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Time:
The estimated total running time of all modules in this course is 10 Hours 15 Minutes


Coaching Skills for Managers (2 days)
0:00 AM Coaching Skills for Managers Workbook
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9:15 AM Course Introduction - A Basic Introduction to Training Events

This module is expected to last for 30 minutes

Aims:
• To welcome the participants.
• To introduce the facilitator(s) and participants to each other.
• To introduce the facilities.
• To agree the course objectives and timetable.




9:45 AM Workplace Coaching 1 - The What

This module is expected to last for 50 minutes

Aims:
• To enable participants to understand what workplace coaching is.
• To agree a shared definition of workplace coaching.
• To explain the key differences between coaching and mentoring.




10:35 AM Break
10:50 AM Learning - Push or Pull? - Approaches to Developing Others

This module is expected to last for 45 minutes

Aims:
• To explore the benefits of different approaches to developing others.
• To help participants choose the most appropriate approach for developing others in a given situation.




10:55 AM Workplace Coaching 2 - The How

This module is expected to last for 60 minutes

Aims:
• To identify the core skills required by effective coaches.
• To enable participants to describe the GROW coaching model.



Notes
Following this module, discuss with the group:

“If you were going to be coached, how would you want the session to be run and how would you want to feel about it?”

People will generally suggest they would like the session to be structured, with a clear goal in mind and run in an environment that feels “safe” (non-threatening, non-judgemental) – and where they are encouraged and made to feel at ease.

Now ask the group as the manager, how they could create an environment that felt like this for the person being coached? Ask them to call out their ideas and note all of their suggestions on the flipchart. Look out for answers like:
  • Plan and prepare.
  • Discuss and agree goals beforehand.
  • Allow sufficient time – don’t rush.
  • Behave in a relaxed and friendly manner.
  • Adopt a calm and objective approach.
  • Allow the person being coached to set the pace.
  • Encourage honesty, reflection and stretch!

Explain that you have now agreed:
  • A definition of coaching.
  • When coaching should be used.
  • The skills and traits of a good coach.
  • How to create an environment conducive to coaching.

1:00 PM Lunch
2:00 PM What Coaching Is and How It Works

Article Overview
In this article Carol Wilson explains the essential coaching skills and the five levels of listening. This is a really good introduction to performance coaching from a well-respected author.



Notes
This article gives a great summary overview of coaching. Using it as a handout to be read at this point will give delegates an opportunity to reflect on and consider their own personal learning and development needs.

2:15 PM Types of Question

This module is expected to last for 40 minutes

Aims:
• To explain the different types of questions used in communication.
• To help participants recognise different types of questions.
• To help participants recognise effective and ineffective questions.



Notes
Link this module to the topic of the day by explaining that questioning is a critical skill in a coaching situation; the coach should be able to ask challenging questions in a non-threatening way that encourages the individual to gain new insights, reflect on past experience and generate new ideas for moving forward.

One of the greatest challenges for new coaches is to remember to pose questions that help the person being coached to think for himself/herself. It can be difficult to abstain from giving advice or telling the person being coached what you think!

3:00 PM Life Story - A Test of Listening Skills

This module is expected to last for 15 minutes

Aims:
• To encourage participants to share information about each other.
• To test participant's listening and recall skills.
• To briefly explore barriers to listening.




3:15 PM Break
3:30 PM Body Language and Mirroring

This module is expected to last for 30 minutes

Aims:
• To show participants how we tend to mirror the body language of others when rapport is established.
• To discuss what happens to body language when rapport is absent.




4:00 PM Coaching Skills Review

This module is expected to last for 30 minutes

Aims:
• To remind participants of the GROW model and what each letter stands for.
• To encourage participants to reflect upon how they’ll continue to develop their coaching skills and create an action plan using the GROW model.




4:30 PM End of Day One



Coaching Skills for Managers (2 days) - Day Two
9:00 AM Assumptions - The Witches of Glum

This module is expected to last for 25 minutes

Aims:
• To understand the importance of listening skills.
• To illustrate the dangers of making assumptions.
• To provoke discussion about prejudices and stereotypes.



Notes
Before running this module, review the learning from Day 1, perhaps with a quiz. (We've allowed time here for this.)

Conclude the Witches of Glum activity by by telling participants that active, clean listening without any assumption or expectation is a critical coaching skill. Being able to truly listen and tune in without judging, interrupting, offering advice or switching off can make all the difference.

Sometimes a good coach says nothing – they are there simply to pay attention and act as a sounding board – encouraging the person being coached to work through their own ideas and solutions until they are comfortable with the outcome or decision they have reached.

Active listening without any prejudice or agenda is one of the most difficult skills to master.

9:50 AM Remaining Neutral

This module is expected to last for 40 minutes

Aims:
• To consider the pitfalls and dangers of giving advice when helping staff solve their own problems.
• To consider the dangers of making judgements or assumptions about the nature of someone else's problem.



Notes
Explain that to have empathy with someone means being able to see the situation from their perspective. 

This is not the same as agreeing with them, (you might not) and is also not the same as sympathising with them.

As a coach you need to avoid:
Projecting your own ideas, thoughts and advice.
Trying to persuade the person being coached that they are wrong and you are right, or indeed that you know better!

Remaining neutral can be really tough in some situations, and this activity will help you practice and fine tune your skill!

Use this activity in it’s simplest form to highlight the challenge of remaining neutral and to help participants realise that a good coach will not give advice but will listen with empathy, reflect back what they are hearing and help the person being coached to arrive at their own conclusion or find their own answer.

10:30 AM Break
10:45 AM Workplace Coaching 3 - The Practice

This module is expected to last for 75 minutes

Aims:
• To provide an opportunity for participants to practise their coaching skills.
• To provide an opportunity for participants to practise using the GROW model.
• To provide an opportunity for participants to practise questioning, listening and summarising.



Notes
Take a short break between the two coaching sessions.

12:00 PM Workplace Coaching 4 - The Plan

This module is expected to last for 40 minutes

Aims:
• To provide an opportunity for participants to think about how they'll use the GROW model back in the workplace.
• To encourage participants to think about the questions they'll use to facilitate use of the GROW model.
• To review the GROW model.
• To review key learning points about workplace coaching.



Notes
Before running this module, use a flip chart to capture the key learning points from the morning’s session.

12:45 PM Lunch
1:45 PM AIDing Feedback (Why Do I Always Get Them?)

This module is expected to last for 60 minutes

Aims:
• To define what effective feedback is.
• To introduce participants to the AID model for giving feedback.
• To give participants an opportunity to practise giving feedback using the AID model.



Notes
Rather than run this as a feedback module, run it as a coaching activity. After the participants have watched the film, split the group into teams of 2 or 3, and allocate each a character from the film - for example, Stella, Mark, the security guard etc. Ask them to imagine that instead of giving feedback, they should plan a coaching session for that person that will help them identify areas for improvement using the GROW model. Suggest that, if they wish, they can role play the conversation they think could help those characters identify and solve their own problems.  

2:45 PM Break
3:00 PM Workplace Coaching 5 - The Record

This module is expected to last for 35 minutes

Aims:
• To explain the importance of keeping a record of coaching sessions that is both helpful to the coach and the person being coached.
• To introduce a simple plan that participants might like to use in their coaching sessions.



Notes
After the break, give participants the opportunity now to put everything they’ve learned into practice.

Ask participants to choose a partner and take it in turns to coach each other in a similar way that you demonstrated earlier. Encourage them to use the forms from the previous two modules to help them formulate effective questions, keep the conversation on track and to record key points from their discussions. 

If they can choose a real, practical goal to work on, it will add much more value than simply ‘role playing’. However, emphasise that as before they should choose something that rates around a ‘3’ on the scale of 1 – 10 where ‘10’ is a major important, critical goal. In other words they should choose something that they feel comfortable exploring in front of others but that has some meaning for them.

Allow 10 – 15 minutes for the first coaching practice before asking partners to swap roles and repeat the exercise. Then call the group back together and discuss their learning. Ask them to comment on the experience they had as the coach. For example, what was the hardest part about coaching?

People often say that the hardest part is NOT to chip in with your own ideas and to avoid the temptation to speed up the process by answering your own questions! Coaches often struggle to avoid being critical, or making assumptions about people’s goals, and can sometimes find it hard to remain absolutely neutral when they are supporting people in working out their own plan of action for their goal.

4:15 PM Workplace Coaching 6 - The Review Quiz

This module is expected to last for 40 minutes

Aims:
• To remind participants of some of the key learning points about workplace coaching.
• To provide a fun but thorough review of learning.




4:50 PM Course End