Overview
Course summary
The Operational Coaching® Parts 1 and 2 - Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner course is an advanced programme which includes and builds on STAR® Coach. It is intended for leaders and managers responsible for managing and developing a team of direct reports by embedding an Operational Coaching® mindset and skills further.
Described as the “missing superpower, Operational Coaching® was subjected to extensive government-backed research conducted by the London School of Economics and was proven to increase team engagement, productivity, inclusivity and collaboration levels. It offers a vital and modern approach to increasing your impact and influence as a proactive engager of people to help support effective and sustainable change.
Beyond the situational and reactive application of the STAR® model to foster greater accountability learned in STAR® Coach, STAR® Manager starts to seek opportunities to proactively engage and develop team members by setting stretching goals and holding intentional 1:1s to help team members push their boundaries supported by appreciative and constructive feedback intended to build confidence and capability. This purposeful approach allows for a more equitable rebalancing of workloads across a better-enabled team.
In addition to the elements learned during the first part of the programme (STAR® Coach), the course will:
- Explore developmental coaching conversations
- Discuss motivation and goal setting in the management environment
- Explore the Spectrum of Support
- Help you understand the interplay between beliefs and values and their impact on behaviour
- Show you how to take the challenge out of challenging conversations using powerful questions
- Show you strategies for rebalancing your workload
- Reflect on your influence as a leader
Instead of an exam, you’ll attend two small group practitioner sessions at the end of each phase of the programme and submit some short reflective exercises conducted in your workplace, leading to the award of APMG’s Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner certificate.
Who is this course for?
Operational Coaching® Parts 1 and 2 - Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner is suitable for any leader, senior executive, project or line manager who has or is about to have direct reports or a team for whom they are directly responsible.
The programme will help you develop a more purposeful and intentional approach to your management style utilising Operational Coaching®. Moving beyond inviting people to retain accountability for resolving day-to-day, matter-at-hand issues, STAR® Manager will equip you with the proactive development skills to stretch the capabilities of your team members, in turn building a team that’s resilient and with greater capacity. Learning to engage others proactively and setting and helping them make progress against stretching goals helps to rebalance the workload more equitably across an enabled team. Delegating more of your work stack allows you to focus on the higher-value strategic aspects of your role.
Entry requirements
There are no formal entry requirements, however before attending each one-day workshop, a small amount of pre-work is required to ensure all delegates can contribute to the practical exercises throughout the day.
What’s included in the course cost?
The course cost includes:
- two workbooks
- pre-work before each of two separate one-day workshops
- two separate one-day workshops and workplace missions
- reflective question exercises after each workshop to be conducted back in the workplace
- a supporting STAR® pack, which includes the book The Answer is a Question that accompanies the programme and some other aide mémoires.
- two small-group practitioner sessions (one after each period of missions back in the workplace)
- certification
Discounts and offers
Group
If you are booking as a group or institution, please contact us before you book as you may be able to benefit from our 15% group or corporate discounts.
Returning short course delegates
We offer 10% discount to returning short course delegates. If you’re not booking your first short course or professional qualification with us and this discount is not applied to your course at checkout, please contact us.
UoW undergraduate/postgraduate students, alumni and colleagues
We also offer a 20% discount to our undergraduate and postgraduate students, alumni, and colleagues. To receive your discount code, please contact us before booking your course.
Course structure
The course is a non-residential programme that runs for 10 weeks. It begins with a small amount of pre-work before attending the first of two one-day workshops, this one built around the core STAR® model, which underpins the Operational Coaching® approach. The workshops are interactive, and participants will work with other delegates on exercises designed to encourage confidence in applying the STAR® model in day-to-day conversations to help engage others.
After the workshop, you’ll conduct several short workplace missions (conversations with team members/colleagues) over several weeks and answer reflective questions on each (to be submitted). The first phase of this programme concludes with a virtual, small-group practitioner session of 90 minutes to reflect on what has been learned, practice some more, and gain verbal and written feedback from your tutor.
More pre-work is required before attending the second of the two workshops, with this one focused on proactively and intentionally developing team members to build the team’s resilience, capability and capacity.
In addition to the elements of STAR® Coach, the course will cover:
- the difference between ‘push’ and ‘pull’ styles
- understanding the make-up of our workload
- the impact of the skill and willingness of others to engage, learn and take risk
- the difference between situational and intentional enablement
- the interplay between beliefs and values on behaviours and conflict
- using Operational Coaching® to manage challenging conversations
- setting powerful goals and the use of a goal wheel
- contributing to a coaching culture and role modelling an Operational Coaching® style of management
Tutor information
Carol McLachlan
Carol is a Programme Director, Executive Business Coach, and Trainer at Notion Ltd. She is also a Senior Chartered Accountant, ILM 7 Executive Coach, and holds a PhD. Carol has over 20 years of experience in senior roles at EY, ICAEW, and Left Brain Plus Ltd (Founder). She has designed and delivered coaching and training programmes for clients like Sainsburys, KPMG, Deloitte, and several universities, including assessing accredited programmes up to Level 7.
Teaching and assessment
Operational Coaching® Parts 1 and 2 - Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner is an advanced programme that gives leaders and managers the confidence, skills and behaviours needed to become exceptional people managers. Consequently, this is an interactive programme where you will coach other delegates and receive coaching.
This is a 10-week programme built around pre-work and two separate workshop days (one-day STAR® Coach and one-day STAR® Manager) and practical missions conducted back in the workplace after each of the workshops, along with reflective learning exercises to complete after each mission.
Each workshop is supported by a detailed workbook, which will become an essential reference, and a pack of supporting materials, including the course book The Answer is a Question, a Practitioner session after each of the two workshops intended to deepen insights and build confidence with the provision of verbal and written feedback given to each participant.
Submission of reflective learning logs from the workplace missions after each half of the programme (the evidence portfolios) and attendance at the two Practitioner sessions are the requirements for the award of the Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner certificate.
Your career
Your ability to engage with and develop your direct reports, team members, and colleagues will allow you to effectively and equitably rebalance your and the team’s workload across a better-enabled team. Becoming a Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner indicates the intentionality behind your management approach and your belief in the potential of others. Developing the skills to help others develop and advance will differentiate you from other “accidental managers” as you begin to engage the contribution of others in effecting change and building a culture of continuous performance improvement.
Becoming a leader recognised for helping teams develop and advance begins to break down the challenges with succession planning and development that plague organisations, differentiating yourself as a leader who can make a difference through others.
Developing the intentional Operational Coaching® skills you’ll learn from pursuing the Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner programme is a critical skill set in its own right. As an adjunct to other courses, including project management, Agile and change management, STAR® provides the leadership and influencing catalyst for driving change.
Accreditation
The Operational Coaching® Parts 1 and 2 - Certified STAR® Manager Practitioner certification is accredited by APMG-International.
STAR® and Operational Coaching® are registered trademarks of Notion Holdings Limited and are used under licence. All rights reserved.
The APMG International Swirl Device logo is a trademark of The APM Group Limited and is used with permission from The APM Group Limited. All rights reserved.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this course, you will be able to:
Build on the more reactive Operational Coaching® skills of learning to stop, think, ask and secure a result, by developing a deeper insight into what drives people's motivations and behaviours
Gain insight into people’s skills and willingness to engage, learn and take risks
Gain a sense of where you might need to offer additional coaching support
Use your knowledge about how beliefs and values can affect behaviour and performance to identify opportunities to stretch the capabilities and increase the confidence of others proactively
Take the challenge out of challenging conversations by asking questions that acknowledge and stimulate understanding and alignment in beliefs and values
Use higher management skills to perform as a STAR® Manager, which will differentiate your purposeful and intentional approach to leadership and management by enabling the potential of others
Benefits for your organisation include:
Your ability to proactively identify opportunities for stretching the capabilities of team members fosters an increase in team engagement, productivity, inclusion and collaboration. It will also improve the capability and capacity of the team. Freeing up your time by rebalancing the workload across a team that you have enabled to step up and retain accountability, delegating some aspects of your workload to them, will allow you to focus on more of the higher-value strategic aspects of your role.
Proactively developing your team utilising an intentional Operational Coaching® approach addresses the challenges associated with employee retention and succession planning as team members are more engaged, are retained and seek progression.
Knowing how to conduct purposeful 1:1s and set and progress goals in a way that helps people advance using a coaching approach is a vital skill set that will engender a culture of continuous performance improvement.
Booking
Thank you for your interest in this course. New dates will be announced shortly - fill in our enquiry form to be the first to know when bookings reopen.
If you have questions about the course in the meantime, please contact us at [email protected].