Coaching and Mentoring™ | Coaching Training Activity

A common fault of would-be coaches is to ‘know’ what needs to be done and then ‘tell’ a person how. In fact a good coach needs more subtle skills – an ability to listen, show empathy and not be judgmental. A coach is not all-knowing nor the ‘expert’.

In this activity, carried out in threes, one person is coached in a unique but simple counting system that uses wooden blocks. A second person, acting as coach, is there to help but under strict guidelines. He/she, for example, cannot touch the blocks. A third person, the observer, checks that rules are followed and notes what happens.

Can the coach actually keep their hands off the blocks, perform a true coaching role and guide the person to a full understanding of the counting system? To many people, coaching doesn’t come naturally – but it’s easier once you know how!

• Stresses that the key role of the coach is to uncover and guide
• Stresses that coaching is not about all-knowing, telling gurus
• Provides a coaching situation in which to practise coaching skills like listening, questioning and choosing words carefully
• Illustrates the importance of creating a self-discovery scenario
• Identifies the need to ‘read’ the person being coached

1. Divide the group into threes – a coach, an individual to be coached and an observer. With odd numbers drop the observer.
2. Before the coaching session starts ask all coaches to form one group, all individuals a second group and all the observers a third.
3. Issue each group with the appropriate Brief. Allow time to read, discuss and plan for their particular roles in the coaching session.
4. Re-form in groups of three - coach, individual,observer and begin the coaching session. Allow 30-40 minutes.
5. Near the end give each observer a Test Numbers card to test the success of the coaching session.
6. Form the groups back into plenary and discuss what happened in each coaching session. List the key learning that emerged.
7. Issue the Key Points Handout to consolidate the learning.
8. Trainer’s Notes contain full guidance and a mass of back-up information on coaching skills.

Full guidance supplied in the Trainer’s Notes.

• Trainer’s Notes
• Coach's Brief
• Individual’s Brief
• Observer’s Brief
• Observer's Form
• Test Numbers Card
• Set of Wood Cubes
• Key Learning Points
• Useful Coaching Questions
• Part 2 - Coach's Brief
• Part 2 - Individual's Brief

This activity is for face-to-face training. It is supplied as a hard copy pack and the digital files are supplied via the Northgate Trainerhub.

This Northgate Training activity comes with a five-year licence for repeat use with up to 12 participants at a time, for use by Trainers based at one licence-holding site.

All Trainers physically based at the same office location can access the Northgate resources during the five-year term, including the digital resources supplied on the Trainerhub via your own site-specific Trainer Dashboard. If you have Trainers based at other locations, and/or remote workers, who would like to access and use the Northgate resources, we can advise further depending on your requirements.

For further information on our licence terms please view the Northgate Licence Agreement.