17

Peer to peer coaching

Peer to peer coaching (or co-coaching) is a process whereby two colleagues work together in a coaching partnership, both acting as coach and coachee. Peer to peer coaching is a great addition to anyone’s professional and personal development. This technique is often used during management development programmes and, in our experience, participants always find it enjoyable and beneficial. The same, if not more, benefit can be gained from peer to peer coaching in the workplace. Once established it is an excellent process for continuous on the job development.

There are some major benefits to be gained from being involved in a peer to peer coaching relationship, these include:

• It enables you to be coached and to provide coaching to colleagues, who have similar experience to your own, know the organisation culture and some aspects of your situation.
  
• It provides you with a sounding board when you feel you need assistance with issues at work.
  
• It is extremely cost-effective as a development process as it only draws on the experience and skill of the two parties involved and is done in real time.
  
• It can contribute to developing a collaborative and facilitative organisational work culture.
  
• If adopted by senior managers and leaders, it may reduce the feelings of isolation that are frequently felt when promoted.
  
• It encourages executives to develop mutually trusting relationships where they are sharing experiences and knowledge.
  
• It helps you to develop your skill as a coach that can then be used in other coaching relationships.
  
• It enables you to work through real-life challenges and problems, and develop ideas with a trusted colleague.
  
• It models behaviour for other colleagues and your reports.
  
• It can be done face-to-face or virtually using one of the many conferencing technologies now available – skype, webex, etc.
  

Typically peer to peer coaching is done in one of two ways:

• One to one peer coaching
  
• Peer coaching groups
  

Both ways use coaching skills as described earlier in this book, however setting up and moving forward with these methods involve different processes.

One to one peer coaching

This is often a less formal approach to coaching and is certainly something individuals can do between themselves without organisational support. A process for establishing a one to one peer coaching relationship involves:

• Identifying a partner who you trust – this, of course, must be a mutual feeling between both parties. Talk to that person and explain why you think a peer coaching relationship with them would be beneficial. Apart from the fact that you believe you have a mutually trusting and open relationship with them, other possible reasons might be:
  
  • they have similar challenges to your own
    
  • you both have specialist business skills that you believe could prove to be mutually beneficial from a developmental perspective
    
  • you have different experiences from one another and therefore you believe you could learn from each other
    
  • you do the same job but in different regions, areas, countries, etc.
    
• Gaining their agreement to the relationship and discussing your ground rules and the process you wish to adopt. Possibilities concerning these rules and processes could include:
  
  • it is essentially a helping and learning relationship rather than an advising one!
    
  • it should be reflective and questioning, but not evaluative
    
  • the need for confidentiality
    
  • the need for a process – either on a need to meet basis, or what is more effective is to set a meeting at regular intervals and allocate enough time so that both parties can be coached during a session.
    
• Setting up the first meeting date and agreeing how long you will meet for and whether you will focus on one person or split the time between the two of you. You should also think about the venue, making sure it is appropriate and acceptable to both parties.
  
• Finishing the coaching session with a brief review of what worked, what didn’t and what you will do differently for next time. Finally you should diarise your next meeting dates.
  

Peer coaching groups

This approach is where a small group of peers – usually up to five people works best – agree to work together on a regular basis to work through issues and co-coach one another in a peer to peer learning situation. Sometimes these groups are also called Action Learning Sets. Peer coaching groups are often adopted as part of the follow-up to a development event, or between a group of people who do a similar job but in different parts of the business. It is essential when establishing peer to peer coaching groups to contract and gain commitment within the group to agree:

• How you will work.
  
• The coaching approaches you will use – the approach generally used is to focus on one member at a time who will share their issue with the group and the role of the group is to use good coaching behaviour (as detailed in previous chapters) to help the group member work through their issue and leave the meeting with new ideas and an action plan.
  
• The timing of meetings – both frequency and length of each meeting.
  
• Any note-taking protocols.
  
• Confidentiality.
  

With peer coaching groups there are two common processes adopted:

• One process involves allocating an appropriate length of time – up to 1.5 hours – and focusing on one member during that time then rotating it round the group
  
• The other common process is where you allocate about 3 hours and each member takes their turn with the time allocated evenly between members.
  

Both processes work well and much will depend upon the preference of the members.

Peer to peer coaching provides everyone involved with a major opportunity to expand their skills, learn together and develop solutions to real-life problems.

Tips for success

• Peer to peer coaching helps to build your skill.
  
• Model coaching behaviour in your organisation by taking part in peer to peer coaching.
  
• When working one to one, do it with someone you trust and respect. Remember, this is a developmental relationship requiring openness.
  
• When working in peer coaching groups be sure you are all committed to the agreed process.