What to Expect on the Global Life Coaching Course

At Global Training, we are thrilled to offer a range of bespoke services - including our exclusive Life Coaching course, in partnership with the Philosophical Life Compass.

We recently delivered an exclusive 3-day Life Coaching course tailored to professionals wishing to enhance their current roles with invaluable life coaching expertise. Specifically, the training days focused on the Philosophical Life Compass’s training model – and its ability to “demystify decision-making”.

Led by Global Training Founder and Director Emma Gersch and Professor Irvine Gersch, the training days brought together a group of seasoned professionals from a range of industries; the course itself targets coaches, business leaders, psychologists, social workers and senior teaching staff – to name but a few! The team in question quickly became well-acquainted in the first session, as Emma and Professor Gersch established an inclusive and supportive environment. This first session predominantly consisted of the trainees being introduced to the main tools of the Philosophical Life Compass – and practical ways that they can aid decision-making in a life coaching format.

Introducing the Philosophical Life Compass

The Philosophical Life Compass (PLC) utilises the P-Grow Model: Philosophy, Goal, Reality, Options, Way Forward, Review – adding a philosophical framework to the well-known life coaching ‘Grow’ acronym. For example, the coach would encourage the client to take into account their philosophical and spiritual values when making significant life decisions, thus opening up their path of thinking.

The PLC uses a ‘sailing metaphor’: life is a journey by ship, and we can be aided by a compass to direct our travel. The compass is simply an articulation of one’s long-term goals, values and purpose, which can be revealed by a series of philosophical questions. What’s more, if life is like a ship’s journey, we are all striving to reach a destination; this destination reflects our meaning and purpose in life, and the trajectory of travel should be in harmony with our deepest purpose, passions and overall mission. The Philosophical Life Compass aims to identify what that mission is, and to help clients to make life decisions based upon this.

The team were trained to deliver the Philosophical Life Compass’s two-session coaching approach: the first session involves “setting the compass”, whilst the second follow-up session is a case of “reviewing and fine-tuning”. The team had the opportunity to roleplay as both ‘coach’ and ‘coachee’, during the course, drawing on their own real-life experiences.

The Coaching Process

The coaching process consistes of several steps. Importantly, the coach and client must first identify their focus topic; as with any life coaching session, this can range from work to family life, and from relationships to health and wellbeing. Once the topic has been identified, the coaching conversation can begin – utilising the questions raised by the P-Grow Model, inspiring the coachee to speak freely and truthfully, with the coach’s role being predominantly to listen and facilitate.

This is then followed by the decision-making grid: the PLC cleverly quantifies decision-making by allowing the client to numerically rate the extent to which their different needs are being met in the context of this decision – alongside a ‘gut reaction’ figure. Finally, the coach and coachee embark upon practical plans for the future: how this particular topic or issue will be resolved, and what decision will be made.

The immersive nature of this training allowed the team to truly put themselves in their clients’ shoes. Not only did the trainees have the opportunity to put the P-Grow model into practice as a coach, but when role-playing as the client, they brought their own personal experiences to the table, tackling a real-life decision that they have to make. This elevated level of empathy “highlighted the responsibility of the coach – how you treat the information the client is entrusting you with.” The trainees described these role-play sessions as a “beautifully empathic safe space”, and a “safety net”, claiming that it was “humbling to develop trust in such a short time.” One trainee was even keen for her coaching partnership to continue: “I’m going to meet her for our second session next month!”.

Feedback from Our Trainee Life Coaches

The follow-up session occurred over Zoom a week later. It was clear that the team of life coaching trainees felt an intrinsic affinity with the course – and with each other! GTG and the Philosophical Life Compass were elated by the feedback received. One trainee praised the selection of the group: “I think everyone in this room is aligned to the principles of active listening, which is one of the many reasons why this course worked so well. Such a wonderful combination of people – thank you for organising it!”

Another trainee told us: “I enjoyed learning about the toolkit, and appreciated the amount of time we’ve had to try things out and put it into practice. Sometimes we attend courses and they go over the same thing – over and over! – or they rush you, but the pace here worked really well!”

Some team members also had their expectations surpassed: “I was incredibly apprehensive about today. Not only because I was tired, but because (life coaching) is not a skillset that I have – or have had practice in. But I found it really useful and interesting as a manager of people, to see how I can use this within a work environment. To have tools at my disposal, and to be able to tease out what on the surface appears to be one thing, but is really another. My goal is for my teams to grow and develop, and become the best version of themselves. This has given me a whole new toolset to help them on their development path.”

Moreover, one trainee told us: “I feel really excited about it! I really enjoyed doing the coaching – which is a new thing I’ve never done before – and I’m really looking forward to learning more”, whilst another… “thought it was brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. It’s especially exciting envisioning a world where we can become a group of practitioners who come together (to run life coaching retreats) – and share the toolkit far and wide!”

“Getting to experience the PLC as a coachee as well as a coach has been really vital. As with any form of therapy, ultimately, you have to have experienced it yourself. The past few days have been brilliant - it’s been so amazing and life-changing in a way.”

Click here for more information about the Philosophical Life Compass, and to book a coaching session with one of GTG's qualified Life Coaches contact hello@wearegtg.co.uk.