What is peer coaching? To enable peer coaching you need to create and manage a safe environment for leaders to share ideas and insights with each other.
This sounds easy, yet setting up and accompanying a peer coaching set is probably the best job any coach can have – and the toughest. It’s like creating the conditions for a perfect chemical reaction – without being able to control all the ingredients.
Learning needs a pathway. Peer-to-peer learning is no different. First we erode what gets in the way: fear of looking foolish, feeling like the odd one out, generic tips. Then we put the guide ropes in place to create that ‘magic’ learning space.
We have now developed a formula that works, and it’s the most wonderful thing to witness and take part in – a Toguna space where smart, insightful, courageous, experienced, dedicated partners spark off each other to achieve deep, personal learning.
“It was quite touching. During the first session you could almost feel us moving closer together. The atmosphere was charged. Quite a number of us said ‘I have never told anybody at work about this’. With each other, we became more natural – less guarded. The quiet and reserved people did not necessarily wait their turn anymore, they started… Now, whenever I have an issue, I just go to one of them knowing that they ‘get’ me. I have four coaches.”
(Participant of an 18-months leadership development programme for senior managers)
