MGN540 Assessment 2 Guidance: 

Critical self-reflective coaching account

Overview

This assessment has two parts.

Part 1 - The first part of the assessment is to reflect on the development of your leader-coach mindset action plan from assessment 1. In assessment 1 you set out an action plan for the weeks after submitting the assessment. In assessment 2 you will reflect on how you progressed with your action plan. What worked to progress your leader-coach mindset and why, andexplain what you will do to continue to develop your leader-coach mindset after the unit. 500 words

Part 2 - The second part of the assessment requires you to create a critical self-reflective account of your leader-coach practice by analysing a coaching conversation you conduct with another student in the unit as a coachee. You will complete a 15-minute coaching conversation with another student using Zoom and record the conversation. The conversation will explore the coachee’sleader-coachdevelopment (a topic of their choosing and at whatever point they are on their journey). You will produce a transcript of the conversation and analysis this using coaching competencies. This will produce an overview of how well you can evidence the competencies leader-coaches require. You will then analyse your ability to meet the competencies. You will use academic sources to provide evidence of a clear ability to reflect on your leader-coachpractice and identify an area for development. 500 words.

Length: 1,000 words of reflection, a coaching conversation transcript analysis andanalysis table. In totalvalued at2,500 words

Weighting: 60%

Due: week 13– please check Canvas for exact date and time

Part 1– reflecting on your LCM development action plan

In assessment 1 you produced an action plan to progress your leader-coach mindset development focus. In assessment 2 you will reflect on how the action plan enabled you to develop your leader-coach mindset.

This reflection is not a description of what you did. It is a leader–coach reflection that shows how you are learning to think differently about your practice. Leader coaches do not simply ask‘what did I do’, or ‘did my actions work?’ they also ask‘what assumptions, values, or beliefs shaped how I acted?’ This deeper questioning is central to effective reflective leader-coach practice. 

Ensure you focus on achieving reflective depth on your leader-coach mindset development supported by academic and professional literature, rather than only reporting on the action plan activities.

Here is a format you can use to structure the reflection (word counts are indicative):

1. Briefly explain what aspect of your LCM you intended to develop through the action plan (50-80 words).

    

2.  

   2a     Analyse what enabled or constrained your plans. Here you can consider:

   1. The situations where you enacted your plan 
   2. How you approached these situations as a leader‑coach 

   3. What you noticed about your thinking, reactions, and default responses

       

2b  Next, pay particular attention to the ways your values, assumptions and beliefs impacted the development of your LCM. you could consider:

1. What values, assumptions and beliefs were shaping how I approached the situation?
   1. What did moments of discomfort, resistance, or surprise reveal as I developed my leader‑coach mindset?
   2. Were there tensions between my espoused values and beliefs and my enacted behaviour?

2c  After considering all of these (or similar) factors, select the most important insights to write about and decide what you will focus on to develop your LCM after the unit. 

1. Write a cohesive reflection focused on the key insights you surfaced andwhat is most meaningful to evidence yourleader-coach mindset development. Include what you plan to do next to continue to develop your leader-coach mindset. 420 words.
2. Move on to completing part 2 of the assessment, which involves recording and analysing a 15 minute leader-coach conversation. 

Part 2- coaching conversation

1. Identify a student to coach

• It is your responsibility to identify a student on the unit to coach. You can approach someone in the tutorial or via the discussion board on Canvas.
• Once you have identified a student to coach, both students should sign up to one of theCanvas ‘Coaching partners sign up’ groups. This allows you to communicate via Canvas and make arrangementsfor the date and time of the coaching conversation that you will record.
• If you have not found a student to coach by the date shared by the teaching team, you will be allocated a student. It is your responsibility to contact your allocated student and make arrangements to complete the coaching conversation.

STEP 2: RECORD YOUR COACHING CONVERSATION

1. Prepare for the conversation

• Arrange a time to conduct a 15-minute coaching conversation with the student in the unit that has agreed to be your coachee.[1]
• Sign into zoom with your QUT ID through SSO and send a zoom invitation to your coachee for the date and time you have agreed.[2]
• Ask your coachee what leadership development topic they would like to discuss so you can research the topic in advance.
• Adopt a coaching framework (e.g. GROW or another framework discussed on the unit) to structure the conversation.
• Planfor the coaching conversation bydrawing on the skills and knowledge developed through participation in tutorial activities and subsequent reflections on these and related coaching practices.
• Prepare examples of questions that might be appropriate or notes for yourself for each of the competency indicators. Remember you have a template from your tutorial activities that you can use for this.
• You can practice the coaching conversation in advance.
• Make sure you choose a location that is quiet and private to conduct the recorded coachingconversation. You can book a room on campus through the QUT Digital Workplace.[3]

1. Conduct the conversation

• Use Zoomwith both your and the coachee’s camerasturned on.Ensure both you and your coachee are visible in the recording.
• Start recording to the cloud before beginning the coaching conversation to ensure you capture the whole conversation.
• Start the conversation by asking the coachee for their consent to record the session. You can ask the coachee to state ‘I confirm I consent to this conversation being recorded for the purposes of assessment 2 in unit MGN540’. You and the coachee should then bothstateyour names and QUT student numbers.

1. Downloadthe conversationtranscript

• After your meeting, go to ‘Recordings’ in your online Zoom account.
• Download and save the transcript with the naming protocol ‘Your family name_Your first name_2025_MGN540_Your QUT student number_transcript’.
  For example:Williams_Jannine_2025_MGN540_123456789_transcript
• Replace the student’s name in the transcript with ‘coachee’ (use Find and Replace). Please refer to the coachee as ‘coachee’ in the table and self-reflective account.

1. Upload zoom video recording to Canvas submission link

• Download and save the video recording with the naming protocol ‘Your family name_ Your first name_2025_MGN540_Your QUT student number_recording.
• Upload your video to Canvas through the ‘MGN540 Assessment 2 coaching conversation’ recording submission link.
• Please upload your recording well in advance of the assessment due date as it may take some time to upload the file.

STEP 3: EVALUATE YOUR COACHING CONVERSATION

1. Analyse your transcript

• Look for evidence in your transcript forthe competency indicatorsincluded in the coaching conversation analysis table(AppendixA).We do not expect you to evidence all indicators, but your analysis must provide sufficient evidence to justify yourdecisions in Step 4of the process. 
• Highlight the phrases (quotes) in the transcript that you believe relate to each competency indicator, usingthe colour codingexplainedin AppendixA.
• Insert the annotated transcript into your self-reflective account as Appendix B.

1. Complete theconversation analysistable (AppendixA)

• Copy the highlighted quotes from your transcript into the coaching conversation analysis table against the relevant competency indicators. 
• In the table note your observations about how effectively you fulfilled each indicator.Use your knowledge and understanding from the unit and academic and practitioner literature to explainhow you evidencedeach indicator. 
• You can include observations about body language or other visual information that you interpret as fulfilling the indicator from the video recording. When you do so, refer to the transcript quote, explain what you observed and include a time stamp. 

1. Choose which coaching practice areas you will focus on in the self-reflective account

• Based on your analysis and notes in the coaching conversation analysis table, choose one area for development to analyse further in your reflective account.
• Choose a coaching practice area thatare relevant to the content and focus of the unit: leader-coaches.

1. Write 500 words (+/- 10%) on the coaching practice areas you selected

• Using the template in Appendix 1 as a guide, write a self-reflective accountbased on your coaching practicerelatedto the practice area you selectedin Step 4.
• Include quotes from the transcript where appropriate to support your reflection.
• It is necessary to refer to the wider academic and practitioner literature to help you toanalyse the practice and writethe reflection.
• Include the steps you will take to continue to improve your coaching practice based on your reflections on thepractice area. 
• Please refer to thecoachee as ‘coachee’ rather than by their name in the self-reflective account.

1. Complete the AI use declaration (Appendix C)

• Complete the AI use declarationtable (Appendix C) specifying which QUT approved tools (e.g. the AI tools QUT provides such as Zoom and Microsoft CoPilot) that you used (if any). The table requires you to record what prompts you gave the AI, and how you used the results in your assessment. Please add a new row for each use of GenAI.
• If you did not use AI in any stage of producing the assessment, use the statement noted on Canvas module: ‘The writing is my own and I take responsibility for all errors. No generative AI was used and no AI Translation Tools were used to produce this assignment’.

Please submit the following through the submission link on Canvas:

• Zoom video recording of your conversation
• Self-reflective account(see Appendix 1 – Template). This includes:
• Short introduction
• Reflection on the LCM development focus action plan
• Reflection on coaching conversation 
• Appendix A – Coaching conversation analysis
• Appendix B – Coaching conversation transcript
• Appendix C – AI use declaration

Appendix 1 –Self-reflective account structur

Critical Self-reflective Coaching Account

Coaching for Leadership Development

MGN540

[Your NAME]

[Student number]

Word count: []

Date uploaded: [dd/mm/year]

Coachee name:

Coachee student number:

Reflective account

Introduction

LCM development areaaction plan reflection 

Provide an overview sentence or two on what you learned from the analysis to contextualise your reflection focus.

Coaching conversation practice area reflection

Provide an overview sentence or two on what you learned from the analysis to contextualise your reflection focus.

Reference list

[insert references here in APA format]

Appendices

Appendix A – Coaching conversation analysis

[insert your completed coaching conversation table here. Delete the example evidence and notes provided]

Appendix B– Annotated conversation transcript

[insert your transcript here]

Appendix C – AI use declaration

[insert your completed AI use declaration table here. Delete the examples]

[1]If you are unable to identify a fellow student to conduct the conversation with, please contact the unit coordinator. The unit coordinator will expect you to provide evidence of what you have done to try to find a student with whom to complete the conversation. You will then be supported to resolve the issue.

[2]If you are unfamiliar with how to sign in or set up and record a zoom meeting please follow instructions:https://qutvirtual4.qut.edu.au/group/student/it-and-printing/software-and-learning-tools/zoom#h2-5

[3]In addition to your required text which covers ethical practice, you can use the Association for Coaching Global Code of Ethics.

Note: This report is provided as a sample for reference purposes only. For further guidance, detailed solutions, or personalized assignment support, please contact us directly.

Sample Solution Structure – MGN540 Assessment 2

Critical Self-Reflective Coaching Account
Course: Leadership Coaching

Introduction (Sample – 120 words)

This reflective account analyses the development of my leader-coach mindset (LCM) and evaluates my coaching practice through a recorded coaching conversation with another student. The assessment enabled me to critically reflect on how my assumptions, beliefs, and behaviours influenced my approach to coaching and leadership development. Through the implementation of my action plan from Assessment 1, I became more aware of my tendency to focus on problem-solving rather than facilitating reflection and self-awareness in others. The coaching conversation analysis further highlighted strengths in active listening and relationship building, while also revealing opportunities to improve my questioning techniques to encourage deeper reflection and insight. This reflection integrates academic literature and coaching competencies to evaluate my ongoing development as a leader-coach.

Part 1 – LCM Development Action Plan Reflection (Sample – 500 words)

In Assessment 1, my leader-coach mindset development focus was improving my ability to use active listening and powerful questioning rather than immediately offering advice or solutions. My action plan aimed to help me become more reflective, patient, and supportive in leadership interactions by practicing coaching conversations during group assignments and workplace discussions.

Throughout the implementation of the action plan, several situations enabled my development. During collaborative university projects, I consciously practiced asking open-ended questions such as “What approaches have you considered?” instead of directing others toward my preferred solution. This helped me recognise how often my default leadership style was task-oriented and solution-focused. According to John Whitmore, effective coaching requires leaders to facilitate awareness rather than provide answers. Reflecting on my interactions demonstrated that I often equated leadership with efficiency and control rather than empowerment.

One important insight emerged when a team member appeared disengaged during a project discussion. My initial assumption was that they lacked motivation, and I instinctively wanted to assign tasks more directly. However, by slowing down and asking reflective questions, I discovered they were uncertain about expectations rather than unwilling to contribute. This challenged my underlying belief that effective leadership requires immediate action and direction. Instead, I began recognising the importance of curiosity, empathy, and psychological safety within coaching-oriented leadership practices.

Moments of discomfort also shaped my learning. I noticed frustration when conversations became slower due to reflective questioning. This revealed a tension between my espoused value of supporting others’ development and my enacted behaviour of prioritising productivity and outcomes. Edgar Schein argues that leaders often struggle to genuinely inquire because they feel pressure to appear knowledgeable and decisive. This resonated strongly with my experience. I realised my tendency to “fix” problems sometimes limited opportunities for others to think independently and develop confidence.

Another important learning experience involved practicing silence during conversations. Initially, silence felt uncomfortable because I interpreted it as a sign that the conversation was unsuccessful. However, over time I recognised that pauses often allowed deeper reflection and produced more thoughtful responses. This shifted my understanding of coaching from directing conversations toward outcomes to facilitating learning and self-awareness.

Moving forward, I plan to continue developing my leader-coach mindset by intentionally practicing reflective listening and reducing my reliance on directive communication. I also aim to seek feedback from peers after coaching interactions to better understand how my communication style influences others. Additionally, I will continue engaging with coaching literature and reflective journaling to strengthen my awareness of the assumptions shaping my leadership behaviour. These strategies will support my ongoing transition from a directive leadership approach toward a more empowering and developmental leader-coach mindset.

Part 2 – Coaching Conversation Practice Reflection (Sample – 500 words)

Analysis of my coaching conversation highlighted strengths in establishing rapport and maintaining supportive communication, but also identified “raising awareness and insight through powerful questioning” as a key development area. While reviewing the transcript, I noticed that many of my questions unintentionally guided the coachee toward specific solutions rather than encouraging deeper self-reflection.

For example, during the conversation I asked, “Do you think better time management or clearer priorities would help you feel less stressed?” Although the question was intended to support reflection, it contained multiple assumptions and suggested possible answers. The coachee responded briefly and appeared uncertain about which aspect to address. Reflecting on this interaction helped me recognise my tendency to ask “stacked questions” that limit exploratory thinking.

According to Julie Starr, powerful coaching questions should create space for reflection, self-awareness, and ownership. Effective questions are concise, open-ended, and free from the coach’s assumptions. Reviewing my transcript demonstrated that I often framed questions around what I believed the coachee should focus on rather than allowing them to define the direction of reflection independently.

One moment that demonstrated stronger coaching practice occurred when I asked, “What do you think is really contributing to this challenge?” After a pause, the coachee reflected more deeply and identified fear of failure as an underlying issue. During this moment, I observed a visible change in body language as the coachee leaned forward and spoke more confidently. This interaction reinforced the importance of allowing silence and using exploratory questions to facilitate insight rather than rushing toward solutions.

The analysis also highlighted the importance of listening beyond words. At several points, the coachee hesitated or changed tone when discussing workplace confidence. However, I often moved too quickly to the next question instead of exploring these emotional cues further. Carl Rogers emphasises that empathetic listening requires attention to emotional meaning as well as verbal content. Reflecting on the transcript revealed missed opportunities to deepen the conversation through emotional exploration.

To improve my coaching practice, I plan to focus on simplifying my questioning style and becoming more comfortable with pauses and silence during conversations. I will practice using shorter, more open-ended questions that encourage reflection without implying preferred answers. Additionally, I intend to review recordings of future coaching interactions to identify patterns in my communication and monitor my progress.

Overall, this reflective process significantly increased my awareness of how my assumptions and communication habits shape coaching interactions. While I demonstrated foundational coaching competencies such as rapport building and active listening, the analysis revealed the importance of developing greater patience, curiosity, and confidence in facilitating reflective conversations. These insights will support my continued growth as a leader-coach.

Example Transcript Quotes for Appendix A

Example References (APA 7th)

• Rogers, C. (1961). On becoming a person. Houghton Mifflin.
• Schein, E. H. (2013). Humble inquiry: The gentle art of asking instead of telling. Berrett-Koehler.
• Starr, J. (2021). The coaching manual (5th ed.). Pearson.
• Whitmore, J. (2017). Coaching for performance (5th ed.). Nicholas Brealey Publishing.