Clients / Case study

Developing a coaching culture at Volkwagen

How do you develop a sustained coaching conversation around careers that allows individuals to take ownership of their careers?

The brief

When Volkswagen came to us for our ideas around developing a career coaching culture, we were intrigued. A highly successful organisation with great opportunities for staff, why was this something that need focused attention?

The challenges

What we found through our discovery was that while people really enjoyed working in the organisation, career progression lacked upward opportunities. Volkswagen wanted to develop their senior leaders into a team of career experts, who could coach and support people to think more broadly about their own careers and to consider the possibilities that lateral career moves could present.

The solutions

Based on a coaching approach, we developed a 4-day Career Expert Programme; this provided a clear focus on how coaching can help people to find new solutions more quickly than they could on their own. When it comes to careers, often it’s a case of ‘we don’t know what we don’t know’ and it takes someone with the experience, skills and knowledge to help them to realise their potential. Of course, our programme covered all the coaching basics including the contracting and boundaries which are so important when coaching internally. Along with the TGROW model, advanced listening skills and horizontal and vertical questioning, we provided a solid foundation of coaching knowledge. However, we also took time to explore the changing career and workplace landscape, intelligent careers and of course challenging career conversations.

The results

The impact was interesting as suddenly there was a career dialogue that hadn’t been present before. People started to talk more openly about both workplace challenges, and how possible lateral career moves could benefit both themselves and the organisation. Personal career ownership increased. The ‘Career Expert’ coaches enjoyed having new tools and techniques in their toolkit and watching others grow and flourish through their challenge and support. This was a self-contained, internally accredited programme, and we also mapped it forward so those who were interested could go on and develop their practice further. Many have gone onto more senior roles but still stay in contact to ensure their career thinking and coaching practice stays up to date.