified goals around increased performance, positive behavior change, skill development, building on strengths, overcoming obstacles, and/or working through blind spots. The coach serves as a guide to help identify the actions necessary to achieve goals while pushing comfort zone limits through a structured coaching process. Coaches actively listen and ask powerful questions to help discover growth and development opportunities.
“As a coach there is nothing more rewarding than seeing someone have a breakthrough with a challenge they are facing. The coaching process allows someone to tap into their own strengths, identify their own solutions to overcome obstacles, and create their own path forward to success.” - Bryan Harber, learning consultant, Workplace Learning & Professional Development.
Coaching is one of several types of developmental relationships, allowing an individual to prosper and grow with the support of others. Others can include mentoring, sponsorship, consultative, and performance management. While each allows and empowers the individual to gain new insights, establish and achieve goals, fulfill achievements, cultivate skills and abilities, and/or realize career development and advancement, they each use different methodologies and processes and serve different purposes to meet the needs of the individual.
“Our day-to-day at Georgia Tech so often is filled with pressing tasks that we may forget to reflect on where we are and where we want to go;” says Kyla Ross, principal academic professional and assistant vice provost for advocacy and conflict resolution with the Office of the Provost. “Coaching provides a unique opportunity for employees to do this transformative work. Collaborating with a thought partner allows employees to develop an individualized action plan in pursuit of advancing their own personal and professional goals.”
Several coaching resources are being offered including:
- Access to one-on-one coaching sessions with trained and/or certified coaches
- A Learning Session for people leaders to help them develop a coaching mindset as they lead employees
- Supplemental resources through our partnership with LinkedIn Learning.
If you feel coaching might be the right professional development opportunity for you, find more information or submit your interest here. We are also looking for trained and/or certified coaches interested in lending their services in support of creating a coaching culture on our campus. Questions regarding interest and support can be directed to training@gatech.edu.
Aspiring Leaders at Georgia Tech
