What Teaching Methodology Can Add to Coaching

Why learning design makes coaching more effective for leaders in fast-changing organisations.

Coaching has become a staple for leaders navigating growth, complexity and transformation. It helps create space for reflection, builds self-awareness and strengthens judgment when everything around you is moving at pace. But coaching alone isn’t always enough — especially in scale-ups or organisations going through rapid change, where leaders need to learn, adapt and apply new behaviours quickly.

That’s where teaching methodology adds something powerful. Not as a replacement for coaching, but as a complement to it — giving structure, momentum, and repeatable learning cycles so that insight turns into action.

Teaching methodology brings clarity, pacing and intentional design. Coaching brings depth, reflection and personalisation. Together, they create a practical, high-impact development experience that helps leaders move faster, more confidently and more sustainably.

Why teaching theory is such a good fit for leadership coaching

Adults learn differently — and coaching benefits from respecting that

Malcolm Knowles’ work on andragogy (adult learning theory) argues that adults learn best when:

• learning feels immediately relevant

• they can draw on their own experience

• they have agency and choice

• the “why” behind an action is clear

(Elearning Industry – Knowles’ theory)

Coaching sessions naturally surface experience, relevance and choice — but the addition of simple learning-design techniques makes those principles explicit and intentional. Leaders are guided through a process that feels owned, grounded and deeply connected to their real work.

Learning sticks when experience and reflection work together

David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (experience → reflect → conceptualise → act) is widely used in leadership development and is just as applicable in coaching.

(Simply Psychology – Kolb)

Coaching becomes more effective when sessions deliberately follow this rhythm:

1. What happened?

2. What did you notice?

3. What does that tell you?

4. What will you try next?

This isn’t about adding bureaucracy. It’s about anchoring the conversation in a cycle that accelerates learning and makes it far more likely a leader will actually behave differently next week.

Teaching methodology introduces pace and focus

Coaching can sometimes drift — not because the coach is ineffective, but because the work is open-ended by design. Teaching methodology introduces lightweight structure:

• defining learning intentions (“What skill or behaviour are we strengthening?”)

• designing simple experiments to try in real work

• committing to review points

• agreeing how progress will be recognised

Leaders benefit from the momentum and clarity; coaches benefit from a framework that keeps the work tight and accountable.

How this looks in real leadership situations

When organisations scale or transform, leaders often face challenges like:

• shifting from doer to delegator

• leading peers for the first time

• balancing operational pressure with strategic thinking

• resetting team dynamics or expectations

• stepping into highly visible roles with new scrutiny

These situations require behavioural change, not just insight. That’s where combining coaching with learning methodology shines — it provides a path, not just a conversation.

A session might help a leader realise they need to set clearer expectations. A teaching-informed approach helps them design a “learning experiment” for the week: one conversation, one behaviour, one follow-up step. Reflection the following week then deepens the learning and locks in progress.

Small cycles. Big impact.

How to get started: a simple, practical approach

You don’t need an elaborate programme to use teaching methodology in coaching. Try this rhythm:

1. Identify one behaviour or capability you want to strengthen — keep it laser-focused.

2. Create a tiny experiment: something you’ll try in the real world this week.

3. Observe without judgement: what worked, what didn’t, what surprised you.

4. Translate that into insight: what’s the principle here?

5. Decide the next experiment and repeat.

This blends the honest reflection of coaching with the purposeful design of teaching. It works quickly, consistently and sustainably — exactly what leaders in fast-changing organisations need.

Further reading & references

These sources provide solid foundations for the theories behind this approach:

• Malcolm Knowles’ work on Adult Learning Theory (Andragogy)
  https://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles

• David A. Kolb – Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development
  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235701029_Experiential_Learning_Experience_As_The_Source_Of_Learning_And_Development

• Simply Psychology summary of Kolb’s learning cycle
  https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html

Using ChatGPT to help you put this into practice

If you want to act on what you’ve read, ChatGPT can speed things up by acting as a thinking partner, helping you shape experiments, reflect, and plan next steps.

Here’s the quick version leaders use:

1. Ask it to help define the behaviour or capability

“I’m a leader in a scaling organisation. I’m trying to improve ____. Help me define the specific behaviour to focus on first.”

2. Ask for a simple one-week experiment

“Give me a small, real-world experiment I can try this week to develop that behaviour.”

3. Use it to reflect

“Here’s what happened when I tried that. What patterns do you see? What should I take from this?”

4. Ask for the next step

“Based on that reflection, suggest what I should try next.”

Or the ultra-quick version

Paste the blog into ChatGPT and use:

“Ask me the right questions to help me apply this blog to my situation.”

This turns ChatGPT into a structured reflection tool — a faster way to move from insight to action.

If you’re interested in a Coaching Spike to help (you or your team), you can read more about it here