5 Powerful Tips for Your Coaching Workshops & Webinars (Including my Big Aha! Moment)

In this article we explore some essential tips and ideas to make your coaching workshops and webinars great!

From the very beginning I used coaching tools and worksheets in workshops: handouts where people would write down their learnings—and identify actions. The ideas was that a coaching form or worksheet would help my audience 'see' what was going on inside their mind

And I always asked for feedback at the end!

TIP 1) Ask for feedback!

The importance of feedback and one essential thing I learned early on...

At the end of every workshop or webinar, I have always given my attendees a workshop feedback form.

This was suddenly so obvious! A workshop is just like coaching session: people learn best when they figure it out for (or amongst!) themselves.

And as soon as I created more smaller group interactions, that feedback disappeared—poof!

If an audience only listens, they take away 12% of your content. By making it more visual, you can increase audience comprehension and remembrance to 26%. But when you actually get them involved and responding, their understanding and 'take away' goes up to 51%. Mark Lavergne

TIP 2) Put people into small groups so they can learn from each other!

So, what did I do do next?

Well, I continued to use coaching exercises and tools as worksheets and handouts in my workshops. But instead of talking and "teaching" at the front, I facilitated them learning from each other.

Here are the 4 things I did as a result of this learning

1. I said less and put people into small groups to discuss answers and uncover deeper learnings for themselves.
2. I then asked the small groups to share their learnings/observations/thoughts with the entire group.
3. If needed (for example a learning point was missed in the discussions) I would add a couple of points from my notes.
4. And only then would I ask them to complete the corresponding part of the coaching tools/worksheets.

And 5 things that came out of these small group discussions

1. Powerful personal learnings
2. Reinforcement of key workshop themes and ideas
3. Nuanced discussions
4. Different and new ideas for the participants (from each other, and for me as coach)
5. And the powerful realisation that we're not alone... (other people struggle with this too!)

So much richness comes out of these group discussions that now I won't do workshops any other way. And it's my favourite part of the workshops!

Here's what I learned in pictures:

Some More Workshops Tips!

TIP 3) Use more coaching tools and exercises when running workshops in the workplace

Using coaching tools, exercises and worksheets for workshops is especially helpful in a business context, because they provide something concrete.

Organizations are likely to expect you to be "training" (talking and sharing information) as well as providing tangible take-home resources.

So, when in a workplace, I usually:

• Share more information (talk more!) than non-business context
• Provide a 'pure information' handout for attendees to takeaway that summarises key learnings
• As well as offering coaching exercises to complete

But even in a work context, I always include group discussions where people take a concept or learning and through listening, reflection and feedback with others, make it their own.

And I always include coaching exercises that help attendees clarify their thoughts and learn.

TIP 4) Use (free) workshops to grow your business

Seriously consider running free workshops when you're starting out as a coach!

In the early days of my coaching practice I ran a lot of free workshops.

This was a fantastic way for me to build a permission-based email list, fans and clients (adding 15-40 people each time).

That's because the workshop feedback form I mentioned asks for their email address AND asks if they would like to receive my newsletter and/or a free consultation. It also asks for testimonials—which I collected for my website.

And lastly, I learned so much about running workshops from all the free sessions that by the time I was paid to run workshops I was more confident as a speaker, more confident in my material—and better able to deliver great results.

TIP 5) Whatever coaching tools you use, be sure they EMPOWER people!

This is a key tip for using coaching exercises in workshops: ensure that whatever worksheet, exercise or tool you use empowers your attendees. Always leave people feeling better about themselves or their situation.

Do this by:

1. Ensuring attendees always have at least one action to take away.
2. Or alternatively ask attendees to explicitly write down a helpful or uplifting new perspective on themselves, their life situation or the world.

Would you like some ideas of Specific Coaching Tools to use in Workshops?

Click here for specific life coaching workshop ideas including 7 coaching exercises/worksheets you can use—how and why!