Coaching Skills Training with Self
Factor Coaching
Who uses our trainings?
• People interested in working professionally
as a coach.
- our trainings are aligned with the requirements
of international accreditation
• Leaders, managers, counsellors, social workers, teachers and others
wanting to use a 'coaching approach' in their current role.
• Organisations wanting a 'strength based' follow up to
Appreciative Inquiry or similar organisational development
- we also have executive coaches who are
trained in Appreciative Inquiry, Open Space and World Cafe
At this page we give our overview of coach training
at the present time, the benefits of working with ourselves
and some reflections on what you may want to consider in choosing
a training provider.
You can find out
more about the structure and content of our modules here.
Benefits of our Trainings-
You get to:
• Enhance your skills in your current role so as to be:
- More effective and fulfilled
- Ahead in the market
• Or start a new meaningful and rewarding profession as
a coach
• Enhance your communication skills in all areas –
both professional and personal
• Support your clients, team or organisation in being more
empowered and more effective by:
- Drawing out the best in them
- Focusing on their strengths and
vision
- Finding and following through with
their own best way forward
- Working with
WHAT they will do
HOW they will do it and
WHO they will need to be to succeed
• Acquire some of the best coaching models in the field
• Be part of a strong, vibrant and supportive peer group
An important additional bonus is that you will be with a like minded
group in a safe environment and immersed in a culture of empowered
possibility. In the many practice sessions, you will be able to
focus on your own issues, challenges and opportunities and gain
awareness and insight – as well as taking significant leaps
forward. Read feedback from previous participants here.
You get training that is:
• Proficiency and practice based
• Aligned with the portfolio accreditation requirements
of
- The International Coach
Federation and
- The Association for Coaching
• Very affordable AND highest quality
• Modular format with later modules consolidating and building
on earlier ones:
- Core Coaching Skills*
- Coaching for Results*
- Coaching the Self Factor*
• Has follow through and support in between modules
• Supports you in identifying coaching niches and developing
a practice
• Lead by trainers who are highly experienced, trained and
accredited coaches
• Complementary to an ‘Appreciative Inquiry’
approach to organisational development
*The modules may be taken singly or as part of a series that together
provide more than 60 hours of coach specific training, as defined
by the International Coach Federation.
Find out more about the structure and content of the individual
modules here.
To understand why we believe the benefits of our coach training
to be outstanding, for both value and quality, you may want to consider
some of the following points.
Why do coach training?
It is in demand
There is a huge demand for coaching from both organisations and
individuals.
And it is growing
This comes from the increasing realisation and acceptance that when
people are coached and empowered, rather than told and policed,
then there is much greater ownership and effectiveness.
In organisations
That demand is continuing to grow and shows no signs of slacking
off. Nearly all large companies and organisations employ or contract
in professional coaches. In addition, many are introducing a ‘coaching
culture’ where managers are trained and expected to coach
and empower their people rather than simply telling them what to
do. If you have coach training as part of your C.V. then it puts
you ahead in the job market. Many smaller companies and organisations
are learning from this trend and bringing in coaches or developing
coaching skills amongst their own staff.
And for individuals
Individuals, who are already doing okay, are turning to coaching
for the support to take their careers and life to the next level.
They realise that having the support and expertise of a professional
coach empowers them to do more and to be more effective than they
can be on their own. In addition, a growing number of people are
realising that they have achieved traditional success at too great
a cost to their personal lives and well-being. Many are now using
the support of a coach to create lives where they can be authentic
and happy as well as successful – to go beyond success to
fulfilment.
Who takes coach training?
Anyone who wants to be more effective in working with, supporting
and influencing others will benefit hugely from training in coaching
skills. This includes leaders, managers, social workers, teachers,
counselors etc. In addition, coaching can be a highly rewarding
profession for those who choose to specialise in it.
How important is proper training?
The current situation
Currently anyone can call themselves ‘a coach’. There
are a lot of ‘coaches’ cashing in on the current trend
without any training or real coaching skills. They simply do whatever
they have already been doing and call it coaching.
Includes
This includes consultants and mentors who simply tell you what they
have done or would do – without being able to support you
in drawing on your own skills and experience and developing your
own approach and style. It even includes ‘coach trainers’
who have had no training themselves and who put together some kind
of mishmash of whatever skills and interventions they have picked
up or read about. This is not to say that some of these ‘coaches’
and ‘coach trainers’ do not give some value or have
nothing to offer from their own experience. But, for most, their
offering could be much greater if they were trained and grounded
in real coaching skills and could support you in finding a way that
really fits and works for you.
And the market is changing
The market place is becoming more discerning and looking for evidence
of proper training and/or accreditation. This trend will almost
certainly increase. There is also a possibility that, as with many
commercial and helping professions, legislation will be brought
in at some future point requiring coaches to belong to a recognised
professional body and to have training recognised by the profession.
Clients are becoming more discerning
As more coaches appear on the scene clients are becoming more discerning
in who they approach and work with. The same is true for internal
coaches. Their client’s expect them to have been properly
trained and to have the right skill set.
Market yourself confidently
Knowing that you are well trained and practiced in a reliable and
tested skill set makes it much easier to market yourself confidently
– whether as a professional coach or in using coaching to
support your existing professional or organisational role.
So what is coaching and what are the skills?
The essence of coaching
Coaching is about consistently empowering someone in their life
and work. The root meaning of being empowered has two components:
• Being your own authority
choosing what is right for you, and
• Being enabled to achieve
whatever you choose to do.
Many traditional prescriptive approaches are hierarchical and rely
on somebody else telling you what to do – which undermines
your personal authority, limits your development and effectiveness
and is of limited long term use.
Coaching according to the International Coach Federation
(ICF)
In contrast, one of the leading independent coaching bodies, the
International Coach Federation (ICF), promotes a form of coaching
that honors the client as the expert in his/her life and work and
believes that every client is creative, resourceful, and whole.
Standing on this foundation, the coach's responsibility
is to:
• Discover, clarify,
and align with what the client wants to achieve
• Encourage client self-discovery
• Elicit client-generated
solutions and strategies
• Hold the client responsible
and accountable
The skill set
Coaching in this collaborative way requires a distinct skill set
including:
• Co-creating agreements
and partnering with the client
• Being fully present
and establishing trust with the client
• Eliciting, clarifying
and working with the client’s agenda
• Exceptional listening
and questioning skills
• Direct communication
• Facilitating learning
and results.
The Association for Coaching, another independent coaching body,
has a similar perspective on coaching and the necessary skill set
as the ICF.
You can get an overview of some of the areas that coaches work
with clients here.
Accreditation
If you are looking to become accredited as a coach then there
are a few things to bear in mind.
Who is offering the accreditation and are they independent?
Many trainings, including our own, offer their own certificates.
For many situations and clients this will be sufficient. If you
want to go further though, and to join a professional coaching body
and to get appropriate professional insurance, then you may want
to be accredited by an independent body.
There are a number of quasi-independent organisations associated
with particular trainings. It is better to look for accrediting
bodies that are both truly independent and widely recognised.
Is the accreditation practice/proficiency based or is
it study/academic based?
Amongst the accreditations offered by recognised professional bodies
are two distinct types.
The first created by the coaching profession themselves, and based
on a lot of shared practical experience, are primarily focused on
practice and proficiency in an agreed skill set. The most widely
recognised internationally, and possibly the most rigorous of these,
is offered by the International Coach Federation with whom I hold
their highest credential, Master Certified Coach (MCC). In
the UK and Europe, The Association for Coaching (AC)and the European
Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC) have each also created their
own accreditation systems.
The second kind of accreditation is more study based and may be
endorsed by a university or college of some kind. The draw back
with some of these schemes is that they are academic based and,
while they measure your theoretical understanding of coaching, require
much less actual practice and evidence of proficiency in the field.
There is a lot of variation, though, and they need to be looked
at on an individual basis.
Different types of training
If you explore the different types of training being offered then
you will find some that are just a mishmash of whatever the trainer
calls coaching and that the trainers themselves may have no recognised
professional coach training.
Other more reputable trainings, particularly those that can lead
to some form of independent accreditation, will be primarily practice/proficiency
based or academic/study based.
Practice/Proficiency based trainings
As with our own trainings, the theory presented is relevant, sufficient
and necessary for the practice of coaching – and it is the
practice and demonstration of effective and empowering coaching
skills that is mainly emphasised and developed. Coaching is an art
more than a science and our belief is that you do need to acquire
relevant, tested and effective coaching models and paradigms –
but the greater emphasis is on practising them in a controlled setting
that will prepare you for the real thing.
Study/Academic based trainings
As with the accreditations described above, the academic influence
can often lead to what in our view is an over emphasis on theory
and study and this often goes with limited ‘live’ training.
Not all university linked trainings fall in this camp – but
if you are seriously considering a particular training then you
may want to check how much of it is study or theory based and how
much is concerned with proficiency and actual practice.
Why our training?
Having read the above, you may now see why we regard the benefits
we offer so highly. Namely:
You get training that is:
• Proficiency and practice based
• Aligned with the portfolio accreditation requirements
of
- The International Coach
Federation and
- The Association for Coaching
• Very affordable AND highest quality
• Modular format with later modules consolidating and building
on earlier ones:
- Core Coaching Skills*
- Coaching for Results*
- Coaching the Self Factor*
• Has follow through and support in between modules
• Supports you in identifying coaching niches and developing
a practice
• Lead by trainers who are highly experienced, trained and
accredited coaches
• Complementary to an ‘Appreciative Inquiry’
approach to organisational development
*The modules may be taken singly or as part of a series that together
provide more than 60 hours of coach specific training, as defined
by the International Coach Federation.
Find out more about the structure and content of the individual
modules here.
You get to:
• Enhance your skills in your current role so as to be:
- More effective and fulfilled
- Ahead in the market
• Or start a new meaningful and financially rewarding profession
as a coach
• Enhance your communication skills in all areas –
both professional and personal
• Support your ‘clients’ in being more empowered
and more effective by:
- Drawing out the best in them
- Focusing on their strengths and
vision
- Finding and following through with
their own best way forward
- Working with
WHAT they will do
HOW they will do it and
WHO they will need to be to succeed
• Acquire some of the best coaching models in the field
• Be part of a strong, vibrant and supportive peer group
An important additional bonus is that you will be with a like minded
group in a safe environment and immersed in a culture of empowered
possibility. In the many practice sessions, you will be able to
focus on your own issues, challenges and opportunities and gain
awareness and insight – as well as taking significant leaps
forward. Read feedback from previous participants here.
You can find out more about the structure and content of our modules
here.
For bookings & further information, contact us today at ....
Tel: +44 (0)208 123 2484
Professional
Coach Training
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