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Coaching Resources

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Manager as Coach - Coaching Resources

In today’s dynamic work environment, coaching has become a “must-have” skill for successful managers. That’s because coaching is an effective way for leaders to engage, develop and promote high performance among their employees and teams.

Explore the resources below and discover how managers can facilitate employee growth and culture-building using a coaching model.

A PDF version of this page is available here for your convenience.

Live Courses from UCLA Campus Human Resources Learning & Organizational Development

Registration for these courses is via the UC Learning Center (lms.ucla.edu).  If the course does not appear when searched for, search again a few weeks later; courses only appear in search results when a future session date is on the calendar.

Coaching for Improvement

This course is part of the Management Development Certificate suite, and is targeted for managers in MSP or PSS-5 classifications (or the equivalent).

Coaching for Improvement helps leaders conduct effective improvement discussions and provide feedback and ongoing support needed to improve performance. Objectives are to help leaders:

  • Encourage others to take charge of improving performance and altering work habits, develop an improvement plan, and measure their progress.
  • Prepare for and conduct successful improvement discussions.
  • Handle specific challenges that might occur during such discussions.
  • Foster morale and productivity by addressing performance and work-habit issues in a firm, fair, and consistent manner.

Coaching Using Feedback

Providing staff members feedback on their work – both for correction and reinforcement – is a cornerstone of good performance management. Coaching employees using feedback is critical to a supervisor's success, yet many don't do it often enough (or at all). This one-hour session provides an effective, step-by-step how-to for giving team members the feedback they need to be successful and engaged in their work.

One-On-One Manager Coaching with UCLA Campus Human Resources Learning & Organizational Development

Members of the Learning & Organizational Development team offer individual guidance to leaders on how to best coach their staff members and teams. For more information, e-mail training@chr.ucla.edu or call (310) 794-0850.

Articles Online

E-Learning - UC

UC E-learning courses are registered for, and delivered, via the UC Learning Center (lms.ucla.edu).

UC Performance Management: Coaching for Performance and Development

Coaching for Performance and Development is the seventh course in the eight-part UC Performance Management Series. The series provides the fundamentals of performance management, including important information, tools and resources needed to support UC people managers in their roles. Learners are encouraged to download the Participant Playbook found within the course and use it, and the other resources in the course, to help capture key concepts, complete exercises, and use as a reference back on the job.  Direct link: https://uc.sumtotal.host/core/pillarRedirect?relyingParty=LM&url=app%2Fmanagement%2FLMS_ActDetails.aspx%3FActivityId%3D191403%26UserMode%3D0

E-Learning - LinkedIn Learning 

The following course titles are available through LinkedIn Learning. All UCLA staff and faculty have free access to LinkedIn Learning, and access instructions/options are based on your work location. Details on registering for your free access can be found under the “How to Register” heading on this page: https://chr.ucla.edu/lod-e-learning-linkedin

Coaching and Developing Employees

Harness the power of coaching in the workplace. Learn how to shift from a command-and-control style of management to a manager-as-coach style of leadership to transform employee engagement and bottom-line results. Join leadership and negotiation coach Lisa Gates, as she explains how to establish a coaching relationship with your reports. Lisa shows how skills like open-ended question asking, listening, challenging for growth, and accountability can increase your employees' autonomy and problem-solving capacities. The course includes assessments, exercises, and tools to help your team capture goals, map a career trajectory, and accelerate growth, along with sample coaching conversations help you see these tips in practice and understand their potential impact on your people, productivity, and results

Coaching Skills for Leaders and Managers

Leaders who provide targeted, ongoing coaching to their employees can strengthen their team and add value to their organization. In this course, leadership expert Sara Canaday shares the differences between managing, training, and coaching, and provides managers with coaching models and skills to support the development and growth of their employees. Sara presents the business case for coaching, explores common coaching challenges, and explains how to provide feedback and set goals.

Executive Coaching

Leadership isn't a skill you ever finish learning. Rather, it continues to develop over time, with each problem and project adding new reference points and skills to your toolkit. Executive coaches guide leaders through this learning process, supporting them as they discover how to lead even more effectively. If you're interested in executive coaching—or just want to learn practical new leadership strategies—this course can help. Here, join UCLA professor and executive coach John Ullmen, PhD, as he explores the transformational features of executive coaching. John explains how to build a coaching relationship with an executive or leader, establish an informed development plan, take measures to support your leader's progress, and accelerate your growth as a coach.

E-Learning - Coursera

The online courses below are available at no charge through Coursera.

Managing as a Coach (Beginner) – Taught by UC Davis

Do you (or do you want to) manage employees? Do you know how to get better performance out of those you manage? Are you unsure if you are communicating effectively? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then this course is for you.  

Enroll at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/managing-as-a-coach

Coaching Conversations (Intermediate) – Taught by UC Davis

By the end of this course, you will know effective strategies to successfully conduct coaching conversations with those that you lead. Note: This course builds on previous courses in the Coaching Skills for Managers specialization with an emphasis on the 5 whys technique, resisting what is, and the Thought model.  

Enroll at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/coaching-conversations

Coaching Skills for Managers Specialization (Intermediate) – Taught by UC Davis

Become a more effective manager by learning proven techniques to coach your people to higher performance.  

Enroll at: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/coaching-skills-manager

Designing and Implementing Your Coaching Strategy – Taught by UC Davis

In order to be an effective manager in increasingly fast-paced and complex organizational environments, coaching skills to develop and get the best work out of employees has become essential. 

Please take note that this course builds upon all previous courses in the Coaching Skills for Managers specialization. While not required, it is highly recommended that students complete or be familiar with the topics covered in those courses before taking this course in order to be most prepared for the assignments in this course. By the end of this project-based course, you will have developed and refined your entire coaching strategy to roll out with your team. Specifically, you will be able to define your coaching philosophy and explain it to someone else, develop a tailored coaching practice along with coaching agendas for your team in alignment with your organization's goals, and have an effective and productive coaching conversation with those you supervise.

Enroll at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/design-coaching-strategy

Conversations that Inspire: Coaching Learning, Leadership and Change – Taught by Case Western University

Coaching can inspire and motivate people to learn, change, and be effective leaders, among other roles in life. Although most attempts are “coaching for compliance” (coaching someone to your wishes or expectations), decades of behavioral and neuroscience research show us that “coaching with compassion” (coaching someone to their dreams and desires) is more effective. 

Enroll at: https://www.coursera.org/learn/leadership-coaching

Online Resources by other UC Campuses

Guidelines / Assessments

Podcasts, Webinars, and More

  • Animated Book Review: The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
    (6 minutes) Animated core message from Michael Bungay Stanier's book 'The Coaching 
    Watch at: https://youtu.be/YID6l9T-ksc 
  • Interview/Conversation: The Coaching Habit: Michael Bungay Stanier & Marshall Goldsmith
    (5 minutes) Michael Bungay Stanier is the senior partner of Box of Crayons, a company best known for its coaching programs that help organizations do less Good Work and more Great Work. In this conversation, Michael and leadership expert Marshall Goldsmith talk about one of the patterns of leadership behavior that needs to shift, Michael calls it the Advice Trap.
    Watch at: https://youtu.be/oTk0Cz7yRNI
  • Podcast: Coaching for Potential
    Every episode revolves around using and improving leadership skills—often focused on coaching—that unlocks the potential in you and your team members.
    Listen at: https://coachingforpotential.podbean.com
  • Webinar: 10 Coaching Skills Every Leader Should Master
    (53 minutes) Sponsored by the Emory University Professional Development Office, this program teaches about the important coaching skills that can help new and experienced leaders be more effective, such as creating a safe space for your employees, active listening, and how to guide instead of advise in order to empower your employees and peers. 
    Watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1FhcR8xyd4
  • Webinar: Coaching Your Employees
    (60 minutes) In this interactive Harvard Business Review webinar, Ed Batista, experienced executive coach and co-author of the HBR Guide to Coaching Your Employees, shares insights from this Guide and from his extensive coaching experience. Batista describes how you can improve your coaching skills, create realistic and inspiring plans for people’s growth, customize your approach, and provide employees the support they need to achieve peak performance.
    Watch at: https://hbr.org/2014/09/coaching-your-employees
  • Webinar: Developing Coaching Skills for Leaders
    (51 minutes) In this webinar, you'll learn: the role coaching plays in being a great leader. The program focuses on how to adopt the right mindset for holding effective coaching conversations, and understanding of the coaching framework and the four key coaching skills necessary for successful day-to-day coaching conversations.
    Watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDPW1wP6S1U
  • Webinar: Improving Feedback with Neuroscience 
    (58 minutes) This webinar replay, based on the work of the NeuroLeadership Institute, looks at the neuroscience behind giving employee feedback to uncover how to change the negative association into a neutral or positive one. This insight combined with best practice examples is designed to help L&D professionals structure feedback discussions that are open, evidence-based, and forward-looking.  Note: all UCLA employees have access to Gartner Resources; access information can be found here.
    Watch at: https://www.gartner.com/document/code/453649
  • Webinar: Key Coaching Skills to be an Effective Leader: Active Listening and Asking Powerful Questions
    (58 minutes) Two of the basic leadership coaching skills’ “must haves” are active listening and powerful questions. This webinar discusses how to incorporate these skills into your leadership approach and explores the benefits of adding these coaching skills to your leadership toolkit and when and how to use these coaching skills.
    Watch at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0mB977kKLc

Books

  • The Coaching Effect: What Great Leaders Do to Increase Sales, Enhance Performance, and Sustain Growth by Bill Eckstrom and Sarah Wirth
  • Coaching for performance: The principles and practice of coaching and leadership by J. Whitmore
  • The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier
  •  Coaching skills for leaders in the workplace: How to unlock potential and maximize performance by J. Arnold
  • Manager as coach: The new way to get results by J. Rogers, J, et al
  • A Manager's Guide to Coaching: Simple and Effective Ways to Get the Best From Your Employees by Anne Loehr and Brian Emerson
  • Performance conversations: How to use questions to coach employees, improve productivity and boost confidence by C. Lee
  • Unlocking potential: 7 coaching skills that transform individuals, teams and organizations by M. Simpson
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