Growing up as the child of immigrants and a person of color, Neela Pal always felt there was “a strong pull towards integration/assimilation”–a pull that carried forward as she entered the workforce and began her career.

Once she had the opportunity to work with a professional coach, however, she began to think differently, she said during a panel discussion on coaching and inclusion, part of From Day One’s July virtual conference, “Diversity’s Many Roles: How Mentors, Sponsors and Allies Each Play a Part in Inclusion.”

“The part with coaching that was actually very transformative for me was to actually think of the difference as a differentiator,” she said, viewing her upbringing and culture as “a competitive advantage rather than something I needed to hide or step back from.”

Now the head of external engagement strategy for diversity and inclusion at Goldman Sachs, Pal said she wants to see coaching affect others the same way–growing and diversifying “at the intersection of coaching and DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging).”

The democratization of coaching was the major focus of the panel, which looked at how the tool for managers and employees is becoming more broadly available, more sought-after, and embraced by employers as a means to more diversity and belonging in their work forces.

Pal was not the only panelist who’d seen the benefits of coaching in their own career. “Coaching personally changed my life,” said Dion Bullock, the strategy lead for DEIB at Bravely, a coaching platform. “Being able to work with a coach helped me to challenge some of the stories I had about work and success and what it meant to be a black professional. And from that experience, I wanted to be able to share that with the world and be able to support others to understand what their needs are and really have that sense of reflection about what their work experience is like.”

Key to achieving those goals, panelists agreed, is to increase awareness about what coaching actually entails and how it can benefit everyone. The concept and practices have changed significantly in the past 10 to 15 years. Whereas coaching used to be viewed as something tailored for high-level executives, particularly those who had made missteps or needed significant help, it’s now becoming more and more proactive and applicable to workers at all levels.

“Coaching is unique compared to those other aspects of sponsoring, mentorship and allyship, because typically it’s focused on a goal or an issue or a project and you’re working through something,” said Nichelle Grant, head of DEI for Siemens in the U.S. “You’re making some decisions, you’re getting guidance, while the others are really more long-term goals, long-term plans. Coaching is more immediate–you know, ‘I have something I want to talk about; walk me through this.’ Maybe it’s a one-time thing, maybe it’s recurring. And so, while the others are ongoing and more frequent, I think we’ve seen [coaching] manifest itself at the individual level.”

Curtis Brooks, who is responsible for talent, employee experience and culture at DXC Technology, explained that “coaching is different than being a mentor, being a teacher, or being a therapist­–and it doesn’t mean that we don’t do some of those things in coaching where it makes sense and when it’s appropriate, but it’s definitely distinct,” Brooks said. “I usually tell my clients that, from a coaching standpoint, I will assume that you’re coming to our relationship as a whole person, and you have the answers that you need. And my role is to walk with you, not in front of you, not behind you, but side-by-side with you to shine a light, if you will, on your path–to help you find those answers that you already have in yourself.”

Building a System

To do that through coaching, the speakers said, employees at all levels must not only be convinced of the benefits of coaching but also be given opportunities to take advantage of it. Coaching offers a unique avenue aside from “other modalities of support, where there may be a hierarchical relationship or a power differential,” Pal said. Coaching needs to be confidential as well, with employees of all grades having confidence that a coach will offer personal guidance and not report back to managers or HR, Bullock pointed out.

Employers should assess the structural obstacles that might get in the way of providing coaching to all communities within an organization–and then find ways to remove those barriers, for example by offering coaching in different languages or ensuring time-zone flexibility, Bullock said. Siemens, for example, has created a program “which has 100-plus certified coaches across the globe–and we have a tool where, if you want coaching, you put your name in and they pair you up with a coach,” Grant said.

Who Does the Coaching?

Employers need to have a combination of external coaches, internal coaches, and peer-to-peer coaching to ensure success and accessibility, Brooks said. “If I put that into a framework, what that will look like is probably the top 2% to 3% of the house, if you will, we would technically be working with an external coach,” he said, continuing: “Then you will look probably at your next 30% to 40%, so your mid-level leaders within the organization, either we’re using internal coaches that are ICF (International Coaching Federation) certified or working toward their ICF certification.”

For the bottom tier in the hierarchy, Brooks said, “your entry-level employee, maybe your first-time supervisor, we’re probably looking at more peer-to-peer or managers–a coaching program where we’re teaching our managers how to coach their employees, whether it’s coaching on a career issue or in an area of career, or whether it’s around business, some type of business problem, or a business initiative.”

Removing Self-limiting Obstacles

Coaching can play an integral role in inclusion by simply working as a catalyst for people to think differently about their strengths and find answers within themselves. At Siemens, Grant said, the company has fostered the creation of “a coaching network for the racial-justice conversation we’ve been having–and so coaching shows up in multiple parts of the organization.”

Panel moderator Emily Nordquist, senior program manager for the Baumhart Center for Social Enterprise and Responsibility at Loyola University Chicago, pointed out, “Something that’s really effective in helping leaders of color get into management positions and rise is actually coaching and mentorship–and so, if we only focus on providing coaching to those who are at the top of an organization, who have those kinds of levers that they can pull, we are really missing an opportunity to create a pipeline for more leaders of color to be in management.”

While coaching has come on by leaps and bounds, Pal said, its evolution has not ended by any means. “There’s some reframing work for us to do [to help] destigmatize coaching,” she said. “It’s not just a luxury good–like, ‘I deserve it, too.’” Nor should coaching be considered a consequence of performance issues. The message should be, “You’re doing great, and we want you to do even better–and so it’s really building on your capabilities,” Pal said. “And so there’s some work that we have ahead of us to really universalize coaching.”

Sheila Flynn is a Denver-based journalist who has written for the Associated Press, Bloomberg News, the Sunday Independent, and the Irish Daily Mail. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.