Cohorts and peer groups
Group coaching
Structured coaching for leaders who share a developmental context but not an operational one: leadership cohorts, high-potential groups, director populations, programme participants.
What group coaching is
Group coaching brings together leaders who share a developmental context but do not run one operation together: a high-potential cohort, a group of functional leaders, participants in a leadership programme. Each member works on their own leadership within a structured group process, and the group itself becomes part of the method.
My view, after years of buying and building development programmes: organisations should buy by the problem, not the format. Where the same challenge repeats across leaders running different parts of the business, working with them together is usually better than working with each of them separately.
Where group coaching fits
Organisations typically use group coaching where a shared development need exists across people who lead different things:
- A leadership development programme that needs more than classroom content to change behaviour.
- A high-potential cohort preparing for larger roles.
- Senior leaders taking on significantly wider scope, where the step up changes what the role demands of them.
- Cross-functional leaders who face the same class of challenge: influence without authority, leading through matrix structures, stakeholder complexity.
- Establishing a new leadership competency, behaviour or expectation across a group: helping a cohort of directors, for example, think and operate more strategically.
- A community of leaders the organisation wants to develop consistently and connect to each other.
How it works
Small groups, real material
I normally work with groups of no more than five participants. That is a quality decision, not a logistical one: beyond that size, the depth of conversation and the individual airtime that make it genuine coaching start to give way to facilitated discussion.
The group is the instrument
Members coach and challenge each other under the coach’s discipline. Leaders take feedback from peers who face the same pressures differently than they take it from a facilitator, and they build coaching skill they carry back into their own leadership.
Confidentiality is contracted for the group
Group coaching only works when members can be honest about real situations. Ground rules and confidentiality are agreed by the group at the start, in terms the organisation also understands.
Designed with the organisation
Cohort composition, cadence and themes are designed with the sponsor so the group work reinforces, rather than duplicates, whatever programme it sits inside. Where an assessment or diagnostic instrument is likely to add significant value to the cohort's development, it is built into the design. It is never a ritual.
Group coaching and team coaching are different services
The names get used interchangeably. Buying the wrong one wastes money and goodwill.
The unit of work differs
In team coaching the client is the team: one intact unit with collective accountability. In group coaching the client is each individual member; the group is the environment that accelerates their development.
The outcomes differ
Team coaching aims at collective results: better decisions, honest accountability among peers who share ownership of an outcome. Group coaching aims at individual growth: each member leading their own remit better.
Choose by the problem, not the format
If the problem lives between people who must deliver something together, you want team coaching. If the problem repeats across people who deliver different things, group coaching is usually the better instrument.
Further reading on the transitions these cohorts are making:
Common questions
- What is group coaching?
- Group coaching is structured coaching for a small group of leaders who share a developmental context but do not run one operation together, such as a high-potential cohort or the participants in a leadership programme. Each member works on their own leadership within a disciplined group process, and the group itself becomes part of the method.
- How large are the groups?
- Normally no more than five participants. That ceiling is deliberate: it protects the depth of coaching conversation and individual participation. Cadence and composition are designed with the sponsoring organisation around its programme and calendar.
- Do you run group coaching in person in Ho Chi Minh City, or online?
- Both. I am based in Ho Chi Minh City and run cohorts in person across Vietnam and Asia-Pacific, and online where the cohort is distributed.
- Is group coaching a cheaper substitute for one-to-one coaching?
- No, and it is not a discount product. It serves different organisational objectives: developing a cohort of leaders together rather than one leader deeply, with peer learning one-to-one work cannot provide. Because the coaching investment is shared across a small group, the cost per participant is naturally lower, which makes it a more scalable organisational intervention while retaining coaching quality. Senior leaders with situation-specific, confidential agendas are still better served one-to-one.
- Can group coaching sit inside an existing leadership programme?
- Yes, and that is where it often works best: it converts programme content into practised behaviour between modules.
Is this the right approach?
Bring the situation you are dealing with and I will tell you whether this is the right approach for it, whether another one fits better, or whether coaching is not what you need. The conversation is confidential and carries no obligation.