How to Create Your Coaching Program 101
The International Coaching Community (n.d.) describes coaching as unlocking a person’s potential, maximizing their performance, and helping them learn rather than teaching them. A well-thought-out coaching program does the following:
- Helps a person change in the way they want, traveling in the direction of their goals
- Supports a person (at all levels) on their journey to who/where they want to be
- Builds awareness that empowers choice and leads to change
An appropriate and tailored coaching program can “effectively support individuals’ and groups’ positive change and development in the contexts of work, career, or personal life” (Kanatouri, 2020, p. 10).
Cutting-edge online coaching software such as Quenza can digitize and automate coaching practices and programs, offering improved services at scale.
While the fundamental principles of coaching remain the same, such powerful, dedicated coaching software makes it possible to deliver targeted, personalized coaching services specific to the needs of individuals, groups of clients, and organizations (Kamphorst, 2017; Ribbers & Waringa, 2015).
Yet health professionals must remember that “coaching is a partnership between coach and client” (International Coaching Community, n.d.).
Dee Hutchinson (2021), coach and three-time Amazon bestselling author, advocates the co-creation approach to building coaching programs. And it makes good sense. The benefits of building programs through engaging both the designer and the client, especially using Quenza’s intuitive design platform, include the following:
- They meet the needs of the organization and the learner or client.
- They empower the client through a shared responsibility for their development.
- The material is more practical. It becomes relevant to the client’s environment and needs.
- A coaching program, especially an online one, can be launched and scaled quickly.
- It offers a reduced financial investment, yet bespoke designs.
It is crucial that coaching is targeted appropriately to the client as a learner. Between 60% and 90% of training is “either forgotten, not entirely understood, or will never be applied on the job” (Hutchinson, 2021, p. 22).
Coaching may be able to work well if traditional training is performing poorly. Development preferences are changing; people prefer to be engaged in their training and growth, pulling instead of pushing learning (Hutchinson, 2021).
How do I create my signature coaching program?
Hutchinson (2021) suggests a multi-step co-creation process that ensures that coaching programs are designed with the client firmly in mind. The following eight steps establish coaching as a valuable learning experience.
1. Capture and describe the problems to be solved.
Your client must understand the problem you are solving or the need you are addressing. For example:
I am struggling to balance work and home life.
I have goals for my life but am unclear how to reach them.
If coaching is for a corporate client, you may have the delicate balance of meeting the needs of both the organization and employee. This requires capturing both employer and employee problem statements.
2. Identify the skills required to solve the problem.
Once the problems have been identified, you must specify the skills needed by the client to solve them. For example, they may need to develop self-care, time management, or boundary-setting skills.
3. Get inside the head of your clients.
“Knowing your audience is absolutely crucial if you want to create a program that people will actually value and engage in” (Hutchinson, 2021, p. 48). When putting together your signature coaching program, your focus must be on the client.
What have they tried that has and hasn’t worked?
What do they want to achieve the most?
Most importantly, get post-session feedback. Feedback forms are simple to create in Quenza, and you can review the results online.
What our readers think
This has helped me a lot can I contact you
Hi Dr. Frimpong,
Feel free to contact us at [email protected] for any specific questions or queries.
I hope this helps!
Kind regards,
-Caroline | Community Manager
Hello there,
I would like to develop a coaching program for coaches and train coaches to coach others.
How can I utilize your program to create my program?
Hoping to get some suggestions for you,
Thank you in advance
Hi Arthur,
I’d encourage you to take a look at the Life Navigation series for a complete program you can use to develop a coaching program based on positive psychology. This is the culmination of our best resources for this purpose and includes 40+ hours of video as well as PowerPoint slides, coaching manuals, and handbooks you can use to develop your course. You can learn more here: https://pro.positivepsychology.com/product/the-complete-life-navigation-masterclass-series-full/
Let me know if you have any questions.
– Nicole | Community Manager
Thank you Sir for sharing your article with me it helps me to counsel my clients through online at present,my future goal is to start counseling center with your guidance.
Interesting article but it felt like I was being sold the Quenza software…. I can’t see any disclosure anywhere about whether the author has an interest in Quenza or whether Quenza sponsored the article so I wanted to ask this question specifically please. If the answer is positive, I think it should be disclosed at the top.
Hi Michael,
So sorry about the oversight! Yes, the same innovative team that developed PP.com also built Quenza, with the help of the positive psychology community. Our development of the platform was spurred by feedback from this community that there was a need for a more modern online tool to support therapists and coaches. Please have a look at our team page here to learn more about who’s involved, and to learn more about the specific support we’re hoping to provide practitioners with Quenza, you can take a look at our roadmap for the service here. Our apologies for not making this relationship clearer.
– Nicole | Community Manager
Creo que por ética deben estar los datos resguardados. Es una lastima que estos programas, sus usos y las herramientas no sean tramitadas por la Secretaría como Formación Contínua de Docentes.