Group Coaching: What's Your Focus?

Coaches often ask What Type of Group Coaching programs can I offer? It's great to see that group coaching continues to expand in how it is being offered (in person, phone, web and some skype). Expansion also continues with the core themes or topics coaches are coaching around. As I look at the coaches who have participated in the Group Coaching Essentials program this year, there has been tremendous diversity of client groups that they work with.

Here's a sample of some of the focus areas coaches have been identifying for group coaching:
- work-life balance issues,
- new entrepreneurs,
- new managers in the onboarding process,
- professionals at different stages of career transition,
- group coaching for new dads, new moms, college students, financial professionals, nursing and health care professionals, retirees...
The list does go on and on.

In identifying your group coaching area, or possibilities, consider the following questions:

• Who would I like to be offering this program to?
• What topics/themes/questions are really important for them?
• The biggest question they want answered is?
• The resources they are looking for are?
• The type of support they want is....
• What do I know aout the needs of this group already?
• How can I find out more?
• What other programs exist to support them (group coaching, individual coaching, other training programs etc)?
• Who else is doing work in this area? How is what I want to offer similiar? Different?
• To move my ideas into action this week, I will....

I hope that these questions will provoke some of your thoughts.

What are you going to focus on?

Have a terrific week!

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Group Coaching Essentials - accredited for 6.75 CCEs by the ICF. New start dates November 2nd, 16th and 30th.


PS - I am looking forward to connecting with many of you on Friday at 9 am ET at the Global Coach Conference where I will be speaking about 5 Keys to Successful Virtual Programs. See you there!

The Accordion approach to Program Design

I often speak about the Accordion approach to Design which can be really useful to consider pre-program whether you are running a retreat, group coaching session or workshop. Many facilitators find that a common challenge is just not having enough time to "squeeze it all in". For year's I've been advocating the KEEP IT SIMPLE and LESS IS MORE principles for Coaches who join me for the Group Coaching Essentials program. Sometimes thinking about it is just not enough, because after all, we often don't know what will transpire until we are in front of a group.

When looking at your next program design, why not apply the accordion approach. Very simply, ask yourself:

1. What exercises/content/questions can I elongate - accordion out - if I need to?

2. What exercises/content/questions can I shorten - accordion in - if I need to?

It's always good to spend a short time pre-program considering the pinch points and what you absolutely want to make sure the group covers.

Hope that you find this useful with your next program! For more info on it, you can check out what I have to say in Effective Group Coaching

Warm regards,

Jennifer

Jennifer Britton

Group Coaching Essentials.com

Phone: (416)996-8326

Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

PS - We had a great start to theOctober Group Coaching Essentials program last night. Coaches who are still needing to acquire some CEUs for December recert may be interested in our 3 programs which will be offered in November. 6.75 CCES from the ICF (including 4.25 CCEs for Core Competencies). 4 Spaces remain for the Nov 2nd start (Tuesdays 9-10:15 am ET). A new program start date has been added for November 16th (Tuesdays 2-3:15 pm ET). Hope that you will join me!

Action and Reflection

“Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action.” - Peter DRucker

What steps are you taking to provide your participants with action and reflection?
What impact is this having?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Next Group Coaching Essentials program starts this Tuesday (October 5th) from 8-9:15 pm Eastern. 2 spaces still open! Group calls held on Oct 5, 12, 19, November 2 and 9. Accredited for 6.75 CCEs wtih the ICF for recertification purposes.

Business Building Tips, Support and Accountability

Marketing is a critical part of any group coaching process, whether you are having to market to the public, or market a program internally.

One of the experiments I started earlier this month on Twitter is the 100 Days of BizSuccess Questions. We are now at day 27 and it's been neat to hear from business owners all over the world about what questions have resonated with them. You can follow along at Twitter @jennbritton for my daily BizSuccess tips.

For several years now I have been running the 90 Day BizSuccess program, a group coaching program geared to give business owners (yes, coaches included!) a place for accountability and dialogue, as well as tools to grow their business. Our next session starts next week - Tuesday October 5th from 2-3 pm Eastern. Over the next 3 months we'll be meeting every other week for group calls (Tuesdays 2-3 pm Eastern), and I'll be holding montly 1-1 coaching calls with each business owner. To keep the momentum going you'll receive email bytes/tips in your inbox three times a week, and there will be structured assignments to move you forward in your business.

We'll be exploring themes such as Clarifying Your Business Vision, Finding Your Marketing Sweetspot, Systems to Boost Your Business, Leveraging Social Media and Expanding Your Relationship Web, along with many other rich topics. Space is limited to 6 business owners.

There are still a number of spaces open for next weeks program. I would love to have you join us! for more information and to register you can click here, or give me a call directly at (416)996-8326.

Looking forward to hearing more about your business goals!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

Participate in the 2nd Group Executive Coaching Survey

Many of you will know that I am a real advocate for enhanced research in the coaching profession, and am always eager to hear of, and spread the word on, research related to Group Coaching. When I wrote Effective Group Coaching last year I found that there was really not a lot of research out there.

Jacki Nicholas of the Air Institute is undertaking the 2nd Group Executive Coaching Survey. The first one was published last year and provides an important overview of group coaching.

If you are a coach who is undertaking group coaching work, I would strongly encourage you to participate in this 20 minute online survey. It will help to boost the knowledge base of this emerging work in our profession.

You can complete your own survey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/29N3WVL.

I look forward to hearing about the results Jacki - thanks for your leadership on this! I look forward to seeing the results and hope to spotlight these here down the road.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
Email: info{at}potentialsrealized{dot}com

PS - Next Group Coaching Essentials program starts Tuesday October 5th (8-9:15 pm ET) - 4 spaces still open! Accredited for 6.75 CCEs (ICF). Hope you will join us!

Great Exercises for your Team and Group Work

I'm often getting asked "What are some of your favorite exercises you use when working with teams and groups"? Since I started working with groups back in the late 1980s in outdoor wilderness leadership programs I have amassed bookcases full of ideas and great ones. I always encourage professionals new to this work to spend some time collecting their own and looking for opportunities to undertake their own train the trainer education.

I had to surf the net today (one of the best resources around for collecting great ideas) and stumbled on these sites which I think provide a pretty good introduction to some different exercises:

Huddle's Teamwork - 10 Quick and Easy Team Building Exercises (Communication, Problem Solving)
BusinessBalls.com - some great business games for teams and groups
Group-Games.com - 40 free activities with instructions
and of course one of my favorites - Wilderdom.com

What exercises do you enjoy doing?

Have a great start to the week.

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching

Follow the 100 Days of BizSuccess Questions at Twitter

Earlier this month I started a new Twitter experiment - tweeting business development questions once a day for a 100 days. We're now into Day 10 and I hope that you will follow along at http://twitter.com/jennbritton.

So many coaches continue to struggle on the business side of things. For the past three years I have been running the 90 Day Biz Success program for coaches, trainers and other service based professionals, and have seen what focus, and some practical business development resources and exercises can do to boost a business. The fall group will be starting next Friday September 17th at 11 am and will run until December 17th.

I'm encouraging "followers" to carve out time on a daily basis to reflect on the daily questions I am posing, as well as setting goals and taking action on these goals.

I hope that you will join me on Twitter for the next 90 days, and prehaps even in the more intimate environment of either the Group Coaching Essentials program (starts Thursday Sept 16th at 10:30 am ET) or the 90 Day Biz Success Program (starts Friday September 17 at 11 am ET).

Here's some of the first 10 questions I've tweeted for coaches and other business owners to consider since the start of the month:

Biz Success Q 3: Who haven't you connected with lately in your network?What's the 1 step u can take today to reach out?
Biz Success Question 4: What skills make you stand out as a business owner or leader?
Biz Success Q 5: What's the 1 activity you have been shying away from this week?What would be the impact if you did it
Biz Success Question 7: What's on your not-to-do list today?

Have a great weekend!

Warm regards,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)