INSIGHT GUIDE #23

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

How can you weave culture into

coaching and leadership?
Weaving culture into coaching and leadership is crucial,
not only because cultural diversity is an integral part
of our reality, but because when coaches and leaders
tap into people’s intercultural potential they promote
creativity, boost performance and enable unity.
This guide presents ‘coaching across cultures’ and its
four interconnected levels of applications: individual,
team and organisational development, which in turn
contribute to societal progress by promoting unity in
diversity in place of division or uniformity.
This guide also introduces the cultural orientations
framework (COF), which is a roadmap to navigate the
cultural terrain.
Coaching across cultures: why and what for?
Traditional coaching and leadership have assumed a worldview
that is not universal and is increasingly insufficient to help address
the complex challenges in our turbulent, interconnected and
global environment. For example, communicating in a direct
manner prevents misunderstandings by favouring clarity, but may
inadvertently offend your coachee. Indirect communication, which
values sensitivity and harmony, can enrich your communication.
By combining the two polarities, for example by being clear on
the content and sensitive in your manner, you can achieve the
best of both forms of communication. Your conception of time
constitutes another example. If you consider that time is scarce,
you are likely to become more productive, but by cramming
activities into your agenda and by speeding up, you risk becoming
overwhelmed without necessarily spending time on what truly
matters. If you view time as plentiful, you are likely to slow down
and regain perspective, and may paradoxically better appreciate
the scarcity of time. Combining both perspectives will allow you
to be efficient (doing things right) as well as effective (doing the
right things).
Coaching across cultures has two objectives:
• As you might expect, it does enable more effective work
across cultures (though not only in an international sense)
• More fundamentally, intercultural coaching is in essence
a more creative and complete form of coaching (and
leadership). The approach challenges cultural assumptions
in all situations. It propels you and those you serve beyond
previous limitations. It offers new options in the form of
alternative ways of thinking, communicating, managing time
and engaging in your various activities (Rosinski, 2010: 121–2)
Figure 1 The Cultural Orientations Framework
SENSEOF
SENSE OFPOWER
POWERAND
AND RESPONSIBILITY
RESPONSIBILITY
Control/Harmony/Humility
DEFINITIONS OF IDENTITY AND PURPOSE
Being/Doing
Individualistic/Collectivistic
NOTIONS OF TERRITORY AND BOUNDARIES
Protective/Sharing
MODES OF THINKING
Deductive/Inductive
Analytical/Systemic
Consequently, if you think coaching across cultures is reserved
for those working on international assignments and travelling
abroad, or if you view intercultural coaching as a niche market
that concerns a minority of professionals (despite the rapid
globalisation of our economies), you might want to reconsider.
A dynamic and inclusive view of culture
‘A group’s culture is the set of unique characteristics that
distinguishes its members from another group’ (Rosinski, 2003:
20). Our national cultures, which are still the basis for many
intercultural comparisons, constitute only one of many groups
we belong to, alongside our professional cultures, organisational
cultures, generational cultures etc.
Our multiple cultures refer to our ‘nurture’ (what we have
learned along the way, in contact with our families, schools and
other social groups) and complement our ‘nature’ (what we are
born with).
Our cultural characteristics are both visible (behaviours, products
and artefacts) and invisible (norms, values and basic assumptions
or fundamental beliefs). They are not cast in stone: we can unlearn
or enrich what we have learned, and develop new characteristics
that allow us to more effectively address the challenges we
face. By increasing our cultural flexibility and versatility, we can
improve our work and relationships with others, as well as our own
fulfilment. In sum, coaching across cultures goes hand in hand with
a dynamic view of culture.
What is more, coaching across cultures challenges us to think
‘and’ versus ‘or’. Referring to the examples above, the goal is not to
replace direct communication with indirect communication, and
TIME-MANAGEMENT APPROACHES
Scarce/Plentiful
Monochronic/Polychronic
Past/Present/Future
ORGANISATIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
Hierarchy/Equality
Universalist/Particularist
Stability/Change
Competitive/Collaborative
COMMUNICATION PATTERNS
High Context/Low Context
Direct/Indirect
Affective/Neutral
Formal/Informal
OTHER
Your customised supplemental COF dimensions
scarce time with plentiful time, but to synthesise the polarities.
Coaching across cultures promotes inclusion in the form of
mutual enrichment (true unity) in place of either exclusion or bland
uniformity (in which disparities have been eliminated and which
constitutes an impoverishment).

Intercultural coaching is, in essence, a

more creative and complete form of
coaching and leadership.

A roadmap to navigate the cultural terrain

The COF (see Figure 1) is ‘an integrative framework designed
to assess and compare cultures’ (Rosinski, 2010: 123). It offers
a vocabulary to describe cultural characteristics in the form
of cultural orientations (a cultural orientation is an inclination
to think, feel or act in a way that is culturally determined, or at
least influenced by culture – direct and indirect communications
constitute examples).

The COF assessment is a measurement tool that ‘facilitates the

understanding of salient cultural characteristics for individuals,
teams and organizations’ (www.COFassessment.com). The tool
‘lets users view group cultural profiles in multiple, customizable
ways (e.g., team, organization as well as profiles per categories/
fields predefined by users, such as division, nationality,
management level, merging entities, etc.) and allows them to add
their own customized cultural dimensions to the 17 standard COF
dimensions’. Note that ‘intercultural coaching assumes a “multiple
realities” view of the world. Culture, from this perspective, is
highly contextual, dynamic and fluid. Capturing data through the
COF assessment in a particular moment is useful for generating
conversations and making sense of change processes, but not so
helpful in seeking definitive truths about individuals, groups, or
societies’ (Rosinski, 2010: 129).
Four interconnected levels of application
Intercultural coaching in general and the COF assessment in
particular can be applied at four interconnected levels:
1. Individual
If we want to have the expertise and the credibility to help
others on their developmental journeys, we need to be prepared
to work on ourselves first. The following questions can apply
for self-coaching (intrapersonal) as well as one-to-one
coaching (interpersonal):
• What are your cultural orientations?
• How do these orientations possibly vary depending on
the context?
• How do your cultural orientations impact the way you
coach/lead?
• What cultural orientations do you tend to overuse/underuse?
• What are your developmental opportunities?
2. Team
Cultural diversity is a double-edged sword. Poorly handled, it
becomes a source of polarisation, which drives team performance
down. Effectively exploited, it boosts creativity, facilitates
synergies, and increases performance and satisfaction (see
Rosinski, 2019: 132–4). Coaching across cultures allows leverage
of cultural diversity in practice: the intercultural team coaching
process as well as case studies are described in Rosinski, 2010:
134–41 and Rosinski, 2019: 128–59.
3. Organisation
‘Organizations rely on three mechanisms to
achieve growth: organic growth, alliances,
and mergers and acquisitions (M&As).
Unfortunately, a high percentage of both
alliances and M&As break down prematurely,
failing to deliver the expected strategic
benefits and inflicting financial damage on
both partners. The main reason for failure
is the human factor in general and culture in
particular’
(Rosinski, 2010: 141).
Coaching across cultures allows transformation of the problem
into an opportunity. When those in charge are ready to champion
the process, synergies can be deployed as exemplified in Rosinski,
2010: 141–7. The COF assessment can be used as a cultural audit
tool to compare the cultures at play. Cultural gaps, having been
identified, can be systematically bridged. Cultural similarities
are examined as well to ensure that the alternative polarities,
potentially beneficial, are not missed.
4. Society
By promoting unity in diversity, coaching across cultures
contributes to much-needed societal progress.
Henley Centre for Coaching The Henley coaching team consists of leading practitioners and
academics who have shaped the coaching profession since the
The Henley Centre for Coaching is a global leader in coaching
late 1990s. They have written many of the most popular coaching
research and coach training. We are the only triple-accredited
books and they continue to publish in leading management
coaching provider in the world offering both postgraduate
journals and to contribute at conferences worldwide. Their writing,
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thinking and research informs our teaching and ensures our
Association for Coaching (AC), the International Coach Federation
programmes are at the cutting edge of coaching practice.
(ICF) and the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC).
The Centre offers annual membership to all professional coaches,
The Centre provides formal accredited coach training through
providing a virtual-learning environment where the members
our Professional Certificate in Coaching and MSc in Coaching and
shape research and practice in coaching. Check out our website
Behavioural Change, and accredited supervision training through
for details on how we can help you and your business come to life.
our Professional Certificate in Supervision. These programmes
are delivered in the UK at our Greenlands campus, and at venues
across the world.

The Centre provides continuous professional development Philippe Rosinski

for coaching professionals through masterclasses, webinars,
conferences, and via online access to journals, ebooks and Philippe is an author, consultant and visiting
coaching research. These are all delivered through our online fellow at the Henley Centre for Coaching.
learning platform, meaning coaches can connect from anywhere
in the world to engage in professional development.

References
Rosinski, P (2003) Coaching Across Cultures. London and Yarmouth, ME: Rosinski, P (2019) Delivering value through cross-cultural team coaching. In:
Nicholas Brealey Publishing J Passmore, B Underhill & M Goldsmith (eds) Mastering Executive Coaching.
Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge, pp130–59.
Rosinski, P (2010) Global Coaching. London and Boston: Nicholas
Brealey Publishing

Henley Business School

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