Coaching Skills Training

Coaching skills are essential for high performance and building healthy team culture. When you have team leaders committed to a consistent coaching approach and building effective communication skills, teams get stronger. In this increasingly complex world of work, leaders are faced with challenging situations more regularly and need successful coaching skills to navigate these. The purpose of this workshop is to help leaders with tools, strategies and coaching techniques, so they can build better, healthier relationships.

Working with organisations in Melbourne, Sydney and across Australia, we know that teams are facing challenges like never before. Here’s a few of them:

1. Psychosocial hazards: Australian organisations are now responsible for doing more to protect their employees from psychosocial hazards. Leaders with effective coaching skills will become increasingly desirable, as the ability to empower others helps teams maintain better relationships and a better workplace culture. 
2. Mental health: 1 in 5 Australians are currently experiencing a mental health issue. Leadership skills in coaching can help leaders understand their direct reports and be more supportive to improve mental health outcomes. A strong coaching relationship helps leaders feel into what team members are experiencing and understand the challenges they’re facing. 
3. Complex world of work: Living in a ‘VUCA’ (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) environment means leaders and teams need to be able to cope with constant challenges. Covid recovery, economic instability and hybrid working have all had a profound emotional impact and leaders with strong coaching skills offer greater direction and certainty to their direct reports. 
4. Hybrid working: There aren’t as many ‘across the desk’ conversations in this hybrid working world. Leaders with strong coaching skills are better placed to elicit high performance in this changed environment, as they make the most of 1:1 conversations and have skill sets that allow them to adapt their leadership skills and coaching techniques for the virtual world. 
5. Flatter hierarchies: More and more, organisations are becoming flatter with employees having more responsibility and autonomy. Leaders can empower their direct reports to take ownership of their role and self-manage their workflows. Leaders who have key skills in coaching help employees work more autonomously and with confidence.

Overall, these challenges can make it more difficult for leaders if they’re not trained with coaching skills and a range of strategies to empower team members with different capabilities and behaviours.

With the help of Coaching Skills Training, leaders develop these skills to help them empower teams toward high performance:

1. Empowerment: Leaders who can empower their coachees to self-manage, strive for high performance, and own up to mistakes, achieve better overall results with their teams. When leaders adopt a solid coaching framework and coaching development program, they give their direct reports the structure they need to achieve individual, team and organisational goals. 
2. Emotional Intelligence: Leaders who are self-aware and understand others and their individual points of view, are more compassionate coaches. Emotional intelligence is key in professional coaching as it helps leaders see different perspectives and allows for deeper, richer coaching conversations. 
3. Perspective taking: Conflict can arise when there are different perspectives in the workplace, but leaders who can appreciate other points of view are more capable of problem solving with their direct reports. Leaders increase their perspective-taking skills by staying calm and objective in situations, truly listening to others, and working collaboratively to find solutions. 
4. Holding space: Leaders who can hold space for each of their direct reports, no matter how different they are, are more likely to build better, healthier relationships. Leaders can build this this capability by applying active listening skills, refraining from judgement, and displaying open body language and facial expressions. 
5. Trust-building: When leaders truly understand the diverse needs of each of their direct reports, it goes a long way to signalling trust and connection. This paves the way for long-lasting relationships that are beneficial for both workplace culture and to inspire high performance.

By developing core skills in these areas, leaders can grow capability in coaching skills, improve communication skills, and thrive in the workplace.

What is Coaching Skills Training?

This training course is specifically designed for leaders to develop fundamental skills in coaching. It aims to provide participants with the skills, tools, resources and confidence necessary to understand how to motivate and empower others. Our experienced facilitators have worked with many teams across Australia and draw from case studies and shared experiences to offer meaningful advice, practical strategies, and stories to learn from.

Why should my organisation offer Coaching Skills Training?

Being part of this coaching course can help leaders with coaching models, coaching techniques and how to approach follow-up conversations. It can also help participants to break down biases they might have to know how to flex their coaching style for different people and contexts. The workshop experience is designed to help leaders learn from each other and share tips and ideas on how to be a great coach.

Who can attend Coaching Skills Training?

Coaching Skills Training is designed for leaders of all levels – from senior leaders through to frontline leaders. We help leaders with the essential skills for coaching and empowering people to strive for high performance.

Is Coaching Skills Training only available in person?

Coaching Skills Training can be delivered in an in-person, virtual or hybrid format; depending on the organisation’s set-up. It is interactive and typically made up of strategies, discussions and a series of activities to support real world application. The training can be complemented with professional coaching sessions with a Thinka coach that can help the leader refine their own coaching skills. Coaching plays an important role in helping participants challenge old behaviours, biases and judgements, so they’re ready to coach others. Organisations might also opt for a blended program that makes use of eLearning modules and other forms of media as part of an online course.

Team & Leadership Workshops, Nostra

1. What was the objective?

Nostra’s Learning and Development team wanted to incorporate two tiers of programs that would be delivered to their leaders, high-potential employees, and their team members. As the programs would be a cross-section of the business, the learning needed to apply to all business areas on site and at the head office.

2. How did we do it?

After a consultation process to understand the underlying learning needs, Thinka delivered four virtual workshops focusing on the following areas: Master Communication, Deliver Feedback and Apply Coaching, Resolving Conflict and Driving Accountability, Improving Delegation and Empowering Culture. The workshops were highly interactive and designed to reflect on the current practices within the business before shifting focus to creating actionable change that would build on those practices. As this client had not had deep experience in the virtual classroom, we took the time to guide them through using some engaging digital tools they would then be able to use with their teams.

3. How was it integrated and what were the results?

The workshops were delivered monthly to allow time to integrate the learnings into their everyday work and build their skills on each other. These workshops were stepped alongside their everyday work to ensure their professional development synced with their day-to-day operations.