Coaching Conversations inspire people to remember that they are the experts and the leaders in their own lives. The coaches provide them with the time and the safe space in which to reflect on themselves and respond to skillfully posed questions. These powerful questions nudge people to discover how they can transport themselves from where they are and who they are to where they want to be and who they want to become.
In academia, Coaching Conversations create opportunities for dynamic, meaningful engagements with students that move beyond transactions related to requirements, policies, and procedures to reinforce empowerment, ownership, and accountability.
At Indiana University, you can engage with coaching at several levels:
Self-enroll in the Introduction to Coaching Conversations Canvas site, below. This site will give you some introductory information, as well as the “pre-work” that will prepare you for the Coaching Foundations workshops and “post-work” that will support your practice between workshops.
Below, you will find general descriptions of workshops. Please see the link at the bottom of the page for scheduling, registration, and prerequisites.
Participate in Coaching Foundations 1 and 2, usually offered back-to-back from 9:00-4:00 each day. In this two-day introductory sequence, which should be taken together, you will understand the core concepts and assumptions of coaching and identify the differences among therapy, advising, mentoring, and coaching. You will learn one specific model for guiding a coaching conversation and practice both generating and asking powerful open-ended questions, listening to and observing your coachee, transitioning in and out of coaching conversations, and applying the core concepts and the coaching model. Finally, you will get to observe coaching demonstrations, practice coaching in several contexts, and learn how to document your coaching conversations in IU systems.
After you complete Coaching Foundations 1 and 2, deepen your understanding and skills by participating in more advanced coaching workshops. You will want to take these a few weeks--or even months--apart to allow time for practice and integration. In addition, they must be taken sequentially as they build on each other. Each workshop is a full day (9:00-4:00), is preceded by pre-work and followed by post-work; the pre- and post-activities and assignments are housed in the Canvas site.
In addition, as you commit to this next level of learning, you may choose to move toward gaining experiences that allow you to apply for national certification as a coach. To support this path, IU forms certification-seeking cohorts in late fall, which begin meeting in early spring. The people in the cohorts commit to a coaching lab or masterclass setting to grow their skill set and receive feedback and hours toward certification. Please contact ocss@iu.edu if interested.
Level I
Coaching Tools
In this workshop, you’ll continue to develop a Coaching Way of Being, explore the roles of meta-awareness and intuition in coaching, and begin to cultivate the self-management and boundaries necessary to effective coaching. You will deepen your skills in building rapport, listening attentively, finding the themes in a coachee’s intentions and experience, observing a coachee’s responses, and giving clear feedback. You will explore the skills of championing, acknowledging, and challenging the coachee. In addition, you will analyze some coaching demonstrations, develop your capacity to be fully present, and practice coaching.
Coaching in Cultural Contexts
In this workshop, you will more fully integrate a Coaching Way of Being as you expand your capacity for meta-awareness, intuition, and self-management. You will learn to identify situations that are not coachable, and practice referrals for coachees who actually need therapy or other mental health support. You will encounter some tools for self-assessment, practice exchanging observation and feedback with other coaches, enhance your skills at challenging a coachee through feedback, and learn how you might conclude a coaching relationship. And, you will analyze coaching demonstrations, practice coaching, and make some decisions about your ongoing development as a coach.
Coaching for Career Development
Take coaching techniques into your career-based interactions with students to help them develop confidence in their choices, independence in their professionalization, and their own direction as young professionals. Learn to be more flexible with the coaching arc model by meeting students where they are. Explore change management and risk tolerance.
Coaching Communication
Use coaching practices for outreach and written communication. Learn how to communicate effectively about coaching through observation, discussion, and both giving and receiving feedback.
Professionalism in Coaching
Review and preparation for people seeking the national coaching certification. This workshop covers ethical issues, business practices, professional tools, and expectations of people who seek certification as coaches.
You may participate in additional workshops and opportunities for professional growth and development, as they are offered. These workshops will round out your training and are required if you choose to pursue the national certification process to become a Board Certified Coach.
Level II (prerequisite: all of Level I)
Coaching in Groups or Classes
Learn to use coaching techniques in group environments for group advising, teaching, and other collective endeavors.
Coaching for Leadership
Learn to use coaching techniques to engage other professionals and build your team. Coaching for leadership will emphasize how to gain team investment and collaboration based on shared or complementary motivations and values.
Self-Management and Decision-Making Through Coaching
In this workshop, you will immerse yourself in a Coaching Way of Being as you explore ways to coach people from diverse backgrounds and apply theories of emotional intelligence to your coaching practice. You will expand your abilities to manage yourself and your boundaries in the coaching relationship and cultivate your capacity for meta-awareness and intuition. In terms of coaching skills, you will learn how to use modalities, reframing, metaphors, and props. You will ascertain how to deconstruct a coachee’s experience to find their strengths and strategies and to address issues of failure and disappointment. You will practice transitioning from one coaching conversation to another, discover how to coach online, analyze coaching demonstrations, and practice coaching.
Title TBA Workshop Level 2
Title TBA Level 2 Webinar (2 hours)
If you want to become a Board Certified Coach, you will need to complete Coaching Levels I and II to learn the content for the national coaching certification exam. The exam is provided by the Center for Credentialing and Education. Currently, certification cohorts begin annually in late fall, but you may begin your coaching training at any time through workshops and the Canvas site. People may progress at their own rate through the certification process.
Apply to become a Coach-Trainer for Indiana University. Each year, a few coaches have completed at least Level I of Coaching and the cohort experience, are selected to go through an intensive year-long "train-the-trainer" experience. At the end of the year, after demonstrating specific standards of excellence as coaches, coach-mentors, and workshop facilitators, these people will be certified to mentor new coaches and lead coaching workshops at IU. Coach-Trainer applications are accepted and candidates are selected in the summertime. A commitment from your supervisor is required.
Introductory information about Coaching Conversations is available for all to review on the Canvas site. The “pre-work” that will prepare you for Coaching Level I and the “post-work” that will support your practice between workshops is available to you as you register/attend the workshops:
Coaching Conversations Canvas Site
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IU Coaching Conversations Blog
Schedule of workshops for Coaching Conversations: