This course has been endorsed by the Board of Executive and Professional Education, University of Cambridge.
Aims of the course:
The Executive Coaching online course has been designed to increase your knowledge of executive coaching and its role in organisational development. Develop your understanding of how and when to use executive coaching appropriately and your skills in designing, planning and carrying out a structured executive coaching programme. This course also offers a fantastic opportunity to work with a group of like-minded colleagues from different locations around the world and build your professional networks within the field.
Who can apply?
There are no entry requirements for this course and no prior coaching experience is necessary. We welcome applications from anyone with an interest in executive coaching. The course is designed to be open access for an international audience and to be studied anytime, anywhere; there are no required specific lecture or seminar times pre-scheduled making study time at your leisure.
Learning outcomes:
The learning outcomes for this course are based upon development of:
- knowledge and understanding of executive coaching, its role in organisational development and when and how to use it appropriately
- awareness of the role of an executive coach
- practical ability in the skills of executive coaching
- understanding of the legal and ethical considerations of executive coaching
- design, plan and carry out a structured executive coaching programme
Course content overview:
Content for the Executive Coaching online course is expected to include the following:
- The four elements of executive coaching
- Executive coaching and leadership development
- The role of the executive coach
- Legal and ethical responsibilities
- Developing awareness and responsibility
- Coaching and consulting
- Peer coaching online
- Executive coaching competencies
- Discussion forums
Schedule (this course is completed entirely online):
Orientation Week: 22-28 May 2023
Week 0
- personal introductions
- useful reading
- introducing the four considerations of executive coaching
- personal objectives
- personal executive coaching skills audit
Teaching Weeks: 29 May-2 July 2023
Week 1 The role of coaching
- the organisational context for executive coaching - understanding the organisation
- what is executive coaching? Its purpose and role
- When and how might executive coaching be used?
- coaching and other interventions, such as mentoring, training and leadership development programmes
Week 2 Personal readiness: the role and responsibilities of the coach
- the skills and behaviours required for effective executive coaching
- individual roles and responsibilities
- coaching session (1)
Week 3 Working with the individual executive
- working with difference
- contracting and relationship management
- working with stuckness
- feedback from coaching session (1)
Week 4 Ethics, codes of conduct and supervision
- ethical responsibilities
- codes of conduct
- supervision
- coaching session (2)
Week 5 Working with stakeholders
- feedback from coaching session (2)
- working with multiple stakeholders
- maintaining distance, being involved
- supporting and restraining forces
- leadership within the organisation
Feedback Week: 3-9 July 2023
Week 6 Feedback week
- your questions
- next steps
- action planning
Each week of an online course is roughly equivalent to 2-3 hours of classroom time. On top of this, participants should expect to spend roughly 2-3 hours reading material, etc., although this will vary from person to person.
While they have a specific start and end date and will follow a weekly schedule (for example, week 1 will cover topic A, week 2 will cover topic B), our tutor-led online courses are designed to be flexible and as such would normally not require participants to be online for a specific day of the week or time of the day (although some tutors may try to schedule times where participants can be online together for web seminars, which will be recorded so that those who are unable to be online at certain times are able to access material).
Unless otherwise stated, all course material will be posted on the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) so that they can be accessed at any time throughout the duration of the course and interaction with your tutor and fellow participants will take place through a variety of different ways which will allow for both synchronous and asynchronous learning (discussion boards,etc).
A Certificate of Participation will be awarded to participants who contribute constructively to weekly discussions and exercises/assignments for the duration of the course.
What our students say:
"Keith was great! He was very kind and supportive throughout all our interactions. He also used coaching techniques to help us further reflect on our answers."
"The volume and breadth of recommended reading and other materials was greater than expected, and gratefully received. I was impressed by the balance of theory, encouragement to try in practice, and real-world examples and experience shared. I am completely new to the topic, yet I felt the course content covered everything I could have thought to ask at this stage."
"The balance between online discussion forums, live seminars, practice coaching sessions and theory is fantastic! I also really liked the fact that I could log-on within my own time and around work to contribute and learn/collaborate with others, as well as the opportunity to pre-schedule time so I was able to attend the live seminars."
"My take is the entire course was framed in a very coaching-like way, encouraging self-reflection, the framing and articulation of thoughts, and other skills critical to coaching. It was a like a big coaching thinking-exercise."
