Peer coaching is a vibrant business strategy for improving employee's motivation and performance. It is an effective learning approach, and you can make it even more effective with a few tips. Find out more at https://www.impraise.com/#discover-impraise

1. The Power of Peer Coaching: 5 Tips to Improve Your Team's
Performance
blog.impraise.com/the­power­of­peer­coaching­5­tips­to­improve­your­teams­performance/

2. Peer coaching appears to be a vibrant business strategy that management and human resources
experts are applying to improve employee’s motivation and performance.
It’s only for the past few decades that peer coaching is being used as a learning tool that assists in the
ongoing developmental process of the workforce. Although the roots of coaching are found in the early
1980s at the educational field, as a tool to improve mentoring abilities to the educational community, its
dynamic and its viability started expanding to several other fields.
Currently, peer coaching is a popular yet growing technique in business settings that is being
implemented between two or more colleagues. Their main purpose is to share their knowledge, reflect
on their practices, build new skills, teach one another new techniques, solve problems, improve
competencies and effectively confront several issues arising within their working environment.
Why peer coaching is a change catalyst for today’s workforce performance and
motivation?
With today’s business environment being far more fluid and fast paced, smart leaders realize that
gathering employees input only from performance appraisals is not the most effective way to set goals
and facilitate the process of learning and development.
Generation Y stands beyond those practices. Today’s workforce is much more focused on interactive
communication, ongoing feedback, network building and constructive dialogue. Peer coaching has been
proved a powerful way for professional growth, where transformational conversation elements find a
solid ground to grow.
What makes peer coaching an effective learning approach?
Individuals use their own resources to find solutions to problems. The peer coach serves as

3. facilitator, helping the other party identify and select the best options. Together, they share
knowledge about successful interventions and techniques, redefine goals and opportunities and
clarify facts and assumptions
The coaching partners explore other possibilities that might have not thought before
The environment within the coaching session is evolving is a non–judgmental and trust based
environment, far less threatening to a discussion with a manager
The feedback is given in a constructive way, encouraging them to express their feelings and
ideas without the fear of shame or guilt, as they are both “thinking partners”
Are all people competent enough to engage in a peer coaching experience?
People involved in peer coaching must be mutually open to welcome new ideas and learn from each
other experiences, trust and respect each other. It is usually an uncomfortable situation as a result of
the changing process, where both parties must be eager to experience in order to reveal their concerns
and emotions to each other.
In that sense, not everybody is coachable and not everybody can coach. The key for an effective peer
coaching is that both sides must possess certain simple, yet crucial competencies in order to engage in
this transformational process. Make sure that the people involved in peer coaching have or must
cultivate the following attributes:
They are both good listeners. It is considered to be the most important element for the coaching
to take place. They both need to be patient, not to interrupt, not to have an aggressive
communication style – forcing their own ideas and agendas ­ but rather equally listen and talk.
Those conditions facilitate the coaching process, creating space for the other person to think and
share concerns and ideas

4. They are open minded and willing to change. Individuals, who believe that they are perfect,
usually consider coaching a waste of time. However, the majority of the workforce is open to
change, eager to give and receive feedback and willing to appreciate new perspectives and
alternative ways of acting and thinking
They are curious to learn. People with a genuine curiosity are usually those who are willing to
engage in any kind of interaction and feel comfortable to share information and learn from each
other
They have self­awareness. Those people can be spotted relatively easy. They are individuals
that are flexible to accept other best alternatives, they recognize their strengths and weaknesses
and they gladly accept feedback even if it’s a negative one
Some companies prefer to hire external professional coaches to coach employees at all levels of the
organization. This is a good approach especially when it comes to executive coaching. However, in
regard to employees, peer coaching is proving to be a more effective, simple and low cost way for their
professional development.
Just make sure that the employees that participate in the peer coaching process are competent enough
to effectively communicate with their peers. A good way to educate them is to set up a peer coaching
workshop with a professional consultant to train them on the peer coaching strategies and make
coaching much more effective.
Finally keep in mind those 5 useful tips. Peer coaching becomes more efficient
when:
Feedback is given in a way that opens up new possibilities to explore
The coaching partner believes in the coachee, endorsing strengths and not only weaknesses

5. Engage peer partner’s curiosity, imagination and inspiration
Remain confidential and non­judgmental
Set open questions which create space for a substantial conversation