Fostering growth without prescribing
How can you design a support process that develops autonomy without making decisions on the other person’s behalf?
3500 € per session, excl. VAT
In short
These two days, totalling 14 hours excluding breaks, enable participants to design a short individual development programme and test its conversations. Participants practise agreeing a coaching contract, asking questions, giving feedback and supporting experimentation. They leave with a prototype coaching programme, an observation framework and a workplace testing plan.
Why this training?
Immediately providing a solution can reinforce an employee’s dependence. A developmental approach requires distinguishing between advice, instruction and exploration, then choosing an intervention suited to the employee’s level of autonomy. A conversation alone is not enough: progress is built between conversations through observable trials. Planning their follow-up prevents good intentions from failing to translate into professional behaviour. Case study running throughout: At Avelcor Reliure, a fictitious organisation, a manager supports a recently promoted team leader who systematically takes back delegated tasks. The challenge: helping him develop his employees without compromising production deadlines. Transfer to the workplace: Within thirty days, offer a volunteer a pilot comprising two conversations and a workplace experiment. Obtain their agreement, observe an agreed behaviour and adjust the programme during the review, without promising automatic progress.
Objectives of this training
- Agree a behavioural objective and the boundaries of the coaching
- Use questioning that leaves the employee free to choose their options
- Provide factual feedback and open a dialogue
- Design a short programme with experiments and follow-up
- Test a conversation and revise the prototype based on observations
Who is it for and what are the prerequisites?
Roles and tasks concerned
- Managers supporting their team members in becoming more autonomous
- Skills development managers and experienced mentors
Prior skills
- Have previous experience of conducting individual development conversations
- Be able to distinguish a work-related fact from a personal judgement
What you will work on
Define the boundaries of the coaching approach
Objective: Choose when to coach rather than prescribe. Coaching, mentoring, management; consent and hierarchical asymmetry.
Establish an explicit working alliance
Objective: Negotiate an acceptable framework. Expectations, confidentiality, responsibilities and the right to stop.
Establish the behavioural target
Objective: Turn a complaint into an objective. Facts, context, resources and signs of progress.
Ask questions without steering
Objective: Bring several options to light. Open questions, paraphrasing, silence and tentative hypotheses.
Give feedback that encourages action
Objective: Challenge without labelling. Fact, observed effect, the other person’s perception and request.
Make space for resistance
Objective: Explore a disagreement without forcing the issue. Ambivalence, emotion, refusal and the boundaries of the role.
Organise a workplace trial
Objective: Connect learning with work activities. Chosen action, graded difficulty and reflection on the experience.
Assemble the programme
Objective: Design a coherent prototype. Two conversations, an interim trial and a review.
Test in a full simulated situation
Objective: Evaluate intervention choices. Structured observation and debriefing that examines opposing viewpoints.
Prepare the workplace pilot
Objective: Ensure a safe initial rollout on a limited scale. Voluntary participation, schedule, confidentiality and stopping criteria.
What you take away
- Coaching agreement and limits of confidentiality
- Observation framework for the coach’s behaviour
- Prototype programme comprising two conversations
- Pilot plan and review form
Method and assessment
- Short input sessions followed by situational exercises and role plays based on the case study used throughout.
- Structured observation and peer feedback using a shared observation grid.
- Guided debrief: what worked, what will be adjusted, individual commitment.
- Preparation: Prepare a fictional or anonymised situation in which repeated advice has not developed autonomy. Identify the confidentiality rules and materials permitted by your organisation.
Observable criteria: The objective describes an observable behaviour chosen together with the team member. ; The questioning explores options without imposing a solution. ; The feedback cites a fact and asks for the recipient’s perspective. ; The experiment specifies an action, a deadline and an observation. ; The prototype is revised based on feedback from the simulation..
Frequently asked questions
Is this a therapeutic approach?
No; keep the focus on work and refer difficulties beyond your role to the appropriate contacts.
Can you work on a situation you have experienced?
Yes, once anonymised; otherwise, use the fictional case provided.
Must you abandon all directive approaches?
No; make non-negotiable obligations explicit and preserve the choice of methods where possible.
Is the programme rolled out during the training?
No; it is prototyped and tested in a simulation before a limited workplace pilot.
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