Each year the American Society for Training & Development recognizes individuals and teams who advance the knowledge of the workplace learning and performance profession and contribute to workforce capability and organizational competitiveness through their exemplary practices. Their work inspires and informs us all, and their accomplishments demonstrate how learning drives the performance of businesses and organizations worldwide.  

The Excellence in Practice category recognizes organizations for results achieved through learning and performance solutions. Awards are presented for proven practices that have delivered measurable results, and Citations are presented for practices from which much can be learned.

Here are this year's citations in the area of coaching and mentoring.

**Abu Dhabi Police General Headquarters – Education Department

Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Coaching and Mentoring**

As a part of the government’s “Emiratization” initiative, a Scholarship Program was developed to enhance the level of education of UAE citizens and to prepare them for more challenging positions in government organizations by sending them to study at overseas universities. At the beginning of the program, the Education Branch advised students on the preparation of all documents required for registration in overseas universities, as well as coordination with the relevant overseas university and the UAE embassy abroad. There was no established process of guiding, coaching, and mentoring the candidates as they moved from an Arab culture to a Western one. Problems, complaints, and issues surfaced as the number of delegates increased year by year.

The solution implemented a three-phase Coaching and Mentoring practice to support, guide, and motivate the candidates throughout their entire journey—before departure, during the time abroad, and after graduation. The process has lifted morale, increased confidence, and boosted the students’ academic performance. This also resulted in an increased level of satisfaction among stakeholders, improved employee performance outcomes, more professional and mature decision-making by the students, and a worthy return on investment for the organization.

**Emirates NBD Bank

****Dubai, United Arab Emirates

****Rocket Consultancy

****United Kingdom

**Certified Coach Program

In an increasingly competitive market, establishing a coaching culture across Emirates NBD bank was seen as a crucial element in enabling the bank’s retail business to enhance its service to customers and engage all employees in the long term success of the bank. Branch Managers were to create and sustain a service culture by engaging and developing employees, and the company’s top leadership sought support from the Learning and Development department in building their capabilities. A diagnostic study involving focus groups and leadership interviews determined the issues and the Certified Coach Program was defined, developed, and implemented based on the analysis.

The program developed coaching skills in managers to create a change in culture from tell to ask. The program was contextualized to meet the organization’s specific needs and was delivered using a blended method of online learning, classroom skill practice, on the job application, coaching/reflection logs, and skills assessment. Customer service received the highest impact.

Learners reported 56 percent performance improvement on specific knowledge and skills and 50 percent overall performance improvement, along with staff morale improving significantly.

**

HealthSouth Corporation

****Birmingham, Alabama

**Coaching

Leadership turnover needed to be addressed by HealthSouth to minimize the costs associated with turnover and the recruitment and selection of new leaders. To further understand the depth of the issue, to support some hypotheses, and to eventually benchmark solutions, metrics were created with talent reviews, succession planning, and employee engagement surveys. In addition, a pipeline analysis determined that the internal pipeline to leadership was not where it should be.

The purpose of the Coaching practice was to accelerate the development of employees with the performance, competence, experience, and aspirations to grow within the company. The practice was designed using a three-pronged approach: executive and senior leadership coaching, accelerated leadership coaching, and coach-to-grow.

Success for the program was measured by the feedback from managers and participants regarding observable behavior changes and increased engagement scores. With the accelerated leadership coaching initiative, there is business continuity and a reduction in time to fill positions. Encouraged senior leaders devote more attention to succession planning and provided better-calibrated input to annual talent reviews, generating a stronger pipeline of leaders.

**IBM Corporation

****Armonk , New York

**IBM Law Department Mentoring Practice

The need to develop a common view of the law department’s role in supporting IBM’s expanding global businesses became increasingly important several years ago. A multi-faceted and coordinated global mentoring program was needed to address the diverse needs of the dispersed team. IBM’s mentoring program entails three primary pillars: building organizational intelligence; developing people networks and connectedness; and driving a positive business impact.

The program’s adoption rate continues to grow by every measure including participation in regular worldwide calls, usage of microsite/ mentoring resources, a number of mentoring pairs worldwide, and a number of new pairs annually. As the mentoring program has grown, it has become a valuable and efficient method of delivering critical education. Further, three surveys demonstrated the positive connection between the mentoring program and skill growth, knowledge transfer, and understanding the company’s business strategy. Lastly, the statistics establish a strong causal connection between being mentored and improved performance and promotions.