![\"Grace](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4a579f34-488f-484b-9967-e103ae17ca89.jpg\")
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National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Managing Director Patrick Ayota has called on Ugandan organisations to embrace coaching culture in workplaces to improve leadership, innovation and employee productivity.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the launch of Uganda\u2019s first internationally accredited coaching programme by Imagine Me Africa\u2019s 12th anniversary celebrations, Ayota said many organisations still operate under outdated management systems where leaders believe they must provide all the answers instead of empowering employees to think independently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we have as a gap in our leadership and management style is that people think because I\u2019m a manager, I must come up with the answers. But you have brilliant minds around you. The problem is that you do not know how to tap into those minds,\u201d Ayota said.<\/p>\n
Ayota, who has led NSSF Uganda since August 2023, revealed that he initially resisted the idea of getting a coach after becoming managing director because he believed coaching was only meant for people struggling with problems.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought coaching was not for me. In my mind, coaching was for everybody else. But coaching starts with the leader,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He explained that the NSSF board later convinced him to work with a coach to help him navigate the pressures and complexities of leading one of Uganda\u2019s largest public institutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are things you face as a leader that you have never seen before. Coaching gave me somebody to think through those challenges with,\u201d Ayota said.<\/p>\n
According to Ayota, coaching has since become an important part of NSSF\u2019s workplace culture, helping the organisation strengthen staff engagement, leadership development and innovation.<\/p>\n
He pointed to the fund\u2019s women leadership programme known as Pathfinders, which was introduced to support female employees who were struggling to rise into senior leadership despite strong performance at lower levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe realised that as we moved into middle management, the number of women reduced,\u201d he said. \u201cSo we created a space where women could encourage each other, grow together and support each other.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ayota said many women who participated in the programme have since been promoted into leadership positions within the fund.<\/p>\n
He added that coaching has also helped shift the organisation from a command-and-control leadership style to a culture where workers feel empowered to contribute ideas and solutions.<\/p>\n
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Grace Mary Amule (centre) poses for a photo as Malcolm Fielles (left), Regional Director of ICF, Europe and Africa and Joan Mugenzi (right), head coach look on during Imagine Me Africa coaching programme launch at Sheraton Hotel in Kampala on May 14, 2026. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you coach and empower your staff, they begin doing things that even you as a leader had not thought about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The event also marked the official launch of Uganda\u2019s first coaching programme accredited by the International Coaching Federation. The accreditation was awarded to Imagine Me Africa, after a year-long evaluation process, making it the first Ugandan programme to receive international recognition.<\/p>\n
Joan Mugenzi, lead coach at Imagine Me Africa, said coaching is increasingly becoming necessary in modern workplaces where employees are demanding supportive leadership and meaningful engagement.<\/p>\n
She reported that many Ugandans, previously sought coaching certification from countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa and Kenya because accredited programmes were unavailable locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoaching is not about telling people what to do. It is about helping people unlock solutions from within themselves. We are excited because we have now gotten the global endorsement that this is a programme anybody can trust,\u201d Mugenzi said.<\/p>\n
Imagine Me’s journey<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been a year of back and forth with the International Coaching Federation. It is a very rigorous process, but we are happy Uganda now has a programme that meets international standards,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The organisation also graduated its latest cohort of coaches during the event. Since the programme began, more than 60 people have completed the training.<\/p>\n
Mugenzi said the programme is aimed at equipping leaders, managers and professionals with coaching skills that can improve communication, productivity and workplace relationships.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven a home can become a workplace because parents also need meaningful conversations with their children. What we are doing is equipping people with transformative coaching skills that they can apply anywhere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Mugenzi said Uganda still has a small number of trained professional coaches but expressed optimism that the industry would grow over the next decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, this is the beginning. We believe coaching will become part of how organisations lead, communicate and grow their people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Malcolm Fiddes, the Regional Director for Europe and Africa at the International Coaching Federation, who was the chief guest said Africa\u2019s young workforce and rapidly changing work environment make coaching increasingly important for organisations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are living in a world of uncertainty, burnout and rapid change. Coaching helps people navigate complexity and adapt to change,\u201d Fiddes said.<\/p>\n
He warned organisations against relying on untrained social media personalities posing as coaches without formal coaching education and accreditation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people experience coaching, they should experience transformation, not just motivation. We are living in a world of uncertainty, burnout and rapid change. Coaching helps organisations lead through ambiguity and helps employees adapt,\u201d Fiddes said.<\/p>\n
He noted that globally, the International Coaching Federation has more than 60,000 credentialed coaches and is working to promote professional coaching standards worldwide.<\/p>\n
Fiddes warned organisations against relying on untrained social media coaches without proper certification.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people experience coaching, they should experience transformation, not just motivation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 ________________ \u00a0 National Social Security Fund (NSSF) Managing Director Patrick Ayota has called on Ugandan organisations to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[120815,120816,120813,153,120814],"class_list":{"0":"post-236992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uganda","8":"tag-coaching-culture","9":"tag-nssfs-ayota-calls-for-coaching-culture-in-ugandan-workplaces","10":"tag-patrick-ayota","11":"tag-uganda","12":"tag-workplaces"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@africa\/116582394769166422","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}