Last week felt like a significant milestone… I submitted the final parts of my portfolio of evidence and assignments for the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) Level 7 Diploma for Executive and Senior Level Coaches and Mentors.
Everything is currently being marked, so I’m fully expecting there may still be bits to revisit, but it finally feels like the end is in sight.
I’ve actually genuinely enjoyed the process.
I started the course in August 2025 and, at the time, I remember actively looking for honest reflections from people who had completed it. I wanted to know what it was actually like beyond the course description – the workload, the coaching hours, the written assignments, the balance alongside full-time leadership roles and, realistically, whether it was manageable.
So this is my attempt at offering that perspective for anyone considering doing it themselves.
Choosing a provider
The experience of the qualification will vary depending on who delivers it. I chose to complete mine through Stirling Enterprise HR (STEP HR) after coming across them online and having an initial conversation with the course leader.
One of the biggest advantages for me was that they were local and delivered the workshops face-to-face, which was appealing to me. Coaching is relational by nature and I liked the idea of learning and practising in person rather than entirely online.
The group itself was small and made up of people from very different backgrounds and organisations, which added a lot to the experience. Some people were completing the Level 5 qualification and others the Level 7, with the main differences being the number of workshops, depth of the written assignments, number of coaching hours required and types of coachees (executive or senior leaders for the Level 7).
The workshops
The workshops took place once a month and were full-day sessions.
They were interactive and practical rather than overly academic, which suited me well. There was some presentation-based learning and theory, but most of the time involved discussions, reflective exercises and breaking into smaller groups to coach each other.
That was probably one of the most valuable parts of the course for me – actually practising repeatedly and experiencing both sides of the coaching relationship.
It also quickly became apparent that true, non-directive coaching is much harder than it looks.
Listening well sounds simple in theory until you realise how quickly your brain wants to jump into problem-solving, advice-giving or trying to ‘help’ too quickly.
The assignments
If I’m honest, the written assignments were probably my least favourite part of the course.
The first assignment was in 3 parts and involved a significant amount of theory and required learning the style of academic and reflective writing expected by ILM. It wasn’t that they were asking anything particularly difficult, it was more the style expectations that took a bit of adjustment.
I much preferred the actual coaching itself.
And if I’m going to write, I’d generally rather it’s a blog than an academic assignment.
That said, the written work did force me to think much more critically about ethics, boundaries, reflective practice and my own approach to coaching, which was valuable in itself.
The coaching hours
One thing I definitely underestimated was the amount of time involved in completing the coaching practice element.
The recommendation was to work with around 6–9 coachees across the qualification. I got a bit overenthusiastic and ended up coaching 11 people, including members of my own leadership team and several external colleagues.
In hindsight, I probably wouldn’t recommend taking that approach.
The actual coaching sessions were manageable, but it was the preparation, reflection and paperwork surrounding them that became substantial. Every session required records, reflective notes, evaluations and ongoing documentation, and it added up very quickly alongside a full-time CEO role.
The qualification required 60 hours of coaching overall and, if I was doing it again, I’d probably space sessions out more and work with fewer people. Part of the problem I gave myself was that, despite having 3 years to complete the course, I set myself a target of completing within the first year.
Although saying that, throwing myself into it did accelerate my learning significantly. So pros and cons!
Having regular coaching conversations week after week forced me to develop confidence quickly, sharpen my listening skills and stay fully engaged with the process.
The portfolio and paperwork
Assignment two involved a huge amount of portfolio evidence.
This included:
- coaching records
- reflective diaries
- signed contracts and agreements
- coaching needs analyses
- evaluations
- supervision records
- observed coaching documentation
- summaries
At times it genuinely felt never-ending.
One thing that helped massively was creating systems early on to keep everything organised. I built a coaching tracker spreadsheet to manage sessions, hours, supervisions and paperwork and had a well oiled machine of storing all the reflective diaries in secure folders. The spreadsheet tracker has actually become something I’ll continue using beyond the qualification itself and I’m happy to share it for others doing the course or just looking for a simple tool – there’s a link at the end of this post for you to download it.
Assignment three focused more heavily on reflection, self-assessment and future development, including a SWOT analysis and CPD planning for the next 12 months. Again, a significant amount of effort but very practical and useful beyond the course which I enjoyed.
Learning beyond the classroom
A huge amount of the learning for me happened outside the workshops themselves.
I spent (and still do spend) a lot of time reading, listening to podcasts and watching coaching-related content because I genuinely wanted to be the best coach I could be for the people who had trusted me with their time and openness throughout the process.
The qualification also made me reflect much more deeply on how I show up in leadership conversations generally – particularly around listening, creating space, resisting the urge to jump into solutions and understanding the difference between mentoring, advising and coaching.
Looking back on the experience
Looking back, I probably did approach the qualification in the same way I approach a lot of things – by jumping in fully and figuring it out as I went.
Balancing the coaching hours, written assignments and portfolio requirements alongside an executive leadership role was definitely challenging at times.
But despite the workload, I’m genuinely glad I did it.
Not just because of the qualification itself, but because of how much it has changed the way I think about leadership, support and development.
It’s made me more reflective, more intentional and much more aware of the importance of creating space for people to think openly and work through challenges in their own way.
And ultimately, that feels like something worth investing in.
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