Enhancing coaching skills and emotional intelligence through training

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of a long-term (13-week, spaced learning) with a short-term (two-day, block intensive) coaching skills training programme on participants’ coaching skills and emotional intelligence. Design/methodology/approach – In the study 23 participants completed a 13-week coaching skills training course which consisted of weekly 2.5-hour workshops and action learning. In comparison, 20 participants completed a two-day ‘‘Manager as Coach’’ training programme, with a three-week action learning break between day one and day two. Both training programmes used the same coaching frameworks, with the two-day programme being more condensed. Findings – Participation in the 13-week training course was associated with increases in both goal-focused coaching skills and emotional intelligence, whereas the two-day block intensive training was associated with increased goal-focused coaching skills, but not emotional intelligence. Further, the magnitude of the increase in goal-focused coaching skills was less for the two-day programme than for the 13-week programme. Research limitations/implications – These studies used a quasi-experimental pre-post design, and the long-term effects were not measured. Future research should use control groups and random assignment to shortor long-term training. Practical implications – The main implications of these findings are that, while short, intensive programmes may improve participants’ goal-focused coaching skills, organisations seeking to deepen the impact of ‘‘Manager as Coach’’ training programmes and improve the underlying emotional intelligence of participants should use a spaced learning approach over a number of weeks. Originality/value – This is the first study to examine the impact of different approaches to coaching skills training and their impact on emotional intelligence.