Coaching Skills for Managers Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Line Managers, Newly Appointed Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-149

Before you join: Participants should have experience managing, supervising or leading the work of others and should already conduct basic one-to-ones, performance discussions or development conversations.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Managers are often expected to develop people while meeting delivery targets, correcting performance and responding to employee concerns. Without a clear coaching approach, one-to-ones can become status updates, managers may give answers too quickly, and difficult issues may be postponed or treated as informal coaching when formal management action is needed. The result is weak employee ownership, repeated problems and inconsistent development decisions.

This five-day course equips managers to hold purposeful coaching conversations that improve performance, build judgement and support career development. Participants use the GROW model to set employee-owned goals, practise listening and questioning techniques, give feedback through the SBI model, and handle resistance, emotion and stalled progress. They learn where coaching is appropriate, when to switch to directive management, and when HR, safeguarding, wellbeing or disciplinary routes must take precedence.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with realistic management cases, coached conversation simulations, group analysis and structured reflection. Cases include an employee missing operational targets, a technically strong specialist preparing for promotion, and a team member whose development goal conflicts with workload pressures. Participants receive a certificate of completion and leave with a documented 90-day coaching implementation plan, reusable conversation tools and a structured approach for planning, conducting and reviewing coaching sessions.

The course suits managers who already conduct one-to-ones and performance discussions but want greater confidence, consistency and discipline in developing others. It is particularly relevant where managers need to improve retention, strengthen internal talent pipelines or reduce dependence on escalation for routine people issues.

What you will be able to do

  • Contract coaching relationships with clear purpose, confidentiality boundaries and employee ownership
  • Apply the GROW model to define measurable development goals and actions
  • Use listening, questioning and summarising techniques to develop employee insight
  • Deliver SBI feedback that separates observable behaviour from interpretation
  • Apply SCARF and OARS techniques to address motivation, resistance and limiting beliefs
  • Manage coaching conversations involving underperformance, emotion and escalation risks
  • Structure recurring coaching sessions with agendas, progress reviews and accountable actions
  • Create a 90-day coaching implementation plan for direct reports

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence leading developmental one-to-one conversations
  • A repeatable structure for coaching without giving immediate answers
  • Clearer judgement on coaching, performance management and referral boundaries
  • Stronger feedback skills for sensitive behavioural and performance issues
  • A documented 90-day plan for applying coaching with direct reports

For your organisation

  • More consistent quality of manager-led development conversations
  • Earlier resolution of routine performance and capability issues
  • Greater employee ownership of goals, actions and career development
  • Better evidence from one-to-ones for development and succession decisions
  • Clearer escalation routes for wellbeing, conduct and formal performance matters

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can decide when coaching is appropriate and establish clear professional boundaries.

  • Manager-as-coach boundaries: coaching, mentoring, teaching, counselling and performance management
  • Ethical coaching principles: confidentiality, consent, competence and referral decisions
  • Contracting conversations around purpose, roles, records, confidentiality and escalation
  • Distinguishing coachable development goals from conduct, capability and disciplinary issues
  • Power dynamics and psychological safety in manager-direct-report coaching relationships
  • Choosing coaching versus directive management under time, risk and competence constraints

Participants can use GROW to turn broad aspirations into measurable employee-owned goals.

  • Outcome statements using SMARTER criteria and employee-owned success measures
  • GROW model stages: Goal, Reality, Options, Will and review
  • Turning vague aspirations into observable behavioural outcomes and evidence of progress
  • Separating business targets from development goals during coaching contracts
  • Scaling questions to establish current position, desired state and confidence
  • Documenting agreed goals, ownership, milestones and manager support boundaries

Participants can listen actively and ask questions that develop employee thinking.

  • Three levels of listening: facts, emotions, assumptions and underlying interests
  • Open, probing and reflective questions that expand employee thinking
  • Minimal encouragers, paraphrasing and summaries without hijacking the conversation
  • Silence, pace and wait time used to deepen reflection
  • Recognising cognitive bias, defensiveness and emotional cues without diagnosis
  • Question funnels that move from broad exploration to specific commitments

Participants can give clear feedback while preserving accountability and respect.

  • SBI feedback: Situation, Behaviour, Impact and forward-looking discussion
  • Separating observation, interpretation, judgement and inference before giving feedback
  • Feedforward requests focused on future behaviour and stakeholder needs
  • Receiving feedback without defensiveness through curiosity, clarification and ownership
  • Addressing recurring performance gaps while preserving coaching accountability
  • Documenting factual performance conversations when formal management action may follow

Participants can respond productively to resistance, limiting beliefs and motivational barriers.

  • Fixed and growth mindset language in development conversations
  • Limiting-belief questions that test assumptions without imposing manager solutions
  • SCARF domains: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness
  • Motivational interviewing OARS skills: open questions, affirmations, reflections, summaries
  • Autonomy-supportive choices balanced with clear operational, safety and policy constraints
  • Recognising resistance as information rather than employee non-compliance

Participants can plan, conduct and review recurring coaching sessions with discipline.

  • Session agenda: check-in, agenda setting, exploration, commitment and close
  • Coaching contracts that establish frequency, duration, confidentiality and preparation
  • Progress reviews using evidence, reflection and revised action commitments
  • Between-session accountability through employee-owned actions, dates and support requests
  • Record-keeping boundaries for private notes, HR files and sensitive disclosures
  • Closing coaching relationships with learning review and future self-coaching

Participants can manage emotionally charged and high-risk coaching conversations appropriately.

  • Coaching underperformance without avoiding standards, consequences or formal escalation
  • Managing emotion using naming, pausing, grounding and respectful challenge
  • Difficult conversations when goals conflict with workload, wellbeing or policy
  • Referral decisions for mental health, safeguarding, grievance and misconduct concerns
  • Handling requests for answers while maintaining employee ownership
  • Resetting stalled coaching relationships through recontracting and direct feedback

Participants can apply coaching methods to common management development opportunities.

  • Decision coaching using options, criteria, risks and stakeholder consequences
  • After-action reviews that convert incidents into learning and changed practice
  • Career conversations exploring strengths, aspirations, mobility and development evidence
  • Delegation coaching through outcome clarity, authority limits and check-in agreements
  • Systems questions that identify dependencies, constraints and unintended consequences
  • Preparing employees for high-stakes presentations, meetings and leadership transitions

Participants can embed coaching behaviours into team routines and management processes.

  • Coaching culture conditions: trust, time, role modelling and peer learning
  • Manager habits that replace rescuing with questions and agreed accountability
  • Team coaching boundaries compared with facilitation, mediation and one-to-one coaching
  • Peer coaching triads using contracts, roles and observation criteria
  • Embedding coaching in one-to-ones, development reviews and succession discussions
  • Measuring coaching value through behaviour indicators, progress evidence and retention signals

Participants can create a focused plan for applying coaching skills with their teams.

  • Personal coaching style assessed against GROW, listening and feedback behaviours
  • Stakeholder mapping for workplace coaching opportunities and likely barriers
  • 90-day implementation plan with selected coachees, goals and review dates
  • Manager peer-support arrangements for observation, reflection and accountability
  • Measures for tracking conversation quality, action completion and capability growth
  • Personal boundaries and escalation routes documented for complex cases

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. GROW coaching conversation template
  2. Coaching contract and confidentiality checklist
  3. SBI feedback preparation worksheet
  4. Coaching session agenda and progress review template
  5. Coaching referral and escalation decision guide
  6. 90-day manager coaching implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Line Managers — need structured one-to-ones that build employee ownership
  • Newly Appointed Managers — need practical methods for developing direct reports
  • Team Leaders — need to address performance while maintaining constructive relationships
  • Senior Managers — need to build coaching habits across their management layer
  • HR Business Partners — need to support managers with consistent development conversations
  • Project Managers — need to develop contributors without relying on formal authority

Skills and tools covered

Coaching conversationsDevelopment goal settingActive listeningConstructive feedbackPerformance coachingManager accountability

Tools and standards

GROW model, SBI feedback model, SCARF model, Motivational Interviewing OARS

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce coaching models, followed by case analysis, paired conversation practice, group exercises and observed simulations. Participants work with realistic manager scenarios involving performance gaps, career aspirations, competing priorities and difficult feedback. Facilitated debriefs focus on question quality, listening behaviour, boundaries and employee ownership. Each participant builds an application plan using their own management context, with peer feedback on likely barriers, stakeholder support and measures of progress.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience managing, supervising or leading the work of others and should already conduct basic one-to-ones, performance discussions or development conversations. They should be prepared to reflect on their own management habits and discuss realistic people situations without naming confidential individuals. No formal coaching qualification, psychology credential, HR degree or prior knowledge of coaching models is required. This is not a therapist training course and does not qualify participants to provide counselling, mental health treatment or formal mediation.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have some responsibility for managing, supervising or developing other people. You do not need a coaching qualification or prior experience with formal coaching models.

Bring examples of non-confidential people situations you need to handle, such as a development goal, performance concern or delegation challenge. You will use these examples when building your application plan.

It is designed primarily for line managers, team leaders, project managers and senior managers who hold regular one-to-ones. HR professionals supporting manager capability will also find the methods useful.

Coaching focuses on helping employees think, decide and act for themselves through structured conversations. The course also shows when a manager should move from coaching into direct instruction, formal feedback or established HR processes.

You can apply the GROW model, listening methods and feedback structure in your next one-to-one. The course provides templates for goal setting, session planning, progress reviews and escalation decisions.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case work, conversation simulations, peer feedback and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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