Leader as Coach training

Successful leaders care about their colleagues and teams. They learn as much as they teach, and they grow along with other people. Developing and practicing coaching skills can provide leaders with approaches that enhance their day-to-day workplace interactions to good effect. Coaching skills and approaches are useful to all participants in workplace interactions and can increase everyone’s leadership, learning and contribution.

Coaching skills can foster authenticity and compassion within a team.  Effective leaders draw on their emotional intelligence to get the best out of their team. For example, through their awareness to recognise both the content of a conversation and the process of what is happening as the conversation develops. Successful leaders recognise patterns in their interactions and use them to maximise the effectiveness of their leadership. Listening is an active and purposeful action used by effective leaders to build rapport; understand team members at a deeper level; and guide conversations skilfully and precisely. The ability to create questions that unleash the potential of others is another key leadership skill through which leaders can assert their own needs without dismissing the needs of others. Coaching approaches can lead to recognition that other people have potentially unknown challenges. Effective leaders understand when difficult conversations are necessary and manage them skilfully to generate optimal outcomes for all involved.

Workplaces are ever – changing as new work patterns and conventions develop. For example, in response to the impact of the pandemic. Effective leaders respond and adapt to the complex challenges that organisations, teams and individuals face as they strive to navigate the challenges of daily working life. Understanding and developing a repertoire of coaching skills to draw on can help them to do this. Communication skills such as active listening and questioning for exploration; personal qualities such as insightful refection, empathy and being able to give and receive constructive feedback; and goal orientated and inclusive leadership approaches characterise and underpin personal, workplace and leadership coaching behaviours.

Across the five modules, content will include:

Session 1 Awareness

• Understanding the fundamentals of coaching and mentoring.
• Awareness of what is happening in a conversation in order to maximise effectiveness

Session 2 Listening

• Understand the levels of listening, including active listening, and what it can achieve

Session 3 Questioning

• Powerful Questions and how to use them to unlock greater insights

Session 4 Assertive Conversations

• Have the confidence to assert your needs.
• Create the empowerment to engage in difficult conversations

Session 5 Being your Best Self

• Embedding the learning to further you own personal development

Throughout the course you will be applying these coaching skills through practice with peers, and reflecting on the learning and course feedback.

• Improve the power of your listening, questioning and conversational awareness
• Enhance your communication skills in all workplace conversations
• Build your confidence to feel able to apply coaching skills in workplace conversations
• Learn the skills that can reveal and unlock the potential of others
• Understand how to be in control of difficult conversations, asserting your own needs
• Recognise the traps that can lead you to take on the problems of others, and instead learn how to let them find their own solutions
• Feel confident to be someone who brings out the best in other people
• Live-online group sessions (x5) with a UHCCM coaching professional
• Self-study
• Reflection activities
• Live-online 1:1 sessions (x2) with your UHCCM mentor

The UHCCM Leader as Coach programme is an interactive and practical introduction to the fundamentals of coaching. Participation on the course will allow you to learn how to apply key coaching skills in everyday workplace conversations, improving your listening and communication skills, and empowering you to maintain an awareness of patterns in your conversations.

Throughout the course you will work in pairs or small groups which will provide you with a safe and supportive environment to experiment with new coaching techniques and skills. The course is designed to more progressively through key coaching and mentoring skills allowing you opportunities between group sessions for reflection, observation and enhanced learning.

The course is run by Associate Professor (Enterprise and Entrepreneurship) Richard Smith with guest facilitators from the UH Community of Coaches and Mentors

‘I was very satisfied with the programme I think it is important to take time out of the business to complete programmes like this to develop our cpd skills’

‘The coaching skills I gained from this coaching training help me effectively conduct client engagement meetings. These skills are also helpful for me to deal with conversations in personal life‘

‘I just wanted to say a huge thank you to you both for running the Coaching & Mentoring course, this has given some great insights, sharpening of skills, new models to consider and methods to apply! The collaborative discussions were helpful and provided a good space to peer-review opinion and individual approach’