Advanced Coaching Portfolio

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Janet Sheath
• Assessment: a 5000-word coaching portfolio (80%) and an oral examination and presentation (20%)

This module aims to support experienced coaches to develop a reflexive stance and to build their practice. To this end, we will review a range of coaching techniques and discuss their relevance and efficacy, as well as broadening experiential awareness of helping relationships in organisations and reflecting on their status in contemporary working life. We will engage with real-life case studies to make the coaching field come alive and prepare you for work beyond the classroom.

Client work

You will be required to find one client for a minimum of six coaching sessions, starting during term 1. You are also required to find an additional client for four coaching sessions, starting during term 2. You will need to obtain informed consent from your client, and you will also need to record and transcribe the sessions. Each session will typically last between 50 and 90 minutes.

Method

The methodology for this portfolio is called auto-ethnography: research, writing, story and method that connect the autobiographical, the experiential and the personal to the cultural, social, organisational and political. Writing in an auto-ethnographic way features concrete action, emotion, embodiment, self-consciousness and introspection (Ellis, 2004).

Portfolio

You are required to produce a journal that captures your experiences, thoughts, attitudes and feelings about coaching. It should include reflexivity on actual decisions or indecisions you have faced, on the reading for all modules on the course, on the case studies, the group discussions, the practice sessions, supervision and client work.

Ethics

You need to remember the journal is intended to be read by others, hence entries should respect the anonymity of any participants.

Structure

The journal should be no more than 5000 words. It should consist of eight entries of 500 words, each with a coherent theme or subject of your choosing relevant to coaching. A tenth, final entry of 1000 words should critically reflect on the previous nine entries.

The key to this task is to avoid description - this is not so much about what you saw, heard or did. Rather, we would like you to be reflexive and think about the issues you have encountered, the elements that may or not have influenced you, your uncertainties and anxieties, and what you did to address them. We would also like to see thoughts on the various models, theories and stances of coaching, and how relevant or useful you found these, and why.

The following learning outcomes and objectives are derived from the competency frameworks of the International Coach Federation (ICF), the European Mentoring and Coaching Council (EMCC), and the Special Group of Coaching Psychology at the British Psychological Society (SPCP-BPS).

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand coaching from the perspective of a client and through personal development work
• critically self-reflect on the ways in which these impact on the coaching process
• articulate a personal philosophy that includes responsibility and accountability in relation to your coaching practice
• understand the dynamics present in coaching and other relationships, and show creativity and artistry in the use of language and metaphor in the service of empathic understanding
• show professional practice skills (e.g. contracting, relationship management, managing the coaching/mentoring process)
• demonstrate improved listening and communication skills
• work effectively with attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
• express belief in the potential for others to grow and develop
• maintain focus on positive outcomes (either long or short term)
• demonstrate self-awareness, confidence and personal presence
• show knowledge of psychological models, methods and practices and business and management development theory and practice
• demonstrate critical thinking skills
• reflect critically on your practice and consider alternative ways of working
• respond appropriately to the complex demands of clients.