Practice Your Coaching Skills

Tips to Build Coaching Skills and Confidence

With the Winter Olympics dominating much of the news, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the importance of practice to sharpen one’s skill and how that translates to coaching, or any endeavor, for that matter. I admire and am inspired by the Olympic athletes. I enjoy watching them but even more I am intrigued and inspired by their stories. You hear so much about the training and practice and time that these athletes put in to improve their skills. It makes me think of the saying, Practice Makes Perfect. But I don’t really like that saying as in reality we rarely, if ever, reach perfection.

Just look at the Olympic competitions. I doubt many people put as much time and effort into practice as these athletes do. And they are at the top of their game, but as we see, not perfect. What is my point? Practice is important but striving for perfection can be counterproductive. To often I’ve seen coaches wanting to perfect their skills before putting them to use. If you wait until you’ve perfected a coaching skill you will have wasted time and people will have missed the opportunity to be coached by you. Instead of waiting until we perfect our skills, we need to aim high and continue to grow and improve. And practice. Every hour of practice leads to improved skill and greater confidence to put those skills to work.

So hopefully I’ve convinced you that practice is important. The obvious next question is how to go about practicing your coaching skills. Here are a few approaches that we’ve seen work well for many coaches.

• Develop your coaching style. We all develop our own styles. No one style of coaching is best or right. So, observe as many coaches as you can to learn about different styles and then start to experiment with your own. Your style must feel natural to you. Don’t try to force a style that feels uncomfortable to you just because another coach has used it successfully.
• Start with a safe place. Many coaching courses offer practice / feedback sessions as part of the curriculum. This is an excellent place to start.
• Begin with simple coaching situations. You might ask your friends, co-workers (who are friendly), or others to let you practice your coaching skills with them.
• Ask for feedback. Feedback can be an incredible tool. It can also be difficult to hear and, for the one giving the critique, it can be uncomfortable to give open, honest and real feedback. So, make sure you are prepared to hear the feedback and make sure the person evaluating is prepared to give you an honest critique.

• Observe experienced coaches in action. We often hear that when coaches can see how others are coaching it can lead to an aha moment. When watching others coach, they can see the skills being used and start to really ‘get’ the power of coaching.

If you are interested in observing real coaches utilize their coaching skills in real coaching situations, you’ll want to attend our next free webinar. During this webinar we will have experienced coaches tackle real challenges. No scripting, no rehearsals. Sort of like the improv of coaching. You will observe coaches using their coaching skills in the moment; figuring out what the next question is and where to support the coachee as the dialog unfolds. Don’t miss this unique learning opportunity. Read more about the webinar and register here.

Educational Webinars

The Business of Coaching

Building a thriving coaching business takes more than just great coaching skills. You also must know how to build a business. For many, this is the hardest part of going out on your own. If you are starting your own coaching business, check out our guide – Making it as a Coach or view our recent webinar Making it as a Coach: Strategies for Success.

Education and Training Courses

Build Core Competencies

5/5/5 Coaching Skills Training Program™

If your 2018 goals include starting a coaching business or using coaching to lead within an organization, you won’t want to miss our 5/5/5 Coaching Skills Training Program™.

This course is designed for coaches, managers/leaders who want to use the tool of coaching to improve individual, team and organizational performance. This is for anyone looking for a simple, intuitive and highly transferable coaching model.

During this course participants learn questioning, listening and framing skills designed to guide coachees to new insights, discoveries and breakthroughs that will help them become self-reliant problem solvers and achieve their goals. This course provides in-depth learning of core coaching competencies including multiple practice and feedback sessions. Click on the course name to learn more and register.

5/5/5 Coaching Skills Training Program™ – Starts March 6

Advance Your Skills

Personal Groundwork for Coaching Program™

Are you looking to enhance your coaching skills? Take your coaching to the next level? Or maybe you are looking for tools to help you with your biggest coaching challenges.

Ace the ICF CKA Exam

ICF Coach Knowledge Assessment

This course is designed to prepare coaches for the ICF Coach Knowledge Assessment exam which must be successfully completed prior to receiving the International Coach Federation (ICF) ACC Credential. The course covers ICF Core Competencies and Ethics and Standards plus test taking strategies. This prep class will present several questions each week that mimic the multiple-choice questions you will be asked to answer in the CKA exam.

ICF Coach Knowledge Assessment – Starts February 28

Take the Fast Track to Your ICF Credential

Fast Track to ICF Credential

There has never been a better time to obtain your ICF ACC Credential. More and more coaches are getting credentialed and many clients expect it. But pursuing your ICF Credential is a big step and commitment. That is why we created the Fast Track to ICF Credential – to streamline the process and make it as convenient as possible.

New for 2018;

• we’ve added more class start dates
• day and evening classes
• the ability to build your own schedule

Benefits of the Fast Track to ICF Credential include;

● FAST TRACK: Takes only 6 months to complete (other programs may take as long as 18 months).

● ROBUST, DISTANCE-BASED LEARNING: We use cutting-edge technology to create an in-person, interactive classroom experience while you participate remotely.

● TOP-NOTCH EDUCATION AND TRAINING: You get world-class instruction from expert coaches with experience in both coaching and teaching.

● FLEXIBLE SCHEDULE: We offer day and evening classes for your convenience, and new classes start throughout the year.

● AFFORDABLE: This program is priced to fit into your budget. Save $495 US / $595 Canada when you register for the package option. Don’t need the package option? You also have the choice of taking separate modules a la carte. We even have a payment plan.

Our next evening program starts March 6. Click here to view the schedule

Coaching Resources

We offer many resources on a wide variety of topics to support coaches at all levels. On our website, you can find blog articles, educational videos, webinar recordings and more under Coaching Resources. We are continually updating this section so check back often.

Our coaching guides continue to be very popular and we will be adding to these in 2018. If you haven’t taken advantage of these free resources, you can find them here.

We have several coaching resources to support you in developing your skills and building confidence. Learn more about these resources by clicking on the links below.

365 Coaching Questions. This tool provides provocative questions in 21 different topic areas.

Live Coaching Webinars. Visit our webinars page and then scroll down until you find the webinar titles;

• Sharpen Your Questioning and Listening Skills
• The 5/5/5 Live Coaching Demos
• The 5/5/5 Live Coaching Demos Part 2

HOME | ABOUT US | COACHING EDUCATION PROGRAMS | CONTACT

We would love to connect with you! Reach out to our team here or call Toll Free, 
1-888-4A-COACH (1-888-422-6224).