Student Story: Paul
Paul is the director of resources for a statutory body in the healthcare sector. He joined the Foundation programme because he wanted to build on his informal learning and attain a recognised qualification.
“I engage with people in a different way now – I feel I’m better at following the individual’s issues and needs and better at helping them explore them without direct input from me. In my career now there are more circumstances where I can have a coaching conversation rather than a managerial one to help people through an issue.”
Current organisation and role: Director of Resources for a statutory body in the healthcare sector
Organisation and role when starting the course: Operations Lead in the healthcare sector
Programme level: Foundation
Excellent teaching
“The quality of the teaching and supervision was excellent, and the core materials were well presented. I found the group work was interesting and challenging, and the faculty were nice people, which of course makes a difference too. There was a good combination of course material that was reassuringly familiar, but also new approaches and applications that challenged and stretched me.”
Learning to articulate a coaching style
“One of the biggest challenges was to let go of pre-conceived ideas of how to work which I’d previously relied on. For example, I felt I needed to move away from storytelling and become less instructive, less analytical, stepping back and making room for the coachee to talk. Not sharing as much was quite a change to make. I can also articulate my coaching approach far more clearly.”
Be diligent and analytical
“My advice to new students would be to get as much coaching practice as possible, be very diligent and analytical when taking notes of your coaching experiences, because that way you will get the most out of it.”
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