Professional Practitioner Diploma / "You get closer to yourself, which makes you a better coach"

Donald Phillips has been helping people speak with greater clarity and confidence since 1995. Through a unique blend of speech and executive coaching, he supports clients in expressing themselves more effectively, managing health-related challenges, and building lasting self-confidence. His holistic approach explores the whole person, addressing the root causes behind communication and confidence issues. As founder and lead coach at Confidence to Speak, Donald shares his experience of continuing his professional development on the Professional Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching.

Who or what introduced you to coaching and led to you signing up for coach training with the AoEC?

I started work as a therapist since 1995. I moved into speech coaching around 2010. My clients’ needs showed me that I needed a deeper skill set to help clients address underlying challenges with their levels of confidence. This prompted a general exploration of coaching before settling on the Practitioner Diploma course with the AoEC in 2018.

What prompted you to pursue further training with the Professional Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching?

Five years from completing the PD I just felt I wanted to deepen my coaching. I had considered a few different options but the PPD really caught my eye. I think it was the module format, the experts teaching the modules, the online format and the course delivery time frame. It seemed manageable to fit in with my existing work commitments and yet robust enough to stretch me.

What were some of the positives and challenges you experienced while doing the Professional Practitioner Diploma?

Starting with positives, I really appreciated connecting with other working coaches who were in a similar phase of coach development. I experienced very strong support among us. I also valued the fact that many of us were scattered around the globe, from Europe to Africa, Asia to North America. It brought me into a global community. Other positives include the pace of the course, the course design, the online pre-module learning and being exposed to a wide variety of coaching approaches to coach the whole person by experts in their approach.

There were some minor challenges along the way, but I experienced the greatest challenge, which prompted the most rewarding experience, as being redefining and refining my coaching model to encompass what I had learned to take my coaching to the next level for myself. Putting this all together for the final assessment, knowing it is a work in progress, springboarded me to a greater understanding of how I want to coach, with a deeper working experience of my signature coaching presence.

What is your advice to others considering ongoing development in coach training?

Just go for it. You won’t regret it because in the end you get closer to yourself, which makes you a better coach.

Reflecting on your experience of the Professional Practitioner Diploma, how did it deepen your understanding of who you are and how you coach?

I think the fact that each module explored a different facet of the human experience brought me to a deeper appreciation and questioning of my own lived experience, so far, as a human being. Coaching the whole person is so much more than asking the right questions or going through a set process. How I am with the coachee – my attention, my presence and my space giving – heightened, and gave rise to an understanding that this approach is who I am in my core. It serves me well going forward and gives me substance for deepening and further reflection.

Can you tell us more about your personal coaching model and how this has evolved since doing the Professional Practitoner Diploma?

I work primarily as a speech coach. My previous coaching model incorporated a mix of goal-oriented outcomes and awareness outcomes. I worked strongly with beginnings, middles and endings – the PD approach. The PPD deepened my coaching model to include more nuance, more awareness, more ease, and more space for the client to move, experience and express. My coaching model is now on a spectrum – the far end of one side expressed as speech training, with executive coaching occupying the other far end. In the middle is speech coaching, where I can draw on both speech training – as creative activities – and executive coaching.

What elements of the Professional Practitioner Diploma’s modules particularly resonated with you and why?

The modules on Gestalt coaching and Ubuntu coaching resonated most with me. That aspect of presence that they both have is central to my coaching model and central also to speaking in any situation. I appreciated also the module on Crossing Cultures because living as I do in an oil/gas city many of my clients are from somewhere else.

How are you applying those learnings from the diploma in your coaching work?

Integrating the learning, engaging with the module substance, is an ongoing activity. I especially work with the learning from the mentor coaching sessions. These sessions were invaluable to deepen my coaching, learning to notice more and do less.

Who do you typically coach and what are the issues or opportunities you normally support them with?

I typically coach CEOs, executives, those newly promoted, middle management and engineers in leadership roles. As my company is called Confidence to Speak, I support them in their development to become more confident when speaking. Sometimes this involves understanding and becoming aware of how stress and nerves affects them; making changes to speak with more impact; or developing a better communication style.

Can you share a success story or testimonial from one of your clients that highlights the impact of your coaching?

“Donald’s expertise, patience and encouragement over the last 12 months have had an invaluable impact on my public speaking skills and my wider personal development. The effectiveness of Donald’s coaching toolkit has left me feeling more confident in the workplace during both normal day-to-day business and in challenging circumstances.” - Senior Officer, City Council.

What do you find most rewarding about your work as a coach?

Helping the coachee become more themselves and more ‘at home’ in themselves.

Our deepest thanks to Donald for sharing his personal experience of coach training with the AoEC.