COACHING FAQs

WHAT IS COACHING AND MENTORING?

The success of any helping relationship is the warmth and connection of the relationship itself. Knowing how to help someone and whether to offer to coach or mentor at any given point only really comes from getting to know them, and from finding out what works well. There are many similarities between coaching and mentoring and they have different outcomes.

WHAT IS COACHING?

It’s time and space to think, plan and make sense of your world, with someone who will really listen and ask great questions to help you work out what you are going to do. It supports to help you reach your full potential or bring a great idea to life. 

It’s a process where a skilled and trained person helps you to reflect on a personal or professional situation of your own choosing. The coach will help you explore the situation, understand how it relates to you, identify potential obstacles to change, and support you to work out the actions you want to take.  

Executive and personal coaching courses offer a fantastic opportunity to step back from the busyness of life; to take stock and find your own solutions to the challenges you face. Solutions that will excite and motivate you to succeed.

Oasis’ coaching can be a one-off session, but it’s even more effective and powerful when there are regular sessions over a period with a range of topics all supporting you to find the courage and resourcefulness to reach your goals. 

WHAT IS MENTORING?  

Like coaching, mentoring is also a helping relationship, in which a more experienced person uses their greater knowledge and understanding to support your development. Working with a mentor is great if you need input from someone more experienced in a particular field – for example, project management, leadership or finance.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COACHING AND MENTORING? 

Coaching and mentoring draw on similar skills and tools. Both require deep listening, an ability to build and maintain rapport and the skilful use of questions. And there are some differences. Fundamentally, mentoring is more ‘directive’ and mentors provide specific advice where appropriate - a coach would not typically offer their own advice or opinion, but help the individual find their own solution. The world of coaching and mentoring has changed over the last 20 years and many of those offering coaching or mentoring have realised as we have, that it can be a genuine advantage to take a coaching approach to mentor or to bring in more directive mentoring into coaching. It’s about learning to read what the client needs and growing your understanding of your own preferences and intentions.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EXECUTIVE, BUSINESS, LEADERSHIP AND LIFE COACHING? 

There are many different branches of coaching. The labelling of these different branches is artificially separating when in reality the skills and techniques used in these different branches of coaching are often very similar and highly transferable. What is required in any given situation depends on the context, what the person needs and what you feel able to competently offer. Executive coaching, for example, is usually for people in more senior roles within organisations, the kinds of questions a person in that context may be working with may or may not be different from those at a career crossroads or wanting to improve their personal relationships. To have credibility in any of these areas would require you to have enough of an understanding of the context. We take a whole-person approach in our coaching; for us, this means meeting a person where they are and adjusting our coaching style in response. If you take part in our accredited programme you will have all you need to coach people from all walks of life who have varying kinds of questions and dilemmas.

WHAT ARE THE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF COACHING AND MENTORING?

The world of coaching and mentoring is full of useful frameworks, models, tools and techniques. All of these mentoring and coaching programme tools are based on an understanding of how people think, learn and are motivated. Understanding these models and learning how to apply them in practice is hugely valuable. Underpinning all of this, however, are some core skills and attributes:

  ·       The ability to create and maintain good relationships

  ·       Self and other awareness

  ·       Deep, active listening

  ·       The skilful use of questions that generate choice and understanding

  ·       Emotional intelligence 

HOW DO YOU LEARN TO BECOME A COACH? 

You need to be willing to give attention to who you are as well as what you are doing. This is a great starting point and a virtuous circle – the more you are able to engage with yourself and your own development, the more you’ll be equipped to help others – safely and effectively. From that starting point, find a course that offers a rigorous knowledge base with lots and lots of practice opportunities and space to reflect on how you are doing. Find a supportive and challenging group of peers to learn with who will give you feedback and encourage you to try new and different ways of working with others. Our flagship programme Coaching with Head, Heart and Soul has been created with all of these things in mind. 

WHAT ARE THE IMPACTS OF COACHING AND MENTORING? 

Improved performance, deeper self-awareness, an awakening of motivation and drive, better, more honest and meaningful relationships at work and at home, the courage to get on and do things, much-improved management and leadership, clearer, more compelling communication, a sense of purpose and connection. To name but a few!

HOW ABOUT PROFESSIONAL ACCREDITATION? 

Our core programme is accredited by the Association for Coaching – a professional body that adds credibility and rigour to the practice of coaching. Doing a recognised accredited coaching programme is your first crucial step to gaining personal accreditation. This gives you the foundations to build your client hours and apply to the Association for professional accreditation.

BENEFITS OF STUDENT MEMBERSHIP

If you are studying coaching with Oasis, you will be able to access a year of free student membership of the Association for Coaching. As a student, this provides you with access to the wealth of information and support that is available from the AC. Membership is available for a full 12 months while you complete your course, after which you will be invited to continue your membership as an individual member.

DO I NEED TO BE ACCREDITED TO WORK AS A COACH?

It’s perfectly possible to work as a coach without personal accreditation, and you can start working as a coach once you have successfully completed our programme. However, increasingly those in organisations who buy the services of a coach are looking for the professional legitimacy that personal coach accreditation can bring. Being an accredited coach could open more opportunities for you in the future. Once you have completed our coaching programme, you can start to plan towards personal accreditation.

CERTIFICATE OR DIPLOMA?

Our Coaching with Head, Heart and Soul programme offers you a choice of certificate or diploma accreditation. The options have different requirements that you would need to fulfil. Certificate level requires the following:

Certificate-level Programme requirements

A minimum of 80 class-based (or online) training hours

A minimum of 20 hours of coaching practice, in addition to your practice on the programme, equates to three clients, completing a cycle of 12 hours of coaching with at least one

A reflective account of your coaching practice and learning journey (no word count)

A minimum of 40 hours of self-study

Diploma-level Programme requirements

A minimum of 80 class-based (or online) training hours

A minimum of 40 hours of coaching practice, in addition to your practice on the programme, equates to four or five clients completing a cycle of twelve hours with at least two

A minimum of 70 hours of self-study

A reflective account of your coaching practice and learning journey

A detailed case study of your practice with one client

HOW AM I ASSESSED ON THE COACHING PROGRAMME?

Both the Certificate and Diploma levels are assessed through a rigorous self and peer-assessment process. The Diploma level will require you to film one of your coaching sessions for feedback (this can happen on the programme itself).

Achievement of the diploma level ADCT would enable you to apply for the higher levels of AC Coach Accreditation including Professional and Master levels, subject to meeting the relevant hours of coaching delivery and supervision requirements.

Our coaching programme will be held face-to-face at the Oasis training centre in Boston Spa, unless the latest COVID guidelines dictate otherwise, in which case this coaching programme can be run online, or a mix of face-to-face and online.

WHAT IS COACHING IN ORGANISATIONS? 

Organisations are realising the importance of developing skill sets and approach in leaders and managers or having an internal provision of coaches/mentors to support staff at all levels. 

The main difference here is that the coaching development or management coaching training happens within the system of the organisation. This places importance on the scope and boundaries of the coach or mentor role. Clear contracting about what is in and out of scope helps to define more specifically what is possible in this relationship. Working out the differences between a line manager taking a coaching approach versus an internal coach with a degree of distance from the internal client is an important consideration.

WHAT IS EXECUTIVE COACHING? 

See above for our view on the different branches of coaching. However, Executive coaching is the term most often used to refer to professional coaching at the senior manager and board level and is fast becoming the term used for coaching across all management, where it is identified that an individual would be able to enhance their performance or impact through deeper more tailored developmental support from a coach.

WHAT IS COACHING SUPERVISION? 

Coaching supervision provides a structured thinking and feeling space for the coach to bring their questions about their practice. It’s a place to ensure the safety and efficacy of a person’s coaching practice, a place to develop and a place to celebrate success or work through any issues that crop up when working with clients. Supervision can be offered 1-1, a bit like having a coaches’ coach, or with a peer group.

WHAT IS COACHING TRAINING FOR MANAGERS? 

Increasingly, coaching and mentoring skills are seen as a crucial part of a leader’s portfolio. Through relationships, these skills and attributes enable a leader to set well-formed goals and outcomes with their team and access the potential in their team members to perform well and to increase their personal job satisfaction.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT COURSES FOR COACHING DEVELOPMENT? 

In order to find the right coaching skills training for you, it’s good to be clear about your motivation. Are you a manager looking to develop your coaching skills? Are you looking to change careers and become a full-time coach? Do you work in people development and want to add coaching to your service offering? Are you near the end of your career and retirement and looking to give something back?

Some of these motivations may call more for a longer deeper development journey that has the potential to attain a qualification like our Coaching with Head, Heart and Soul programme. Some may only require a shorter introduction training programme like our two-day coaching training for managers. We always recommend that you have a conversation with one of our facilitators to help you find the right route.