Coaching to Enhance Performance and Having the Difficult Conversations

Course Overview

Coaching to Enhance Performance and Having the Difficult Conversations builds the mindset and practical skills needed to coach others towards growth, without telling them what to think or do. Instead, participants learn how to create the space for reflection, ownership and action.

Whether coaching an individual or supporting a team, effective coaching helps people build self-awareness, recognise strengths, overcome challenges and take practical steps toward agreed goals. This program also develops confidence in navigating performance issues and holding difficult conversations clearly and constructively.

Participants will leave with a repeatable coaching approach, strategies for feedback, and a simple method for planning and preparing for “hard” workplace conversations.

What will you learn? 

By the end of this program, your team will learn how to:

• Develop a growth-focused coaching mindset
• Explain the value of coaching in performance and development
• Navigate the key stages of a coaching conversation
• Leverage strengths to increase an individual’s potential
• Deliver quality one-on-one coaching
• Adapt coaching style to different communication preferences
• Identify common coaching challenges and respond effectively
• Apply a consistent coaching approach across situations
• Plan and prepare for a ‘hard’ conversation with clarity and confidence

Who is this course for?

• People leaders and supervisors responsible for performance and development
• HR / People & Culture practitioners supporting performance conversations
• Team leaders, project leads and emerging leaders who coach others informally
• Anyone who needs a clearer, more consistent approach to feedback and difficult conversations

Topics Covered

• Defining the elements of effective coaching
• Practising the art of coaching
• Coaching challenges and providing feedback
• What makes some conversations ‘difficult’
• The psychology of difficult conversations
• Approaches for difficult conversations (and how to avoid common fears)
• How to plan and prepare for a ‘hard’ conversation
• Practice: real work-based coaching and performance conversations

Course Outline

Session 1: Coaching foundations and mindset

• What coaching is (and isn’t)

• Growth-focused coaching mindset

• Stages of an effective coaching conversation

• Strengths-based coaching approaches

Session 2: Practical coaching skills

• Coaching techniques and question frameworks

• Building ownership and next steps

• Adapting coaching to different communication styles

• Practice coaching conversations

Session 3: Feedback and coaching challenges

• Common coaching challenges (avoidance, defensiveness, low accountability)

• Giving feedback that’s clear, respectful and actionable

• Practice feedback scenarios

Session 4: Difficult conversations

• Why conversations feel “difficult” (psychology + triggers)

• Planning and preparing for a hard conversation

• Role plays: work-based difficult conversations + debrief

• Personal action plan for consistent application