Coaching and Mentoring Skills for Executives

Training Overview and Course Description

Manager mentoring an employee

Today's executives, managers, and front-line supervisors are increasingly urged to lead through coaching and mentoring.

But even great leaders are necessarily great coaches or mentors. While some have a natural knack for it, most do not. Done well, however, coaching and mentoring are unsurpassed as a tool for developing a skilled, fully-engaged team.

This training is a condensed version of an MBA course on mentoring skills for managers which the Dr. Mike Armour (the instructor) has taught repeatedly. It can also serve as baseline training for companies who want to develop their own in-house mentoring program.

This training is a natural adjunct to our course entitled Create Your Own Internal Mentoring Programs, which gives you a roadmap for designing and implementing an in-house mentoring system. For organizations wanting to build an effective mentoring effort, we recommend a combination package consisting of both courses.

Content and materials for Coaching and Mentoring Skills for Executives is adapted from our proprietary LeaderTrack® Professional Development Series for Managers and Leaders.

Customizable:

We gladly tailor this training to the specific needs of your organization. Customization is included in the standard fee.

Instructor:

At present, all LeaderPerfect leadership and management trainings are conducted by Dr. Mike Armour, SLDI's founder and managing principal.

Language of Instruction:

Offered in English only.

Training Location:

We deliver this course as an in-house or off-site program. Because it builds around interactive exercises and role-playing, this training is not conducive to online or virtual delivery. Please note: We do not currently offer this course for public enrollment. We teach it exclusively for organizations who contract for this service.

Length:

Although we can provide a condensed one-day version of this course, the greatest benefit is derived from scheduling it in a multi-day format. We consider two days of training the minimum required to acquire baseline competency as a mentor.

Where full-day training is inconvenient, we can break the course into half-day sessions. Clients commonly choose to spread this training out over several weeks, so that participants can practice new skills between training sessions. We actually prefer this format, since it maximizes skill development.

Methodology:

Workbooks and handouts, PowerPoint presentations, group discussion, case studies, small-group breakouts, role plays, planning exercises

Standard Fee:

The price for this courses is an all-inclusive flat fee. The fee is determined by the number of training days, not the number of participants. This allows you to contract and budget for specific training dates without knowing how many people will attend.

Your total fee is determined by several factors. For a full explanation, see our standard training fee schedule

Themes and Topics

Here is a sample of themes typically covered in our course on Coaching and Mentoring Skillswhen taught in a multi-day format. Shorter-duration trainings build around a sub-set of these subjects. The final outline is always developed in collaboration with the client. And at the client's request, the course may include topics not listed below.

  • Why such growing emphasis on coaching and mentoring leadership
  • The three wins which result from coaching and mentoring
  • Keys to good coaching or mentoring relationships
  • Challenges in shifting from a management mindset to a coaching mindset
  • Distinguishing qualities of good coaches or mentors
  • Personal challenges of transitioning to a coaching or mentoring style of leadership
  • How is a coaching conversation different from a mentoring conversation?
  • The distinctions between coaching, mentoring, training, advising, and consulting
  • Beliefs about people and management that undergird coaching and mentoring
  • The structure of a good coaching or mentoring relationship
  • A seven-part guide (the SIGCORP model) for designing coaching and mentoring sessions
  • Building rapport and trust in a coaching or mentoring relationship
  • Key things for a coach or mentor to track
  • Coaching and mentoring within a current-state/desired-state framework
  • The eight-level hierachy of personal and organizational change
  • The dialogue pattern in a coaching or mentoring conversation
  • The Communication Model as a template for coaching and mentoring conversations
  • Enhanced listening skills
    • Listening with appropriate empathy
    • Listening for unspoken assumptions
    • Listening to clarify intended meaning
    • Listening for deeper layers of meaning
    • Listening for values and beliefs
    • Listening for world-views
  • Designing and posing great questions
  • Using artful reframing techniques to change outlooks
  • Maintaing proper interpersonal boundaries in a coaching or mentoring relationship
  • Reading and online resources

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