Considering peer coaching

Considering peer coaching

Coaching is not the self-obsessed, naval-gazing, career-ladder focused approach you might think it is! A peer coaching group builds supportive relationships and helps develops insight for wherever you want to take your career.

Academic mental health researchers are facing similar challenges across the sector, and we each have far more insight into how to face these challenges than we might first believe. Coaching supports an individual to do their best thinking on an issue. If you multiply an individual’s insight with the experience and perspectives from a trained coaching group, and you have an effective format for increasing motivation, agency, confidence, understanding, accountability and action.

The value of a peer group 

Coaching can be described as an exploratory and practical conversation that supports an individual to think closely on an issue, challenge or goal of their choosing. The skills coaches have are increasingly recognised as a key leadership tool 

In our 3rd peer coaching programme, launching next month, we operate a group format: each participant shares a work-related issue or challenge and is supported by the peer group to explore the issue.  

Peer coaching can help participants gain confidence and skills they can apply to their own professional context, often leading to stronger and more supportive workplace relationships. The nature of peer coaching means everyone in the coaching circle commits to it being a confidential space and comes to it with the intention of supporting each other.  

There are many benefits to building a safe peer network and coaching is a brilliant way to facilitate safer, deeper relationships that get to the focus of actually working through issues, rather than just coming together to share information or concerns.

PARTICIPANT QUOTE FROM PECO 2025

As many mental health researchers have some training in these sorts of skills and qualities, they take to it quite well!

Peer coaching for career development - PeCo 

In PeCo – our peer coaching for career development programme – we bring together a peer group of mental health researchers for a 6-month programme in which they learn coaching approaches to problem-solving, gain insights for their own career development and gain a supportive network. The group is led professional coach with many years’ experience working with academic researchers.  

The individuals in the peer coaching group all receive training in foundational coaching skills, such as: asking open questions, not offering advice (easier said than done!) and sensitive listening.  

The sessions also draw on action learning methodology – a group method involving one thinker and a small group of coaches. Action Learning Sets are “a continuous process of learning and reflection that happens with the support of a group of colleagues, working with real problems, with the intention of getting things done” (McCormack et al 2004). Invented by University of Cambridge physicist Reg Revans in the 1940s, action learning sets recognise the impact of enquiry, ‘sharing ignorance’, exploring experiences and taking time for reflection. 

In this way, the thinker gets a chance to explore their issue in a controlled, structured, confidential setting, and hear the perspective of peers with relevant experience.  

I was quite nervous to do this when I first started but felt much more comfortable sharing towards the end. It helped let me see clarity on what I could do next.

PARTICIPANT QUOTE FROM PECO 2025