In this post, Poppy Houston reflects on her experience of peer group coaching, which is part of the Peer Learning & Support (PALS) scheme, and the transferable skills she gained along the way. Poppy is a Business with Marketing undergraduate student at the University’s Business School. This post is part of the Group Work series.
Introduction to peer group coaching
During my undergraduate journey, I had an amazing opportunity to both experience and facilitate peer group coaching. All Business School students can access coaching and mentoring throughout their student journey. Peer group coaching involves three to four coachees and a Coaching Leader, who is a trained 3rd or 4th year undergraduate within the Peer Learning & Support (PALS) scheme, BizPALs. BizPALS and, by extension Coaching Leaders, sit under the wider PALS umbrella and students have to complete induction training with EUSA PALs. However, the Student Development Team within the Business School also provide further training specific to Coaching Leaders.
The focus of these coaching sessions is skill development, whereby coachees can choose up to three main skills that they would like to receive coaching on within a group setting. Coaching creates a safe space whereby individuals can increase their self-awareness and confidence by going through a process of guided verbal reflection, which culminates in an individual committing to action steps, reinforcing personal accountability.
Coaching has developed my transferable (group work) skills such as active listening, curiosity and articulation. These resulted in three key impacts: greater confidence, purposeful communication and reflective thinking, strengthening my ability to approach and participate in groupwork with resilience.
My experience of peer group coaching
I first experienced peer group coaching in second year, during my participation in the Business School’s Edinburgh Award for Professional Development. The Edinburgh Award for Professional Development is a programme designed to develop a comprehensive skill set for academic and career success.
At the beginning of my first peer coaching session, my Coaching Leader highlighted that the benefits of doing this as a member of a group were to go through the self-realisation and reflection process whilst benefiting from peer input. Thus, we were not engaged in rigid, one-way communication between Coaching Leader and coachee but rather in a dynamic, co-created and mutually-engaged experience.
Initially skeptical and self-conscious, I soon recognised the value of co-created solutions through peer engagement. By the end of this first session, I had established clearly defined action steps and had grown in confidence. I had also observed how the Coaching Leader had harnessed collaborative energy to maintain accountability and a sense of constructive purpose within conversations, whilst enabling an environment for individual growth to take place. As a result, I was extremely keen to develop my own facilitation skills when I had the opportunity to become a trained Coaching Leader in my 3rd year.
“As part of our coaching culture within the Business School, we have developed a structured and easily replicated approach to peer group coaching which provides students with a collaborative and creative space to learn from one another. Continued positive student feedback underlines its value in helping students to build and apply core skills, including those essential for group work.”
– Rona Doig, Head of Coaching Business School
Role as Coaching Leader
The Coaching Leader training that I received was excellent. We were taught about various coaching models and different types of questioning techniques, which proved to be invaluable future resources. We then practiced these techniques in small groups, which prepared us for the nuances of real-life conversation, teaching us how to adapt to extended periods of silence and disjointed responses. This prepared me extremely well for group work meetings, as I often employed these questioning techniques to move stagnant conversations forward and achieve critical depth within group analysis.
One of my overarching goals as a Coaching Leader was to alleviate tension and prime sessions to be as collaborative as possible, as I feared a lack of engagement from my coachees. Initially, my fears were realised. However, I was able to rely on the resilience and confidence that I had built from being coached, to push through barriers and utilise questioning techniques to encourage engagement until one coachee agreed to go first. This persistent, varied and purposeful use of questioning techniques was the collaborative catalyst that caused the dynamic to shift, as it encouraged the coachees to embrace the uncomfortable situation by engaging, resulting in comfort zones being abandoned and growth being achieved.
Transferable skill set
Upon reflection, the greatest transferable skill set that I developed during group coaching is my communication skills. Practically, I was able to utilise this during my third-year studies when I had to complete a significant amount of group work. I have always found group work challenging due to anxiety surrounding the high level of mutual engagement needed to achieve a high-quality finished piece of work. However, during initial planning meetings, I adopted a leadership role using coaching skills to stimulate the structured and purposeful conversations needed to build rapport with my group members, establish roles and responsibilities and set progress targets. Moreover, I used questioning techniques from my Coaching Leader training to engage reluctant group members, solve problems, make strategic decisions, and resolve conflicting viewpoints. Overall, this enabled the project to be co-created, enriching the overall collaborative nature, depth, and value of the project.
“Poppy’s experience powerfully showcases the value of coaching as a tool to help develop the confidence and competencies we look to develop in our graduates. In the Business School, we continue to explore and leverage the value of coaching within our curricular and co-curricular spaces. It is a means to enrich the student experience, and to support the enhanced delivery of peer support within the student support model.”
– Pauline Ferguson, Deputy Director of Teaching and Partnerships, Business School.
Recommendations and Conclusion
Overall, coaching has taken my networking, communication, and confidence to the next level, transforming my ability to function as a pro-active member of any multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural group.
This has provided me with a renewed sense of confidence when approaching group work by equipping me with an enhanced communication toolkit. As such, there are three key actionable steps that I would recommend for the implementation of effective group work that reflects coaching principles:
- Foster safe spaces for groups to initially meet in, to encourage initial rapport building and establish key collaborative foundations.
- Encourage repeated in-person verbal communication among groups, perhaps even enabling opportunities for groups to verbally work through mock problems that may arise, with different members taking on the role that resembles the ‘Coaching Leader’ each time. This fosters the development of coaching conversations that can significantly help groups to develop problem-solving skills.
- Encourage groups to be reflective about meetings/conversations because this results in evaluative conversations that can be harnessed for the improvement and growth of the group work project.
Overall, peer group coaching offers many transferable learnings that can be applied within group work. Coaching empowers individuals to develop creative problem-solving skills, which creates groups who are more efficient, collaborative and high performing, priming individuals for both academic success and workplace readiness.
Poppy Houston
Having now completed her time as a Coaching Culture Intern, Poppy is entering into the final year of her undergraduate degree, studying Business with Marketing. Poppy will remain involved within the Business Schools’ Coaching Culture by continuing to be a Coaching Leader and by receiving 1-on-1 coaching sessions with an accredited coach offered by the Business School to final year students.
