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The Power of Peers

When I entered graduate school, I was asked to write an essay on what I thought the focus and purpose of my dissertation work would be. The question inspired me and helped me set a clear agenda for my journey to becoming Dr. Andrew Thorn. From the very beginning, I decided to dedicate my research and study to developing a methodology that would allow the benefits of personal and executive coaching to be extended at every organizational level.

As the President of a mid-size financial company, I routinely worked with an executive coach. I was fortunate enough to work with three outstanding coaches. These men and women taught me how to become a better leader. I loved working with them. I wanted to extend the benefits of coaching to everyone in my organization, but the cost was too prohibitive. I only had the resources to offer it to a few of my more senior leaders and that was it.

Getting Water To The End Of The Row

In my entrance essay, I wrote, "most critics  say that the cost of coaching makes it impossible to extend to the emerging, high potential and mid-level managers, and sadly, they are right. A recent study by Dell Computers indicates that those who use coaching tend to be promoted more often that those who don’t use one-on-one coaching conversations. How can we avoid this evidence? We must design a methodology that can bring these services in a cost effective way to every employee and stakeholder."

Developing that methodology became my obsession. I focused everything I learned in grad school to that end. If I could not apply it to my model, then I did not spend any time with it.

I knew that it was going to take a long time to provide the statistical evidence I would need to verify this model, but I was willing to go the distance. It took me over two years to collect my data and then another year to find a set of results from a senior leader executive coaching project to which I could compare the results of my study. Finally, I had everything I needed to demonstrate results equal to or greater than the those produced from the senior leader set.

Peer Coaching

I built my methodology on the principles of peer coaching. As near as I could tell, peer coaching had never been studied in a corporate setting prior to my work. It had been used in schools and in public agencies, but it was a foreign concept to "for profit" organizations.

A critical part of my methodology is to teach the members of my peer coaching groups how to coach others and how to be coached by others. Each person in the group is then paired with a member of the organization. I teach them how to help each other think through complex issues, how to support each other, and most importantly, how to hold each other accountable to the actions that they commit to implement.

My role in the process is that of a "Master Coach" and "Facilitator". I make sure that each person in the program clearly understands the objectives and is able to constantly make forward progress. The results of these efforts are nearly identical to the results of those who work exclusively with an executive coach. By that I mean that each participant in the peer coaching process is demonstrating progress on their personal leadership development that is equal to or greater than the progress of those who receive one-on-one coaching from a profession coach.

An even better result is that for the cost of what it takes to coach one senior leader, we can coach 40 emerging, high potential or mid-level leaders. 

New Horizons

Today, most organizations are faced with two significant challenges that are fiercely intertwined. First, the economic conditions are forcing them to reduce costs wherever and whenever possible, and second, they need to develop and retain their key people. Since I began my grad school experience, the popularity of coaching has exploded. Those who receive coaching feel valued by the company. They know that the company is investing in them and they love how that makes them feel. 

I am excited to partner with Marshall Goldsmith and Carry Metkowski on bringing this methodology to light.

Marshall, was recently named #14th most influential management thinker on the Thinkers 50 2009, which was created for the London TImes and Forbes Magazine. The Thinkers 50 list is an internationally recognized biennial guide to which thinkers and ideas currently most excel – and which have been consigned to business history. 

I was fortunate enough to meet Marshall while in grad school. He supported the idea of peer coaching from the very beginning and even offered me the opportunity to serve as his personal coach for 18 months. I continue to learn so much from him, and he continues to champion this idea.

Carry is a star producer and director of training and development films. She produced and directed award winning films that continue to significantly impact an organization’s ability to train and develop its people. She understands the future of this industry better than any one I know right now. She is playing a major role in shaping  the message of peer coaching and how it will be brought to the world. 

Together, we are excited about pioneering this idea and bringing into its rightful place in the world of organizational development. 

I want you to be involved too. My first invitation is for you to connect with me on Facebook and LinkedIn. There, you can become a member of the Peer Coaching Fan Page and Group Page. Once connected, you will receive the most current information on our exciting developments. At either network, you can type in Peer Coaching with Marshall Goldsmith, Andrew Thorn and Carry Metkowski and you will find us. These are exciting times, I am looking forward to sharing more with you.

Live Today! Love Today!

Andrew Thorn

760-559-3548

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: Andrew Thorn, Carpe Articulum, Dreaming, Game of Life, Goal Setting, Happiness, Heart Might Mind & Strength, Leader Behaviors, Life is Good, Life Leadership Harmony, Love Today, Personal Best Leadership, Powerful Questions, The Authentic Me, The Game of Life, The Telios Experience

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Authentic Behavior, Personal Best Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.