Training coaches and coachees

Summary

• Levels of training
• Outline content for a briefing on coaching
• Outline content for line manager as coach training
• Outline content for practitioner coach training
• Outline content for a short course on being coached

The aim of any training course in coaching is to equip participants with the skills they will need to be confident and safe in the role, for the particular level, at which they are expected to operate. For most organizations, it is convenient to categorize training programmes as:

• Extended briefing – aimed at educating managers and others about coaching, but not necessarily transferring the skills required
• Foundation – basic level of skills, aimed at line managers, who will use coaching as part of their day-to-day leadership; or at the whole team
• Practitioner – aimed at people, who want to make coaching a more significant part of their work role
• Professional – aimed at people, who want to become full-time executive coaches

Given the small number of people, who will want to achieve professional level – and the probability that this is likely to involve a career shift outside the organization – it is not normal practice for companies to offer this level as part of their curriculum. Where they do encourage people to take professional qualifications, it is advisable to organize this through appropriate public courses at universities.

Training should also be available to all employees, in being coached. This is essential in developing a coaching culture. (See: What is a coaching culture and how do organizations create one?)

Briefing for coaches

Nature of training: short (maximum half day) introduction to basic rationale for coaching and the core principles. Delivered as classroom presentation, webinar, or one-to-one briefing for senior leaders, as appropriate.

Learning outcomes

At the end of the briefing, participants should:

• Have a clear idea of the importance to Anglo-American and to themselves of embedding coaching into day-to-day management and leadership
• Understand their own roles in supporting coaching
• Be clear about the opportunities for them to develop coaching competence

Content

• The case for coaching
• What coaching means at Anglo-American
• Types of coaching available (executive, line manager, team/ skills, performance, behaviour change)
• Responsibilities of coaches and coachees
• Creating the environment where coaching can happen
• How you can develop your coaching skills
• Opportunities for questions

Briefing for coaches

Nature of training: One-day workshop aimed at helping coachees understand how they can be effective in being coached.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the training, participants should:

• Have a clear idea of the importance to Anglo-American and to themselves of embedding coaching into day-to-day management and leadership
• Understand how they can help their coach to be more effective
• Have increased insight into the kind of issues, on which it would be useful for them to seek coaching

Content:

• The case for coaching
• What coaching means at Anglo-American
• Types of coaching available (executive, line manager, team/ skills, performance, behaviour change)
• Responsibilities of coaches and coachees
• Raising your self-awareness (clarifying identity, values, strengths and weaknesses)
• Establishing developmental needs and personal improvement goals (making your personal development plan a living document)
• Skills of being an effective coachee:
  • How to seek coaching
  • Preparing for the coaching session
  • Listening, questioning, challenging, analysing
  • Reflecting after the coaching session
  • Monitoring and managing your own progress
  • Effective goal management
  • Managing setbacks
  • How to make it easier for your manager to coach you
  • Giving feedback to your coach, on their coaching

Foundation level

Nature of training: Two-day intensive workshop, with follow up and support, aimed at line managers. The ratio of theory to practice should be approximately 25/ 75. (It’s better to learn the basics well!)

Typical requirements of an accredited programme would be:

• A minimum of 2 days classroom learning
• 10 hours of self-study (further reading)
• 10 hours of coaching practice
• A reflective log (reflections by the coach on how they have put theory into practice)
• An appropriate form of continuing support over the following 6 – 12 months

While accreditation places a stamp of quality on the programme, it comes with a cost (the fee to the accrediting body) and may simply be over the top in terms of the time and effort some participants want to invest. A pragmatic approach can be to offer participants the option of formal recognition of their learning, but to emphasise that the learning is much more likely to “stick”, if they undertake the full programme, rather than just the classroom training.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the workshop, participants should:

• Understand the importance and benefits of coaching
• Understand what they need to do differently to build a coaching culture in their teams
• Have a clear understanding of basic coaching theory
• Be confident in their ability to use basic coaching techniques and approaches
• Have begun to plan their further development as a coach

Content

• What is coaching (generally and at Anglo-American)?
• The case for coaching in your team
• The core principles of coaching and reflective space
• What prevents line managers from being effective coaches? Recognition of the main barriers and what they can do to overcome them
• Creating the environment for coaching in your team
• The seven steps of line manager coaching (Identify need, Gather evidence, Motivate and set targets, Plan how to achieve targets, Create opportunities to practice, Observation and feedback, Support through setbacks)
• The key skills of line manager coaching:
  • Building rapport
  • Listening
  • Non-directive questioning
  • Summarising
  • Fundamentals of managing boundaries
  • Helping the coachee articulate his or her issue
  • Challenging constructively
  • Giving and receiving feedback
  • Reviewing the coaching partnership
• How to make sure that your coaching mindset “sticks” (managing the expectations and getting buy-in from your team)
• How to continue your development as a coach

Continued support

To ensure that coaches continuing to practice their new skills until they become embedded, you will need to provide opportunities for them to review their progress and support each other. Common ways of doing this include:

• “Light-touch” supervision by a professional supervisor
• Co-coaching between participants
• Measurement to establish how consistently and how effectively the manager is using coaching behaviours
• Action learning sets

Foundation level: Whole team alternative

Nature of training: Multiple modules of 90 minutes, plus pre-reading and reflections, plus collaborative practice within the team. Each module is facilitated by a coach trainer, who helps the team share their learning from the pre-work to each module and consider how they will put the collective learning into practice in their daily work. Usually the modules occur at monthly intervals and are attached, where possible, to regular team meetings.

Learning outcomes:

By the end of the programme, participants should:

• Understand the importance and benefits of coaching to the company, to themselves and to the team
• Understand what they need to do differently to build a coaching culture in their teams
• Have a clear understanding of basic coaching theory
• Be confident in their ability to co-coach colleagues and be coached
• Have applied coaching approaches to a variety of live work issues for the team

Content

The content of the modules may follow the same pattern as for line-manager-as- coach training, but with added elements focusing on:

• Skills of being coached and co-coaching
• Theory and practice of team (collective) learning
• Managing conflict

Practitioner coach training

Nature of training: Typically a minimum of 120 hours study and practice, involving:

• At least six one day workshops
• At least 30 hours of coaching and reflection on coaching
• Self-study
• Reflective essay(s)
• Professional supervision

The amount of time investment required makes this level of training practical only for people, who are serious about developing their practice as a coach. It can be very useful for producing role models of good coaching practice and can make a significant difference in creating a coaching culture. At this level, participants normally expect a programme to be accredited by an appropriate professional body, so that they receive a formal coaching qualification.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the programme, participants should:

• Have acquired both depth and breadth in their theoretical knowledge of coaching
• Have achieved a high level of confidence in their coaching competence
• Have built and are comfortable using a wide portfolio of approaches and techniques, relevant to the kinds of issues that are likely to be brought to them by coachees

Content

Broad content will normally be defined by the accrediting body and will be in line with the Coaching Standards of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council, or the equivalent standards from an alternative accrediting body. The design of the programme will depend also on whether participants have already attended a Foundation course – if they have not, the first two training days cover the ground in the Foundation course.

Ideally, the content of this level of programme will be highly flexible, to include both the core topics specified by the accreditation body and topics specifically relevant to the group of coaches and the environment, in which they work. For example, some companies have trained coaches at this level to be “coaches to coaches” – co-coaching colleague with less experience of coaching.

The core of these modules will typically include coverage of topics such as:

• The ethics of coaching
• Boundary management (e.g. mental health issues)
• Advanced skills of listening, questioning and mindfulness
• Additional techniques and models (e.g. CLEAN language, Solutions focused coaching, some concepts from NLP, Ontological coaching, Co-active coaching)
• The neuroscience of coaching
• The psychology of coaching (including issues such as projection and counter-projection)
• Emotional intelligence
• Team coaching
• Theories of adult maturity and the role of coaching in helping people mature
• Cross-cultural coaching and coaching in the context of diversity
• Coaching using different media
• Use of supervision

Some of these topics may be covered in brief in Foundation level programmes, but they will require much deeper exploration at Practitioner level.

Quality control

It is general good practice to have a robust quality management procedure for coach training. Elements to consider include:

• Experience and credibility of the trainers
• Participant perspectives of the training immediately afterwards and after three to six months (e.g. what has stuck with them?)
• External validation through either a) accreditation with a recognised coaching body or b) review of course materials by an independent external expert
• Internal validation by experienced coaches within the organization
• Measurement of specific changes in behaviour by coaches and coachees at intervals after training
• Formal assessment of coaches’ competence, through observation of their coaching, in much the same way as would happen in assessing potential external coaches. (See: How to hire external coaches.)
• Regular programme review (e.g. every six months) to identify and implement opportunities for improvement.

© David Clutterbuck, 2015

Prof David Clutterbuck
Coaching and Mentoring International Ltd
Woodlands, Tollgate,
Maidenhead,
Berks, UK. SL6 4LJ

www.coachingandmentoringinternational.org
e-mail: info@coachingandmentoringinternational.org
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