From Managing to Elevating Performance: Leveraging the Power of Coaching at Hilti
In today’s fast-paced business landscape, success hinges not only on innovation and product excellence but also on the ability to nurture and develop talent.
At Hilti, known for our innovations and excellence in serving the construction industry, we recognize that our people are our greatest asset. Hence, we have made it our mission to set them for success and empowering them to reach their full potential.
At Hilti, we don’t just sell products, we provide solutions tailored to address the unique needs and challenges of our customers. In an industry where safety, productivity, and sustainability are paramount, our direct sales model allows us to work closely with customers, understand their pain points and deliver precise solutions.
Equipped with the Hilti Toolbox and iconic red Hilti Cars, our employees are entrepreneurs, empowered to plan their own schedules and create value for our customers. In this dynamic and evolving industry, success requires more than just technical expertise — it requires adaptability, resilience, and the ability to think creatively.
Traditional Performance Management Approaches often centered on top-down evaluations and corrective actions, focusing primarily on areas of improvement. At Hilti, driven by our Strengths-Based Approach, our aim is to instead have employees as an equal partner and foster growth, maximize potential, and nurture a culture of continuous improvement.
Rather than viewing it as a static process driven by evaluations, we see it as a dynamic journey of development and empowerment. And hence while we set our employees for success through our one-year WIN Onboarding program, nothing can replace the real-time coaching inputs provided in the field by our team leaders.
Whether it’s helping a team member navigate a complex project or providing guidance on career development, our leaders are there every step of the way, offering support, encouragement, and constructive feedback.
Coaching fundamentally shifts the performance management paradigm, emphasizing the leader’s role in empowering employees to unleash their full potential. Coaching is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s a participative process that values diversity of thought and enables teams to solve on their own vs a command-and-control model where they look at the leader for all answers.
This builds on our focus on strength bases conversations – because we know that every individual brings their own unique strengths and perspectives to the table. It’s about recognizing the unique strengths, challenges, and aspirations of each individual and tailoring our coaching efforts accordingly.
And hence at Hilti, Every Moment is a Coaching Moment. Whether it’s a formal business review or a casual conversation over coffee, our leaders are committed to providing guidance, support and mentorship to their teams throughout the year. We believe that by fostering a culture of coaching, we can create an environment where everyone feels seen, heard and valued—a place where employees can thrive and excel.
But Institutionalizing Coaching isn’t just about sporadic interactions; it’s about creating a framework that supports and sustains a coaching culture. That’s why we’ve implemented defined touchpoints throughout the year for coaching interactions, ensuring that every team member receives the guidance and support they need to succeed.
Elevating this further, we provide clear guidance on the agenda, metrics and outcomes for each touchpoint, even providing leaders with sample reflection questions to guide them every step of the way. We invest in building coaching capabilities, with 100% of our team leaders certified via comprehensive and scenario-based master coaching workshops.
The Impact of Coaching at Hilti goes beyond individual performance — it drives business success. By empowering our employees to develop their skills and maximize their potential, coaching helps us deliver exceptional results for our customers and achieve our strategic objectives.
But perhaps more importantly, coaching fosters a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement—a culture that sets us apart, and brings us closer to our vision of being a “Great Employer for Everyone Everywhere”.
Together, we elevate performance, drive growth, and continue to Make Construction Better.
