Skills Coaching Overview
Skills coaching (aka content coaching or targeted coaching) focuses on providing the coachee with specific skills such as learning to apply NLP, how to handle pressure, learning to adapt their leadership style, presentation skills etc. This type of coaching is very similar to tutoring, in that the coach provides the tuition to the executive on a one-to-one basis.
Skills coaching is of very short duration consisting of a maximum of three two-hour meetings over a space of two months. This allows the executive time to be able to embed the learning from the training and concentrate on their application in their workplace. This maximises the return on investment for the organisation while providing the executive with immediate feedback on the effectiveness and viability of the training thus building their confidence in the newly acquired skills.
Skills coaching is a very directive form of coaching in that it is instructive. Some purist coaches would contend that it is more training and mentoring rather than coaching. This is because the coach is viewed as the expert passing on their knowledge to the executive whereas coaching in its purist and most effective form is non-directive. At New Thought Leader we tend not to get caught up in semantics and labelling of what is and isn’t coaching, but we believe in delivering effective and pragmatic business coaching of the highest standard that provides value and worth to our clients.
The Difference Between Skills Coaching And Traditional Training
Very often skills coaching can also be strategically built into traditional training to provide personalisation and support for the individual to further embed the learning.
Skills coaching also relies heavily on the coach being more hands on in the skills being delivered. The coach needs also be very flexible in their approach unlike traditional trainers who largely follow a script for the training they deliver.
The coaching in this instance can be tailored directly to the learning style of the coachee unlike traditional training where the course material, if it of a high quality, has to cater for all learning modalities. This has the net effect of slowing down the delivery of the training and will result in attendees tuning out for parts of the training Skills coaching may be more expensive than its “traditional training” counterpart. However, because it is delivered “just-in-time”, utilisation and retention of the material results in a large proportion of the cost differential being offset against the benefits returned.
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Tags: coaching, executive coaching, nlp, skills coaching