What is Leadership in Management? Examples of Organizational Leadership in Action

Organizational leadership principles have transformed workplace cultures around the globe. This approach to leadership, which emphasizes individual development, can help employees build new skills, improve retention, build leaders within organizations, help leaders identify and cultivate internal talent, and help organizations stay competitive. Professional development — and coaching specifically — is a critical component to any organization’s growth strategy.

In this blog, we’ll share three case studies of companies that have reaped the benefits of a strong commitment to organizational management, including implementing a robust professional development program with access to high-quality coaching.

Definition of organizational leadership

An organizational management style is an approach to leadership in management that prioritizes big picture strategic business goals while leveraging the contributions of individuals to achieve certain benchmarks.

Because organizational management relies heavily on the contribution of individuals to specific business units, personal and professional development is crucial to helping teams improve. An organizational management style relies heavily on helping individuals develop the behavioral and technical skills necessary to achieve the larger business goals.

Coaching is often the best possible means of delivering professional development because it’s personalized and catered to the specific, individual needs of employees. Coaching can help individuals develop new skills and competencies that will not only level up their careers but help the organization they work for stay competitive, which is why it has become a common tool for business organization management.

Examples of organizational leadership in action

Employees in companies that leverage an organizational management approach to people development often have a career advantage. As such, 80% of employed adults in the US. say that whether a company offers professional development opportunities is an important factor in deciding if they’ll accept a job offer, according to the American Staffing Association. However, just 39% say their current employer offers opportunities to build new skills or improve existing ones.

Here are three examples of companies that have leveraged coaching to adopt a culture of organizational management.

Organizational leadership example 1: Asics

The sports equipment company Asics learned from employee surveys that people in their company place high value on having opportunities to improve and grow. Historically, the company found coaching helpful, but impossible to scale in a way that would benefit people across the organization because most services were too expensive or only offered coaching in English — nonstarters for this multinational company.

Providing opportunities for learning and development

Asics wanted to take a people-first approach to business, and prioritizing the personal and professional well-being of employees was central to their strategy. They wanted to build strong, engaged teams, believing that it would lead to retention and broader business success. Asics is a multinational company with nearly 9,000 employees, so their professional development solution needed to be flexible, yet personalized, to meet the needs of each individual.

After partnering with CoachHub, Asics offered pilot programs that were mobile, flexible, personalized, and self-paced — and the results were impressive. Where professional development programs used by Asics in the past failed to inspire participants, the self-directed program provided by CoachHub engaged users at a high rate, helping individuals set and meet goals while building new skills. In fact, the vast majority of participants strongly agreed that what they did in the coaching will help them achieve the changes they want.

Organizational leadership example 2: Lacoste

With more organizations embracing remote and hybrid work models, it can be hard to do anything collectively, especially when employees are spread across continents and time zones. That was the challenge for the clothing brand Lacoste, which wanted to institute a professional development program for their workforce, which is spread across four continents.
Lacoste’s goal was to enable leaders within the company to learn from each other, share best practices, and create long-lasting relationships. In short, they wanted to develop a consistent organizational management style. Accomplishing this with a decentralized workforce seemed like a tall order, but represented a critical endeavor for the organization. By developing a culture of learning and knowledge-sharing at the company, Lacoste wanted to develop leaders, build a reservoir of collective intelligence for their employees, and create more consistency between cultural and managerial practices.

Building community for decentralized teams

In partnership with CoachHub, Lacoste’s first coaching program was launched for its international group of HR managers. Participants met with coaches monthly for six months through videoconferences. Coaching sessions focused on identifying common issues and shared best practices for their work. Following the success of the coaching program for HR managers, Lacoste has now expanded its offerings to include other areas of the business.

Participant feedback

Thanks to their coaching initiatives, Lacoste met its professional development goals. Participants learned from peers, established and employed best practices, and built lasting relationships with colleagues. The result was an increased feeling of belonging for individuals and improved retention rates for the company.
Learn more about how Lacoste’s partnership with CoachHub helped build connections and increase knowledge-sharing between employees around the world.

Organizational leadership example 3: SoundCloud

The music and audio streaming company SoundCloud has over 300 employees. They wanted to provide personalized professional development to their people — a difficult challenge of scale given the size of the organization. The challenge of scale was compounded by the fact that their employees are scattered around the world. They needed a flexible, high-quality learning and development solution that could be customized to meet the needs of the company and the people participating in professional development.

Customized approach

CoachHub was the perfect partner for SoundCloud; With the fast pace of technology advancements, the company needed a nimble, adaptable professional development approach that could help employees grow with the industry. CoachHub’s coaches come from various industries and provide the expertise teams need to stay on top of their game. Additionally, CoachHub’s software solution measures individual performance indicators for each coaching session, which allows employers to support individuals in their learning journey. For these reasons, a partnership with CoachHub was ideal for SoundCloud.
Learn more about how SoundCloud benefited from their partnership with CoachHub.

Create a culture of leadership

High-quality professional development programs are a win-win for organizations. They improve organizational leadership by helping individual contributors build new skills and excel in their jobs, while helping employers increase retention and grow their business. With results like that, there’s no telling what you can accomplish through a partnership with CoachHub.

How will creating a culture based on organizational management principles transform your organization?