Leader as Coach: The Power of Coaching Culture

​Laurel Elders, MCC, CEC (00:01)
Welcome everyone to our leader as coach podcast series. We equip organizational leaders with insights to develop their excellence in coaching. I'm Laurel Elders with the Institute for Integrative Intelligence. We're an ICF accredited level one and level two provider where it's our passion to elevate human potential through both the art and the science of masterful coaching. My cohost today is Michael Tucker. Michael is an executive coach.

a senior partner here at the Institute and also one of our senior faculty members. And today we are very excited to be interviewing Michael Sokolowski. Michael, welcome.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (00:43)
Thank you for having me.

Laurel Elders, MCC, CEC (00:46)
Michael is a PCC coach, Lieutenant Commander and CFO with the U S Navy. brings over 20 years of leadership experience to the healthcare industry. In addition to being a coach like leader in his current position, he's also an executive coach as well. We've invited him today because of his rich background with successfully implementing a coaching culture. So today's topic is no surprise coaching culture. And let's go ahead and dive in.

Michael Tucker, PCC (01:17)
Yeah, Michael, thank you so much for being with us today. This has been a long, long time coming. I'm really excited about our time together.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (01:24)
And thank you for inviting me. It's a pleasure to be here with both of you.

Michael Tucker, PCC (01:28)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, why don't we just start off with some of the basics. Tell us a little bit about your background, and how you became the leader that you are today.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (01:40)
Sure. So as Laurel mentioned in my bio, I'm a comptroller and one of the Navy's largest hospitals and I have over 20 years of experience and as a chief financial officer, I implement strategy and finances here for organization to ensure our growth and sustainability to take care of our beneficiaries here in Southern California. I grew up though in the military as an enlisted corpsman and I went through a whole development pipeline with that.

And along the way, we learned a lot of leadership training, core specialty training, and then going into the officer community, of course, you get educational requirements put on top of that. So coming up was a lot of ground level leadership, front line management, and going more into progressive leadership roles, increasing in scope and responsibility leading to where I am today.

Michael Tucker, PCC (02:33)
Yeah, that's really exciting. So you and I, completed our coaching program together and I never knew that you came up through the holistic ranks. So this is really exciting to learn and I'm sure there's so many stories that you could share with us about that. But when it comes to coaching, like what was it that made you to decide that...

becoming an ICF credential coach was the thing for you to do at this point in your life.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (03:04)
Yeah, that's a great question. as I mentioned, we do a lot of learning and development in the military. And one of the things that I had the opportunity to go to was a national conference in Chicago. And while I was there, I was listening to a speaker from the Cleveland Health Clinic. And they're one of the top organizations in the US in providing good quality care. And I was interested to learn from this leader there who said that they had coaching built into their leadership programs. I didn't know what coaching was.

So what I did is I looked a little bit into it. Didn't really know where to go, but like most things, you understand it and you bank the information and you move on with life, right? That's kind of what a lot of us do. Fast forward a few years later, and I'm in our regional headquarters and I'm helping our new admiral get on boarded. And like a good aid, I'm going through his calendar and I see coaching. And I thought, what is coaching? Here it is again, what is this? But it wasn't an everyday or every other day kind of a thing.

coaching with your kids, so it was different. Fortunately, he was a great leader. He had a coaching mindset already, and so he invited me to sit down and we spoke about it. He said, yeah, the military, give new admirals the opportunity to be coached and help set up their plan and really formalize their development track as they're coming into this new position. And I thought,

Isn't that interesting that we have a great leadership development track for people of influence, but where are we at the ground level on this? Like, how do we bring this to the front line? As I mentioned, I was enlisted. I never heard of this before. So how do we make that connection? So I went and looked into it more, and I realized that the DOD was doing something about it. And so I went ahead and I signed up for a master's program. That's the one that you and I did. And of course, this is during the COVID.

year, right? A lot of things were happening during COVID. So we took coaching while I was going through the program. And during the program, you actually have to work with people to develop those hours. And so I partnered with various leaders in our organization using coaching practicum. And we actually used it to get through a lot of challenging situations. We were able to secure funding necessary to take care of our patients, move forward with big projects that were just never thought of before.

It was all outside the box thinking that was highlighted and reinforced with these coach like skills. You know, and I was new in my training at the time. So even with that little bit of training, I was able to make a big difference with the organization in terms of getting our leaders together and thinking beyond the lens that they were every day. And throughout that journey, in the two years since I started doing that training to when I left Japan, we had no deaths from COVID on an entire island, no American deaths. And that was an amazing feat because as you know,

code was a huge killer at that time. Now I can't say that coaching was the reason why we had such great success solely. Obviously there's a lot of factors into it, but I saw such a huge compelling evidence from what I was doing on that and the people that I was coaching with that I thought I have to keep this momentum going forward.

So at that time I earned my ACC and I've since gone on and continue to work with DOD professionals and earned my PCC, which as you know, PCC has over 500 hours of coaching. So that's a lot of investment in our leaders here.

Michael Tucker, PCC (06:25)
Yeah, wow. You know, what stands out to me about your story was the fact that you got exposed to this at a conference and then you saw this coaching on the Admiral's time on his calendar. And that just stoked your curiosity and you just have built this...

this desire for coaching and going on to get your PCC from there. So I love to hear like all these kinds of synchronicities. And I'm curious if there are other synchronicities that stood out to you as you've begun to develop your coach-like leadership style.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (07:06)
And so I'll say that one thing I was remiss to add in that conversation was that this wasn't something I did on my own. While I was going on this journey, I reached out to figure out how we can get this to a broader scope. And I was able to partner with our personal headquarters and found a team that was working on this. And they were working on a brand new initiative called the My Navy Coaching Initiative. And this is something that we were able to put to ground.

and get out for over 400,000 active duty and reservists throughout the world. And so while it's still growing and learning, getting brought into our organizations, it's one of these new initiatives that's really, you can take anybody from, I would say on the deck plates, as we call it in the military, somebody that's working on that frontline, all the way back up into Pentagon levels. mean, anybody can be a coach, as you know, and we use those coach-like skills everywhere. And so looking at that perspective,

If we can start bridging those connections in terms of getting those coach-like behaviors established within the workplace, it opens up and broadens our ability to really define that coaching culture that we're seeking.

Michael Tucker, PCC (08:18)
Wow, I think it's amazing that the military is using this technology in the way that they're doing it. mean, we have the best military in the world, and this is what they're doing to keep it that way.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (08:33)
Right. And one of the things that we talk about often right now is really that resilience. And how do you build resilience in your troops? And so we all face the same common problems right now. We have personal issues. Everybody has something that they're working on in their home or professional life. all have challenges. And so the military members aren't different. They're not unique in the sense that they're going through challenges as well.

And so how do you build resilience? And that's really what the coaching initiative is on our perspective. It's really bridging those connections, creating engagement, fostering bi-directional feedback, and so people can have those conversations and really get real with the situation so they can get better.

Laurel Elders, MCC, CEC (09:18)
I'm too, what are some of your favorite results that you've seen from this shift into coach-like leadership and being a part of a coaching culture?

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (09:28)
I will have a lot of great results that I can think of. And I mentioned one with COVID and more recent example was one where we're going through a large cost saving initiative. As you know, right now, the government's looking to save money, they want to make sure those taxpayers are taken care of. They want to make sure that that money is going to where it needs to go. And so we actually use coaching here in our financial resource office to look at all of our programs. And using these coaching matrices that we have, we were able to identify

a large savings opportunity for us, which really helped stabilize what we had at the time. And we were able to reinvest that into new opportunities that really helped deliver higher qualities of care for our patient. And so in that sense, we were able to take key stakeholders and help them look at ways that they weren't really accustomed to and to break past those barriers. Because as you know, coaching is all about finding new pathways and enlightenment, getting those aha moments. And we had several of those in that situation. We're working on a team that way.

On a micro level, we use it daily. So we have team huddles. We meet regularly with our supervisors. And we ask questions. It's not just, how was your day? But what challenges are you facing? And how do you know that to be true? And in what ways can you think of that differently? Just as basic questions that you have in a workplace, it just leads to powerful changes. And that's just something that we see on a day-to-day basis.

Michael Tucker, PCC (10:52)
Yeah, that's Michael, you know, it's it's so amazing to hear you say all of this because I've known you for a couple of years now and I've always known about your passion for coaching, but I've never had the opportunity to really sit down and listen to you just share so deeply about your experience with coaching and the Navy. And I'm curious when you think about some of the the the future.

work that may be there for the Navy around coaching. What are you seeing in the future there?

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (11:26)
Well, it's one thing to say that you're using coaching skills. It's another thing to get it out into the workforce. And so recently, the military has come up with a Get Real, Get Better plan. And that is a model that we take to heart. Because it really is, if you look at it, it's getting real. And that's addressing and saying, you know what? I have the self-awareness to say, what is the issue that I'm facing right now? What is this? That embracing the red is what they call it. And it's not from a stress or something like that.

But really to say, look, if I'm looking at an issue right now, I'm going to own it. I'm going to think about it. And I'm going to say, you know what? What's my role in this? And how do I address this at my level? How do I take ownership of it? So that's that just getting real with what you have. And the getting better part now comes into saying, I may not be able to do this on my own. As a leader, I do have the responsibility. But how do I get everybody behind me? How do I rally the troops in that sense? How do we move forward together?

And so getting better is about that plan of action. And so what the My Navy coaching utilizes is what's called the grow model. And that comes from Sir John Whitmore, his estate loaned that over to the military to use. And that grow model is well known in the coaching community. That's your goals, reality, options, and will. And when you're looking at that as really, what is your goal of this opportunity that's right here? The reality of that situation, what do we really have in front of us? The opportunities.

with the options and the will is really the accountability plan, the monitoring and evaluation. You can say grow me in that sense. So that's something that the military is using and we've implemented into our performance plans in that sense and we're really looking at how we get it to paper so people can look at this information, pick it up and move forward with it wherever you are in the world.

Michael Tucker, PCC (13:14)
Yeah, that is fantastic. And so how does a military member enroll in the training for being a coach or being coached?

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (13:26)
That's a great question. So we have a public facing website for my Navy coaching and right on it you can click a button and it says request to coach request training and that information gets put out to whoever it needs to get to. And once that's received that person has opportunity to sign up. Now part of the program this initiative that we have is it does have people be trained and we get these learning qualifications and we teach it. For example that's what I do here is I teach these workshops.

And I get people ranging in size of maybe six people. And we've done a class with over 100 in it. And during these opportunities, we're able to break off into small groups and really go through the material and practice these conversations out. And we get a lot of great feedback from it. And some people even say it's the most impactful course that they've taken during their career. So it's one of those things where they can sign up relatively easily. And it's also supported by their leadership as well.

Laurel Elders, MCC, CEC (14:25)
That's so exciting to me because when I first started coaching, you know, people say, what do you do? say, I'm a coach and they say, what sport? Right. And that is shifting, as more companies and organizations and military are adopting, you know, leader as coach and coaching skills.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (14:47)
Yeah, it's really exciting to watch the transformation. There are, like I said, since I joined over 20 years ago, we've really gone to hands-on leadership. Some people would even call it closer to micromanagement because it's all about here's what's defined for you. You move forward with what has been laid out with the plan. You execute.

That works in a lot of situations. I mean you don't want to be coaching on the battlefield when rounds are coming down at you You don't want to say what challenges are you facing right now? You have to get that person down on the ground and take cover, right? So there are application periods where coaching doesn't work and thinking back on where we came from We've grown so much from that to say, know There are there are times when you can have a conversation with somebody and really expand that learning and awareness And in that sense, I think leadership at all levels are learning that

Coaching is one of the primary skills that you can develop as you continue to progress and I really believe that emotional intelligence is the number one skill that leaders can develop as they move forward.

Michael Tucker, PCC (15:49)
That's fantastic. So Michael, just in wrapping this conversation up, if there was any piece of advice that you would like to impart on an organization that's thinking about building out a culture and culture, what would you say to them?

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (16:11)
Work with your passion, for one. There's a lot of passion behind this, but people are going to be passionate about what leadership cares about. So it really starts at the top, finding those passionate people to implement it, and then really finding ways to get it to all levels. Because if you want something to move forward, it's a partnership from top to bottom, and the organization has to want it. Now, organizations may not know they want it yet, but if you look at the compelling evidence behind it,

and you're looking at the return on investment of it, a small amount invested into coaching can create huge returns for that organization. And we see that both in the government side and the civilian side.

Michael Tucker, PCC (16:51)
fantastic.

Laurel Elders, MCC, CEC (16:54)
Can you share a little bit more about what you do as an executive coach?

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (16:59)
Sure, as an executive coach, what I do, I mentioned about the military. One thing I do as executive coach is I also work on partnerships for organization. The DOD has a coaching community, and the federal network has a coaching community as well. So as an executive coach, not only do I help develop our internal programs here, but I also partner with our external agencies beyond the Department of Defense. And this way we can share information in terms of what we are all doing.

by partnering with federal level DOD partners, looking at other agencies like Army, Air Force, what are we all doing? And then also working with our local coaching chapters because the International Coaching Federation is where we go through accreditation as you see with our PCC, MCC titles. And so I partner with our local San Diego chapter on that and we look at partnering and bringing our military together here and having them learn and co-learn.

with their coaching partners in the Southern California area. as executive coach, I'm all about getting partnerships, bringing people together, and finding ways to help our leaders and sailors develop here.

Michael Tucker, PCC (18:12)
Yeah, fantastic. Well, Michael, thank you so much for spending time with us today and sharing about your experience with the coaching culture, with the Navy. I just, I'm absolutely inspired to hear you share these things because when I was active duty, we didn't have this kind of program. And I know that probably some people would say that, you know, coaching could maybe feel, be touchy feely.

And that might be an opinion that some folks have, but I can assure you, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this as we get out of here.

In my experience, that hasn't been the case. And I'm curious of what you've seen in that regard.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (18:56)
in terms of the touchy feely.

Michael Tucker, PCC (18:57)
Right, right. It's, it's just touchy feely and Generation Z and.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (19:03)
So I'll give you an example. So I mentioned I was teaching a course with over 100 sailors into it. My audience, they're very operationally focused, that class that I taught. And think of people that continually work with maybe weapons and hands-on things like that. So they are very focused on that mentality, like you said. Touchy feely doesn't really work with that. And one of the senior leaders mentioned to me, he said,

sir, what am I supposed to do when I have somebody that isn't getting their job done and they're not getting it done right and I need to get in there and I need to lock them in? I said you have the perfect opportunity to lead that person with your managerial style. Now, like I said, coaching is not there to correct people. We don't use corrective coaching to get in there and make them better. It's not a making thing. Coaching is here to partner and move forward. So there is

a place for coaching, but it doesn't solve all things. Like I said, you're not going to arm wrestle your way to a coaching win. This is something that is a real partnership. you lock arms together, move forward.

Michael Tucker, PCC (20:17)
Thanks again Michael and it's been a pleasure having you today.

Michael Sokolowski, FACHE, PCC (20:22)
Yeah, it's been a pleasure and really thank you for having me here.

Michael Tucker, PCC (20:25)
Absolutely.

Laurel Elders, MCC, CEC (20:27)
Thank you, Michael, so much. This was just excellent. So illuminating to just learn from you and get your inspiring stories. So thanks everyone for joining. We hope today's discussion has equipped you with some new insights into the results and benefits of adopting a coaching culture. And at the Institute, we're here to help leaders and organizations increase business performance and leadership impact by developing coaching talent and creating coaching cultures. You can learn more.

by visiting us at integrativeintelligence.global and we hope to see you next time. Thank you.