AstraZeneca projected that its move to centralize and scale coaching would deliver cost savings of $4M USD.
The global pharmaceutical company’s success in embracing a coaching culture underpinned by a company-wide multi-pronged coaching strategy has seen it receive the International Coaching Federation (ICF) 2023 Distinguished Organization Coaching Impact Award. The award category celebrates businesses and organizations that have built strong coaching cultures and demonstrate the positive effects of coaching. The runner-up in this category was the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Coaching emerged as the solution to drive personal impact and collective success, after a survey in May 2020 of more than 80,000 employees, revealed that many considered the existing performance management approach to be backward-facing rather than future-focused. The company replaced its ad hoc approach to coaching with a formalized, integrated, future-focused coaching strategy aimed to facilitate professional development and business growth.
Coaches engaged with managers and employees including through interactive workshops and experiential learning to develop coaching competencies. Manager-as-coach and leader-as-coach programmes were introduced, and coaching was made available through employees’ working life cycle and for all career levels. AstraZeneca monitors participant demographics to ensure a diverse range of participants across all business areas.
According to Helen Basford, global capability lead for coaching, “The AstraZeneca coaching integration was truly a global campaign to learn how we can have great conversations with each other – but also with external partners, stakeholders, and most importantly patients” (quoted in a case study published on the ICF’s website).
According to AstraZeneca, its cultural transformation is now evident in the language used and the widespread adoption of a coaching mindset. Performance development experiences and leader development programmes were redesigned with coaching competencies at the core, with coaching focusing on increased employee engagement, accelerated leadership development, and improved communication skills. Some 89% of programme participants said they’ve improved or learned new skills, and have the opportunity for personal development (83%), with the promotion rate for participants at 34%. Interpersonal communication improved, with 45% of participants reporting a positive mindset towards performance development and sense of trust and safety within their teams.
Also on offer are coaching workshops, peer coaching forums, AI feedforward simulations, coaching masterclasses, and professional coaching engagements. The organization exclusively partners with ICF credentialed coaches for coaching interventions.