If you’ve participated in any of Bethel Coaching’s training or workshops, then you’ve witnessed the powerful and unexpected breakthroughs that coaching can bring to an individual. But did you know that coaching can be brought to an entire group?
Group coaching is another way to effectively coach people toward achieving their goals. According to Jennifer Britton in Effective Group Coaching, group coaching is defined as “the application of coaching principles to a small group for the purposes of personal or professional development, the achievement of goals, or greater self-awareness, along thematic or non-thematic lines.”
What’s the benefit to you as a life coach? Growing your business as a life coach is done one client at a time, but group coaching magnifies your impact. While the individual cost per hour of group coaching is significantly lower than your normal rates, your client base and potential referrals have increased significantly, providing you with future private clients.
The opportunities for group coaching are everywhere and can bring together people who don’t know each other but are pursuing shared goals for work/life issues such as losing weight, starting a small business, overcoming procrastination, or discovering purpose and destiny. Other group coaching programs can be geared toward professionals, such as pastors, lawyers, or new coaches. Most Mastermind groups are built around a group coaching model. Some group coaching can offer a hybrid of group coaching and private coaching.
By bringing together a small group of people around a common theme, your clients benefit from the collective wisdom and diverse perspectives of the group while enjoying the process of sharing the journey with others.
Sharing the coaching journey with others who have similar goals builds community and trust which can help each person through the sometimes difficult process of being coached.
Maybe you’ve heard Dave Smith say, “The person being coached does all the heavy lifting.” Well, if you’ve ever been coached, then you know this to be true. Sometimes people begin to question the coaching process when they hit their hidden roadblocks and may be tempted to quit. But I’ve seen the fellowship of the group keep each person motivated to complete the journey.
I created a group coaching program to help women discover their destiny built around Tony Stoltzfus’ “A Leader’s Life Purpose – Calling and Destiny Discovery Tools for Christian Life Coaching.” In my pilot program ten women came to my home weekly for 12 weeks as together they walked through the tourney to discover their destiny. Each week I presented the tools and principles of Tony’s teaching, then I laser coached several of the participants during each session. When something extremely personal or sensitive began to come up I offered a private session to further coach that person. Each participant also received a personal coaching session in week 11 to help them articulate all their discoveries and write out a life purpose statement. Each woman was victorious in discovering the destiny journey God had for them!
The ICF (International Coach Federation) defines a group as less than 15 people. I had 10 in my group which was too large. Four to 8 people is best, 6 is probably perfect.
I’m considering another group coaching program to help improve communication within families, using the DISC model. What are some ideas you might have to coach more than one?
Claudia is a Certified Professional Life Coach, a certified Transformation Coach through Kingdom Coaching CTC program, Certified DISC Consultant, and Certified Group and Team Coach, as well as a prophetic artist. Coaching clients throughout the United States and as far away as Dubai, Claudia combines her many years of mentoring, discipling and pastoring with her passion for “Kingdom Culture” to provide her coaching clients with Christ-focused, purpose-driven results. Her unique gift is helping her clients connect the dots in their life to reveal beliefs and patterns which keep them stuck.
Visit her at: https://claudiaklann.com/