Do you want to improve your coaching and mentoring skills?
These skills are in high demand.
Research from the Institute of Leadership and Management shows more than 80 per cent of employees say their organisation should implement coaching in their management and development programmes.
The same research reveals that developing coaching and mentoring skills at each level of an organisation is the key to unlocking potential and increasing productivity.
But how do you get started?
How do you find the right course for you and your colleagues?
What factors do you need to consider?
And do you need a coaching and mentoring qualification?
These are some of the questions we tackled during our webinar on business coaching, which you can watch here.
James White, our CEO, was joined on the sofa by The BCF Group trainers Dan Boniface and Laura Bridgeman.
And they started with a crucial question – what are coaching and mentoring, and how do they differ?
“The terms tend to be used interchangeably,” Laura said.
“People talk about coaching and mentoring – and counselling and therapy – as if they are the same thing.
“But coaching is a specific approach.
“And the simplest way to understand it is the 80/20 rule – within a coaching session, the client should speak 80 per cent of the time.
“The coach is only talking 20 per cent of the time, in the form of questions, feedback and maybe a little advice.
“Coaching is client-centred and client-led. That means they are generating their goals and options.
“It is about empowering the individual you are coaching to find the answers within them, rather than them looking to you for those things.”
In mentoring, the 80/20 equation shifts the other way around.
“80 per cent of the airwaves are for the mentor and 20 per cent for the mentee,” Dan said.
“Our role as a mentor is to share information and advice that will help the other person.
“So, coaching and mentoring are different things.
“But during a coaching session, you may drop into a bit of mentoring because there could be a point where you ask three or four questions and can’t get the information.
“In this situation, you could say something like, ‘Could I just offer a little bit of advice?’ or ‘Can I tell you what I think?’.
“Mentoring has shifted a little bit in recent times. It always used to be seen as something done by someone senior in age – someone around retirement age who has a lot of information to pass on.
“Now, it is less about age and more about the experience and knowledge you can share.”
What about coaching and counselling? Do the lines also blur here?
“This is something we talk about in training because it can be quite the ethical dilemma,” Laura said.
“We build relationships and rapport with these clients and want to support them.
“But part of our role is to know when to signpost other professionals – counsellors trained to help people through those life transitions. Or therapy potentially.
“We must know where our boundaries are. We are trained as coaches, not anything else.”
What does 'coaching culture' mean?
Business coaching is booming. So much so, you probably often hear the phrase ‘coaching culture’.
Laura said: “It can be difficult to find the edges and define what ‘coaching culture’ means.
“But it is about increasing accountability.
“We are moving away from that ‘tell’ leadership style to an asking one – what is it people want?
“It improves communication across the whole organisation because people are more curious and open-minded and ask more questions.
“So, a coaching culture can have an enormous impact on an organisation. Having a pool of coaches at the centre of that and who can drive it is a good starting point for creating it and role modelling the behaviours.”
Dan added: “Creating a coaching culture means coaching resonates throughout the organisation.
“And that empowers others, creates autonomy, leads to highly motivated team members and develops better decision-making.
“As a leader, it gives you time back because you don’t have to make those decisions for your team members.
“We also know that a coaching culture increases staff retention. And it costs a lot more to recruit someone than train someone and coach them within the business.”
Let’s explore coaching benefits in more detail.
How does coaching help the client?
Laura said: “Coaching is a client-led experience. The client sets the goal and generates their options to achieve it.
“That holds them accountable and keeps them motivated.
“It may be to achieve a milestone like a promotion or career change.
“It might be to better manage the professional dynamics at work.
“Many clients also work on imposter syndrome and want to improve their confidence.”
What about the benefits for the coach?
“Coaching is hugely rewarding,” Laura said.
“Seeing the impact of your coaching on the client and watching them progress is a fantastic experience.
“I find it a privilege to have that relationship and be part of their journey.
“It is also an exercise in self-awareness and self-regulation. We look at how we communicate, not just as coaches but at work and in our lives.
“Becoming a coach was one of the best things I have done for my professional development.”
Dan added: “I have learnt so much through being a coach. You get exposure to all different types of people.
“So, yes, the emphasis as a coach is on what we can do for our client.
“But thinking about what we take away from it develops our skills. And that then transfers to everyone else you are working with.”
To build on that, Laura and Dan shared rewarding experiences from their coaching careers.
“There’s a client who always stands out to me that I am particularly proud of,” Laura said.
“She is a small business owner, and I’ve worked with her for a long time.
“When she started, she knew the goal – she wanted to grow the business and hire someone to come in so she could take time off without worrying.
“When we dug into why she had not done that, the answer was fear.
“As the coach, I asked, ‘What is causing the fear?’, and she replied, ‘Everything’.
“So, it was a big place to start. But we broke it down a step at a time and dealt with the fears one-by-one.
“I caught up with her just before Christmas, and she went to Thailand for a month. She brought someone into the business who she built into the business steadily and learnt to trust.
“It has changed her life.”
Laura added: “Coaching is about breaking it down for people. People don’t come to coaches with easy-to-fix problems. Otherwise, they would have fixed them themselves.
“They are problems they may have wrangled with for a while or felt stuck on.
“As a coach, we must try to unpick that, break it down into first next steps and lead them in the right direction.
“And they can make some huge leaps.”
Dan has a similar success story.
” I was working with a senior client recently who was in a position where she did not know what to do next with her career,” he said.
“And what it boiled down to was she did not realise how good she is.
“She lacked confidence, and we needed to find a way to help her move forward.
“During one session, I got her to look back at the top five achievements of her career.
“When I asked her how proud she was of some of them, she started to well up.
“And that’s what we look for in coaching – that penny-dropping moment where they think ‘I can do this’.
“I’m not saying I want people to cry during the coaching session. But it shows how profound a moment that was for her.
“And it allowed her to move forward.
“Fast forward to the end of the coaching programme – we typically do six sessions – and she had clarity on her next steps.”
What should potential coaches look for in a training partner?
If you feel inspired by those stories and want to start coaching, what should you look for from your trainer?
Laura said: “There are lots of training providers offering courses at different levels.
“The starting point is to look at the reviews. What are their existing cohorts saying about them?
“Look at CourseCheck and see what real-life delegates say about that organisation.
“Trust is important. There is a lot of continual professional development involved in being a coach, so you need to know the trainer will look after you all the way through and not just in getting your qualification.”
You should also consider the training delivery - is it face-to-face, on video conferencing or an online course?
And length matters.
Dan: “Typically, with most providers, course length sits between four and six days. Some will do one or two days each month for a year.
“You need to know what works for you and your business.
“We do it in two days because we teach the practical skills you need to go out and deliver effective coaching – that is where you will learn the most.”
Laura added: “What we know about training is the real learning comes when we put it into practice.
“So, we have two days in the training room, which are pretty intense, and then it is about the post-course support.
“We catch up with our learners as they are putting these things into practice.
“So, rather than batching it and learning everything in one chunk at the beginning, we give you the skills to go out and coach, and you can then catch up with us as often as you like to discuss how it is going and the post-course assignments.
“That is where the work happens.”
Laura believes it is also crucial to consider whether your training will be delivered by practising coaches.
“That is something we bring to the table,” she said.
“We live and breathe coaching. We come with experiences and know the excitement you get with every new client regardless of how long you have been coaching.”
What about qualifications and accreditation?
“There are different awarding organisations,” Dan said.
“The reason The BCF Group chose ILM is because it has a focus on leadership and management and coaching and mentoring.
“If you compare that to the Chartered Management Institute, for example, it has more of a focus on leadership and management.
“ILM also holds us accountable to a global set of standards. We have to adhere to their criteria to partner with them.”
The BCF Group has direct claim status with ILM. It means it is trusted by ILM to certificate learners and take them all the way through their qualification.
A trainer who does not have that would need to refer your work to someone else to be marked – adding another layer to the process.
ILM Level 5 and Level 7 business coaching courses
The BCF Group also offers two business coaching training courses – ILM Level 5 and Level 7.
How do they differ?
“Level 5 is basically foundation degree level,” Laura said.
“It is high-level training and is typically aimed at those who are middle to senior managers and have a responsibility to deliver coaching or are starting to think about their coaching career.
“We talk about coaching in the moment or coaching on the job. That’s when someone comes to us and says they have a problem, and we coach them.
“The Level 5 also allows you to be in a position where you can do formal coaching sessions.”
And what about ILM 7?
“This qualification is master’s level, so it’s quite a big step up,” Laura said.
“You might wonder what happened to the Level 6 – it doesn’t exist.
“ILM7 is about coaching at a level of strategic influence – coaching senior, executive leaders who have a huge impact on their organisation.
“Executive clients often face specific challenges and maybe need a slightly different perspective.
“Typical delegates are already quite experienced coaches who often work with clients involved in operational strategy.
“We also see people like HR directors and people setting up their coaching companies with a focus on executive coaching.”
Do you need to do the Level 5 course first?
“You can go straight to Level 7, but you would need a good understanding of the organisation, the context and the challenges of working at a strategic level,” Laura said.
“If you’ve been at C-suite level, you can use that experience as a coach.”
What’s the difference between a certificate and a diploma?
Both ILM 5 and 7 courses offer certificate and diploma qualification options – what does that mean?
“The difference is the number of coaching hours you have to do,” Dan said.
“For a diploma, it is around three times more coaching than is needed for the certificate.
“So, on ILM 7, it is around 20 hours for the certificate and 60 hours for the diploma.”
Qualification requirements
Let’s take a more detailed look at the qualification requirements.
Laura said: “There are three units for Levels 5 and 7. It begins with a theory-based assignment, where you think through what your coaching looks like, and it puts down the groundwork for the second module, which is the coaching portfolio.
“This is the evidence of the coaching you have completed. For the Level 5 certificate, we are looking for 18 hours with one hour of supervision. For the diploma, it is 54 hours, with three hours of supervision.
“There are more coaching hours needed for the Level 7 and a higher demand for supervision (20 hours of coaching and four hours of supervision for the certificate and 60 hours of coaching and eight hours of supervision for the diploma). And supervision is where we work with other coaches – one-on-one or in a group – to develop our coaching.
“At the Level 7 strategic level, that comes with more ethical considerations, stakeholders to contend with and the level of influence the client has within their organisation.
“Both qualifications end with a reflective journal. This is a reflection on how you have grown as a coach, the skills and knowledge you have developed, the feedback you have received, and the benefits your clients have seen. And there is a professional development plan where you outline how you will continue to develop.”
What about if the post-course work feels too much?
Laura said: “There are also some ‘recognised’ options.
“Here, you get the same training you would experience on a Level 5 course but without the assignment requirements.
“There is a knowledge check at the end, and you get feedback from your tutor.
“If you are looking for coaching as part of your role – and that kind of on the role coaching – rather than as part of a formal programme, the ILM recognised course might be a good alternative.”
Dan added: “We tend to find individuals go down the assignment route and organisations use the recognised one.
“You still get the same standard of delivery and knowledge. But it allows the skills to be develop without work-based assignments.”
Can someone who has completed a recognised course become accredited at a later date?
“Yes, it’s a good stepping stone,” Laura said.
“The foundation and skills are there, and it is a good route.”
You can find out more about our business coaching courses here. Or speak to one of our account managers by click here.
The BCF Group has been helping organisations develop their talent, inspire their people and overcome obstacles and challenges for the past 25 years.
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