Why Group Coaching Belongs in Your Development Strategy
1:1 coaching has become a familiar part of leadership development. Many organizations now recognize the value of creating space with the help of a trained coaching expert for leaders to slow down, reflect, and think more clearly about how they show up.
What is less widely recognized is how effective coaching can be when it happens in groups.
Group coaching brings leaders together to reflect on real work, shared challenges, and the decisions they are navigating right now. Instead of learning in isolation, leaders learn alongside one another, in the same context they operate in every day. For intact teams and leadership cohorts, this approach often unlocks insight, alignment, and momentum that are difficult to achieve any other way.
What group coaching actually looks like
At its core, group coaching is a facilitated space where leaders come together to work through real leadership situations as they are happening.
There is no fixed agenda built around content delivery. Sessions are shaped by what leaders are experiencing in the moment. A conversation that did not land the way they expected. A decision that felt unclear. A team dynamic that keeps coming up.
A skilled coach helps the group slow things down, ask thoughtful questions, and explore different ways forward. Over time, leaders build stronger judgment, confidence, and self-awareness through repeated reflection and application.
Group coaching works especially well when leaders share context and trust. When leaders are coached together, the learning becomes immediately relevant. Everyone understands the environment, the pressures, and the trade-offs involved in the work, which means less time explaining the background of the situation and more time working through what actually matters.
How to bring group coaching into your business
Group coaching works best when it is facilitated by a neutral, qualified coach. Someone outside the organization who is skilled at holding space, asking the right questions, and helping leaders reflect without judgment or politics getting in the way.
From there, you have a few clear options for how to bring group coaching into your organization:
⬛ Create a leadership cohort
Start by identifying a group of leaders at a similar level, for example new managers, emerging leaders, or directors. Bring them together with a group coach on a regular cadence, often monthly or quarterly, over the course of a year.
Each session focuses on real leadership situations your leaders are navigating right now. People challenges, decision making, confidence gaps, or moments that did not go as planned. Leaders leave with something specific to try, then return to the group to reflect on how it went and what they learned.
⬛ Work with an intact leadership team
If you already have a leadership team that meets together, group coaching can layer naturally into that work. Partner with a coach who works with the same team over time. Rather than creating something new, you can integrate group coaching into leadership meetings, offsites, or leadership development programs you already run.
Use sessions to slow down decision making, talk through team dynamics, and align on how you want to lead together day to day. Over time, this builds clearer expectations, stronger trust, and more consistent leadership across the team.
⬛ Make a coach available to a team or department
Bring a coach into the organization and give a specific team or department shared access over a defined period of time. It looks like open access to the coach on a monthly basis, where leaders book time with the coach as situations arise. This sometimes happens individually, or sometimes in small groups, depending on what the work calls for.
This works especially well for intact teams with different levels of experience, or for departments with emerging leaders who are stepping into greater responsibility. Leaders get timely support, and you get a clear view into where the team is stretching, where support is most needed, and who is actively investing in their development.
What leaders experience when group coaching is in place
Leaders often describe group coaching as one of the few spaces where they can think out loud without judgment and get new ideas from their peers on how to handle the situations they’re dealing with. They gain perspective by hearing how others approach similar challenges and begin to see their own patterns more clearly.
Practical shifts show up quickly. Decisions feel more intentional. Feedback conversations improve. Issues are addressed earlier instead of avoided. Leaders spend less time second-guessing and more time leading.
Because the learning is grounded in real work, it carries forward into day-to-day leadership.
The Takeaway
When organizations integrate group coaching into their development approach, it becomes a steady thread rather than a one-time initiative. Leaders grow more confident, more aligned, and more capable together.
For many teams, it is the missing piece they did not know to look for.
👉 If you are curious what group coaching could look like in your organization, a short intro call can help bring the options to life. We can talk through what you’re trying to solve for and explore an approach that makes sense for your team.