Coaching is a skill, one which is often undervalued and underused, sadly when it is used can be done badly. This is not necessarily a reflection on the person doing the coaching, they can have the best intentions but not the greatest understanding or experience needed to coach effectively. The Coaching to Coach programme is a practical and dynamic way to develop those skills through practice. As a qualified and experienced Coach I know the pitfalls and benefits of coaching and the way it is practiced. You can learn how to skip the pitfalls.
Many years ago, after leaving school I began an Apprenticeship at a large firm on the outskirts of the City where I was brought up in. It employed a hundred Apprentices every year, so three hundred Apprentices in play at any one time. It covered the full range of skills, electricians, mechanics, engineers, metal workers, machine operatives, the lot!
The first year was spent in ‘the Shed’, the Apprentice School, and we covered every skill, the second and third years you trained in your specialism and in the Factory itself.
Looking back it strikes me how much coaching I had over that time, without knowing I was being coached and without the Instructor knowing they were coaching, it all happened organically. The problem was that it was not a level playing field, it all depended on the Instructor’s ability to do this ‘organic’ process. Some were brilliant and some were not so brilliant, in fact some were just plain bad at it.
Organic is great, I mean a carrot is still a carrot, it doesn’t matter what shape or size it is, or does it? In the end that all depends on the level of consistency you need, with carrots I like organic, wobbly, nobbly and misshapen it doesn’t matter, but with people providing a service to customers you need consistency in how they fulfil their roles and it also depends on how much consistency is needed in the task they are undertaking.
One of the tasks I worked on was labelling and pinning groups of small cables into their plugs. These cables controlled mechanisms that helped keep jets flying, there was no level of inconsistency at all. Wiring those cables into the aircraft needed them to be cabled in along the runs and as long as they ran along them you could put them in any order you liked. Don’t get me wrong, they still had to start and finish in the right places.
So, what has this all got to do with Coaching, actually a lot! The Instructors were recruited from off the shop floor and had no formal training, they were given their brown coats and left to it. Had they been taught to coach, using a structured model would have brought a consistency in how each Apprentice was ‘grown’, it would have helped prevent shortfalls in competence and confidence, improve quality and reduce errors. It would have benefited the organisation.
That is why we are putting on the Coaching to Coach Course:
The course is designed to provide the Learner with a theoretical and practical understanding of the skills required to coach another person.
Each of the six one-hour sessions will be split into two parts, the first part covering the theoretical aspects and the second part an active coaching session during which the Coachee (the Learner) will bring a real work issue to use within the sessions. This may of course be coaching itself if they have already started.
Sessions will be held on-line using Zoom / Skype / WhatsApp
All course materials will be provided.
You will gain:
- a knowledge and understanding of the principles, types and models of coaching
- skills in applying models, using questions and creating a narrative space for coaching
- an understanding of how communication sits within the skills set of coaching
- experience of using coaching skills in practice, learning how to manage beginnings, middles and ends as both Coachee or Coach
Each session will have its own lesson plan and workbook to complete. Each workbook will contain a reflective practice log.
Sessions are facilitated by qualified and experienced Coaches.
You can find us on:
Website http://www.trainforcare.co.uk/