Develop a coaching mindset and create a coaching culture in your organisation in only 5 days of coach training – spread over 2-3 months to embed the learning – or the equivalent in online training. This coaching skills course includes everything required to become an accredited coach, or an authentic coaching manager. We have been delivering it in over 42 countries and several languages, online and face to face, for more than 20 years, and it has been named by many participants as the best management course that they ever attended.
If you lack the time and budget to roll out the full course it can be broken down into shorter coaching skills courses to accommodate your requirements and meet your objectives.
Based on Sir John Whitmore’s time-honoured GROW model, through a series of simple and easy-to-remember techniques and exercises this coaching training course will transform the leadership style of your managers and bring about a change in self-awareness, energy, potential and personal impact at a profound level.
Who is this course for?
The training is delivered to organisations worldwide as a global face-to-face or online coaching programme, for CEOs, C-Suite, senior and middle managers, team leaders, HR business partners, learning & development staff, internal coaches, and anyone who wants to improve their communication skills, manage their emotional intelligence, and develop a coaching mindset.
What does this course cover?
The modules on this coaching and mentoring course include foundation coaching skills, the GROW model, coaching feedback, team coaching, managing conflict, self-limiting beliefs, and developing a coaching mindset. It raises awareness of self and one’s impact on others. It carries varies types of accreditation including ILM, the leadership arm of City & Guilds.
How long is this course?
The full programme is 5 days spread over 2-6 months or the equivalent in online coach training sessions lasting from 2-4 hours. It can be broken down into shorter modules to suit your requirements.
Our courses:
- are 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 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 business experience including 10 years as a Managing Director at Virgin reporting directly to renowned coaching leader Sir Richard Branson.
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 specially selected for their presentation skills, empathy and ability to provide a safe, though challenging, training environment. They understand that while training to acquire a coaching mindset, it is important for participants to focus on simple practical coaching skills that they can take away and use immediately, along with a increasing their awareness of self and others.
Our approach to coaching skills training
Our coaching skills courses are fast moving and intensive. The content is pragmatic and constantly adjusted to relate to the participants’ own workplace and unique challenges. We believe that every minute of training to be a coach must deliver something useful and practical for participants to take away.
The courses consist of demonstrations by the trainer with volunteers, group discussions and participant practice. While training to be a coach people learn by doing and focus what is relevant to them as individuals. In between the training sessions participants undertake practical assignments in order to integrate the skills, experiment and stretch themselves within the safety of practise sessions with a partner from the course, so that they can develop their own unique way of using coaching skills in tune with their leadership style.
Our online coach training programmes have proved to be as effective and enjoyable as our face-to-face coaching courses.
Coach training with the GROW Model
We are sometimes told by participants on our courses who have previously trained in coaching skills that they never really understood how to use the GROW coaching model until taught by us. We have the rare advantage of having had the GROW model explained to us by Sir John Whitmore himself, during our partnership during the last 10 years of his life.
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 and article on the GROW model.
The Coaching Mindset
We believe that ‘coaching culture’ is a holistic term which embraces skills, attitudes and behaviour in an organisation. There is a misconception that coaching training is only about learning special techniques, like listening and asking questions. These skills are indeed essential to any coaching and mentoring course, but we believe that to develop a coaching mindset and become a true ‘coaching manager’ it is the underlying intention behind the words that matters, namely treating people with respect, focusing on their development, believing in people’s highest potential, creating mutual trust, and building self-belief.
We encourage managers to learn and copy the skills as taught on our coach training courses, integrate them through practice, and then throw the rule book away. In this way, it is possible to manage with a coaching mindset in one’s own authentic style, congruently with one’s personality and values – the essence of a coaching mindset.
The role of today’s leader requires an ability to move smoothly between being directive, guiding as a mentor and drawing out self-directed learning by asking coaching questions.
At times managers must tell people what to do or what not to do, it is part of their role. By developing a coaching mindset, your leaders will be able to integrate directive management into their coaching style. They will be better listeners, better mentors and stronger leaders. Within a holistic GROW coaching approach, where trust is high and people are allowed to develop their potential, direction will be an inspiring and motivating part of the relationship between leaders and their teams.
All modules of our face-to-face and online coach training courses are specifically tailored to provide examples relevant to the 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.
Certification and Credentials on this coaching course
Both the face-to-face and online coach training courses provide full accreditation as a professional coach and meets the training course requirements for coach accreditation with the Association for Coaching and the ILM. Participants have a choice of certificates:
Every successful candidate receives the credential 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.
An ILM Recognised certificate. 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 Recognised, Level 5, Level 7, and Level 7 Diploma credentials. For more details please visit our Coaching Accreditation page.
This 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.
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 face-to-face and online coach training courses.
This provides 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 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.
- “You have just done in fifteen minutes what normally takes me four hours” (after a trainer demo of GROW) – Senior Sales Manager NCR