How can you choose between group and individual coaching?

Group coaching is nothing but us going back to the caveman era, where we humans will sit around fire and exchange experiences, stories, challenges and joy. And that’s how we all grew. At the core, we are still those humans- no framework, tool or tactic works as strongly as a small group of hungry individuals coming together and working on those frameworks individually and then integrating the learnings together as a group. Hugely in for group coaching as long as it is not just a cookie cutter approach, having a structure and also allowing deviations to deal with unique problems and uniqueness of individuals along the way!

This is something I believe needs to be done, don't listen to these Wana be fake leaders... Group coaching wen done effectively develops future leaders, Why? Not only are you getting your coaches to identify others areas of develop but these individuals start coaching and learning from each other. I do it . And trust me it works so well ,all I do as the coach is guide them to they own success , master this technique. I literally got fired from a company because people were jealous of Me doing this and going well above the bar. Well wat can I say , now everyone knows my abilities and how doggy that place was.

Group Coaching is applied in the case of similar context and shared goals. While the individual challenges can be different the group shares common solutions and most importantly is aligned to larger purpose of the organisation for example : people management can be a shared development need of a group and within that individuals may have their own challenges like assertiveness,fear of being judged,values around being nice etc. The purpose of group coaching is to collectively recognise and find solutions that can provide perspectives and ideas to the group. Since the context and the culture of the organisation is shared a lot of tools and solutions can be shared within the group also creating collective understanding of the system.

Group coaching is a collective engagement which focuses on a topic of common interest to people in similar roles in the organization. It could be an organization that focuses more on Effective feedback strategies or developing Coaching skills for its managers. Though I agree that there is less privacy in these engagements vis a vis individual coaching, I disagree that it has limitations in terms of potential conflict. The skill of the coach in a group coaching is to engage and create self awareness for the coachees, through reflective questioning so that it leads to a pool of thoughtful solutions contributed by the participants. It is how the Coach leads the group coaching that leads to collaborative development or conflict.

I think that for some people is confusing the terms group and team coaching. The difference is that Team coaching is to learn and design strategies for working together and team coaching is geared to peer-to-peer support with the intention for individual/personal development. Group coaching is perfect for small independent people looking for support. The important thing is to agree to a set of rules such as confidentiality, ethics, expectations, ownership

Make sure your coach is a professionally trained coach. There are too many people that believe they can coach just because they know how to listen or have experience in a particular subject. A marketing coach is not necessarily trained as coach. Professional coaches are trained in a set of competencies that give them the skills to support others

One-on-one coaching provides the opportunity to focus on your needs via a program tailored to you. It will allow for deeper personal exploration with the coach providing continual reflection and guidance. Group coaching provides a structured coaching program that you go through at the overall group's pace. Interaction with a group could provide the benefit in sharing experiences and going through group activities. For deeper dives, there may be a greater need for self-reflection and self-guidance however. This is my opinion.

Individual coaching focuses more on the specific challenges of an individual and their unique situation. It gives comfort of privacy to the individuals, including focused attention on resolving specific issues. plus the opportunity to choose the pace of progress for an individual. Sometimes problems are not that big even though they appear otherwise. Only if the right coach can listen to it attentively, understand the gaps and build on the action items, a number of doors can open and goals ticked.

Individual coaching is meant for more individual speculation and goals that are personal in nature.Sensitive issues like behaviour can be addressed through individual coaching.Individual coaching supports individual to make choices about their action and take accountability towards the action. Individual coaching is relatively cost sensitive than group coaching and focused on individual journey.

Focused, private, and intensive, one-on-one coaching has the potential to have the most impact in the shortest amount of time. The duration of sessions and frequency can be customized to the needs of the client for a bespoke engagement with the coachee.

Here’s an example: Assessing goal needs involves understanding what someone wants to achieve and determining the specific requirements to accomplish those goals. For instance, if someone's goal is to start a successful online business, assessing their goal needs might involve identifying the necessary resources, such as a website, product inventory, marketing strategy, and e-commerce platform, to help them achieve their goal effectively.

The first step is to find coaches in the area that you want to create results in. For example for job promotion, you need a career coach. Leverage Linkedin as it is a real place with real photos, real designations and real people. Second step is to find a coach whom you can resonate with. Thirdly, look at their testimonials to evaluate the results created by them. The recommendation section on Linkedin is the best place to see the audiences your potential coach has worked with and results created. Once, you choose your coach, set up a call with them to learn more and if your instincts say yes, trust the process and go all in! Lastly, enjoy the goal achieved, pat yourself on the back, relax, rejuvenate and and set up another one!

I get why this would be a consideration for the customer, a try-before-you-buy scenario. However, as someone who has been coaching for over 19 years, I would argue that a try-before-you-buy approach won't work; here's why. If you are shopping around for the cheapest deal (in my experience is often the case) you probably aren't in the right place for coaching. You'd be better off watching free resources and doing more research. Most coaches will have YouTube channels so you can assess your options. Also, a high-quality coach will have a high-quality consultancy system which will ensure everyone is a good fit before you have to commit anyway. This normally is done without cost to the customer. This method saves a lot of time.

The most important factor in selecting a coach is their level of expertise in the area you seek coaching. The second most important factor is rapport. Do they understand you? Are they able to articulate things in a way that helps you? How do you feel in a conversation with them? It's important to have a sample coaching session with the person to understand exactly what it would be like to engage in a longer program with them. If you've never had a coach, it's important to explore different coaches before settling on one for a longer-term engagement.

One of the simplest way to decide whether to go for the individual and group coaching depends is 1. Individual Coaching - if you are working on something that is personal, uncomfortable to be discussed in the group and if you are introvert and hesitate to share your perspectives, immediate or urgent need . If you can afford to hire a person coach. 2. Group coaching: Open to being vulnerable, take risks, extroverted, open to receive the feedback in the group, ready to experiment, if you can learn from the others ways of thinking, have less budget available.

The following works well in group formats: 1. Shared goals 2. Shared challenges 3. Need for collaboration 4. Systemic thinking 5. Disparate departments Anything else can start with individual coaching to extract themes and move to group. A hybrid model works best for large teams.