Embracing Group Coaching For Leadership Development
Recently, I attended a leadership conference where after listening to approximately seven speakers and too many PowerPoint presentations, I realized I hadn’t truly learned or absorbed much of anything new. My own personal learning style was not engaged by listening to others explore leadership via new assessments, Myers Briggs profiles, or simply hearing victorious narratives. Where I did find value was in the peer-to-peer interactions, and being able to connect with ambitious individuals with a desire to progress along their career path, just like me.
If you think about coaching in terms of sports, the best athletes and their teams have powerful coaches guiding them toward success. Football players Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and the rest of the Kansas City Chiefs (who won Super Bowl LVII) have Head Coach Andy Reid. The value of coaching is no different in the corporate world. Some of the most influential business leaders today have coaches, including Oprah Winfrey, Eric Schmidt, and Barack Obama.
With that in mind, The Wilbanks Consulting Group recently introduced a new leadership coaching program, WCG’s IMPACT Accelerator. Group coaching is an innovative approach to building competent leaders through coach-guided, peer-to-peer interaction. WCG’s IMPACT Accelerator program could be the answer to evolving your leadership competency.
What Does Group Coaching Look Like?
Group coaching, simplified, is the process of bringing similarly-goaled individuals together to evolve as leaders in a collaborative, safe, and coach-supported environment. Group coaching is designed to foster personal and professional growth, encourage accountability, and facilitate growth toward goals. Group coaching offers:
Structure with Flexibility. Coaching groups are typically structured around specific topics or challenges, but there is flexibility based on group members’ evolving needs. If a member shares a challenging issue, the group can pivot to address it, providing an excellent opportunity for in-the-moment learning.
Shared Learning. Group coaching is incredibly powerful due to its collaborative nature. You are always learning from a variety of sources: the group structure, the coach’s insights, as well as every other member's experience. This environment also mimics real-life business situations where cross-functional teams collaborate, creating a rich microcosm for shared learning.
Diverse Perspectives. Group members come with their own worldview, unique professional experience, education, training, and industry knowledge. By interacting in a group, you gain better understanding and respect through shared challenges and exposure to different perspectives.
A Safe Space. Vulnerability typically leads to growth, which can be challenging. You’ll be encouraged to share challenges, shed boundaries, and connect with other group members. Being amongst similarly-minded peers creates an environment of trust, where you can genuinely reflect, improve, and seek feedback.
Accountability. With group coaching, there is a unique sense of accountability as peers are as equally invested as coaches in your growth. When you agree to do something in front of a group, it increases your motivation to complete that task.
Feedback. Not only will you get feedback from an experienced coach, but you get valuable feedback from your peers. You’ll receive instant feedback and hear diverse views, providing you holistic and comprehensive feedback that can be critical towards leadership development.
Group Energy. It might sound juvenile, but something magical happens in groups. There’s a unique energy, or synergy that occurs, that simply cannot be replicated through self-coaching or individual coaching. Working alongside others with a collective goal encourages us to break boundaries, overcome challenges, and discover new solutions.
Why Does Group Coaching Work So Well?
If you ask people to choose between working with a coaching group versus a 1:1 coach, I’d argue most would prefer the latter. The idea of speaking to a group of unknown individuals about your career, goals, and leadership style can seem unnerving; but there are benefits to working in a group (which we’ll get to later) that you simply cannot achieve in individual coaching, and vice versa.
Despite discomfort, the research to support group work and social learning is decades in the making; and the research on leadership-focused group work is very promising. It’s been shown to increase self-awareness, productivity, and develop skills useful in leadership practice. Furthermore, the combination of group coaching and feedback has been shown to increase leadership development by 60%.
Where Can I Enroll In Leadership Group Coaching?
WCG’s new IMPACT Accelerator program is designed around the science of group work and provides solutions to shortcomings of traditional leadership training. No more boring webinars, certification courses, or powerpoints. You’ll enjoy the encouragement and accountability from our group leaders as well as your peers, with a blend of both individual and group coaching. This program provides a holistic approach that nourishes your leadership development.
If you aren’t sure if group coaching and The Wilbanks Consulting Group IMPACT Accelerator program is for you, we invite you to join us on Thursday, August 15 at 12PM ET for a sneak peek on what’s in store for our next round of participants.
Register for the webinar, and immediately receive our free leadership guide. You’ll also be entered into a drawing to win $300 off registration (webinar attendance not required). Webinar recordings will be made available at a later date for your convenience.