Do you know coaching? And do you know what you can use it for? It’s far from just about being a life coach who will help people find the right path in life. Coaching is a tool that is increasingly being used not only by leaders and successful managers, but also by people in other professions who have one thing in common: working with people.
At The Bridge, you can now enrol on the EMCC Coaching Practitioner course and in a few months become a fully certified, practising coach who can start benefiting immediately from their newly acquired skills and knowledge. It doesn’t matter if you want to become a real coach or “just” motivate your subordinates properly or move your team forward.
How does such a course work? What does it involve? Can you handle it? Our students who are currently attending the first open year of the coaching course at The Bridge under the supervision of experienced coach Mike Shreeve will tell you.
Coaching in English
The coaching course at The Bridge is not lazily about leading people and about communication. In addition, aspiring coaches need to master all this in English. Lucia Haászová, who works in a multinational company as HR Leader & Managing Director, was attracted to the course by the “combination of coaching course with English”, where the lecturer is a native speaker.
“By running the course in English, it forced me to use a different vocabulary than I normally use at work,” says Radka Vajgelová, who works at The Bridge as a public courses manager.
But the benefits of the English coaching course don’t end there. Not only do you get to practise different expressions, but you also get the opportunity to use your new coaching skills beyond Slovakia’s borders.
Improving leadership skills and self-development
So why sign up for a coaching course? The reasons can be really different. You might find yourself in the ones that our current students have had.
Roman Farkas is a member of the team responsible for the internet network and its security for European customers and was simply curious to see how it all works: “I wanted to be knowledgeable in this area because I enjoy developing my skills and I found it very convenient to embark on this education,” he says of his motivation to become a certified coach.
“In the near future, I will need to improve my people management skills,” reveals manager Radka Vajgelová, for whom a large part of her work is “sales” and communication with clients. “Learning patience and the ability to listen to others is a big challenge for me in the course. As far as patience is concerned, I think I have enough of it when communicating with clients so far. However, I lack patience a lot when working in our team and with my colleagues, who unfortunately sometimes have a very difficult time with me. Learning how to work better with or lead people in a team was one of the reasons I decided to take the course.”
Actress and mentor Lucie Hurajová, on the other hand, was attracted to the course by “the possibility of self-development first and foremost and last but not least the opportunity to meet inspiring people.”
UX designer, mentor and consultant Michaela Kociová has been developing designers, product leaders and managers for the last few years. “We address many issues around strategy, team leadership, change management, career and self-development. I’ve always called this work mentoring, and being the curious creature that I am, I wanted to see how coaching in particular could help me develop these leaders and managers.”
In leading a team and in ordinary communication with colleagues
If you take a coaching course, you can use the skills you learn effectively wherever it suits you.HR Leader Lucia Haászová plans to use coaching “as one of the techniques in leadership”, Radka Vajgelováwants to understand her colleagues better: “To communicate what I need correctly, also the ability to listen, but to really listen, also to the other side, that’s something I definitely still need to work on. Thanks to the course, I am aware of a lot of these processes.”
Roman Farkas also sees the use of coaching in communication with colleagues and troubleshooting: “I use coaching especially when communicating with colleagues who join our team and have to adapt in a fast-paced environment. Coaching can help them to discover what might be holding them back and what they need to change in order to be able to cope with the obstacles in their position.”
Is this course really right for you?
Whether you want to lead a team of people or just improve your overall communication with your surroundings, you’ve come to the right place. “In my opinion, this course is for anyone who has the desire and interest to learn and expand their knowledge and skills in a variety of other areas. It doesn’t immediately mean that one has to become a coach after completing the course,” says Roman Farkas.
What impresses Michaela Kociova about the EMCC is that it combines mentoring and coaching. “I find it to be a very practical course also for all those who work with people and want to improve in listening, communicating, leading people and want to be armed with practical tools. Coaching skills are such a universal skill that really anyone can appreciate them when working with people, regardless of their career focus.”
“It is suitable for anyone who is willing to work on themselves and who is not indifferent to relationships with people in their environment,” concludes Radka Vajgelová.
Overcome your fear
If you feel that it was a walk in the park for our students from the beginning and you are the only one who has respect before signing up for the course, don’t worry, you are not alone. Lucia Haászová was worried “that I wouldn’t be able to dedicate myself to it as much as I needed to due to my workload”, Radka Vajgelová had the same thoughts, but she is glad that they didn’t come true: “It is a year-long course, so it is not so intensive that it can’t be incorporated into everyday life.”
Lucia Hurajová also respected the language aspect of the course: “That I would not be linguistically and knowledgeably up to the topic. But now I perceive that a large part of what one learns is shaped by experience, and therefore I am calm.”
And Michaela Kociová also had to step out of her comfort zone: “In the beginning, the hardest thing to accept was that I felt completely lost in the topic of coaching and wondered what I was actually doing here. It helped me a lot to start trusting the process, that that aha moment would just come. And it did come, although it’s still a journey and there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”
Come with us into this
Still hesitating? You don’t have to! The new edition of the EMCC Coaching Practitioner course is opening soon and you can be a part of it. And if you still have any doubts, perhaps the words of our students, who we asked at the end of the course what they would say to you, will dispel them.
“Don’t hesitate! Every day spent doing a little extra on top of your normal duties will make it special,” Lucia Hurajová recommends the course.
Michaela Kočiová spoke to leaders and managers: ‘Coaching skills are a must-have for leaders and managers nowadays. If an organisation wants to grow, to build products and services that bring value to people and business, it is necessary to invest in people and in those who work with people. We are not born with coaching skills, it takes work and effort to acquire them. If you have someone alongside you to help you along the way and speed up the whole process, it’s a great competitive advantage.”
Roman Farkas thinks that everyone can really benefit from coaching, “It’s more about opening another door and you can help someone just by talking to them and listening to them, without giving direct advice, which often times may not be entirely appropriate. Even if you might not consider becoming a coach, you’ll still meet fantastic people, and you’ll end up being more valuable in the job market because you’ve done a coaching course.”
Interested in the subject of coaching and want to know more about the course? Get in touch with us at kurzy@thebridge.sk
or call us on 0948 104 916.