How to get the most from your coaching education (on individual and company-wide level)

Technology has had a tremendous impact on learning and talent development. Lectures, trainings, and seminars are no longer confined to the same physical space, which greatly influenced our perception of learning and development areas in an organizational context as well. This means that the number of sources and providers is multiplying rapidly and the whole industry is booming - the global Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) market will reach USD 25.33 Billion by 2025 *(source). Understanding how to choose the best training provider is getting harder and harder, on top of maximizing the learning concepts and retaining them.

This post will focus on my personal journey on this matter - how to navigate through the decision-making process, what helped me utilize the coaching concepts on individual and team levels, where to with it within the organization, and what is next. Having it verbalized made an even more significant difference for me.

Through 10 years of HR experience, coaching was always part of the vast arsenal of needed tools. Stakeholder management and talent management from the human resources side would only have the proper value if utilizing coaching principles and techniques. However, structured training on this matter was hard to incorporate into both the busy schedule and find a way to introduce the learnings into practice.

Individual story - my perception of the coaching before I started the course

Having the background in psychology, some coaching practices were part of my corpus of knowledge my whole professional life. On the other hand, skills needed, for example, for effectively managing the meetings and their outcomes, developing the team individuals and setting the goals and vision on a broader level were more dispersed, and I would approach each of these subjects separately. Only with shifting the perspective and understanding that adopting a coaching mindset, tools and competencies is what is needed to deal with important business topics on a more coherent way. That lead me to the decision to invest the time and energy into the coaching learning path.

How did I make a choice?

The majority of the training providers would offer just one perspective - either a pure academic overview or very hands-on, almost tips-and-tricks-only content. Having a plethora of choices at the moment is making our decision-making process harder, a well-known phenomenon of a paradox of choice. Psychology of personal constructs was very interesting to me, so having the opportunity to learn and explore the blend of constructivist coaching together with systemic approach to coaching and solution-focused one covered the theoretical part of my requirements. Having the chance to learn for academically and business-wise accomplished trainers meant that I would have that perfect mix of both perspectives. Internationally recognized coaching accreditation focused my decision and made it more accessible.

Tips for utilizing the learning material during the course

Attending the coaching education course will require an investment of time in order to properly incorporate training material and get yourself familiarized with the concepts and practice in nurturing environment - setting adequate time beforehand is very important. The course is structured in a way that supports learning - from more general concepts and practicalities to theoretical concepts in its basis, from individual to team coaching - gradually adding layers of complexity without being overwhelming. Timely going through notes, proposed reading material, recordings, and slides will positively influence confidence and boost future learning. Being proactive in the QA segment and participating in group exercises that are an integral part (and the final part of the course is exclusively dedicated to them) will speed up the learning process in a significant manner. The online setting which we are getting more and more accustomed to is bringing an amazing opportunity for knowledge exchange - networking and exchanging ideas, questions, and bits and pieces with the members of your cohort is a benefit by itself.

Tips for utilizing the learning material after the course

We can only improve our skills through diligent practice, and Koučing centar is providing adequate support and nudges - through requirements that are expected from every attendee, peer group, and verbal and written evaluation of specific coaching sessions. With more coaching hours racked up within their experience - more opportunities for practicing and expressing learnings are emerging. Having the option to access the material later on and get your knowledge refreshed when needed is also very helpful.

Tips for employing the learnings in your organizational context

What was extremely useful for me was introducing the coaching mindset in the existing organizational context and using existing business "touch-points" as a starting point. For example, coaching found its place in setting expectations from the retrospective meetings, OKR and goal setting meetings, development talks, and collaboration meetings with the team members. With gaining positive feedback, I started to look proactively for opportunities to use learnings in new contexts - asking my team and colleagues what they need. Working with both individuals and teams and addressing real business needs is where the applicability of the coaching course provided to Koučing centar is proven most extensively.