The Art of Coaching:
Enabling Employees to Achieve Their Potential

What is this course about?

Successful organizations realize that productivity is more than the mass delivery of product, and that to be truly successful requires its employees to be functioning at their very best. One of the most valuable tools to this end is the strategic use of coaching techniques.

Coaching is one individual working with another to help them improve their performance and reach their potential. Effective implementation of coaching within all levels of an organization is essential in maximizing the return on training investments, enhancing employee motivation and performance, and creating a noticeable improvement in the bottom line.

This intensive, workshop course provides the knowledge and unique skills required to be a successful coach and to foster a mutually supportive environment that is beneficial to both individual and organizational growth.

Who will benefit from this course?

This course is valuable for those who are about to have coaching responsibilities. Those interested in expanding their existing coaching skills or who seek to improve their own performance by better understanding the role of the coach, will also benefit.

I'm not a manager or team leader but I'm often asked to help my colleagues. Is this course right for me?

Absolutely! Working with others to improve mutual performance is not relegated to the hierarchical relationship between managers and those they lead. In many instances, the most effective coaching occurs between colleagues. Adopting a universal coaching mindset across an organization helps everyone to be more successful.

What background do I need?

The principal qualification for this course is the desire to help others be the best they can be, to explore how good a coach you can be, and to help your organization be the finest and most productive it can be. A genuine interest in people and a positive, open frame of mind is essential.

Why is coaching important to my organization?

Organizations are made up of people, and numerous studies have shown that the greatest factor to organizational growth occurs not at the structural level but at the personal level. Integrating proper coaching techniques into your organization's framework maximizes the payback from outside training, reduces turnover by motivating your staff and increases your investment in "human capital." When your employees are empowered, they work smarter, producing a "trickle-up" effect that creates a true performance-enhancing culture and enables tangible transformational change within your organization.

Coaching is about helping others. What benefit do I get from this course?

Coaching is not an impersonal, passive act. By helping others, you gain a greater understanding, insight and awareness of yourself. Through the techniques taught on this course, your interpersonal skills grow, and you will be able to build commitment and enthusiasm in your staff.

Your managerial success is often tied to the success of the team you manage. By growing the competency of your staff, you can delegate without hesitancy, freeing yourself up to take on more challenging and high-profile tasks.

I've heard a lot lately about "life coaching" and "mentoring." Does this course cover these topics?

No. This course focuses on the key skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to be a constructive workplace coach. The results of successful coaching are addressed, ultimately, in terms of its effectiveness in meeting organizational goals. Coaching, within the framework of this course, is considered a business skill and a cornerstone of effective leadership.

How much time is spent on each topic?

How can this course help us in our return on training investment?

Specified training of organizational members is an extremely beneficial process. However, it is only half the process necessary to take full advantage of your training investment. Studies have shown that training alone, without subsequent on-site reinforcement, plateaus and then eventually fades back to pre-training levels. This phenomenon can have a dramatic effect on employee morale and motivation.

Incorporating coaching techniques back at the workplace allows your organization to maximize the effects of training. Coaching serves to underpin and reinforce the training on a day-to-day basis, building confidence in your employees and increasing productivity for the organization. This course will pay dividends for all subsequent, and possibly past, trainings you and your staff will undergo.

Is this course applicable toward a Project Management Institute (PMI) certification?

Yes. Though this course is not designed as preparation for an exam, it is beneficial to anyone working toward, or maintaining, a PMI certification. Most PMI certifications require a specific number of PDUs in order to obtain and maintain the credential. Completion of this course provides 11 professional development units (PDUs).

Learning Tree offers several courses that help you prepare for PMI certifications, including Course 276: Preparing for the Project Management Professional (PMP)^® Exam, which prepares you for PMI's most popular certification. For more details on these courses and PMI certifications, please see the Learning Tree PMI Registered Education Provider Q&A.

How does this course relate to other Learning Tree Courses?

If you are interested in expanding your management skills, we recommend the following courses:

• 244: Assertiveness Skills: Communicating with Authority and Impact provides you the confidence to communicate your ideas with an assertive, direct communication style. You learn to create a positive image through non-verbal signals, while projecting a professional demeanor in any situation.
• 288: Achieving APMG Change Management Practitioner Certification is a practical workshop-based course where you gain the knowledge and skills to guide the people in your workplace through the process of change.
• 292: Communication Skills: Results through Collaboration emphasizes specific tools and techniques for improving listening skills, delivering effective messages and bridging different communication styles.
• 903: Public Speaking: Conveying Your Message with Confidence provides the opportunity to significantly improve your public speaking skills by practicing and delivering speeches and presentations in a safe environment with personalized feedback.
• 906: Management Skills for an IT Environment provides the key skills and behaviors to get the best from technical people.
• 294: Influence Skills: Getting Results without Direct Authority helps you successfully collaborate with others working at all different levels and functional groups to accomplish your objectives. You focus on the specific skills, behaviors and attitudes that enable you to achieve desired results without relying on the use of authority.
• 290: Management Skills allows you to gain working knowledge of the key aspects of management– leadership, delegation, motivation and communication–and practical techniques for getting the best from people.
• 222: Leadership Skills: Building Success through Teamwork provides the skills required to inspire service teams to deliver high-quality results.

US Dates