Online and face to face training, coaching and events across the UK and Europe
Thrive Training Lab

Coaching Skills for Leaders

Move from solving every problem to coaching conversations that build your team’s confidence, capability and independence.

Leadership asks you to make decisions, support people and deliver results — sometimes all in the same conversation. You may be the person everyone looks to while still working out your own next step. Having developed hundreds of leaders across the UK, US and EMEA, we understand those competing demands. The Lab is space to think clearly, practise honestly and grow the confidence to lead in your own way.

Talk about your team Explore the course
Managers collaborating in a leadership workshop
Thrive Training Lab

Explore. Practise. Make it yours.

Duration

1 day · 9:30am–5pm

Group size

6–8 delegates

Format

Online or face to face

Price — Face to face

From £1,999

+ VAT

Price — Online

From £1,550

+ VAT

where understanding becomes useful —

Why this course matters

Developing people means making room for their thinking, not simply giving them your solution.

What you’ll explore in the Lab

When managers become the answer to every problem, they can limit their team’s opportunity to think independently and develop capability. This practical one-day course helps leaders and anyone responsible for others’ growth understand what coaching is, when to use it and when a more directive approach is appropriate.

Delegates learn to structure conversations using GROW, ask open, powerful questions and listen actively, applying these skills to both everyday moments and formal performance and development discussions. Through live coaching practice and feedback, they build the confidence to make coaching part of their leadership approach and support others to take greater ownership.

a real challenge. a purposeful response.

The challenges this addresses

  • Managers repeatedly rescuing work their people could own
  • Development discussions without useful questions or ownership
  • Advice offered before colleagues have explored their own options
  • Coaching treated as a formal event rather than everyday practice

What this can change at work

Coaching skills give leaders another way to develop capability through the work itself. Using GROW, purposeful questions and careful listening, managers can help colleagues explore options rather than repeatedly step in to rescue them. Knowing when to coach and when to direct keeps the approach practical, helping teams build judgement and ownership while the organisation strengthens the everyday conversations through which people develop.

Structured exploration

Managers use GROW to help colleagues clarify their goal, explore their situation and options, and choose a way forward.

Direction when needed

Leaders consider whether the situation calls for coaching or clear instruction before choosing how to respond to a request for help.

Development in daily work

Everyday conversations include open questions that prompt colleagues to think through a challenge before the manager offers a solution.

Inside the workshop

Working in a small group of 6–8 delegates, leaders explore coaching principles and the GROW model before practising structured conversations. Interactive breakouts, peer-to-peer learning and live coaching practice with feedback develop questioning and listening skills across performance and development situations. Delegates leave with a framework for coaching conversations and practical ways to coach in the moment, while recognising when to direct.

Make Coaching Skills for Leaders relevant to your business

Tell us where you want to make progress with what coaching is — and isn't. We can discuss suitable workplace examples, priorities and access needs before agreeing the scope. Choose live online or face-to-face training for your UK or European team, with delivery arrangements agreed before booking.

Discuss this course

What the training covers

The scope below sets out the subjects covered. Workplace examples and practice are shaped around your team within the booked format.

  • What coaching is — and isn't
  • The GROW coaching model
  • Powerful questioning and active listening
  • Coaching in the moment vs formal sessions
  • Coaching for performance and development
  • Live coaching practice with feedback

What’s included in your booking

Your booked time and format
1 day · Live online or face to face, agreed before booking · 6–8 delegates.
Included in every course
  • Interactive, facilitator-led learningLive, hands-on sessions built around practice and participation.
  • Group discussionsShared conversations about real situations, so people learn from each other as well as the facilitator.
  • Breakout exercisesSmall-group practice, role-play and problem-solving, online or in the room.
  • Take-away materialsCourse materials, tools and templates to use back at work.
Facilitated learning and practical application
The subject coverage, exercises and facilitator feedback described above, with space to connect the learning to relevant workplace situations. The workshop description sets out the specific plans, prompts or tools developed in this course.

Follow-up coaching, refresher sessions and additional delivery days are not automatic inclusions; any additions are agreed in your proposal. Travel, venue arrangements and any software licences are confirmed separately where relevant. Prices exclude VAT.

Outcomes

The capabilities delegates work towards through the training and practice:

  • Run a structured coaching conversation using GROW
  • Ask open, powerful questions that prompt thinking
  • Know when to coach and when to direct
  • Build coaching into everyday conversations

the next conversation is where it counts —

Take it back to work.

Choose a real situation where you want to apply the learning. Use it to turn an outcome into a manageable first step, then reflect on what changes.

Choose

Start with one priority: Run a structured coaching conversation using GROW.

Apply

Try the approach in a relevant task or conversation. Note what felt useful and what you would adapt.

Review

Reflect on what happened, seek feedback where appropriate and choose your next step. Follow-up support can be discussed separately.

Bring this topic to your next event

We can discuss adapting Coaching Skills for Leaders into a keynote or large-group session, focusing on the themes most relevant to your audience. Depth, activities, timings and any follow-up depend on the format and package you choose; an event session is not a substitute for the full course.

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Your people. Your priorities.Ready to Thrive? Build your Lab.A programme shaped around your people — and the progress you want to make.

your next step starts here —

Ready to step into the lab?

Your business. Our training. Together, we thrive.

Bring the challenge your people want to work on. We'll shape a practical training workshop or coaching experience around it — with room to explore, practise and take a useful next step.

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