How to Start Your Private Peer Coaching Group

Introduction

Purpose of This Information

The following information and resources are focused on the most important guidelines
and materials for you to develop a basic, practical and successful PCG. The
information is intended for anyone, although it helps if you have at least some
basic experience in working with groups.

All aspects of this offering are free, including guidelines and materials.
The offering is sponsored by ActionLearningSource
(ALS) as a free community service to citizens around the world. The founders
of ALS have been providing long-lasting, and highly successful peer coaching
groups (PCGs) since 1995.

The following basic information is adapted specifically from the peer coaching
group format of Authenticity Consulting’s Authenticity
Circles. Those wanting more advanced information and materials to customize
peer coaching groups for specific applications and/or cultures should consider
ALS’s
advanced group coaching. The information on this page is provided in accordance
with the terms of a creative
common license.

What is a Peer Coaching Group (PCG)?

People have been solving complex problems and achieve challenging goals for
1,000s of years — by counting on each other. They form close communities of
support in which each member gets help from the others.

Help can be in the form of ongoing advice and materials — and especially thoughtful
and respectful questions (coaching). This is most useful when people also share
support and accountabilities to actually apply the help that they get
from others in the group.

Getting that kind of help is much easier than you might think. Here is how
you can conveniently arrange that help, with even one or two other people —
and it can done over the Internet. In your group, you all are equals — or peers
— in coming together to support each others progress and learning.

Would You Benefit From a Private PCG?

History and research have shown there there are many benefits of PCGs, including
for personal, professional and organizational development. This webpage is especially
about using them for the personal development of yourself and your group members.
PCGs are useful for each group member to work on a current and important priority
that each member selects themselves. For example, do you need help with:

• Getting ongoing support to solve a problem or achieve a goal?
• Responding to the coronavirus crisis?
• Better managing your time and stress?
• Achieving a personal or professional goal?
• Improving a certain skill?
• Applying guidelines from a favorite article?
• Others?

The PCG framework has been used many times over many years to help members
solve problems, achieve goals and cultivate confidential networks. As long as
the members are caring and curious about each other, the results from the framework
can be transformative.

PCGs are based on a powerful peer-based process called Action Learning that
is used around the world in numerous types of organization. Other benefits of
PCGs are listed at
Results
from Action Learning

First, Watch This Video to Orient You to PCGs

The very practical, 30-minute video An
Overview of Action Learning: Peer Coaching Group Format teaches you all
about a common format of a peer coaching group, including about:

• The peer coaching group process
• How to select a priority to get coached on in your group
• Doing the coaching in the meetings
• The types of useful follow-up after each meeting
• Useful activities to do between meetings
• How to know if you are “doing it right”
• Where to learn more

The video refers to “Circles,” which is a common term for peer
coaching groups. The video also refers to two key tools for conducting a successful
peer coaching group meeting, including the Authenticity Circles Quick
Reference and the Session Management Form that each
member of a group gets. You might print out those tools to have available as
the video references them. A PDF of the slides for the video can also be downloaded
from An Overview of Action Learning: Peer Coaching Group Format.

Then, Draft the Initial Design ofYour PCG

Key Considerations

1. What is the common goal or challenge that each of you wants to address?
2. How many members will you have (Four to five is typical, but no more.)
3. How many group meetings will you have? (Six is typical.)
4. How long will your meetings be? (Ninety minutes is typical. See the suggested
   agenda below.)
5. How often will you meet? (Every two to four weeks is typical.)
6. How will you communicate among yourselves (in-person or virtual)?
7. Who will facilitate each meeting? The Circles Quick Reference includes the
   tasks of the facilitator.

Consider These Ground Rules

These ground rules have been used in many meetings. They are listed in the
Circles Quick Referencet that each member gets. They are mentioned at the beginning
of each meeting.

1. Start and end on time.
2. Confidentiality is assured.
3. Keep the session process highly focused.
4. Manage your time slot; help the Circle to help you.
5. All opinions are honored.
6. One can disagree with other members and the facilitator.
7. Contact the facilitator and other members if you cannot attend the next
   session.

Then, Organize and Train Your Group Members

1. Select at least one additional person who might have a similar interest
   or need as you.
2. Share this web page with them.
3. Encourage them to see the video.
4. Ask them if they have any questions or suggestions about the information
   on this page.
5. Ask them if they would like to try forming your own peer coaching group.
   It doesn’t have to be perfect. You can improve it as you go along.
6. You all could plan your progress in the group by each of you having a personal
   Learning
   Plan.
7. Hold your first 90-minute meeting in which all of you:
   1. Share your confidential contact information among each of you.
   2. Share your impressions of the information in the video.
   3. Share your introductions.
   4. Schedule your next six 90-minute meetings.

Consider This Agenda for Each Group Meeting

The recommended step-by-step agenda is itemized in the section “Circle
Session Agenda” in the Circles Quick Reference that each member gets. Notice
that peer coaching groups are not trainings or discussion groups. Instead, they
are structured meetings intended to meet the current needs of each member of
the group.

Opening (7 minutes)

1. 1. Review values and ground rules in the Circles Quick Reference
   2. Each member selects a priority to get coached on.
   3. Do a brief check in from each member.
   4. Quickly share any materials suggested in the previous meeting.
   5. Review guidelines for coaching and coaching others (in the Circles Quick
      Reference).

Sharing Help (up to 75 minutes)

In round-table approach, each member gets 15 minutes to:

1. 1. Share the status of any actions that they took from the previous group
      meeting, and what they learned from those actions.
   2. Share a current priority that they’d like to get help with.
   3. Get help from other members in the form of advice, materials and especially
      thoughtful questions.
   4. Select at least one realistic action to take toward addressing
      their priority.

With four members instead of five, each member would get 18 minutes. Even though
coaching sessions are 15-18 minutes, all members learn durig the entire meeting.

Closing (8 minutes)

1. Each member documents learning and results from the meeting.
2. Members optionally share out loud what they have learned.
3. Each member shares out loud, a rating of the quality of that meeting from
   “1” (very low) to “5” (very high), and what could be done
   to improve future meetings.
4. Verify date and timing of next meeting.

Consider These Actions for Members Between Meetings

Each group member conducts the action(s) that they selected when they were
coached. They also might share questions, answers and suggestions to help members
address their priorities and improve their meetings. They also update their
Learning Journals. Here is a sample Learning
Journal in which each member can document their own new learning from the
meetings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently
Asked Questions About Peer Coaching Groups

General Resources

About Facilitation
About Meeting
Management
How
to Improve Your Listening Skills
Skills
in Questioning
Numerous
Activities for Learning

Forming Your Own Study Groups

The above agenda for a support group could be slightly modified to form a study
group, as well. During each member’s time in the meeting, he or she can get
help, especially with understanding and applying the content from some source
of expert knowledge about a topic, for example, a lecture from a class, a chapter
from a book, or content from a podcast. Here is more information about forming
study groups.

Five
Tips for an Effective Study Group
How
to Form a Successful Study Group: Tips and Strategies.
How
To Create an Effective Study Group
How
to Run a Successful Study Group

Forming Your Own Coaching Group

The above agenda could be modified to form a peer coaching group, as well.
During each member’s time in the meeting, he or she can get help, especially
in the form of thoughtful questions about the member’s perceptions, assumptions
and conclusions.

Ultimate
Guide to Coaching Groups
Effective
Group Coaching 101
Group
Coaching: Benefits and Key Characteristics
All About
Coaching

For the Category of Personal Development:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

Related Library Topics

Recommended Books

What Makes for An Effective Leader?

© Copyright Sandra Larson, Minneapolis, MN.

Sandra Larson, previous executive director of MAP for Nonprofits, was once asked to write her thoughts on what makes an effective leader. Her thoughts are shared here to gel other leaders to articulate their own thoughts on what makes them a good leader.

Also consider
Related Library Topics

Passion

An effective leader is a person with a passion for a cause that is larger than they are. Someone with a dream and a vision that will better society, or at least, some portion of it. I think a very key question has to be answered: Can someone who is a charismatic leader, but only to do evil or to promote herself, be a leader — especially if she has a large following?” I would say no, she is a manipulator.

Also, without passion, a leader will not make the necessary courageous and difficult decisions and carry them into action. This is not to imply that all decisions are of this nature. But you can be sure, some of them will be. The leader without a passion for a cause will duck.

Holder of Values

Leadership implies values. A leader must have values that are life-giving to society. It is the only kind of leadership we need. This then also implies values that are embedded in respect for others. So often we think of people skills or caring about people as being “warm and fuzzy.”

I think a leader can be of varying ‘warmth and fuzziness,” but a leader has to respect others. You can’t lead without it. Otherwise we are back to manipulation. Respect means also that one can deal with diversity — a critical need for a leader in today’s world — probably always has been, although diversity may have been more subtle in the homogenous societies of the past.

Vision

This is a bit different than passion, but in other ways it isn’t separable. If one doesn’t care about a subject, an issue, a system, then one won’t spend the time thinking about how it could or should be different. Yet, one could have strong feelings about something and not good ideas, particularly if she didn’t spend a good deal of time studying the topic.

Thus a leader has to have some ideas about change, about how the future could be different. Vision then is based on two components that leaders also need: creativity and intellectual drive.

Creativity

One has to try to think out of the box to have good visions and to come up with effective strategies that will help advance the vision. I’d also add here the need for a sense of humor. It’s a creative skill that is in great need by leaders. We should read the funnies more!

Intellectual Drive and Knowledge

I believe a leader has to be a student. In general it is hard for a leader to be around enough other leaders to pick this up just through discussion, so I think a leader has to be a reader and a learner. Furthermore, I can’t see someone leading in a field they know nothing about.

Confidence and Humility Combined

While one can have a great vision and good ideas for change, and even passion for it, if one isn’t confident, then action will not occur. Without action, there is no change. Yet, paradoxically, a leader needs to have humility. No matter how creative and bright one is, often the best ideas and thinking are going to come from someone else.

A leader needs to be able to identify that, have good people around who have these ideas. This takes humility, or at least lack of egocentricity. The leader is focused on the ends and doesn’t have to see herself always as the conduit or creator of the strategy to get to that end.

Communicator

None of the above assets will work for a leader if she can’t speak or write in a way to convince others that they should follow along, join the team, get on board. All the above gets to the old adage that a leader knows how to do the right thing and a manager knows how to do things right. But a leader has to be a manager, too. I don’t think these skills and abilities can be separated out very easily. Both need to be in the mix.

Thus a leader has to be some of the following, too:

Planner/Organizer

Someone who can see what needs to be done and help the team plan and organize the getting it done. Management is getting things done through people. While a writer or other visionary person may be very influential, even seminal for the cause of change, this is not quite my definition of a leader. A leader means to me, someone who is taking action, trying to get others to do something they want to see done.

Interpersonal Skills

Leaders must have the ability to act in an interpersonally competent manner, yet they also need to learn the techniques of good listening, honest and open communication, delegating, conflict resolution skills, etc., to actually get work done and keep the whole movement/organization/project together.

Other Business Skills

While in some arenas you may be able to get by with only some of these skills or none of them (if you can hire good enough people to do it for you), generally speaking you must have at least some skills in financial management, human resources, information management, sales, marketing, etc.

If I were to sum it all up, I’d say a good leader has to have a purpose that is larger than she is and the balanced personality and skills to put that purpose into action.

For the Category of Management:

To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books

How to Design Your Leadership Training Development Program

Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC. Copyright; Authenticity Consulting, LLC

(Note that there are separate topics about How to Design Your Management Development Program and How to Design Your Supervisor Development Program. Those two topics are very similar to this topic about leadership development, but with a different focus.)

Sections of This Topic Include:

Comprehensive, practical book by Carter McNamara

• Prepare for Your Learning and Development
  
  • Be Sure You Know What Learning and Development Really Are
    
  • Consider Two Different Approaches to Learning About Leadership
  • Know How to Capture Learning from Your Activities
• Prepare for Learning About Leadership
  • Get Acquainted With Organizational Context of Leadership
  • Get Acquainted With What “Leadership” Is
• Activities for Informal Approach to Leadership Development
  
• Guidelines for Formal Approach to Leadership Development
  • Identify Your Overall Goals for Program
  • Determine Your Learning Objectives and Activities to Achieve Them
  • Develop Any Materials You May Need
  • Plan Implementation of Your Program
  • Evaluate During and After Your Program
  • Follow-Up After Completion of Your Program
• Free Basic Guide to Leadership and Supervision

Prepare for Your Learning and Development

Be Sure You Know What Learning and Development Really Are

Most of us are so conditioned from many years in schooling that we think of learning and development as coming from a program in which our participation is graded by experts in a certain topic. As a result, many of us still miss numerous opportunities for our own learning and development. Perhaps one of the reasons is that we do not know what learning and development really is. So before undertaking a leadership development program, we should be sure that we know what we are talking about.

Learning could be interpreted as new:

1. Knowledge, which is information that is useful in accomplishing a certain activity that is important, for example, to solve a problem, achieve a goal or see a situation in entirely different light.
2. Skills, which is the expertise — consciously or unconsciously — to continually use the new information to accomplish that certain activity. (Educators often refer to new abilities as a component of learning, but some admit that the difference between abilities and skills is such a fine one that it is often difficult to explain.)
3. Perceptions, which are new ways of seeing a situation. (When people are continually stuck when trying to solve a problem or achieve a goal, it is often in the way that they see the situation.)

In the field of education, development could be interpreted as the activities to raise the quality of performance, for example, of a person, team or organization. However, like learning, development is best accomplished if it is recognized as such. Thus, development usually requires ongoing focus and attention to the quality of performance, as well as the quality of the activities to raise it.

Consider Two Different Approaches to Learning About Leadership

It is important to understand the different approaches you can take in increasing your learning about leadership. Formal approaches are proactively designed in a comprehensive and systematic way in order to accomplish certain desired outcomes. Traditional classroom approaches to education have that specific form — they are formal approaches to learning and development.

In contrast, informal approaches are those that occur during our typical day-to-day activities in life and can include, for example, reading books, having discussions with friends, on-the-job training and keeping a diary with thoughts about leadership.
Informal Versus. Formal Training, Self-Directed Versus Other-Directed Training

Know How to Capture Learning from Your Activities

Whether in formal or informal approaches, the ongoing ability to recognize and capture learning is extremely important. That ability is often referred to as continuous learning and it is frequently mentioned in literature about management development (in this context, the term management is inclusive of leadership and supervisor development). Simply put, continuous learning is the ability to learn to learn.

The key to cultivating continuous learning is the ability to continually reflect on your experiences and the experiences of others in your life. Reflection is continuously thinking about, for example, your experiences, their causes and effects, your role in them, if they changed you and how. It is thinking about how you might use those experiences and changes to enhance your life and the lives of others.

If you can view your life as a “laboratory for learning program”, then you can continue to learn from almost everything in your life. However, learning is best captured if it is consciously recognized as such, for example, discussed with someone else or written down somewhere. Otherwise, new learning can easily be lost in the demands of life and work. So it is very important to document your learning.

Prepare for Your Learning About Leadership

Get Acquainted With Organizational Context of Leadership

Before learning more about leadership, you would benefit first from becoming acquainted with the organizational context in which leadership typically occurs, including understanding organizations as systems, their common dimensions, what makes each unique, their different life cycles and different cultures.
Organizational Structures and Design

Get Acquainted With What “Leadership” Is

Then, the next place to start learning about leadership is to get some sense of what leadership really is — in particular, get an impression of the areas of knowledge and skills recommended for effective leadership in organizations. Review the information in the Library’s topic:
What is Leadership? How Do I Lead?

Activities for Informal Approach to Leadership Development

Here is but a sampling of the activities from which you could informally accomplish your own leadership development. Here is a sample learning journal that you might use to continually capture your learning.

Guidelines for Formal Approach to Leadership Development

You are much more likely to develop skills in leadership from participating in a formal program approach than an informal approach. The following sections will guide you to develop your own complete, highly integrated and performance-oriented program.

Identify Your Overall Goals for Your Program

This section helps you identify what you want to be able to do as a result of implementing your program, for example, to qualify for a certain job, overcome a performance problem or achieve a goal in your career development plan. You are often better off to work towards at most two to four goals at a time, rather than many. There are a variety of ways to identify your program goals, depending on what you want to be able to accomplish from the program. The articles might be helpful in preparing you to identify your goals.
Goals — Selecting the Training and Development Goals

Various Ideas for Leadership Development Goals

1. Do you have career plans that would require certain new leadership skills? See How to Plan Your Career.
2. Did your previous performance review with your supervisor suggest certain improvements in leadership that you need to make? See Goal Setting With Employees.
3. Are there certain opportunities that you could take advantage of if you soon developed certain new leadership skills? See How to Look for a Job.
4. You might do some self-assessments to determine if there are any areas of leadership development that you might undertake. See Assessing Your Training Needs.
5. Ask others for feedback about your leadership skills. See Giving and Receiving Feedback.
6. Do you find yourself daydreaming about doing certain kinds of activities? See Setting Personal Goals.

Include a Goal About Leading Yourself

You cannot effectively lead others unless you first can effectively lead yourself. Consider goals from the Library’s topic of Personal Wellness

List your Program Goals in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program. (This is a Microsoft Word document.)

Determine Your Learning Objectives and Activities to Achieve Each

The purpose of this section is to help you to identify the various learning objectives you should achieve in order to achieve your overall program goals, along with the activities you should undertake to achieve each objective.

Identifying Your Learning Objectives

Carefully consider each of your program goals. What might be the various accomplishments, or objectives, that must be reached in order to achieve each goal? Do not worry about doing all of that perfectly — objectives can be modified as you work to achieve each goal. Which of these objectives require learning new areas of knowledge or skills? These objectives are likely to become learning objectives in your program plan. To get a stronger sense for learning objectives, see

Designing Training Plans and Learning Objectives.

Identifying Your Learning Activities

Learning activities are the activities you will conduct in order to achieve the learning objectives. The activities should accommodate your particular learning styles, be accessible to you and be enjoyable as well. The long list of activities in the above two columns might be useful, as well.

List the Learning Objectives to Achieve Each Desired Goal in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

List the Activities to Achieve Each Learning Objective in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Develop Any Materials You May Need

Carefully think about each of the activities to achieve the learning objectives. Consider, for example, getting books, signing up for courses, reserving rooms and getting trainers.

List the Materials You Might Need in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Plan the Implementation of Your Program

During the implementation of your program, you want to make sure there are no surprises. For example, how will you make sure you understand the new information and materials. Will your learning be engaging and enjoyable? Will you have all the support you need?
How Do We Ensure Implementation of Our New Plan?

List the Key Considerations in Implementing Your Plan in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Evaluate During and After Your Program

Evaluation includes assessing both the quality of the activities during the program and also whether you achieved your goals soon after the program.
How Do We Evaluate Implementation and Project Results?

List the Approach to Evaluating During and After Your Program in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Follow-Up After Completion of Your Program

It is a major accomplishment to design and implement a leadership development program. Celebrate what you have done! Reflect on what you learned about developing the program — and about yourself. Follow the steps in the Guidelines’ section
Follow-Up After Completion of Your Plan.

List the Key Activities After Completing Program in your Template for Planning Your Professional Development Program.

Additional Resources in the Category of Leadership

• Related Library Topics
• Recommended Books