Recognizing the need for a shared culture, OQ’s leadership introduced a coaching program in 2020 to empower employees, support leaders, and foster a unified company culture during ongoing transformations. Despite challenging upheavals such as government decentralization and a volatile market, the coaching culture OQ created to address these obstacles resulted in increased employee engagement, accelerated leadership development, and improved decision-making. When the Omani government saw the value of coaching at OQ, it requested the company’s support in implementing its own coaching program, ultimately extending benefits such as unified direction among employees and improved collaboration to the broader Omani community through successful government operations. OQ continues to support this initiative today by developing software to manage the logistic elements of the program within the government.
Building a Motivated and Engaged Workforce
OQ recognized the need for a leadership approach that was as innovative as the company itself. The company embarked on creating a new leadership mindset, prioritizing a guiding governance model over a rigid, process-driven approach. While coaching was a relatively new concept in Oman, OQ looked to the positive impact it had on company culture around the world and implemented it to achieve similar results.
With this in mind, OQ began building a coaching culture to empower employees throughout the organization. This aimed to ensure the organization could move toward a successful future without major turnover or lack of clarity as so many independent organizations were finding their footing under one agency. It began by offering support to employees and managers to achieve organizational goals and to leaders to drive cultural shifts. Internal coaches offered support to sustain the impacts of coaching long-term.
As this coaching program was successfully unfolding, OQ deeply involved in the oil and gas industry, prioritized economic value added from local operations and spending retained within the country. Due to its recent success with coaching for change management, country officials sought OQ’s support in implementing coaching at the national level. It was already clear that coaching was a powerful force of engagement and motivation during periods of transformation.
Measuring Value Through Short- and Long-Term Results
OQ created a strategic three-year plan engaging internal and external coaches who were available to provide coaching to all interested employees, from interns to top-level executives.
As of 2023, results have proven coaching’s value in fostering a collaborative and motivated workforce made up of employees from the entire group, along with new hires, now unified and working toward a shared goal. OQ’s results included:
- 86% of senior leadership reporting increased confidence in their leadership with direct reports
- Managers reporting an 85% improvement in performance among participating employees
- Employees who receive coaching reporting a 92% self-satisfaction rate related to professional growth and overcoming obstacles in attaining goals
- OQ saving $500,000 USD in external coach expenses by training internal coaches
Employee engagement increased; Leadership development accelerated; Decision-making improved. This resulted in the Omani government requesting OQ’s guidance in establishing a coaching program for the country’s 2040 vision.
By monitoring the impacts of coaching through organization-wide surveys and benchmarks, OQ has made a case for training 49 internal coaches to maintain the program's effects and create an action plan. Driven by valuable results, it was easy to support making coaching its own line item on the budget. Now, it’s more than a line item – it's an element of OQ’s corporate values.
As outputs, coaching hours and number of participants increase, OQ is establishing software to manage the coaching program internally, optimizing the logistic elements through automation and leaving the coaches with more time to make an impact.
Culture: A Foundation for Sustainable Growth
OQ’s introduction of a coaching culture successfully unified its workforce during a period of rapid transformation. Empowering employees and leaders through coaching led to effectively navigating challenges in a highly volatile market. Despite coaching’s infancy in the company and country, its results extended far beyond the walls of OQ and advanced progress throughout Oman. Now recognized as a model of excellence, OQ serves as a proof point of what’s possible through coaching as the nation’s government puts a similar program into practice – ultimately driving both organizational and societal change.
OQ’s commitment to sustaining and expanding its coaching culture reflects a long-term vision for sustainable improvement and leadership development through mandatory skill utilization. By embedding coaching into its corporate values, OQ showcases how organizations and government agencies can leverage coaching to cultivate untapped levels of motivation and engagement.
