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University of California, Davis

Coaching Conversations

Throughout the Coaching Skills for Managers specialization, we’ve discussed many topics for improving coaching conversations with our employees. It is now time to put all of that theory and discussion into practice and examine great examples of common coaching conversations! Note: This course builds on all previous courses in the Coaching Skills for Managers specialization. It is highly recommended that students complete or be familiar with the topics covered in those courses before taking this course. In particular, you should be familiar with the coaching strategies and tools discussed in previous courses (such as the 5 whys technique, resisting what is, among others), and should have a full understanding of the Thought model and the various components of it: circumstances, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results. By the end of this course, you will be able to demonstrate appropriate and effective strategies when engaging in coaching conversations with those that you lead. By exploring and analyzing common coaching scenarios that are acted out in this course, you will have a great sense of what works well and not so well during such a conversation. Specifically, you'll be able to better differentiate between a developmental coaching approach and a directive management style, discuss new strategies and techniques for dealing with both mind set and skill set gaps, describe how to use the feedback loop effectively in a conversation, and demonstrate the use of good questioning techniques and the thought model to not only help an employee identify issues, but help the employee really change their thinking. The final assignment is all about actually having a coaching conversation with another person where you can apply everything you've learned in this course and throughout the Coaching Skills for Managers specialization. Again, it is highly recommended students complete the other courses in the specialization before taking this one. This peer review assignment, in particular, will be difficult to complete without knowledge of the topics covered in these courses. After going through the course materials and completing the assessments, you will be able to have more effective one-on one-coaching meetings with those you manage and deepen your understanding of the essential practice of coaching conversations.

Status: Coaching
Status: Constructive Feedback
BeginnerCourse12 hours

Featured reviews

YC

5.0Reviewed Jul 20, 2016

The videos of coaching are really well done. Highly recommended course.

DF

5.0Reviewed Oct 28, 2025

The review and grading can be a challenge depending on how many are enrolled.

F

5.0Reviewed Jun 4, 2020

Great course... thanks Kris for making this course, it was very helpful for MBA in HR aspirants in the future.

MB

5.0Reviewed Mar 15, 2021

An excellent course .It helped me to be a better leader and gave me the skill to coach my staff

UJ

5.0Reviewed Jan 2, 2025

Multiple points covered in training during coaching conversation. Good online training session. Well done TEAM.

BA

4.0Reviewed Aug 3, 2020

The peer reviews did NOTHING to help me learn. I think it would have been better to give a scenario and then have us coach that. Make it more personal and relatable.

GB

5.0Reviewed Aug 30, 2016

Very good course. Specially the assignment where in the participant gets to record the coaching conversation and shares for review. Also, gets a chance to review the assignment of fellow partici

RK

5.0Reviewed Nov 26, 2025

This model helps to improvement areas in several behaviours,skilss,negotiation,managing priorities

BN

5.0Reviewed Apr 22, 2020

Excellent way of coaching. Very simple yet powerful coaching Tools and techniques.Thanks to Ms Plaschy for her life stories and learnings to become even for more effective.

MM

5.0Reviewed Jul 15, 2020

Kris Plachy though really well. Amazing coach! Looking forward to learning more from her.

AA

5.0Reviewed Feb 18, 2017

It was a very good course which provided a thorough platform for launching and up scaling the coaching conversation skills

CH

5.0Reviewed Oct 11, 2020

Very informative, I can start using the tools gained here immediately.

All reviews

Showing: 20 of 100

Jeff Casselman
2.0
Reviewed Jan 16, 2020
Bruno Figueiredo Ribeiro
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Reviewed May 6, 2020
Sarah Fisch
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Reviewed Mar 18, 2020
Betraaj K N
5.0
Reviewed Apr 22, 2020
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4.0
Reviewed Nov 1, 2018
Giada Pezzini
3.0
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5.0
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5.0
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5.0
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4.0
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5.0
Reviewed Aug 31, 2016
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5.0
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5.0
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5.0
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Reviewed Nov 15, 2020
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5.0
Reviewed Nov 24, 2025