Business Coaching and your Professional Practice

Facilitators
Henry Marsden and Lesley Corbin

Who should attend
The workshop will appeal to both experienced and inexperienced coaching psychologists. The former may wish to continue to hone their thinking while the latter may want to see how the coaching land lies. The interactive nature of the demonstrations and case studies will provide scope for basic questions and for sharing coaching experiences. Psychologists working in psychometrics, assessment, diversity and development fields should find the workshop helpful in understanding the complementary work of coaches or in determining how coaching may be added to their portfolio of skills.

Workshop overview
The workshop will give participants the chance to taste the approach of the acclaimed Meyler Campbell Business Coach Programme™, by working with two of its leading Faculty, Dr Henry Marsden and Dr Lesley Corbin, in a fast-paced, highly participative and enjoyable collaboration. This is a rigorously research-based yet highly participative, practical workshop. Delegates will develop strong business coaching skills within a warm, open and mutually supportive atmosphere. The day will build on delegates’ self-assessment of their level of experience in business coaching, which will lead into the ‘coaching fishbowl’ in order to stimulate thinking and discussion. Case studies will be used to develop learning and critical analysis. These will facilitate discussions about what makes a great business coach and the challenges and complexities of coaching, including multi-level contracting, building organisational support, and psychologists’ techniques for understanding the client’s system. The workshop will close with coaching sessions so that each delegate has space to clarify how they will integrate their learning in their coaching practice.

Aims of the workshop

• Deepen participants’ understanding of current best practice in business coaching and leading-edge techniques.
• Explore key theoretical concepts and constructs underpinning good business coaching.
• Understand how to integrate these in practice, in the busy real world.
• Raise participants’ energy and commitment around psychology-based coaching, through building clarity, confidence, and tools.

Projected outcomes and benefits of attending
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:

• update their definition of leading-edge business coaching;
• explain the core knowledge and skills required of a business coach;
• explain the dilemmas and synergies between business coaching and Occupational Psychology in practice;
• appreciate (from the two leading-edge case studies) the step-jump that is occurring at present, and start thinking/planning how not to be left behind; and
• explain how they will (or will not) integrate business coaching and the specific approaches discussed into their Occupational Psychology practice.

Psychological theory underpinning the workshop
The Meyler Campbell approach to developing business coaches is to ensure that, regardless of background and experience, coaches have the ability to marry together psychological and business understanding to the benefit of senior clients. To this end we ensure participants engage, consider and then choose whether or not to integrate into their own coaching framework the insights gained from different schools of psychology, research and business. During the workshop we will be using case studies and live coaching to explore issues that arise in coaching engagements. We will then be delegate led in exploring key coaching concerns, areas for development and the aspects of psychology or business theory that may add value to these situations. While we anticipate a broad range of areas being covered we anticipate specifically covering the following fields: Positive Psychology (Linley and Joseph 2004, Kauffman & Scoular 2004); Leadership theory (Dr Corbin’s PhD thesis); Peak performance theories (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990); and Personality and psychometrics (Scoular & Linley 2006; and Peterson & Seligman, 2004).

Pre/post work required
Reading two case studies to familiarise participants with two different coaching experiences.

Date and venue
24 July 2008, 09.30 - 17.00.
The British Psychological Society, 30 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4UE.

Facilitator details
Dr Henry Marsden PhD; C.Psychol is a member of the Meyler Campbell Business Coach Faculty and runs the consultanc Kingston Jones. He focuses on the most senior levels in professional services and corporates, bringing about organisational change through strategy-driven business coaching and learning and development.Starting with a prestigious law firm as Head of Learning and Development and Head of HR within Europe, heundertook and commissioned the underpinning research then oversaw the design and delivery of professional development and skills programmes. His international coaching and consultancy work is anchored in tools and techniques derived from his PhD. He continues to work in academia as a Visiting Lecturer in Psychology at London Metropolitan University.

Dr Lesley Corbin PhD is originally from South Africa and began her career as a Clinical Psychologist, and then worked with Shell. Winning a Fulbright Scholarship to the US, she undertook her MSc in Organisational Psychology at Columbia University in New York, and subsequently worked across the USA on a variety of consultancy assignments, but with an increasing focus on what had become her specialist area, leadership in business. In 2001, Lesley relocated to the UK, and undertook a PhD at the Judge Institute of Management Studies in Cambridge, on the psychology of leadership. She is now an independent senior-level executive coach and consultant in leadership in demanding contexts, and a member of the Meyler Campbell Faculty, where in addition to client work, she also maintains an active interest in research and publications.

Registration is now open

Reg Form: Marsden 24.07.08

or book on-line

The Division of Occupational
Psychology is part of:
The British Psychological Society