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TEDxManitoba - Les Foltos - Peer Coaching -- 21st Century Teacher Skills

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To have a successful and meaningful peer coaching partnership, you will need to act as a both a coach and a coachee. To be an effective coach requires certain skills and techniques. It is not simply a matter of winging it. It takes time and practice. Don’t let that scare you off. If you are willing to actively listen, you can be a great peer coach. Active listening is the core skill that a peer coach needs in order to be effective. “Wait a minute!” you might be thinking. “Doesn’t a peer coach need to give brilliant advice, help their coachee see things in a different light, and provide feedback and tips?” Don’t underestimate the power of listening. Consider this: Real help, professionally or personally, consists of listening to people, of paying respectful attention to people so that they can access their own ideas first. Usually, the brain that contains the problem also contains the solution -- often the best one. When you keep that in mind...people around you end up with better ideas. This is not to say that advice is never a good thing or that your ideas are never needed. Sometimes your suggestions are exactly what the person wants and demand....But don’t rush into it. Give people a chance to find their own ideas first. That chance will take more time than you probably feel comfortable with. (Kline, 1999).

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● It is not giving advice. A peer coach does not tell his/her coachee what to do, or even suggest his/her own ideas. A peer coach elicits the ideas from the coachee - "What are your options? Let's make a list."
● It is not mentoring. A peer coach is not, by definition, more senior or experienced than the coachee. A peer coach does not advise or guide the coachee based on his/her more extensive experience. A peer coach does not say, "I have been there and done that, and I will help you to do it too.”
● It is not hanging out with a friend and complaining, bragging, or whinging. A peer coaching session is a time for you to share your thoughts, feelings, struggles, musings, questions, doubts and triumphs. However, it is not merely a conversation with a friend. Your peer coach will be doing a lot more listening than the typical friend does, and a lot less sharing, opining, and talking. Make the most of your peer coaching session by treating it as such.
● It is not one person sharing their technical expertise with another. Peer coaching is not an opportunity for your peer coach to teach you what they know about monitoring and evaluation, global health, microfinance, or putting together project budgets. There is a place for that and a need for those kinds of conversations, but those are not peer coaching.
● It is not counseling. Although coaching is sometimes confused with counseling or therapy, there is a distinction. Peer coaching is intended for individuals who want to take action and make behavior changes in working towards their professional and personal goals. Psychotherapy is a health care service that diagnoses and treats mental health issues.

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● Trust-based. Perhaps the most important aspect of any peer coaching partnership is trust. To get the most out of your partnership, to be able to open up to your coach, you need to trust them.
● Confidential. It is crucial that everything said and shared in the context of the coaching relationship is confidential and not discussed outside your peer coaching partnership.
● Supportive. A peer coach may acknowledge his/her coachee (e.g. "You have worked really hard to find ways to communicate effectively with your boss") and show empathy ("You are feeling really frustrated by this latest project set-back").
● Reciprocal. Peer coaches take turns coaching each other, usually during set periods of time (e.g. you coach me for 30 minutes, and then I coach you for 30 minutes).
● Mutual learning. Both the coachee and the coach can learn a great deal through a coaching session.
● A lot of listening. During a coaching session, the coachee will typically do most of the talking. Your role as a peer coach is to actively listen without judgment or evaluation.
● A little reflection, paraphrasing, and questioning. A peer coach will paraphrase what he/she is hearing (e.g., "So you're saying that you would really like to have more responsibility at work, specifically in terms of interacting with X stakeholders on Y project."). A peer coach will share a reflection or observation, e.g. "You said in the beginning of the session that you really wanted X but I have heard you mention three times how much you are trying to Y." A peer coach will ask questions

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Peer coaching can help you to identify goals that you want to achieve, and improve your performance in working towards those goals. Being coached by a peer can help you gain clarity, question your assumptions, learn, get unstuck, develop options, and take action. Peer coaching often leads to the creation of a safe environment, as communication between peers often seems less intimidating than that between people with power differences, such as an employee and a supervisor, or a young professional and a seasoned mentor. Furthermore, you might be surprised that you can learn more from your peer than from senior counterparts or supervisors.

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- Robbins, P. (1991). How to plan and implement a peer coaching program. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
- Hoppe, Michael. (2007) Active Listening: Improve Your Ability to Listen and Lead. CCL Press.
- Kline, N. (1999) Time to Think: listening to ignite the human mind. Hachette, UK.
- Ladyshewsky, R. K. (2006) ‘Peer coaching: a constructivist methodology for enhancing critical thinking in postgraduate business education’. Higher Education Research & Development 25(1): 67-84.
- Ladyshewsky, R. K. (2010) ‘Building competency in the novice allied health professional through peer coaching’. Journal of Allied Health 39(2): 75-80.

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Peer coaching is a confidential process through which two or more professional colleagues work together to reflect on current practices; expand, refine, and build new skills; share ideas; teach one another; conduct classroom research; or solve problems in the workplace. (Robbins, 1991)

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EDUC 5315 INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP
FALL 2016
QUIZ 4 - PEER COACHING
OSMAN GULLE