While many of us, myself included, have had the wonderful opportunity to be coached, mentored, and guided along our journey, I have often considered the coaching relationship as a sacred one-on-one connection with almost as heavy a confidentiality as attorney-client privilege. I most definitely see one-on-one leadership coaching as extremely beneficial and will continue to seek this out throughout my career, but I am expanding my perspective to see alternative coaching methods as equally as productive.

In my career, I have been a leader, built multiple leadership programs, coached leaders, and advised on leadership strategy. Throughout each of these experiences, I have found that leaders absolutely thrive at learning from other leaders. And, time for leaders is a premium resource, so maximizing hours spent in long-term investments, like coaching, is critical. When leaders gather in a small group of peers within the same company, trust is built, awareness is realized, and progress is accelerated. This optimizes time for each individual leader and creates a lasting impact well beyond the commitment of the team coach.

If you recognize a need for key leadership talent in your organization to grow and you think coaching is the avenue, consider team coaching. You can start with a few seasoned, growth-mindset executives who would be willing to take on a cohort of 3-5 people. Focus on these key components for a successful coaching experience:

• A team that learns together, grows together. The goal of this experience is for the entire team to learn, gain insight, and practice concepts that will improve people leadership for all. This may influence how you determine the cohort members. What positive, indirect impacts could occur if a few key project team members experience this growth together?

• A systems-thinking perspective. Assess how well the team understands each other’s role in the organization. This context is critical for their own awareness building and will also aid in future coaching conversations for all to understand the upstream and downstream effects of decisions and challenges within the company. This alone has some of the most productive outcomes for the participants, especially those at front-line or mid-level leadership roles.

• Balance both individual and team goals. Goals for the individual versus the group do not have to align and drive one another. The individual will be hearing, contributing, and reflecting on the group discussion through their own lens of experiences and will thus personalize each session for their own learning. Ask each individual to be open about their own goals so other’s can encourage, make connections during sessions, and celebrate within the work environment. The learning for all will be exponential but be clear that there will be different levels of growth for each person.

We are in a social world and are created as social beings. While there is a time for one-on-one coaching, there also is a strong purpose for team-based leadership coaching. Life, after all, is a team sport and so is leadership.