Anchor Points in Group Coaching

Last week I held my spring community call on group coaching issues. The topic was About Techniques for Engaging your groups. The call recording has been posted at our Facebook page.

After the call one participant emailed me wanting more information on Anchor Points, something that I often talk about as being important in the group coaching context. An anchor point serves to create a common reference point for group members.

Having an anchor point is critical on a couple of levels in the group coaching process. First of all, anchor points through themes provide a common focus/reference point for the group coaching process to unfold. One of the ICF Core Coaching Competencies is Establishing the Coaching Agreement (CC #2), in which "the coach asks the client what they want to work on and the coach attends to that agenda throughout the coaching" (ICF Minimum Skill Requirements Document). Having a common theme or anchor point for each session which everyone has come with the understanding around, allows the client to be able to articulate their needs in a way that is meaningful to them, and allows the coach to coach around that. Here's an example, in working with a group of business owners or new managers, one of our weekly themes might be Values, or Exploring our Strengths. Our themes can be created by the group in a first session, or they may be pre-determined by the program (i.e. 90 Day BizSuccess Program). The common anchor point of values provides a tighter focus for the individual members of the group to come with needs around, and hold coaching conversations around. As a coach, I continue to see that these session anchor points provide more traction for the group, and more synergies. I also want to point out that it is one possible way of running your groups.

A short while ago I also posted about Providing Visual Anchor Points in the group coaching process. You can read the blog post here which includes different techniques to use. This is a second layer where Anchor Points are critical in supporting the learning and growth process in the virtual and in person domain.

What other ways do you see anchor points playing out/being important in the group coaching context?

Have a terrific week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Potentials Realized
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized.com
Phone: (416)996-8326
Next Group Coaching Essentials program starts Thursdays 10:30 - 11:45 am Eastern: April 12, 17, 25, May 3 and 10 (6.75 CCEs) - Note new start date (By Phone)
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