Peer-to-peer coaching in groups is a powerful and simple approach to leadership development. Using peer coaching groups enables today’s leadership development professionals to meet the most common operational demands: lightweight, scalable, engaging, high-impact development for all leaders throughout the organization.
A program based on peer coaching groups satisfies the needs of the modern learner without all the drawbacks of e-learning or classroom-based development.
In the past ten years, CoachingOurselves has categorized hundreds of peer group coaching deployments and identified seven common design paradigms:
1- The Classic Peer Group Coaching Program
In this model a single leadership development professional trains dozens of managers to facilitate peer coaching groups. The trained manager-facilitators run six or more sessions with their leadership team to complete a program. Each session is 60 to 90 minutes. Teams select their own curriculum from the CoachingOurselves library of peer coaching modules. A module covers a leadership theme with content, questions, and structure to help the manager facilitator achieve immediate impact from each session. Over 15,000 managers in organizations around the world are now involved in a classic peer group coaching program at any one time. Learn more about how to design a classic peer group coaching program.
2- Executive Leadership Development
Organizations create executive leadership programs by designing developmental journeys for peer coaching groups using a high-end development framework such as Mintzberg’s “Five Minds of a Manager” Development Framework. To support these programs, CoachingOurselves has introduced the Elements: pre-packaged high-end educational activities. These programs combine peer coaching group sessions with high-end developmental activities such as Reflective Journaling, the Leadership Exchange, Friendly Consulting, plus live video seminars with management thinkers. Learning and development professionals combine these with the CoachingOurselves peer coaching modules to design and deploy highly customizable executive leadership development programs. Over 2600 managers have already graduated from executive leadership development programs based on CoachingOurselves modules and educational elements. To learn more or to try our products to begin designing and deploying in house executive leadership programs contact us at info@coachingourselves.com.
3- Reflection Café Leadership Workshop
A quarter day (90-120 minutes) leadership workshop using peer-to-peer coaching in groups is a highly effective community of practice or lunch-and-learn activity. This collaborative approach (re)builds community in the management ranks as managers engage in a process of helping one another improve their practice of management, enhance soft skills, and collectively resolve current management and leadership issues. Each Reflection Café leadership workshop uses one CoachingOurselves module.
4- Self-directed Peer-to-Peer Coaching Groups
In this model, leadership development professionals select small packages of CoachingOurselves peer group coaching modules, and advertise and promote their availability to team leaders and middle managers throughout the organization. Managers download the packages of modules as needed to enable themselves and their teams to run two to four peer-to-peer coaching sessions. Each package enables leadership teams to solve specific and immediate leadership challenges or develop skills and competencies.
5- The Learning Transfer Peer Coaching Group
Peer-to-peer coaching in groups is ideal for increasing the transfer and impact of soft skills and leadership programs. Peer coaching groups are organized out of the cohort of participants in a typical classroom program and who are trained to run peer coaching sessions. A selection of CoachingOurselves modules is designed to drive a 4 to 6-month developmental journey after the classroom program.
6- Team Offsite Leadership Workshop
Most leadership development professionals will be asked to design a team offsite or team-building activity at some point in their career. Listening to a motivational speaker or building Popsicle bridges with a colleague while blindfolded does not appeal to today’s modern learner. Leaders expect practical outcomes to drive immediate organizational impact. A peer group coaching session with a well-selected CoachingOurselves module catalyzes the necessary reflection and dialogue which satisfy these goals.
7- MBA Leadership Development Activity
Many MBA and EMBA professors are looking for alternative development activities. The case study approach is an abstraction from experiential learning and focuses reflection and dialogue on others rather than self. Peer to peer coaching in groups, even with young MBA students, results in a collaborative and introspective workshop focused on learning from experiences and learning how to learn.
The core value of peer to peer coaching in groups is the reflection and small group dialogue catalyzed by conceptual models of leadership and management. This basic building block is a powerful tool for today’s leadership development professionals. To learn more about the CoachingOurselves catalogue of peer group coaching modules browse our online catalogue or contact us to get started using peer-to-peer coaching in groups for leadership development.