LeaderCoreAIAI coaching practice for managers
LeaderCore:
LeaderCore:Coach is AI coaching practice for managers who coach their own direct reports and teams. Your managers hold one-to-one or team conversations with AI characters who react to how they coach, and after each session they get a report graded on six coaching behaviors. They can follow GROW, OSKAR, CLEAR, a solution-focused approach or no named model, and switch models mid-conversation.
Three replies to the same moment, and how the person reacts
An illustration written for this page, not a recording of a real session. Sam leads a small team. The project deadline was set before the team lost two people.
Polite agreement, then a reason it won't work. The plan is still yours, not Sam's.
A suggestion phrased as a question is still a suggestion, and Sam treats it like one.
The belief is tested instead of argued with, and a new fact comes out. One question doesn't settle it; Sam still has to think it through.
What the report shows the manager
The report is ready within seconds of the session ending. This excerpt is illustrative too: it comes from an imagined session with Sam, not from a real manager's report.
What went well
When Sam said the date had been fixed at the kick-off, you repeated it back: “Fixed at the kick-off.” You left it there, and Sam filled the pause with what had changed since then: the team had lost two people.
What to try next time
Later, when Sam was working out how to raise it with Maria, you asked “Have you tried showing her what would have to give?” That was your idea in the form of a question, and Sam agreed without taking it on. At that moment you could have asked, for example: “How do you want to put it to her?”
- A score for each of the six behaviors and an overall score
- Whether the person left with a next step of their own
- What kind of help the person needed, revealed only after grading
- Strengths that quote the manager's own words and say why they worked with this person
- Improvements with an example of what the manager could have said at that moment
When giving information or advice is the right move
LeaderCore:Coach does not mark down every piece of advice. It grades whether the manager found out what kind of help the person needed and gave it.
Information only you hold
If Sam asks whether the contractor budget is still open and you know the answer, say so. Given plainly, Sam uses it. Held back as a coaching technique, it leaves Sam stuck.
Your view, kept brief and handed back
When Sam asks “What would you do?”, a full answer gets the same polite agreement as the advice above. A brief view, offered as one option and handed back with “What do you make of that?”, gives Sam something to consider, question and decide on. When Sam has not asked, ask first whether your view would help.
Feedback on a blind spot
Some people need plain feedback on something they can't see. Circling around it with questions doesn't help them.
Space before anything else
Some people need to be heard before any problem-solving starts. Working through a model's steps regardless doesn't help them either.
The briefing doesn't say which kind of help the person needs: to think it through, confidence, space, a fact or feedback. The manager finds out in the conversation. Doing that, and changing course when an approach isn't working, is what the Choosing the Right Conversation behavior covers.
Six coaching behaviors, graded in every session
The grading looks at the behavior good coaching conversations share, not the steps of one model. Over repeated sessions and higher difficulty levels, the scores show managers how their coaching skills are developing.
Setting the Focus
Did the person (or team) say what they wanted from this conversation, and did the manager keep to it?
Choosing the Right Conversation
Did the manager find out what kind of help was needed and shape the conversation to fit, changing course when it didn't work?
Listening
Did the manager hear and reflect what was said, including what sat under the words?
Questions That Open Thinking
Did the questions make the person think and produce something new?
Challenge Without Taking Over
Did the manager add their own view, observation or feedback without taking the problem off the person?
Ownership of the Next Step
Did the person leave with an action they named themselves, specific, with a check-in?
Can managers use the coaching model they were trained in?
Yes. LeaderCore:Coach doesn't push managers into a proprietary model. It is built to work with popular coaching models and approaches, including GROW, OSKAR, CLEAR and solution-focused coaching, or with no named model at all. Managers can also switch models in the middle of a conversation when the one they started with turns out to be wrong for the situation.
Why managers aren't graded on the steps of GROW, OSKAR or another model
Grading one model's steps would mark down managers who use a different one. So the grading looks at six behaviors that good coaching conversations share, whichever model a manager uses.
Switching models mid-conversation
Sometimes the model a manager starts with is wrong for the person in front of them, such as a step-by-step problem-solving model for someone who first needs to be heard. Noticing that and changing course is part of Choosing the Right Conversation, so a manager who switches models isn't marked down for leaving the first model's steps unfinished.
Open a card to see where the steps of each model or approach count among the six behaviors. Behaviors that aren't a step of a model are graded throughout the conversation.
GROW
Goal · Reality · Options · WillStep Graded under Goal Setting the Focus Reality Questions That Open Thinking Options Questions That Open Thinking Will Ownership of the Next Step Throughout the conversation Listening; Choosing the Right Conversation; Challenge Without Taking Over OSKAR
Outcome · Scaling · Know-how · Affirm and Action · ReviewStep Graded under Outcome Setting the Focus Scaling Questions That Open Thinking Know-how Questions That Open Thinking Affirm and Action Challenge Without Taking Over; Ownership of the Next Step Review Ownership of the Next Step Throughout the conversation Listening; Choosing the Right Conversation CLEAR
Contracting · Listening · Exploring · Action · ReviewStep Graded under Contracting Setting the Focus; Choosing the Right Conversation Listening Listening Exploring Questions That Open Thinking; Challenge Without Taking Over Action Ownership of the Next Step Review Ownership of the Next Step Solution-focused approach
Preferred future · Exceptions · Scaling · Small next step · Using the person's own wordsStep Graded under Preferred future Setting the Focus Exceptions Questions That Open Thinking Scaling Questions That Open Thinking Small next step Ownership of the Next Step Using the person's own words Listening Throughout the conversation Choosing the Right Conversation; Challenge Without Taking Over
One-to-one and team coaching, at five difficulty levels
One-to-one coaching
The person may bring one issue while another sits underneath it. They may hold an assumption about what is possible. They often have resources they have not mentioned, such as a time it went better or someone who could help, and these come out when the manager asks.
Team coaching
Several AI team members are in the meeting and talk to each other as well as to the manager. Some take over, some hold back until they are invited in, and silence may not mean agreement.
Five difficulty levels
Managers choose the level at the start of each session. Higher levels make the person harder to reach: more deflection, more requests for the answer, more emotion before thinking. At no level does the person lie or the situation turn into a crisis.
A coach to step out to
During a session the manager can step out and ask the in-app coach for help. It points to moments in the conversation and asks what they notice, but never tells them what to say.
Where LeaderCore:Coach fits in your coaching program
Managers practice between the modules of a coaching skills program and after it ends, which is when skills fade if they are not used. They can replay any scenario as often as they like, and we can build a custom scenario collection around the situations your program covers.
What HR and L&D see
- Participation and completion across groups of learners
- Aggregate trends over time
- Nothing at all for groups below a minimum size
What stays with the manager
- Their scores and reports
- Their conversation transcripts
- Not visible to their own manager, to HR or to platform admins
Coaching depends on confidentiality, and so does practice. Managers practice honestly when nobody else can see their scores, their attempts or their mistakes. LeaderCore:Coach is for practice. Employers cannot see individual results, so they cannot use them to assess, compare, rank or select managers. Read how LeaderCoreAI handles data on the Trust page.
What LeaderCore:Coach is not
Not a coaching qualification
LeaderCore:Coach gives managers practice. It does not certify anyone as a coach.
Not a replacement for your program or your coaches
It is practice that goes alongside your coaching skills training and after it.
Not for professional coaching
It is built for managers coaching their own direct reports and teams, not for professional coaching, whether the coach works inside your organization or independently. A manager coaches with authority and a stake in the outcome: some things are fixed, and people often tell their manager what they think the manager wants to hear. The AI direct reports and teams react to that authority too.
Not a prediction of real people
The AI person's reactions are a simulation. They do not predict how a particular employee will respond.
Not a person
The person or team being coached and the in-app coach are all AI. No human coach is involved in a session.
Questions from HR and L&D about LeaderCore:Coach
Is this credible?
LeaderCore:Coach follows principles that established coaching approaches share: the person sets the focus of the conversation, the manager listens and asks questions that open up their thinking, offers a view without taking the problem over, and the next step belongs to the person. That is why it works with GROW, OSKAR, CLEAR, a solution-focused approach or no named model. Experienced coaches also helped design it.
Can AI really grade a coaching conversation?
It grades six behaviors you can see in the conversation itself, such as whether the person said what they wanted from it and whether the next step was theirs. The report points to the moments it is based on and quotes what was said. Over repeated sessions, and as managers move up the difficulty levels, their scores show how their coaching skills are developing. Individual scores stay with the manager; HR and L&D only see aggregated results across the group.
Can managers repeat a scenario?
Yes. Managers can replay any scenario as often as they like, and try a different approach each time.
Can you build scenarios around our own coaching program?
Yes. We can create a custom scenario collection for your organization, built around the situations your managers coach in and the topics your program covers.
Which languages are supported?
Managers can practice and get their feedback in 43 languages. Spoken practice is available in the supported voice languages.
Where is user data processed?
All user data is processed in the EU (europe-central2 and the EU multiregion). The Trust page sets out how LeaderCoreAI handles data.
Book a pilot for your managers.
Tell us about your coaching program and the managers who will use LeaderCore:Coach. A pilot runs for a few weeks, with the exact length agreed with you.