Group Coaching
Why
In the organization, work-groups form for various reasons and meet to hear and share information. Each individual in the group has with them a set of unique questions, knowledge, concerns, strengths and capabilities. However, these are walled off and it is uncharacteristic for the individual to start off with openly sharing and contributing to the group. The main goal of Group Coaching is to bring down these individual walls whereby members of the group can access combined ideas, knowledge, passion and wisdom in the room. The group’s coach is able to achieve this while respecting the individual’s private space in a way that each person in the group shares only what they are willing to.
What
Group coaching is about creating action, decision and self-discovery within a group. The coach provides and encourages an exploratory and learning space between the group’s members. Group coaching can be done over a single or several group meetings.
When
Group Coaching has a variety of applications:
- Group coaching is a great technique to promote and enhance leadership development and can be used in different ways to do so.
- Group Coaching helps building of teams. Group Coaching technique helps form emotional bonds between the members of the group. Appreciative inquiry helps transform groups that seem disparate into one cohesive unit. This leads to formation of relationships and emotional bonds during group sessions that make it possible to build effective teams through group coaching.
- Another application of Group Coaching is in enhancing emotional intelligence. In group-based coaching, the coaches involved have the ability to demonstrate and create both social as well as self-awareness.
- Finally, group coaching is useful to create synergy within a group of individuals. Participant insights combined with synergistic strengths help provide a high level of energy multiplication.
Approach
Depending on the teams the coach is working with and the general preferences of the group, Group Coaching can have several formats:
- Peer Coaching and Group Discussion:
Involves peer to peer conversations, sharing, questioning and accountability.
- Laser Coaching:
Involves the coach spending some time coaching individual group members as the rest pay keen attention to the conversation
- Learning Partners/Buddies:
Keeps the conversation going between sessions through learning buddies/ partners created at the beginning of the process
- Hybrid Approach Format:
Is a blend of group coaching and one-on-one conversations
- Individual Reflection:
Involves providing members with questions for purposes of reflection through writing or structured journaling
