CLIMBING HANGAR

Fostering a coaching culture to improve performance

Climbing Hangar is a prominent UK-based bouldering chain celebrated for its community focus and inclusivity in providing opportunities for climbers of all levels.

During a period of rapid growth, we worked with them to cultivate a coaching culture throughout their centres, with the aim of bolster team cohesion, individual development, and team creativity.

THE CHALLENGE

After a period of rapid business growth, the leadership team at Climbing Hangar recognised the need to retain and attract top talent through the creation of a culture which supported the growth of their young, ambitious workforce.

This required leaders to engage in more performance-based conversations, supporting their people through regular feedback and coaching conversations in a high-pressure environment. In doing so, they hoped this would contribute to a culture of productive and positive conflict, enhanced creativity and diversity of thought, and individual growth.

THE SOLUTION

We worked with Climbing Hangar to develop a framework through which leaders could effectively navigate performance-based conversations and build a coaching culture. Leaders participated in a series of leadership development sessions around this framework, with sessions focusing on:

  • Strengths-based coaching through Spotlight
  • Growing high performance in teams
  • Empowering individual super-strengths

The opportunity was then given to leaders to use Spotlight, our psychometric profiling tool, and the Mindflick app with their teams to embed high-performance thinking and engage in coaching conversations to improve individual and team performance.

THE IMPACT

This approach has resulted in a fundamental shift in the way senior leaders engage with their staff across Climbing Hangar and the development of an "inspirational" work environment.

The personalised insights offered by Spotlight have led to a better understanding around individual motivations and how to get the best out of people. These have proved invaluable in improving manager-employee interactions and peer-to-peer relationships, enabling more effective conversations through the tailoring of approach to individual needs.

This cultural shift has been positively reflected in staff experiences, with Climbing Hangar seeing 27% increase in Employee NPS seen across their centres. This has helped the company attract and retain talent whilst also building creativity, problem solving, and team performance. 

"I THINK THE MAIN IMPACT FOR US HAS BEEN JUST A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT MAKES PEOPLE TICK AND WHY PEOPLE WORK IN DIFFERENT WAYS. YOU CAN SEE IT NOT JUST IN A LINE MANAGEMENT RELATIONSHIP BUT ALSO IN A PEER-TO-PEER RELATIONSHIP WHERE PEOPLE ARE GOING INTO MEETINGS"

Hannah Heywood - Chief Finance Officer

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