Worldwide Performance Coach Training for Leadership

Coaching Skills Training Courses for Leaders

In person global coaching skills trainingCultivate a Coaching Mindset and create a Coaching Culture within your organisation with our comprehensive coach training courses. We provide in-person and online global coach training options, designed to accommodate various budgets and schedules. Choose from a spectrum of courses, including introductory workshops that provide a foundational understanding of coaching skills, to more extensive programmes aimed at integrating Leader as Coach skills. For organisations seeking to develop an in-house team of coaches, our flagship coaching and mentoring course Performance Coaching for Leadership provides ILM accreditation as a professional coach. We have been creating a Coaching Culture in organisations, and a Coaching Mindset in their leaders, globally for more than two decades. Our courses have been named by many participants as the best management training that they ever experienced.

Based on coaching pioneer Sir John Whitmore’s time-honoured GROW Model, our coaching skills training courses utilise straightforward and easy-to-remember techniques to transform the your managers’ leadership approach and foster team cohesion. These programmes are designed to significantly enhance self-awareness, energy, potential, and personal impact at a profound level, effecting deep-rooted culture change.

Who are these coaching courses for?

Our coach training courses are delivered to organisations worldwide as global face-to-face or online coaching programmes, for CEOs, C-Suite, senior and middle managers, team leaders, HR business partners, learning & development staff, internal coaches, and anyone wishing to improve their communication skills, manage their emotional intelligence, and develop a Coaching Mindset.

What do these coaching courses cover?

Depending on the length of the training, the curriculum may include foundation coaching skills, the GROW Model, a framework for Coaching Feedback, Team Coaching and how to host a Generative Thinking Meeting, Conflict Resolution, coaching Self-limiting Beliefs, and developing a Coaching Mindset. The training raises awareness of self and one’s impact on others and carries varies types of accreditation including CfPAC (Coaching for Performance Accredited Coach) and ILM, the leadership arm of City & Guilds. Our programmes are also accredited by the Association for Coaching.

How long are these courses?

To become an accredited professional coach requires 5 days of training spread over 2-6 months, or the equivalent in online coach training sessions lasting from 2-4 hours.

Our Leader as Coach training can be delivered in any length from 90-minute introductory sessions through to 4-day courses (or the online equivalent) which embed coaching into your managers’ every-day leadership styles, creating a true Coaching Culture in your organisation and a Coaching Mindset in your leaders.

Our coaching courses:

  • Create a Coaching Mindset through global online coach trainingare designed by business people for business people
  • are structured to be practical, embed coaching and mentoring skills for the long term, and make efficient use of participants’ time
  • use best practices refined and shaped by the feedback of thousands of participants
  • draw on novel learning techniques developed by coaching pioneer Carol Wilson in conjunction with GROW co-creator Sir John Whitmore, influenced by Carol’s experiences with thought leaders including Tim Gallwey, David Grove, and Nancy Kline, and drawing on Carol’s 25 years of board-level experience including 10 years as a Managing Director at Virgin reporting directly to renowned coaching leader Sir Richard Branson.
  • Can be undertaken anywhere in the world either in person or online.

Our coach training team

All the members of our coach training team are fully qualified in our methods and have worked with us  delivering GROW coaching skills training to organisations for between 5 and 20 years. They all have experience as managers in the workplace themselves, as well as at least 10 years of delivering coaching and coach training to managers at all levels of seniority including CEO.

Our trainers are experienced coaches, handpicked for their exceptional presentation skills, empathy, and proficiency in creating a safe and stimulating training environment. They recognise that the key to developing a Coaching Mindset lies in fostering trust and open communication, and they respect the value of participants’ time. This is achieved by equipping them with straightforward, practical skills that can be immediately applied in their professional settings, ensuring that every moment spent in training translates directly into actionable insights and techniques for real-world application.

Our approach to coaching skills training

Face to face and online coach training

Our coaching skills courses are interactive and practical, featuring live demonstrations by the instructor, volunteer participation, group discussions, and hands-on practice. This experiential learning approach ensures that participants actively engage with the content, tailoring the learning experience to their individual needs.

Between sessions, trainees are assigned practical exercises to reinforce their newly acquired skills. These assignments encourage experimentation and personal growth, allowing participants to practise in a safe environment with a peer from the course, and to gradually introduce their emerging Leader as Coach techniques at work. The aim is to seamlessly integrate coaching techniques into their distinct leadership styles, enhancing their effectiveness as leaders.

Our online coach training programmes have proved to be as effective and energising as our face to face coaching courses, enabling us to provide global coaching skills training without incurring costs in terms of travel expenses or time.

Coach training with the GROW Model

Participants who have previously undertaken coaching skills training frequently tell us that it was only through our courses that they truly grasped how to apply the GROW coaching model effectively. Our unique insight stems from the privilege of learning directly from Sir John Whitmore, the pioneer of the GROW model, during our collaborative partnership in the final decade of his life. This rare advantage allows us to offer an unparalleled depth of understanding and application of the model to our trainees.GROW training

The secret of our coaching and mentoring courses lies in the flexibility of the GROW model, and the way our training enables participants to understand the purpose behind each category of questions. Read an article on The GROW Model.

The Coaching Mindset

We view ‘Coaching Culture’ as a holistic concept which encompasses not just skills, but also the attitudes and behaviours prevalent within an organisation. There is a common misconception that coaching training only involves acquiring special techniques, like listening and questioning. While these skills are fundamental for any coaching leader, our experience attests that fostering a Coaching Mindset and leading with a coaching approach goes beyond mere technique: it is the intent behind the interaction that truly counts, namely treating people with respect, prioritising their development, believing in their highest potential, cultivating mutual trust, and nurturing self-belief.face to face or online coach training to develop a Coaching Mindset

In today’s dynamic leadership landscape, the ability to seamlessly transition between providing clear direction, offering mentorship, and facilitating self-directed learning through coaching questions is essential. While there are instances where managers must explicitly instruct their teams on what actions to take or avoid, adopting a Coaching Mindset enables them to weave directive management naturally into their Leader as Coach style.

This approach cultivates managers who are not only adept listeners and effective mentors but also more impactful leaders. Within the comprehensive framework of the GROW coaching model, where trust is paramount and individuals are empowered to realise their potential, any guidance provided is perceived not just as instruction, but as an inspirational and motivational facet of the manager-team relationship.

The Coaching-Mentoring-Managing Continuum for a Coaching Mindset

All the modules of our face-to-face and online coach training courses are specifically tailored to provide examples relevant to the client organisation, and participants coach each other on issues currently occurring in their workplace.

We are skilled at integrating our programmes into your existing coaching and leadership models  so that your investment in prior learning is not lost.

We are committed to ensuring that the impact of our interventions with your organisation is captured in a way that is meaningful to your business. We will work with you to develop a coaching skills course  that meets your specific requirements and objectives, in terms of behavioural change, budget, and time constraints.

Certification and Credentials

Both our in-person 5-day and online equivalent coach training courses provide full accreditation as a professional coach and meet the training course requirements for coach accreditation with the Association for Coaching, the ILM, and the ICF. Participants have a choice of accreditation:

CfPAC accreditation

Every successful candidate receives the certificate CfPAC (Coaching for Performance  Accredited Coach) which incorporates the title of Sir John Whitmore’s bestselling book in recognition of his contribution to the design of our coaching and mentoring courses.

ILM accredited coaching course

An ILM Recognised Certificate & Digital Credential. The ILM is the leadership arm of City & Guilds, the foremost provider of workplace coaching qualifications in the UK and recognised worldwide. We are also able to supply ILM Level 5, Level 7, and Level 7 Diploma Credentials. For more details please visit our Coaching Accreditation page.

Association for Coaching accredited coaching coursesThis course is accredited  by the Association for Coaching (AC) and meets the AC’s coach training requirement for Professional Coach and Professional Executive Coach accreditation. Please note that the AC has its own application process, fees and criteria for accreditation as a coach. You can find full details on the Association for Coaching website.

in-person and online coach trainingFor candidates who wish to go on to undertake accreditation as a coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF), we can provide one-to-one coach training sessions to fulfil the ICF’s minimum requirement of “coach-specific training” hours. Please note that the ICF has its own application process, fees and criteria for accreditation as a coach. You can find full details on the ICF website. 

Free membership of the Association for Coaching

Every participant on our coaching courses receives 12 months’ membership of the Association for Coaching  as an integral part of the course, free of charge. This benefit is included with both in-person and online coach training courses.

This membership gives access to a wealth of information and support that is an invaluable benefit to those becoming professional coaches or looking to improve their leadership skills, as well as reduced priced attendance to the Association’s wide spread of coaching events, co-coaching and coaching supervision.

Membership benefits are the equivalent of the Association’s Associate level individual coach accreditation.

Free access to the ILM Walled Garden

Free access to the ILM’s Walled Garden knowledge bank is granted to every participant for the duration of the course.

For further information

For details of how to attend an open coaching course as an individual , see our  open course.

For further information or to find out how to bring this training into your organisation, please contact us.

Reviews of our  coaching courses

For many more reviews please visit our Client Reviews page

  • “Then, this year came to me with a gift, a precious and immeasurable gift: Manager as Coach training. None of the previous courses around people management I ever attended has brought me such a powerful and impactful method to help people reach their own goals. It has been a real eye-opener and a revelation of what a coach is.” – Dominique Andrey, Manager Quality Assurance, Philip Morris Products SA, Switzerland.
  • “We have really valued the coaching and mentoring training provided by Culture at Work. People always enjoy the courses and say it is often the best training they have attended.   It really adds value to people’s life – both work and personal.” – Kirsty Duck, HR Manager, GE Healthcare.
  • “I’ve experienced dozen of trainings… only three matter because actionable: Manager as Coach was one of them. Years after, I still use the process and tactics at work and at home. Thank you Carol!” – Dr M’Bayang Thiam, PMI.
  • “I’ll just come right out and say – ‘it was perfect’. The things that really matter to me have all scored highly. It is rare that one course meets needs/expectations in all areas.” – Sue Akroyd (Head of Professional Development, Foundation for Community Dance), Arts Council England Cultural Leadership Programme.
  • “What I most valued was being together as a team, confirmation of boundaries and how to deal with the line between coaching and telling. A positive, enjoyable and insightful course. Four years later I am still using coaching almost on a daily basis, but have to admit that it doesn’t feel like coaching now, just a good way to support people.” – Charles Larkin, Director Finance, Planning and Administration – PMI Nordics Cluster.
  • “I have entered this journey as a way to test the water and get closer to something I have always felt was close to my purpose. The coaching framework (and me being a coachee and a coach) has allowed me to shed light on quite a few blind spots and I feel now hooked to this experience and journey. Listen actively, keeping the framework and tools close, being detached as the key to being useful, but above all trusting the process and being my authentic self are the principles I take with me as I embark on this exciting path of knowing me and helping others along the way.” – Jose Enrique Gonzatti, Delivery Director Visa Managed Services for Europe.
  • “Reflecting on all of these sessions, I can see that using the EXACT model to prioritise goal areas is vitally important, especially when the Coachee comes with such a broad goal, it is a great tool as it helps to structure the session and also allows you to move through the GROW model with all exploration being goal focussed.” – Malini Craig, Witton Park Academy.
  • “The course was fantastic.  I plan to incorporate this into my everyday interactions, line management, as well as continue with some private coaching clients. It was so valuable and really highlighted the value of coaching to me.” – Sophie Harle, Director of HR, Tanglin Trust Singapore.
  • “The depth of the course was great and gives hope for real behavioural change across our organisation. Speaking personally, despite having attended a number of business coaching courses during my career, there were some significant learnings from the Culture at Work course which have improved my coaching and leadership skills; whether it be quotes that resonated with me that I draw on in my day to day work, improved awareness of listening skills, importance of belief and trust in your coachee or the concept of detachment. This has all contributed to me being a more capable coach – inside and outside work!” – Lucinda Pullinger, HR Director, England Rugby.
  • “ The feedback is excellent and our people are truly energised to complete the certification. Thank you.” – Henry Kharoufeh, Director of Organisational learning,  Hilti (Asia) Ltd.
  • “I think this course is fantastic – It’s exceeded my expectations.” – Sarah House-Barklie. Head of HR, Facilities and Internal Communications, Nectar Loyalty.
  • “An excellent course that has made me self-aware of taking a coaching approach. Receiving coaching has made me clear on new ways forward that will make a big impact.” – Alex Thompson, Club Management and Governance Manager, England Rugby.
  • “Really positive – much less pressurised and better than previous coaching course. It’s really been fantastic with the level of practice and feedback we’ve been offered alongside the theory. My confidence has really improved.” – Ellie Haralampous, Client Manager, Nectar Loyalty.
  • “I feel non-stop like I have to say thank you very much  for this opportunity. This is an extremely useful and unusual experience and it is really motivating to do everything possible to use it properly with various people and situations around us – totally helpful and self-developing.” –  Tatyana Neshta, VP Finance and IT, Hilti, Russia.
  • “Very relevant content and awesome explanation. James makes the training very exciting and motivating” – Pedro Ramos, Snr Planning Executive, Nectar Loyalty.
  • “This is the first time I have used GROW in a group setting and it has been incredibly powerful to see the tangible benefits for people. My confidence levels have surged because I now have clarity on my role and feel better equipped to facilitate some fairly tough, emotive discussions.” – Sarah Latham, OD Project Lead, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.
  •  “You have just done in fifteen minutes what normally takes me four hours” (after a trainer demo of GROW) – Senior Sales Manager NCR