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Coaching approaches

Peer coaching

Peer coaching is a relationship between colleagues at a similar level, who help each other learn, set goals and try things out. Polly Parker, Douglas Hall and Kathy Kram describe it as a relational process for career learning. The research base is small: a few papers, one study of a single company (Fey et al., 2022), and no controlled trial of workplace peer coaching in the sources checked.

What it is

In peer coaching, two or more colleagues take turns to help each other with a goal, a problem or a piece of learning. Neither is the expert in charge, and the relationship works through mutual learning as much as advice. Parker, Hall and Kram (2008) describe it as a relational process that accelerates career learning.

The sources here describe peer coaching in organisational and career settings and do not give a standard session format. The steps below are a general outline, not a protocol from the authors.

Where it comes from

Kram and Isabella (1985) examined peer relationships as alternatives to mentoring in career development, in the Academy of Management Journal.

Parker, Hall and Kram (2008) wrote the relational account of peer coaching. Parker, Kram and Hall (2014) also cover peer coaching in Organizational Dynamics, and Parker and colleagues (2015) describe it through a relational communication approach.

The principles underneath

Relationship first

Parker and colleagues (2015) say peer coaching is most effective when participants build high-quality relationships and connections.

Content and process

The same paper argues that attention should go to both what colleagues discuss and how they discuss it.

Mutual learning

Peer coaching is described as a helping relationship that facilitates mutual learning and development, rather than one person advising another.

How a session runs

  1. Two colleagues agree on a goal or problem that one of them is working on, and which of them will be coached first.
  2. The person being coached describes the situation in their own terms, and the other listens and asks what they want to happen.
  3. They look at what has already been tried, and what might be tried next.
  4. The colleague says what they noticed, and the person being coached decides what to take forward. In a later session, the roles may switch.
  5. The next session begins with what happened after the last one.

When it tends to fit

  • You are working on a skill or a career question, and a colleague at a similar level has time and some trust.
  • You want a view on a problem from someone who knows your workplace, rather than from someone outside it.
  • You and a colleague want to learn together, and each of you has something to offer.

What the research shows

Evidence: Some peer-reviewed studies

Peer coaching is described in several papers, but the research base is small. Parker, Hall and Kram (2008) describe it as a relational process for accelerating career learning. Parker, Kram and Hall (2014) cover it in Organizational Dynamics. Parker and colleagues (2015) integrate a relational communication theory into peer coaching, and state that it is most effective when participants build high-quality relationships. Kram and Isabella (1985) examine peer relationships as alternatives to mentoring in career development. Fey and colleagues (2022) examine how peer coaching relates to employee proactivity and well-being in one self-managing digital engineering company. No controlled trial of workplace peer coaching turned up in the sources checked.

Where the evidence is thin: Most sources describe or discuss peer coaching. The study of a single company named here (Fey et al., 2022) is the only one that looks at outcomes such as wellbeing. Whether peer coaching improves learning, performance or wellbeing across settings is not established by the sources found.

Sources

  1. Parker, P., Hall, D. T., & Kram, K. E. (2008). Peer coaching: A relational process for accelerating career learning. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7(4), 487–503.
  2. Parker, P., Kram, K. E., & Hall, D. T. (2014). Peer coaching. Organizational Dynamics, 43(2), 122–129.
  3. Parker, P., Wasserman, I., Kram, K. E., & Hall, D. T. (2015). A relational communication approach to peer coaching. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 51(2), 231–252.
  4. Kram, K. E., & Isabella, L. A. (1985). Mentoring alternatives: The role of peer relationships in career development. Academy of Management Journal, 28(1), 110–132.
  5. Fey, N., Nordbäck, E., Ehrnrooth, M., & Mikkonen, K. (2022). How peer coaching fosters employee proactivity and well-being within a self-managing Finnish digital engineering company. Organizational Dynamics, 51(3), 100864.

Where it stops

Peer coaching depends on trust and on the two people having comparable standing. Where there is a power gap, such as a manager and a report, the relationship works differently and needs care.

The evidence is limited. The sources found are one single-company study and papers that describe and discuss peer coaching, and none is a controlled trial.

Peers are not trained therapists. A colleague's support does not replace a qualified professional when someone is struggling with burnout, depression, or conflict that has become unsafe.

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