How EDF Energy Is Building a Coaching Culture — With TESS Group

March 2026
5 min read Client Stories

In sectors like energy and infrastructure, every decision matters. Safety is non-negotiable. Regulatory compliance is the baseline. Operations have to run with precision. But here's what often gets overlooked: the quality of conversations between people—the coaching conversations—directly impacts whether teams solve problems creatively, whether people take ownership, and whether the organisation can adapt when circumstances change.

That's what EDF Energy recognised. And that's why they partnered with TESS Group to deliver Coaching Professional training across the organisation.

Why Coaching Culture Matters in Energy and Infrastructure

In safety-critical industries, there's often a default to command-and-control leadership. Someone needs to give an order; someone executes it. That works for operational continuity. But it doesn't work for innovation, problem-solving, or building the kind of workforce that stays engaged over the long term.

The Real Challenge

Energy organisations operate with exceptional rigour. That rigour is essential. But when combined with traditional hierarchical management, it can create environments where:

  • People wait to be told what to do rather than thinking independently
  • Problems bubble up rather than being solved at source
  • Knowledge stays siloed instead of being shared
  • Developing others gets deprioritised in favour of task completion

But it doesn't have to be this way. A coaching culture in a safety-critical environment is about creating conversations that are rigorous, empowering, and focused on continuous improvement—which is exactly what energy companies need.

What the Programme Delivers

The Coaching Professional L5 apprenticeship isn't a one-day workshop or a training course that gets filed away. It's a substantive development programme that combines two things:

Recognised Qualifications

Participants work towards either ILM Level 5 Coaching & Mentoring or CMI Level 5 Coaching credentials. These aren't peripheral add-ons—they're real, respected qualifications that are recognised across the UK and internationally. They provide a formal benchmark for coaching capability.

Practical Skills You Can Use Tomorrow

More importantly, participants learn the frameworks and techniques they can actually use with their teams right away. The GROW model, solution-focused coaching approaches, reflective listening, powerful questioning—these aren't theoretical concepts. They're tools that work in real workplaces with real complexity.

What Participants Gain

  • Mastery of core coaching models (GROW, OSKAR, and beyond)
  • Confidence in handling difficult conversations
  • Skills in active listening and powerful questioning
  • Understanding of when to coach and when to direct
  • Practical experience through supervised practice and reflection
  • Formal qualification that recognises their capability

The result? People go back to their teams as confident coaches who can have conversations that develop others and drive results.

From Training to Transformation

Here's what separates this from a standard training initiative: coaching culture isn't a programme. It's a shift.

When the first cohort completed the Coaching Professional apprenticeship at EDF Energy, they didn't become isolated "coaches." They became culture-shifters. They started modelling different conversations. They asked better questions in team meetings. They created space for people to think. Their peers noticed. Their direct reports noticed.

Within months, coaching conversations were happening across departments that wouldn't have happened before. Not because anyone mandated it, but because coaching had been modelled and people could see the difference it made.

That's organisational transformation. And it starts with real people developing real coaching skills.

What Coaching Culture Looks Like in Practice

In a safety-critical environment like energy, a mature coaching culture doesn't soften rigour—it sharpens it. It looks like:

  • A team lead coaching someone through a challenging safety incident, drawing out what they learned and how they'd respond differently next time
  • An operations manager asking questions that help their team identify root causes instead of just reporting problems up the chain
  • Peers coaching each other on decision-making and problem-solving in high-pressure situations
  • Continuous development conversations that sit alongside formal performance reviews
  • An organisation where people stay engaged because they feel invested in, not just managed

    • This is what builds sustainable operational excellence. Not just compliance, but genuine capability development across every level.

    Building on the Foundation

    The Coaching Professional L5 is the foundation. But for organisations serious about embedding coaching culture, there's a natural next step: CMI Level 6 Coach Supervision. Once coaches are in place and coaching others, supervision ensures that coaching stays high-quality, that people are developing, and that the culture sustains itself over time.

    It's how a one-off initiative becomes an enduring cultural shift.

    Ready to Build Your Coaching Culture?

    Whether you're in energy, infrastructure, or any sector where rigorous, empowering conversations matter—coaching culture isn't a luxury. It's how you develop people, solve problems faster, and build the kind of organisation where people want to work.

    The Coaching Professional L5 apprenticeship is proven. Organisations across the UK are using it to develop coaching capability at scale. If you're thinking about how to shift your culture towards more empowerment, more development, and more ownership—that's where to start.

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