007-How to Build a Coaching Culture Through Everyday Conversations

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Key Points Discussed in the Episode 
• A coaching culture is built through everyday conversations, not formal titles or programs.
• Listening with curiosity builds trust and opens the door to meaningful dialogue.
• Powerful questions help others reflect, shift perspective, and take ownership—especially when emotions are not heightened.
• Coaching is about empowering others, not solving their problems for them.
• Reflection without judgment fosters accountability and growth.
• Setting SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) provides direction and momentum.
• Creating a safe space encourages vulnerability, risk-taking, and learning.
• Coaching conversations should be timed appropriately—use reflective listening when emotions are high.
• Culture change starts small: one person, one conversation, one intentional shift at a time.

AI-generated dictation of the podcast audio

Please note that this transcription was completed using AI software.  Occasionally, unanticipated grammatical, syntax, homophones, and other interpretive errors are inadvertently transcribed by the software. Please excuse any errors that have escaped final proofreading.

KATIE TROTTER: 0:01

When we shift how we engage with others, even in these really small ways, we are starting to shape the culture around us.

ADAM SALGAT: 0:10

Welcome to Beyond the Class, from Knowledge to Action, the audio cast that helps Chapman Foundation alumni continue the journey of applying the skills they’ve built and turning them into practical, intentional actions for everyday life. I’m your host, Adam Sulven, and today we’re diving into a topic that’s been buzzing in leadership circles for a while now, coaching culture. That being said, maybe you’ve heard this sentiment before. We need to build a coaching culture. And then maybe you’ve asked yourself, what does that actually mean? Why does it matter? Can it bring my team closer together? Will it improve performance? And how do we do it without adding yet another layer of complexity to our already full plates? Joining me again to give insight on all of those questions and also to answer how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood is Katie Trotter, Chief Program Officer at the Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities. Katie, welcome back.

KATIE TROTTER: 1:08

Thanks for having me, Adam. I am incredibly excited to unpack this topic. It’s one that for me is both practical and powerful. And one of the things that I appreciate about this coaching culture concept is that it doesn’t require a specific title or even a formal program for people to get started. I will say I’m hoping that we will get to cover almost all of the questions that you posed, but I’m not entirely sure I’ll be very helpful with the wood chuck question.

ADAM SALGAT: 1:35

That’s completely fair. And I do guess that riddle just goes on another day without a without a concrete answer then. So let’s focus in, let’s get started, and let’s get started with the basics. When people hear coaching culture, they might think of a formal coaching session or leadership retreats, but as you just suggested, it’s more accessible than that. Can you break it down for us?

KATIE TROTTER: 1:57

A coaching culture is really about how we show up in our everyday interactions with the people around us. It’s about listening with curiosity, asking thoughtful questions, and supporting ownership. You don’t need a certification or a new job title. You just need intention, which I feel like is a word we often bring up on this audio cast. When we shift how we engage with others, even in these really small ways, we are starting to shape the culture around us.

ADAM SALGAT: 2:25

This reminds me of the sentiment be the change you want to see in the world.

KATIE TROTTER: 2:29

Yes, I love that. Anytime I talk with people about shifting culture, we can talk about the fact that there are some parts that are systematic or procedural, right? If you really want to focus on coaching, you might name coaching as an organizational skill. You might make sure people have training and then check in on progress in your job performance reviews. But at the same time, since culture is formed in all of those small day-to-day moments, every single person is able to start actively creating the culture that they want to see more of. I had a person I was in a conversation with one time who words it as focusing on their corner of the world. And that’s a comment that’s really stuck with me.

ADAM SALGAT: 3:11

I do love that. Yeah, that’s a great way to think of it too. And one of the first shifts or first tips that we’re going to bring up here is listening with curiosity. That sounds simple, but it’s not always that easy. What does it look like in practice?

KATIE TROTTER: 3:27

It really does require us to be fully present and reflective. So instead of jumping in with our advice for a person or all of those brilliant solutions that pop into our brain, we’re really going to try to instead say things like, What I’m hearing is, or it sounds like. And when we use phrases like that, it can show that we’re truly listening and that their perspective matters. We’re trying to really understand what it is that they’re saying. And that type of listening is what really helps us as leaders to build trust and can really open the door for honest and meaningful conversations.

ADAM SALGAT: 4:01

That’s an opportunity then to really build deep connections. But what else can it do?

KATIE TROTTER: 4:05

Curiosity can help us to shift from thinking of ourselves as a problem solver and instead think of ourselves as a people grower. If I just want to fix something, I’m just going to give my advice or give my solution. But if I’m really wanting to build up other people to lead, then I want to be curious about them. I want to be curious about how they are thinking about the challenge they have. What framework are they using to make their decisions? What is the lens that they’re looking through that is informing the way that they see that problem? So that curiosity allows us to really grow people in a better way.

ADAM SALGAT: 4:42

This listening with curiosity concept reminds me of utilizing our reflective listening skills that we learned in our community listens, specifically reflective response, right? So do you mind giving us a quick reminder of the five reflective listening skills?

KATIE TROTTER: 4:57

Oh, I love it that you give pop quizzes right in the middle of one of these. Uh yes, there are five reflective listening skills of attending behaviors, acknowledgments, and those can be both verbal or nonverbal, silence, door openers, and then as you mentioned, Adam, that reflective response. And we always mention that it’s critical that all five of those are wrapped in empathy.

ADAM SALGAT: 5:20

Thanks, Katie. You passed the pop quiz. Well done. And uh for our listeners out there, we do have a five-minute skill snippet around this topic from a few years ago. I will put that link in the description if anyone wants to go check it out and dig a little deeper and have an expanded view of the five reflective listening skills. Next, you suggest asking powerful questions. Can you explain how powerful questions are different than reflectively responding with curiosity?

KATIE TROTTER: 5:46

Yes, I have found powerful questions to be an incredibly helpful tool, but it is an artful balance of when to use them. So I I always like to say my first default is still reflective listening.

ADAM SALGAT: 6:01

Awesome.

KATIE TROTTER: 6:01

Oftentimes that space of just being fully present and listening is enough for the other person to come up with their own solution or to vent through the emotions they’re experiencing. That being said, sometimes a person is feeling, for lack of a better term, just stuck and they don’t really have a lot of emotion around it, or maybe they’re struggling to come up with a new or different perspective on a challenge they’ve been wrestling with for a while. Those are just some great moments to pull out powerful questions.

ADAM SALGAT: 6:30

I think I have a few examples in my mind of what you’re talking about, about the idea of feeling stuck and hearing people kind of, you know, bring things up often. But can you give us a few examples?

KATIE TROTTER: 6:41

Absolutely. Uh so if you have a person who’s venting about a hundred reasons, they’re bothered by another team member, you could ask, what is the most challenging part of all of that for you? If a person is hesitant to try a new thing or to learn a new skill, a powerful question example might be, what do you risk if you don’t take this opportunity? And when a person feels like they have little to no control over a crappy situation, powerful questions can help shift the focus on what they can control by asking something like, What’s important to you about how you want to show up in this challenge? You might be able to tell Adam, like, we need more time because I could talk about these for hours. They can be used in so many different settings.

ADAM SALGAT: 7:24

Sounds like we could do an entire audio cast on just powerful questions. Absolutely. Um, but I and I really love these examples, but I’m curious if you do have like a real life coaching moment when you’ve used powerful questions. And could you talk a little bit about that outcome?

KATIE TROTTER: 7:37

Yeah, I was actually working for a different organization earlier on in my career, and I was supervising a leader who frequently would come into my office to ask questions, um, get my thoughts, get my opinions, get some guidance on moving forward. And partway through this process, I started realizing that when I was just solving all of the problems, really what I was teaching that team member was what you do when you have a problem is take it to somebody else. And so I started using some of this shift to curiosity, using some coaching and powerful questions, having them maintain the ownership of the solution and driving that forward. And Adam, it was less than a year and they were fully on their own running their own department after that.

ADAM SALGAT: 8:22

That’s outstanding. Really giving them the opportunity instead of feeling like they’re just going to come to you for an answer, or you’re teaching them to not be reliant, is what I’m hearing also.

KATIE TROTTER: 8:31

Absolutely. And it was amazing to see and also humbling as a leader to realize um, I mean, I didn’t have any ill intent, but if we’re not utilizing these coaching skills, in some ways we’re really limiting the growth of the people around us.

ADAM SALGAT: 8:43

That’s a great way to put it too. As an organization, can you tell me where we first introduce powerful questions?

KATIE TROTTER: 8:50

Yeah, in our courses, we first talk about powerful questions in our community serves class, and then we do a deeper dive and include some actual coaching practice with peers and our community transforms.

ADAM SALGAT: 9:02

Awesome. So there’s opportunity for alumni out there to check those classes out and see if anything fits within your schedule for the next step. All right, our next part of a coaching culture that we’re going to discuss is supporting ownership. I heard you mention it just in that story that you shared. You have shared that reflection without judgment helps build accountability. Can you expand on that?

KATIE TROTTER: 9:25

Definitely. And I I do like to say this ownership part with powerful questions and in that piece, it really does require a high level of skill because you have to make sure that no judgment is coming through also in your tone and your other nonverbals, right? So even if you’re picking the right words, I just like to remind everybody, like we cover in our community listens, most of your message is coming through your nonverbals. So when we’re focused on questions that are based around allowing the other person to keep ownership or explore ownership, sometimes it’s not even on their radar. Let’s take an example. Let’s say you have a team member who had a really bad experience with a coworker and they’re just focused on what the other person did wrong. A couple of powerful question examples could be, hey, in that situation, what else could you have done? Or how might your response have added to the tension? So in those examples, what we’re doing is we’re inviting people to reflect. It’s not about blame, it’s about growth. And over time, as you create this space for people, they can start to build confidence and helps people to take the wheel in their own development. Which, Adam, I feel like we’ve recently talked about ownership mindset on the audio cast.

ADAM SALGAT: 10:37

Yeah, we have actually two episodes ago. It focused directly on how to develop an ownership mindset within ourselves. How to look for that 2% we can own, even if failure largely landed on someone else or maybe another department.

KATIE TROTTER: 10:52

Yes, that’s right. And one of the differences that I would see in that, right? In that audio cast, we’re looking at ownership mindset through the lens of me internally, how can I look at all of these different situations to see where I can personally take ownership? When we’re talking about it through this coaching lens, it’s really about creating a space for someone else to consider looking at different ways that they could take ownership. So there is a little bit of a differentiation there. And we want to make sure that we don’t, in our own coaching conversations, start to turn it to be about us.

ADAM SALGAT: 11:26

Yep, that’s a great reminder. Yeah, we don’t want to bring in too much of what we’ve been through because that can kind of shift the focus, right? So if you’re interested in learning more about developing your own ownership mindset, check into episode five of Beyond the Class. Just came out this last August. I’ll put the link in the description of this episode as well. I believe there’s an element that we should quickly bring up when we’re talking about using reflective listening and listening with curiosity and utilizing powerful questions. And that to me has to do with someone’s emotion, the logic emotion bubble. When is the right time to bring in coaching? Can you touch on that?

KATIE TROTTER: 12:04

Yeah, I love Adam that you brought up the emotion logic bubble, right? So this idea of when a person is filled with emotion, they’re not using all of those beautiful logic parts of their brain in the way that they can when they get back into balance. And so if you’re coaching and you’re asking some powerful questions, right, it’s a challenge that they don’t have a lot of emotion around. It’s not uncommon that all of a sudden in the middle of that coaching, you will see the person start to experience heightened emotion again. And as soon as that happens, we always want to rock back into that reflective listening. Anytime there’s heightened emotion, that should always be where we go first so that the person can get back into balance before you would consider asking another powerful question.

ADAM SALGAT: 12:45

Awesome. Great reminder. Let’s move on to our next tip, and that is focused around goals. One of the ways to build a coaching culture is to set goals. You mentioned SMART goals before, which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. How does it fit into coaching culture?

KATIE TROTTER: 13:05

Despite what some people still struggle with, coaching is not just about conversation. It’s not just let’s just sit and talk about all of these things forever and ever. It’s about movement. So setting clear goals really gives us direction and momentum. So when we help someone identify what success looks like and what might get in the way, we’re setting them up for progress. And I love that because it’s it’s practical, but it’s also empowering for people.

ADAM SALGAT: 13:31

If you don’t mind, I I can jump in here because recently I’ve been setting SMART goals for myself on a weekly basis. I spend time each Friday, scope out my next week, and sometimes even the following week, and then I share them with my leader.

KATIE TROTTER: 13:44

That’s a great approach, Adam. I’m curious, what’s that been doing for you?

ADAM SALGAT: 13:48

Yeah, for me, it’s really been creating a strong sense of accountability and even a deeper sense of accomplishment. Because at the end of the week, the week that I planned out, I get to see all the things that I had set forth and have clearly finished them. Setting SMART goals for me has made a difference in my productivity, which is contributing directly to the organization, which is ultimately helping us grow.

KATIE TROTTER: 14:11

Ah, Adam, right there. I think you just touched on one of your questions from the very beginning, right? Will developing a coaching culture improve performance? And clearly, in your example that you gave, setting those SMART goals with your leader is really making a difference. And I truly believe that taking the time to do this step is something that would make a difference for a lot of other people as well.

ADAM SALGAT: 14:31

Yes. And I I agree with you. And I encourage if you’re struggling to find motivation, start setting a couple SMART goals, even just one or two a week, and see see how it starts to snowball for you. Because that’s exactly what it’s been doing for me. The next area we want to cover is creating a safe place to grow. That feels like a heart of a coaching culture, if you ask me.

KATIE TROTTER: 14:52

Yes, I growth just it requires vulnerability. I’ve not found a way around it yet. But when we celebrate progress and take time to recognize effort that people are making and make space for that meaningful work, people can feel really supported. And when people start to feel that sense of safety, they’re more willing to lean in, take some risks, and try some new things.

ADAM SALGAT: 15:15

You just mentioned taking risks and learning. I mean, that’s exactly what we’re talking about here is that this coaching is helping us move forward. And I love that, you know, you bring that up and doing that in a safe place. I mean, that seems like a wonderful, wonderful space to be in, to be able to do that.

KATIE TROTTER: 15:32

Yeah, Adam, I think about even within our organization, how often we’ve practiced coaching. Like it feels more natural now. But the first few times that I approached a leader to get some coaching when I was stuck or uncertain about something, it can feel kind of scary. You’re wondering how much to share and how much to open up. And after you have a few moments where you truly feel like the person’s not judging you, it’s just a safe space to kind of process through what’s happening and figure out a path forward. It makes it so much easier for me now to not waste time struggling and instead just go seek out the coaching a little bit sooner.

ADAM SALGAT: 16:06

That’s awesome. And I love hearing you talk about how it’s being done without judgment and you start to feel comfortable and you can move forward as a team. Okay, let’s wrap these tips up with a powerful reminder that this shift doesn’t have to be huge or immediate. It can start with one person making one small change. And to me, that’s encouraging. As you know, Katie, I love positivity.

KATIE TROTTER: 16:31

Exactly. You do not need permission or to wait for that perfect coaching program to get rolled out by your leadership. You just need to choose to show up a little bit differently. Just kind of really thinking about how do you want to impact your corner of the world.

ADAM SALGAT: 16:52

Katie, let’s concisely recap these six tips to help create a coaching culture. Can you please give me number one through three?

KATIE TROTTER: 17:01

Absolutely. Let’s talk about listening with curiosity, asking those powerful questions when emotions aren’t heightened, and supporting ownership.

ADAM SALGAT: 17:11

And then number four, five, and six.

KATIE TROTTER: 17:14

Work towards clear goals, make it safe to grow, and take it one step at a time.

ADAM SALGAT: 17:21

If you didn’t have opportunity to write those six tips down, don’t worry. They are listed in the description of this audio cast, and I will have the link to the blog. I always love to give you the chance to provide our audience with a level up opportunity. So go for it, Katie.

KATIE TROTTER: 17:36

I’d encourage everyone listening to think about one conversation that you’ll have this week, maybe with a teammate, a friend, or a family member, and ask yourself, how can I show up with more curiosity and less control? That one small shift could be the start of something powerful.

ADAM SALGAT: 17:54

So if you’re ready to deepen your leadership journey and help build a coaching-centered culture, reach out to us about becoming a caring workplace. Or on your own individual journey, you could sign up for our community transforms. It’s a powerful way to grow your skills and connect with others doing the same.

KATIE TROTTER: 18:12

And if this episode resonated with you, share it with a colleague or friend. Let’s keep the ripple going.

ADAM SALGAT: 18:18

Katie, thank you so much for being on the audio cast today. I’m grateful for your time.

KATIE TROTTER: 18:22

Adam, I always enjoy it. Thanks for having me.

ADAM SALGAT: 18:25

So until next time, we’re inviting you to walk your path with intention because you are the message. Take care, my friends.