Coaching conversations using questions
For team leads, supervisors, managers and mentors who already give feedback and want to coach people to their own solutions. Complete 'Coaching and feedback that changes behaviour' first: it covers specific feedback and the basics of open questions. This course goes further: deciding when coaching is the right tool and when it isn't, running a whole conversation through the GROW stages (goal, reality, options, way forward), rewriting closed and leading questions, agreeing an action the person owns, and handling confidentiality when you coach someone you also manage. It draws on the CIPD coaching and mentoring factsheet, US OPM coaching guidance and Acas guidance on performance (UK); the methods apply anywhere. Your organisation's performance procedure and HR team decide anything about formal performance or conduct processes.
- Level
- Intermediate
- Length
- About 90 minutes
- Contents
- 5 lessons · final exam
- Status
- Published · updated 10 Oct 2026
Skills you'll practise
- Decide whether a situation calls for a coaching conversation, direct instruction or the performance or conduct procedure
- Structure a coaching conversation through the four GROW stages: goal, reality, options and way forward
- Rewrite closed, leading and blaming questions as open questions that help the person think
- Agree an action the person owns that is specific, measurable and time-bound, and follow it up
- Set confidentiality and record-keeping boundaries when a manager coaches their own team member
Course outline
- 1.Deciding whether a situation calls for coaching, instruction or a procedureLesson · 16 min
- 2.Structuring a coaching conversation through the GROW stagesLesson · 18 min
- 3.Rewriting closed, leading and blaming questions as open questionsLesson · 16 min
- 4.Agreeing an action the person owns that is specific, measurable and time-boundLesson · 14 min
- 5.Setting confidentiality and record-keeping boundaries when you coach your own teamLesson · 12 min
- 6.Coaching conversations using questions: knowledge checkKnowledge check · 14 questions
- 7.Coaching conversations using questions: practical exerciseKnowledge check · 1 question
- 8.Final exam10 questions · passing it completes the course, so people who already know the material can test out
Sources it draws on
The lessons and questions are written from these references, so learners can go back to the original.
See it with your own jobs and topics
Tell us about your team and we'll walk you through setup, from choosing jobs to your first skills check.