Enhancing support through peer coaching

Social support is essential for maintaining health and can protect people from the negative impact of stressful work on mental health. Studies show that health and social care practitioners find support from peers particularly beneficial (Chang, 2018). 

Setting up a peer-coaching initiative is an effective and low-cost way to help organisations move from a problem-focused culture to a strengths-based and solution-focused orientation. 

Peer coaching is a relationship between two people of equal status that facilitates the achievement of specific goals. It can also be a source of professional development more generally and used to share ideas, develop skills and improve support.

Peer coaching aims to:

• Provide a structured approach to helping.

• Enable someone to generate specific, measurable goals that are realistic but stretching.

• Help them identify how they are going to achieve those goals.

• Provide objective, non-evaluative feedback about how they are progressing.

• Offer support and encouragement when they need it.

How does peer coaching work?

• Peer coaching is a relationship where colleagues pair up as coach and ‘coachee’ (i.e., the person being coached). This is usually reciprocal.

• It draws on intrinsic values and beliefs.

• It uses the GROW model as a framework:

• The coachee identifies the GOAL they wish to achieve.

• The coach helps them reflect on how REALISTIC the goal is, based on their commitments and the time and resources available.

• Both parties work together to help the coachee generate a range of creative OPTIONS for meeting the goal.

• The coachee develops the WILL to meet the goal by making an action plan and a commitment to making changes or taking action.

• It utilises SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely)

• It provides non-evaluative, specific feedback based on an objective observation, or ‘reflecting back’ what is heard. This gives the coachee the encouragement to move forward.

There are some practical considerations that must be considered when setting up a peer coaching relationship:

• Trust between partners is essential as the process requires self-disclosure.
  

• Partners should be well matched in their working styles and expectations.

• Peer coaching can be done face to face, online, or by phone. But regular and formal contact (by any of these methods) is essential to ensure the coachee maintains focus on their goals.

• Venting is important, but the coach should help the coachee move beyond this to enable them to find solutions.

• The coach needs to keep the conversation on track; it is easy to drift.

• Active listening and open/probing questions are required.

The benefits of solution-focused coaching include enhanced goal setting and stress management skills, as well as improved wellbeing and job satisfaction (Gyllensten & Palmer, 2006). 

There is also evidence that peer coaching protects mental health during times of high stress (Short et al., 2020). Being a peer coach can help develop key interpersonal skills such as active listening, building rapport, trust, empathy, reflection and awareness raising; these qualities can be used to enhance practitioners’ relationships with people who access services. There is also evidence that peer coaching can improve emotional literacy and leadership development (Szeles, 2015).

Guidance on how to move from focusing only on problems to focusing on solutions is set out below. This technique can also be used as an exercise, working in pairs.

Moving from a problem-focus to a solution-focus in a peer coaching session

Being problem-focused

Use the questions below to talk (for about five minutes) about a recent situation that has caused you difficulty. Person A (the coachee) describes the situation. Person B (the coach) directs the conversation with the following questions.

• “So, what is the problem?”

• “What happened?”

• ‘What do you think is the cause of the problem?’

• ‘Who is to blame?’

• ‘What have you tried in order to fix it?’

• ‘Why is this still a problem?’

• ‘How can you stop this happening again?’

Being solution-focused;

The coach should spend about five minutes supporting the coachee to discuss a problem that they have. When using a solution-focused approach, it is essential to help the coachee ‘reframe’ their ‘intractable’ problem into a more manageable one. Use the following questions:

• ‘So, how would you like the situation to be?’

• ‘What will it take to get what you want?’

• ‘What resources do you need?’

• ‘What resources do you already have?’

• ‘What two small steps could you take to help fix the situation?’

• ‘How far have you come already? Are there times when the solution is present, at least partly?’

Sparkling moments (see KFP2 Sense of Appreciation) can also be used in a peer-coaching situation very effectively. This technique can help people move to a generally more positive mindset and identify external and personal resources (such as support and skills) that can help reach a solution.

Peer coaching can also be used to generate options and goals for improving wellbeing, by managing stress and enhancing work-life balance. It is important to remember, however, that while peer coaching can be effective, it is not counselling. If a coachee has deep-seated personal problems, professional help will be required. 

For more information on setting up a peer coaching initiative in health and social care organisations, see here