People Leadership · Course 02 of 03

Coaching for Performance: The Manager as Developer

Shifting from directing to coaching — using questions, reflection, and challenge to grow the people on your team beyond what they thought possible.

6Modules
Self-pacedFormat
CertificateOn completion
About This Course

How does a manager help someone become more capable?

Managing performance and developing capability are related, but they are not the same act. Coaching begins where instruction ends: with questions, observation, challenge, and support that help another person understand their own patterns and take greater ownership of improvement.

“A strong coach does not create dependence; a strong coach expands another person's capacity to think and act.”

We draw clear lines between coaching, mentoring, directing, and advising, then build the coaching conversation itself: the questions that generate real insight, the balance of challenge and support each person needs, and how to keep developing people who are resistant or in difficult situations. It's the second course in the People Leadership path, sitting between motivation and conflict.

What you'll be able to do
Distinguish coaching from directing, mentoring, and advising
Conduct coaching conversations that generate real insight
Balance challenge and support based on what each person needs
Track and accelerate individual development deliberately
Coach effectively in difficult situations and with resistant learners
Build a team culture where development is the default
Course Modules
01What Coaching Is — And Isn't
Coaching vs. managing vs. mentoring vs. advising
When to coach and when to direct
The mindset shift that makes coaching possible
02The Coaching Conversation
The structure of a coaching conversation
Questions that create insight
How to listen at the level that matters
03Challenge and Support
The balance between challenge and support
How to push without breaking trust
What high performers need from a coach
04Developing Capability Over Time
How to track someone's development deliberately
The difference between developing competence and confidence
How to know when someone is ready for more
05Coaching in Difficult Situations
Coaching someone who is underperforming
Coaching someone who resists development
When coaching isn't working
06Building a Coaching Culture
What it looks like when coaching becomes the default
How to model coaching behavior for your team
Peer coaching as a team practice
Questions about this course
What's the actual difference between coaching and mentoring?
Mentoring shares your experience and advice; coaching draws out the other person's own thinking through questions and reflection. The course dedicates a full module to this distinction because managers often default to mentoring when coaching would develop the person further.
What if someone on my team resists being coached?
This is addressed directly in the course — coaching in difficult situations and with resistant learners is its own module. Resistance is usually a signal about trust or timing, not a reason to stop coaching altogether.
How does this connect to the other courses in the path?
This is Course 02 of 03 in People Leadership, following motivation and preceding conflict. Coaching gives you the conversational skill that both of the other two courses depend on.
What do I receive when I complete the course?
A Udemy certificate of completion, shareable on LinkedIn and downloadable as a PDF, plus lifetime access to all course content and future updates.

Ready to start?

Self-paced, on your schedule, on Udemy.