Coaching Professional

Evidence for the benefits of coaching and mentoring – for individual and organisational performance – is compelling.  A skilled coach can significantly improve a wide remit of outcomes from personal and team performance to staff retention. 

Coaching is a way of leading in a non-directive manner, helping people to learn through deep listening and reflective, open questions rather than instructing, giving advice or making suggestions.

This apprenticeship was developed to respond to the growing demand for the professionalisation of coaching to include one-to-one coaching, team coaching, leadership coaching and for coaching skills to be embedded within culture and governance infrastructures to support future ways of working.

Who is it For?

The Coaching Professional apprenticeship is for managers with significant responsibility for coaching and mentoring in their day-to-day role. It will also support you if you are planning to move into a development role in your organisation or start a career as a freelance coach and mentor.

Coaching is a way of treating people, a way of thinking and a way of being which is seen as vital to supporting individuals and organisations in increasingly volatile and ever-changing environments. 

A coach will work with a wide range of individuals and teams (across all organisation types) to empower and engage with them to enhance their professional performance.

Key responsibilities may include: leadership, management, learning and development, engagement, strategic planning, team management, talent management.

Typical job titles may include: Business Coach, Performance Coach, Manager, Director, Team Leader, Coach, HR Manager, Talent Manager, Leadership Coach, Executive Coach, Life Coach, Welfare Coach. 

What is Covered?

During the programme you will be taught and assessed on the following knowledge, skills and behaviours: 

Knowledge

K1: Theories of learning and reflective practice such as Kolb, Gibbs, Schon, etc., and basic schools of psychology and neuroscience, including linguistic interpretation and application

K2: The theories of emotional and social intelligence, such as Goleman and Salovey & Mayer, and application of the theories to understanding self

K3: Diversity and inclusion and bias theory, including personality type theories, such as preferences for introversion vs extroversion, integrity, ontology and human values and how they impact on behaviour and organisations. The theory of self actualisation, such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, motivational theory, Herzberg

K4: The importance of coaching contracting and recontracting, and models enabling its effectiveness

K5: The theory of organisational culture (and values) and leadership styles, and the impact these can have on individuals and their behaviour

K6: Coaching theory, including maintaining good practice coaching protocols and a code of conduct within the coaching process (including “unconditional positive regard”, non-judgmentalism and non-directiveness)

K7: Methods of communication including verbal / non-verbal / building rapport / matching and mirroring. Listening skills, including levels of listening. Theories of relationship management, including transactional analysis, power dynamics, and stakeholder management theories

K8: Theories of increasing self-awareness such as the Johari Window and the journey from unconscious incompetence to unconscious competence, and types of feedback

K9: Evaluation: theories of return on investment and delivery of value

K10: The differences and similarities between coaching, mentoring, training, counselling and consulting

K11: Relevant legislation (e.g. Data Protection Act, safeguarding) and coaching competencies and codes of ethics described by the main professional bodies

K12: The existence of a range of coaching models and techniques, and related psychological approaches, such as Whitmore’s GROW model, Kline’s Thinking Environment, Gestalt, neurolinguistic programming (NLP), cognitive behavioural coaching, positive psychology, metaphor, solutions-focussed coaching and skills and performance coaching. Methods of goal setting, such as SMART goals, alignment of personal and organisational goals, and aspirational/dream goals

Skills

S1: Time management, including scheduling coaching sessions, and self-leadership to resolve conflicting priorities and ensure sufficient time for record keeping and other role activities

S2: Working with those receiving coaching to set clear goals, including visualisation techniques, setting timescales, validating their achievability, recording outcome-focused, prioritised action plans and monitoring progress towards goals

S3: Communication, including (but not limited to) descriptions of the coaching process and roles and responsibilities (including those related to boundaries and confidentiality), and the benefits of coaching in relation to the context of those receiving coaching

S4: Contracting with all relevant stakeholders, including logistics, preferences of the coach and those receiving coaching, considerations of the system within which the coaching relationship sits, goal setting, outcome realisation and contract conclusion. This includes holding oneself to high ethical standards, particularly in the areas of confidentiality (including when maintaining coaching records) and management of boundaries (including their own competence and values, relevant codes of ethics, and relevant legislation, policies and procedures)

S5: Stakeholder management, including a range of challenging and senior people, and focus on their agenda and outcomes throughout

S6: Rapport/trust building and maintenance, including recognition of the personal values, emotional state(s) and response of those receiving coaching, validating their understanding of themselves and their circumstances, dealing with difficult coaching relationships and ensuring non-dependence on the coach

S7: Deliver feedback in a style that is useful, acceptable, non-judgmental and meaningful to those receiving coaching

S8: Identification of patterns of thinking and limiting/enabling beliefs and actions

S9: Questioning techniques to raise the self-awareness of those receiving coaching, including asking open questions, broaching challenging subject areas (e.g. emotional state, characteristics of wider systems) and questioning untrue, limiting assumptions

S10: Uses several established tools and techniques to develop their own coherent model of coaching to help those receiving coaching work towards outcomes. Uses models and approaches from the context of those receiving coaching

S11: Demonstrates emotional intelligence, including demonstrating empathy and genuine support for those receiving coaching (“unconditional positive regard”), and adapting language and behaviour in response to the whole person of those receiving coaching

S12: Applies coaching theories, models and tools, techniques and ideas beyond the core communication skills in order to bring about insight and learning

S13: Identifies energy shifts within a coaching context, enabling these to be aired and addressed and managed

S14: Manages and celebrates diversity in their coaching practice, including demonstrating how diversity and inclusion informs their professional practice

S15: Demonstrates awareness of own values, beliefs and behaviours; recognises how these affect their practice and uses this self-awareness to manage their effectiveness in meeting the objectives of those receiving coaching and, where relevant, the sponsor

Behaviours

B1: Committed to self-development, including self-reflection, gathering information on the effectiveness of their own practice, producing personal development plans and receiving coach supervision

B2: Self-awareness, including of their own behaviours, values, beliefs and attitudes, and attending to their own wellbeing, resilience and maintaining mental capacity

B3: Act as an ambassador for a coaching mindset and positive approach to personal development

B4: Is spontaneous, open and flexible, demonstrating respect and engendering trust

This standard aligns with the following professional recognition:

– European Mentoring and Coaching Council for Accredited Coaching Practitioner

– The Association for Coaching for Accredited Coach

– The International Coach Federation for Associate Certified Coach