Coaching skills training that teaches your managers to coach the people they already have
Many managers solve every problem themselves and have no time left to lead. Coaching Skills for Managers teaches them to coach their own people, so performance, accountability and engagement improve week by week. For groups of 8 to 16 managers, across four to six sessions.
- Rise in ITV managers' confidence coaching their people
- 116%
- ITV's average rating for the programme
- 9.7/10
Coaching Skills for Managers is Inner Leader's coaching skills training for line managers and team leaders.
Most managers were promoted because they were good at the job. So when someone brings them a problem, the quickest route is to solve it, and that is usually what happens.
It works until the team stops thinking for itself, the manager's diary fills up with other people's decisions and the appraisal becomes the only conversation where any feedback gets given.
This programme teaches a small number of things managers can use in the conversations they are already having: how to ask a better question, how to give feedback that lands, how to hold someone to account while keeping the relationship and how to make it safe enough that people tell them the truth.
It typically runs as four to six sessions spaced across three to six months for groups of 8 to 16 managers, delivered in person anywhere in the UK or virtually, with one-to-one time between sessions.
Why organisations train their managers in coaching skills
- Managers who solve every problem themselves and have no time left to lead
- One-to-ones that have quietly become status updates
- Feedback saved up for the appraisal, by which point nothing can be done about it
- Capable people plateauing because nobody has asked them the right question
- A performance issue everyone can see and nobody has raised
- Staff survey scores that dip on 'my manager develops me' and stay there
Who this is for
This work is built for:
- Line managers and team leaders who already run one-to-ones and want more out of them
- Newly promoted managers learning to lead people rather than do the work themselves
- Organisations making coaching a management standard across the business
- HR and learning and development teams who want one consistent approach from every manager
It is not the right choice for:
- Managers looking for a technique that gets compliance without a conversation
- Situations where the issue is a formal performance matter (we will say so and point you to the right route)
How it works
Start from the coaching conversations they already have
We build the programme around real one-to-ones, real handovers and the conversations managers have been avoiding, so nobody has to translate a model into their own job afterwards.
Give the group a shared language for personality styles
Everything DiSC, a personality profiling tool, shows managers their own style and how it lands on each person they manage. The same question asked of a fast decider and a careful thinker has to sound different, and after DiSC managers can hear why. We are big advocates of Catalyst, the online Everything DiSC platform: every manager can see their own DiSC style and the styles of the people they manage, with practical tips for working well with each person, long after the sessions end.
Practice and feedback
Managers coach each other on live issues while we watch and give feedback, in a supported setting where it is safe to try things out. People tend to remember this part most: hearing yourself, then going again and doing it differently.
Spaced sessions with one-to-one time between
Sessions run across months, with individual time alongside the group work. Managers leave each one with a real person to coach and something to report back, and the habit forms in the gap between sessions.
Sarah and Tim have been absolutely amazing in kick-starting my leadership journey! If you are willing to dare, you are in good hands.Hanna Bingham, UK Demand Planning Manager, Kimberly-Clark
ITV senior managers who learned to coach their own people
A new organisational structure was asking senior managers in ITV's media team to lead in a way they had not led before. Across the programme, their own rating of their confidence in coaching others rose by 116%, from an average of 3.7 out of 10 to 8.
Outcomes you can expect
- Managers who ask a question before reaching for the answer
- Feedback given in the week it matters, while something can still be done about it
- Accountability that holds, with the working relationship intact afterwards
- People taking on work their manager used to keep, and taking the credit for it
- A consistent way of managing people that new managers can be brought into
How it runs
| Format | In person for the practice sessions; virtual works well for follow-ups and one-to-one time |
|---|---|
| Group size | Groups of 8 to 16 managers |
| Duration | Typically four to six sessions spaced across three to six months |
Questions
What coaching skills will managers learn?
Managers learn how to ask a better question, how to give feedback that lands, how to hold someone to account while keeping the relationship and how to make it safe enough that people tell them the truth. Everything DiSC is used alongside, so each manager can see their own style and how it lands on each person they manage.
How long is the coaching skills for managers programme?
Typically four to six sessions spaced across three to six months, for groups of 8 to 16 managers, with one-to-one time alongside the group sessions.
Is the coaching skills training run in person or online?
Both. The practice sessions work best in person and we run them anywhere in the UK from our base in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire. Follow-ups and one-to-one time work well virtually, and whole programmes can run virtually where that fits around your managers' work.
How is coaching skills training for managers different from the coaching you deliver yourselves?
Our coaching programmes put an experienced coach alongside one leader. This programme puts the skill in the hands of your own managers, so the coaching carries on once we have finished. Plenty of clients run both, with us coaching the senior team while their managers learn to coach theirs.
Do managers need a coaching qualification to do this?
No, and the programme does not award one. It teaches the coaching skills a manager needs in one-to-ones, feedback conversations and accountability, applied to the people they already manage.
What changes for the people being managed?
On programmes we have run, managers have stopped taking every problem back onto their own desk and their teams have noticed. One manager moved from needing the answer to come from her to coaching her own people and letting them take the credit for what they delivered. In another team, a junior person who had been heading towards a formal performance conversation became one of the strongest performers in the team. We can talk these through on a call.
Why spaced coaching skills sessions rather than one full day?
Because the skill forms in the practice between sessions. A single day finishes before anyone has tried it on a real person. Spaced sessions give managers someone to coach, a few weeks to try it and somewhere to bring what went wrong.
Further reading
Team coaching: what it is and how it works
What team coaching is, how it differs from team building and group coaching, how a business team coaching programme runs and what it changed for two teams.
Why psychological safety is important in building high-performing teams
Why psychological safety in teams matters, where it came from, what the research shows, four ways to build it and the obstacles that stop it taking hold.
Let's talk.
Not sure your managers would use it? Tell us what your one-to-ones look like now and we will give you our view.
We’ll reply within one business day.