Leadership Performance Coaching Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Line Managers, Team Leaders and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 9 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LD-152

Before you join: Participants should have experience managing, supervising or influencing the performance of others and should be familiar with basic goal setting and performance review processes.

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 improve performance through better conversations, yet many default to instruction, annual appraisal comments or informal encouragement. This leaves recurring quality issues, missed deadlines and underused capability unresolved. Performance coaching gives leaders a disciplined way to diagnose what is affecting results, agree meaningful goals, build ownership and follow through without taking over the work.

This five-day course develops the practical coaching skills required for one-to-one performance conversations. Participants use the GROW model, SMARTER goals, active listening, Clean Language questions, the SBI feedback model and structured accountability agreements. They learn to distinguish capability, motivation, resource and system barriers; give candid feedback; handle defensiveness; and decide when coaching should give way to direction, formal management or specialist referral.

The course is instructor-led in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, with short briefings, realistic management cases, coached practice, simulations and structured peer feedback. Participants work with current performance situations from their own teams where appropriate. They leave with a personal performance coaching toolkit, including conversation guides, diagnostic tools, feedback scripts, accountability templates and a 30-day application plan. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the course.

It is suited to managers, team leaders and people professionals who already conduct performance discussions and need a more consistent, evidence-based coaching approach. The course is particularly relevant where leaders must improve service delivery, operational reliability, employee capability or manager quality.

What you will be able to do

  • Conduct structured performance coaching conversations using the GROW model
  • Diagnose performance gaps using the Six Boxes Model and evidence gathering
  • Set SMARTER goals with observable measures, deadlines and review points
  • Apply active listening, Clean Language and scaling questions during coaching sessions
  • Deliver SBI feedback using specific behavioural evidence and stated impact
  • Manage difficult performance conversations using DESC and de-escalation techniques
  • Create accountability agreements with owners, actions, evidence and follow-up dates
  • Produce a 30-day coaching application plan for a current team performance issue

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Run focused coaching conversations instead of relying on ad hoc advice
  • Identify the real causes behind recurring individual performance problems
  • Give clear feedback without avoiding tension or becoming overly critical
  • Build stronger ownership of goals, actions and review commitments
  • Handle difficult conversations with greater structure and professional confidence

For your organisation

  • More consistent manager responses to performance shortfalls
  • Earlier identification of skill, resource and process barriers
  • Clearer accountability for agreed actions and performance measures
  • Better quality feedback between managers and employees
  • Reduced dependence on HR for routine performance conversations

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define the manager-as-coach role and establish appropriate coaching boundaries.

  • Performance coaching distinguished from mentoring, directing, counselling and appraisal
  • Manager-as-coach boundaries, confidentiality and escalation responsibilities defined
  • Psychological safety conditions that support candid performance conversations
  • SCARF domains used to anticipate status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness reactions
  • Coaching agreements clarify purpose, roles, records and follow-through
  • Ethical response to capability, conduct, wellbeing and safeguarding concerns

Participants can structure a coaching session around clear goals, choices and commitments.

  • GROW conversations structure goals, reality, options, commitment and review
  • SMARTER goals convert broad expectations into observable performance measures
  • Outcome, process and learning goals selected for different performance gaps
  • WOOP planning tests wishes against obstacles and implementation intentions
  • Success measures separate activity counts from quality, timeliness and impact
  • Co-created agenda sets priorities within a time-bound coaching session

Participants can use listening and questioning techniques that develop coachee insight and ownership.

  • Active listening tracks content, emotion, assumptions and unspoken constraints
  • Level-two listening identifies shifts in energy, pace and emphasis
  • Open, probing and scaling questions expand coachee thinking
  • Paraphrasing and summarising check meaning before offering interpretation
  • Clean Language questions reduce coach assumptions and leading prompts
  • Strategic silence creates space for reflection, choice and ownership

Participants can identify the underlying causes of a performance gap before selecting interventions.

  • Performance diagnosis separates skill, will, resource and system causes
  • Six Boxes Model identifies environmental barriers to expected performance
  • Data gathering combines observation, work samples, metrics and stakeholder evidence
  • Root-cause questioning avoids premature training or motivation solutions
  • Capability matrices distinguish novice, competent and expert task requirements
  • Coaching referral decisions recognise issues requiring specialist support

Participants can prepare and deliver evidence-based feedback that supports behavioural change.

  • SBI feedback describes situation, behaviour and observable impact precisely
  • Feedforward requests focus attention on future choices and experiments
  • Evidence logs prepare specific examples rather than vague judgments
  • Balancing inquiry and advocacy prevents feedback becoming a monologue
  • Reinforcing feedback links effective behaviour to standards and outcomes
  • Receiving defensiveness uses acknowledgement, pause, curiosity and re-contracting

Participants can address poor performance and resistance while preserving clarity and respect.

  • Radical Candor balances direct challenge with demonstrated personal care
  • DESC scripts frame difficult requests, consequences and agreed next steps
  • Nonviolent Communication separates observations, feelings, needs and requests
  • De-escalation names emotion without accepting unhelpful behaviour or blame
  • Performance-improvement conversations document standards, support, deadlines and consequences
  • Formal-process thresholds distinguish coaching from disciplinary management actions

Participants can adapt their coaching approach to development needs, authority levels and working arrangements.

  • Situational Leadership II matches direction and support to development level
  • Delegation Poker exposes differing assumptions about authority and decision rights
  • Autonomy boundaries specify outcomes, constraints, checkpoints and escalation routes
  • Coaching across cultures tests assumptions about hierarchy, silence and feedback
  • Remote coaching routines use agendas, visual evidence and documented commitments
  • Accessibility adjustments support participation without lowering performance standards

Participants can turn coaching commitments into observable actions, evidence and review routines.

  • Accountability agreements define owner, action, deadline, evidence and review
  • Implementation intentions link specific cues to planned behavioural responses
  • After-action reviews examine intent, outcome, causes and next actions
  • Progress dashboards combine leading indicators, lagging indicators and qualitative evidence
  • Coaching check-ins distinguish support needs from avoidance patterns
  • Recognition schedules reinforce progress without creating dependency on praise

Participants can establish manager routines and shared standards that support sustained coaching quality.

  • Manager coaching rhythms integrate one-to-ones, huddles and performance reviews
  • Coaching circles establish confidentiality, turn-taking and peer challenge protocols
  • Skill observation checklists create consistent evidence across multiple managers
  • Calibration discussions reduce rating drift and inconsistent performance expectations
  • Coaching metrics track session quality, goal progress and retention signals
  • Manager standards define when coaching, directing or escalation is appropriate

Participants can prepare a practical plan for applying performance coaching with their own teams.

  • Coaching case formulation integrates goal, diagnosis, stakeholders, risks and measures
  • Personal coaching philosophy states boundaries, beliefs and preferred interventions
  • Stakeholder mapping identifies sponsors, coachees, peers and support functions
  • Thirty-day application plan schedules conversations, observation and review points
  • Peer consultation tests coaching choices against ethical and operational constraints
  • Learning transfer measures capture behaviour change and business effects

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

What you take back to work

  1. GROW coaching conversation guide
  2. Performance gap diagnostic worksheet
  3. SMARTER goal-setting template
  4. SBI and DESC feedback script pack
  5. Accountability agreement template
  6. 30-day coaching application plan

Who should attend

  • Line Managers — improve individual performance without micromanaging work
  • Team Leaders — build consistent coaching habits across frontline teams
  • Department Heads — address recurring performance gaps through manager-led development
  • HR Business Partners — support managers with structured performance conversations
  • Learning and Development Managers — strengthen coaching capability among people managers
  • Project Managers — improve accountability and delivery behaviour across project teams

Skills and tools covered

Performance coachingCoaching conversationsFeedback deliveryPerformance diagnosisAccountability managementDifficult conversations

Tools and standards

GROW Model, SBI Feedback Model, SCARF Model, Situational Leadership II

How the course runs

Training methodology

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with cases drawn from operational, service, project and people-management settings. Participants analyse performance evidence, practise coaching conversations, give and receive structured feedback, and work through simulations involving resistance, missed commitments and difficult messages. Group discussion compares different coaching choices and their consequences. Individual application planning connects the methods to a live workplace situation. The format is instructor-led over five days, with approximately 6.5 contact hours each day.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience managing, supervising or influencing the performance of others and should be familiar with basic goal setting and performance review processes. They should be prepared to discuss a current or recent performance situation, using anonymised details where needed. No formal coaching qualification, psychology background or prior knowledge of coaching models is required. This is not a clinical coaching or counselling course, and it does not replace organisational procedures for disciplinary action, grievance, safeguarding or employee relations matters.

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 experience supervising, managing or influencing others' performance. You do not need a coaching qualification or prior knowledge of GROW, SBI or other named models.

Bring a current or recent performance situation that you are able to discuss without sharing confidential personal information. A role profile, relevant performance measures or examples of work outputs can also help you apply the methods.

The course is designed for line managers, team leaders, department heads, project managers and people professionals. It is most useful for those who hold regular one-to-ones, performance reviews or development conversations.

General leadership courses address a wider range of leadership responsibilities such as strategy, communication and decision-making. This course concentrates on the methods used to improve individual performance through coaching, feedback, diagnosis and accountability.

You will use course methods on a real performance situation and create a 30-day application plan. The templates can be used in one-to-ones, performance reviews, development discussions and follow-up meetings.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides approximately 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor input, case analysis, group work, coaching simulations, 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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