Pennsylvania College of Technology

We all coach informally in our lives, personal and professional, on a regular basis. We coach when we urge our child on to hit a home run, when we show a coworker how to change the ink cartridge in the printer or download a new app, and even when we show a friend how to play a new game we downloaded or understand a sport that is new to them. We do these things with no formal training, relying on our knowledge of the activity and our relationship with that person to guide our communications. And most of the time it goes just fine. But formal coaching in the workplace is a bit different.

When you coach in the workplace you are seeking to improve a person’s performance, with an end goal of increasing their value to the organization. Workplace coaching has more specific desired outcomes, does not always include the luxury of a close personal relationship, and thus requires a more thought out, developed process to be successful.

When you coach, or at least to do so effectively, you must understand your role, know how to set goals, know how to motivate, and, in short, have a process. That’s what this course is all about – helping you to develop your own personal process, a coaching style that works for you but includes all the basics that good coaches need.