A different kind of conversation: reflections on coaching skills training

In this week’s blog post, Sophie (the programme Research Assistant) reflects on the two Peer Coaching training sessions designed to equip the students with the skills and behaviours they will need to effectively deliver and experience coaching in their peer partnerships. 

The School of English’s Peer Coaching programme is a new Undergraduate student development programme and, over 8-weeks, the 22 students participating in the programme will: 

• Receive training in the skills and behaviours of coaching

• Gain practical experience of providing coaching to their peers 

• Receive coaching from their peers, helping them to identify and achieve their goals

One of our underlying principles is that coaching is a set of behaviours and skills which will improve with support, practice and feedback. The aims of the first training session were to develop the students’ understanding of what coaching is, identify key coaching skills, and for the students to begin putting this knowledge into practice.

The first training session commenced with an exploration of various definitions of coaching, all of which emphasise that coaching is a learning process whereby a coach helps, facilitates, and works with a coachee to enable their development. This process of helping and facilitation takes place through a purposeful conversation between the coach and the coachee. Importantly, a coaching conversation is a different kind of conversation both from the conversations we might have with friends in our day-to-day lives, and from the conversations used in other helping practices, such as mentoring. 

The second training session aimed to deepen the students’ growing confidence in their coaching skills, so that they would subsequently be ready to develop their peer coaching practice in a 1:1 peer partnership outside of the classroom. In the second training session, after a quick ‘Guess Who?’ game which enabled students to practice those open (‘what’, ‘how’ and ‘when’) questions that are integral to coaching, Rachel and Chloe gave a live performance of a coaching conversation following the T(Grow) model, where Rachel used open questioning, active listening and summarising to facilitate Chloe to identify strategies for eating fewer biscuits! 

Importantly, at the end of the coaching session, Rachel asked Chloe for feedback on her coaching practice: Chloe began by giving positive feedback (‘the way you summarised what I said really made me feel listened to’), and after initially struggling to identify any developmental feedback, Chloe explained that Rachel’s body language (hands in pockets) had made her feel a little ‘off’ during the conversation. This exchange served to demonstrate that although sometimes giving others feedback can feel uncomfortable, it is an important part of the coaching process as it builds trust between the coach and the coachee, and enables the coach to improve in their practice, ultimately meaning they can better support their coachee in the future. Of course, being able to give specific, constructive and non-judgmental feedback is, alongside the other coaching skills students will cultivate during the programme, a fundamental skill that we hope will help students thrive in personal and professional contexts beyond the programme. 

Alongside feedback, the other key skills introduced in the second training session were rapport building - which, as Rachel and Chloe emphasised, starts with building rapport and compassion with ourselves - and contracting - an essential process of establishing mutual understanding, expectations, and boundaries in each coaching conversation, and in the coaching relationship. The students practised contracting with a partner and also had the opportunity to put into practice a new coaching model - the CLEAR model. Although similar to the T(Grow) model which students have already been experimenting with, the CLEAR model introduces additional elements to the coaching conversation, such as the coachee beginning to fully imagine or even rehearse the actions they are contemplating taking live ‘in the room’ of the coaching conversation. This transformational model of coaching also tunes into the shifts in feeling and awareness experienced by the coachee and provides the coach with in-the-moment feedback on how the coaching conversation is going, enabling them to adapt accordingly. Importantly, while these models offer a suite of useful approaches and tools to mobilise in the coaching relationship, the students participating in the programme are encouraged to develop their own individual approach to coaching and to adapt their approach to suit the coachee’s needs. 

By the end of the second training session, Rachel and Chloe were observing a huge leap in the students’ confidence and fluidity in their coaching skills. Although the formal ‘training’ aspect of the programme is now completed, the students will continue to be supported over the coming weeks through group supervision and development sessions, and will get plenty of opportunity to continue practicing their coaching skills in their peer partnerships. We’re really looking forward to finding out about the students’ experiences of peer coaching via our programme evaluation activities, and we can’t wait to share what we learn with you later in the year!