The Corporate Coaching Culture Never Stood a Chance

Why the Dream Sounds Great But Rarely Survives Contact with Reality

For years, “coaching culture” has been marketed as the silver bullet of organizational life. Train managers to coach their direct reports. Help them uncover what motivates people. Align work to those motivations. Coach them to grow their skills. And, in theory, watch performance soar.

And here’s the frustrating part: the theory isn’t wrong.

When coaching works, it genuinely works. We’ve seen organizations where coaching improved performance, accelerated development, and strengthened relationships. We have several case studies to prove its efficacy. It’s no surprise the idea is appealing.

But knowing organizations, the glossy coaching-culture narrative starts to crack. Eventually, many of us stop evangelizing it not because the philosophy is flawed, but because the context makes it almost impossible to execute at scale.

Here’s why coaching culture never really stood a chance.

1. Coaching Requires Skills And Few People Actually Have It

The corporate world loves slogans like “everyone needs a coach” or “leaders must be good coaches.” But quietly, behind closed doors, everyone knows the truth: Very few people can actually coach. And even fewer can coach well enough to make a business impact.

Coaching is not a warm conversation. It is not “giving advice.” It is not “listening more.” Real coaching requires:

• Skilled questioning

• Psychological insight

• Developmental understanding

• Emotional attunement

• The ability to challenge without triggering defensiveness

• The discipline to guide without directing

• The maturity to leave your ego out of it

Most managers & leaders, through no fault of their own, have never been trained in any of these.

And even if they go to training, coaching mastery takes practice over years, not a two-day workshop. But organizations keep selling the fantasy that every manager & leader can suddenly become a coach “with the right mindset.”

It’s unrealistic. And unfair.

Not everyone can coach. Not everyone wants to. Not everyone is coachable.

This is where the coaching-culture narrative collapses under its own idealism.

2. Coaching Takes Time And Managers & Leaders No Longer Have Any

If coaching requires anything, it’s quality time. But over the last two decades, something dramatic has happened: Managers’ & leaders’ span of control has tripled.

What used to be manageable teams of 5–7 direct reports have ballooned into 15–30. At the same time:

• administrative burdens have increased

• reporting requirements multiplied

• senior leadership expectations intensified

• and digital tools have added more noise, not more space.

Most managers & leaders today are relieved if they manage to squeeze in a 1:1 once a quarter. And we expect these same people to coach? To spend 45–60 minutes digging into motivations, developmental blocks, and career aspirations? To follow up weekly? Adjust work to personal drivers? Provide tailored guidance?

This isn’t resistance. This isn’t lack of care. It’s simple math. The coaching-culture vision requires time that no manager or leader actually has.

3. The Organizational Design Often Makes Coaching Impossible

Even when coaching skills exist, even when managers genuinely want to coach, organizations often sabotage the conditions needed for it to work.

A perfect example: A division with managers overwhelmed by unreasonable span of control asked to redesign their org chart to make coaching feasible. Senior leadership said no.

This is common. Leaders speak passionately about development while refusing to adjust structures, workloads, or reporting lines that make development unattainable.

Coaching without structural support becomes performative. A box to tick. A word in a slide deck. Coaching culture cannot grow in poor organizational design.

4. The Model That Works: A Multi-Pronged Approach

So should we abandon coaching culture entirely? Not necessarily. But we do need to stop pretending it can be achieved by simply training managers & leaders and wishing for the best. A sustainable coaching culture requires a multi-layered system:

1. Upskilling managers & leaders in basic developmental conversations - not full coaching. Not turning them into certified coaches.

Teach them the essentials:

• asking better questions

• understanding motivation

• giving developmental feedback.

2. Using external coaches for deeper development and acceleration.

Group coaching, in particular, can create rapid shifts much faster than individual sessions alone.

3. Designing realistic spans of control.

If managers have 25 direct reports, no coaching model will succeed. This is the leadership’ and HR’ responsibility.

4. Accepting that not everyone will be a coach, and that’s okay.

Stop forcing people into roles they’re not skilled for. Use coaching strategically, not universally.

5. Building a culture of support, not a mythology of coaching.

The goal is not to turn everyone into a coach. The goal is to create an environment where learning, feedback, and growth are normal and you pretty much there.

But you know what?

Ask yourself the question: Have you been coached or mentored during your career?Chances are, the answer is yes, probably more than once, and often in ways you didn’t even recognize at the time.

I think we all get coached and mentored one way or another during our career. And no, we don’t need to be coached continuously. Who needs that? Nobody. Most of us get the right nudge at the right moment, the right challenge from a manager, the right advice from a colleague… and that’s enough to change everything.

So maybe the coaching culture is alive and thriving after all, even if it doesn’t look the way we once imagined. Maybe it shouldn’t. Maybe it doesn’t require the corporate buzz around it so we can sing it from the rooftop as part of our EVP branding campaign. Coaching isn’t about that!

Lastly, for the love of god, just use AI coaches!

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