The Coaching Leader: Building Accountability and Results

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define the role of coaching as a core leadership responsibility.
• Distinguish between coaching, mentoring, managing, directing, and advising.
• Recognize when coaching is appropriate and when a different leadership approach is needed.
• Build trust and psychological safety that encourage open and honest conversations.
• Establish clear expectations that support accountability and performance.
• Use active listening and powerful questions to help employees identify solutions.
• Apply practical coaching models to structure effective conversations.
• Adapt coaching techniques to different employees, personalities, skill levels, and situations.
• Provide specific, timely, and constructive performance feedback.
• Balance support and accountability when addressing performance concerns.
• Address resistance, defensiveness, excuses, and challenging behaviors professionally.
• Help employees take greater ownership of problems and solutions.
• Identify performance barriers and collaboratively develop solutions.
• Set clear, measurable, and actionable performance and development goals.
• Create employee development plans that build capability and confidence.
• Conduct difficult coaching conversations while maintaining trust and respect.
• Establish follow-up practices that reinforce accountability and sustained improvement.
• Use coaching to develop high-performing employees and future leaders.
• Create a personal action plan for incorporating coaching into everyday leadership practices.

Day 1: The Foundations of Coaching Leadership

Module 1: From Manager to Coaching Leader

• What does it mean to be a coaching leader?
• Why traditional management approaches aren't always enough
• Coaching vs. managing, mentoring, advising, and directing
• When to coach and when to tell
• The business value of coaching
• Coaching as a leadership multiplier
• Creating a culture of development and accountability

Activity: What's Your Coaching Style?

Participants assess their current approach to developing and supporting employees.

Module 2: Building Trust for Effective Coaching

• The connection between trust and performance
• Creating psychological safety in coaching conversations
• Establishing credibility and rapport
• Demonstrating empathy without lowering expectations
• Listening without immediately solving the problem
• Creating an environment where employees can speak honestly

Practice: The Trust-Building Conversation

Module 3: The Core Skills of an Effective Coach

• Active listening
• Powerful questioning
• Observation
• Clarifying
• Reflecting
• Paraphrasing
• Avoiding the "fix-it" trap
• Helping employees think rather than giving them every answer

Coaching Question Framework

Participants practice questions such as:

• "What do you think is causing the issue?"
• "What have you already tried?"
• "What options do you see?"
• "What would success look like?"
• "What is within your control?"
• "What do you recommend we do next?"

Practice Exercise: Ask, Don't Tell

Participants transform directive statements into coaching questions.

Module 4: Coaching Models & Conversation Frameworks

• Structuring an effective coaching conversation
• Establishing the purpose of the conversation
• Exploring the current situation
• Identifying desired outcomes
• Generating options
• Agreeing on action
• Establishing accountability

Recommended Framework:

Connect → Explore → Coach → Commit → Follow Up

Participants practice applying the framework to workplace situations.

Module 5: Coaching for Performance

• Coaching everyday performance
• Reinforcing positive behaviors
• Identifying performance gaps early
• Using specific observations and examples
• Connecting behaviors to outcomes
• Balancing positive and corrective feedback
• Moving from feedback to action

Case Study: The Capable Employee Who Isn't Meeting Expectations

Participants determine whether the situation requires coaching, clarification, feedback, or more formal performance management.

Day 1 Application Activity

Coaching Conversation Practice

Participants select a realistic workplace challenge and develop a coaching conversation using the day's frameworks.

Day 1 Reflection:

"What do I currently do as a leader that may prevent my employees from taking ownership?"

Day 2: Coaching for Accountability, Development & Results

Module 6: Building Accountability Through Coaching

• Accountability vs. blame
• Creating ownership rather than dependence
• Establishing clear expectations
• Clarifying roles and responsibilities
• Identifying commitments
• Setting measurable outcomes
• Following up without micromanaging

Framework:

Expectation → Ownership → Commitment → Follow-Up

Exercise: Who Owns the Problem?

Participants practice turning employee dependency statements into ownership-focused coaching conversations.

Module 7: Coaching Through Difficult Conversations

• Preparing for difficult coaching conversations
• Addressing missed commitments
• Managing defensiveness
• Responding to excuses
• Addressing negative attitudes
• Handling resistance
• Maintaining respect while being direct
• Knowing when coaching is no longer appropriate

Role Play Scenarios

Participants practice situations such as:

• An employee repeatedly misses deadlines.
• A high performer has become difficult to work with.
• An employee blames others for mistakes.
• An employee waits for the manager to solve every problem.
• A team member agrees to commitments but doesn't follow through.

Participants rotate between leader, employee, and observer roles.

Module 8: Coaching for Development & Growth

• Coaching for current performance vs. future potential
• Identifying strengths and development opportunities
• Creating development goals
• Stretch assignments
• Building employee confidence and capability
• Developing emerging leaders
• Encouraging employees to own their development

Exercise: Create a Development Coaching Plan

Participants develop a practical development plan for an employee.

Module 9: Coaching Different People and Situations

• Adapting your coaching approach
• Coaching experienced vs. inexperienced employees
• Coaching high performers
• Coaching struggling employees
• Coaching resistant employees
• Coaching employees who lack confidence
• Avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach

Scenario Activity: Same Issue, Different Employee

Participants determine how their coaching approach should change depending on the employee and situation.

Module 10: Turning Coaching Into Results

• Moving from conversation to commitment
• Defining clear next steps
• Establishing measurable outcomes
• Creating accountability checkpoints
• Following up effectively
• Recognizing progress
• Addressing lack of follow-through
• Measuring coaching impact

Activity: 30-Day Coaching Challenge

Participants identify one employee, performance issue, or development opportunity and create a 30-day coaching plan.

Module 11: Integrated Coaching Simulation

Participants complete a comprehensive coaching scenario that incorporates the skills from both days.

Scenario

A capable employee has recently experienced declining performance. Deadlines are being missed, communication has become inconsistent, and the employee has begun blaming workload and other departments for the problems.

The leader must:

1. Establish trust.
2. Describe the performance concern.
3. Listen to the employee's perspective.
4. Ask coaching questions.
5. Identify root causes.
6. Clarify expectations.
7. Establish employee ownership.
8. Agree on specific actions.
9. Set follow-up expectations.

Debrief

• What worked?
• Where did the leader become too directive?
• Did the employee take ownership?
• Was accountability clear?
• What would you do differently?

Module 12: Personal Coaching Action Plan

Participants develop an individual action plan identifying:

• One employee they will coach differently
• One coaching behavior they will begin using
• One behavior they will stop
• One difficult conversation they need to have
• One accountability practice they will implement
• One development goal they will help an employee pursue

• There are no formal prerequisites for this course.
• Participants should have current or anticipated responsibility for leading, managing, developing, or influencing employees or teams. Some experience providing feedback or addressing employee performance is helpful but not required.

The Coaching Leader: Building Accountability and Results

This course is designed for:

• Managers and supervisors
• Team leaders and department leaders
• New and emerging leaders
• Experienced leaders seeking to strengthen their coaching capabilities
• HR professionals and HR business partners
• Talent development and organizational development professionals
• Project and program leaders who influence others without direct authority
• Professionals responsible for employee performance, development, and accountability

Follow-on Courses:

• GK821251 - Feedback Skills For Leaders
• GK821780 - Navigating Difficult Conversations
• GK100945 - Effective Performance Reviews: Feedback, Development & Results
• GK831403 - Empowering Success Through Emotional Intelligence 
• GK101138 - Driving Accountability: Building Ownership and Follow-Through
• GK100960 - Strategic Communication for Leadership Success

Related Certification

Attendees who successfully complete The Coaching for Performance Improvement course will receive 10 SHRM PDC's towards the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP Certification, after course completion.

• SHRM Certified Professional (SHRM-CP)
• SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP)
• HRCI Associate Professional in Human Resources® (aPHR®)
• HRCI Professional in Human Resources® (PHR®)
• HRCI Senior Professional in Human Resources® (SPHR®)