Office managers need to be flexible at all times. Managing an office with people who have diversified backgrounds, to start with, requires wit and creativity, just to be able to keep the office grinding.

But that is easier said than done. Most managers are faced with day-to-day decisions that require them to be on their toes most of the time, especially when  interpersonal matters are part of the picture.

Coaching is very much a part of a manager’s routine. (Or should be!) Not that their employees don’t know what to do with their respective jobs, but they sometimes need upgrading in order to keep tabs with the demands of their clients.

Now, every manager has their own way of dealing with coaching their staff. Others are quite direct in their approach like barking the instructions right then and there, and expect immediate result. Some others, on the other hand, are more careful of the implications of such a quick directive. They are the ones who opt for peer to peer coaching. And most of the time, these are the managers that get good results in the process. 

Why Peer to Peer Coaching

The best way to answer that particular question is to highlight the one contribution that peer to peer coaching can give to the workplace, that is, it improves employee performance.

The good thing about a peer to peer style of coaching your staff is the idea of your employees helping each other. It minimizes the gap that usually impedes the manager-subordinate relationship. Peer to peer coaching also accepts that that gap often makes it a conflict of interest to have a true coaching interaction between manager and subordinate. Especially difficult if it is the manager who is being coached by one of their reports. Yet precisely this way round of coaching is one of the biggest performance drivers.

Peer to peer coaching, generally, has a more personal and relaxed style of dealing with office issues and tasks.

The concept of team building is very much at work with peer to peer coaching. For managers, this is cost-effective, to say the least. All they have to do is to oversee that the coaching is done in a right way.

How to Do Peer to Peer Coaching

There are easy ways of employing peer to peer coaching with your staff. This is a coaching style that doesn’t require intricate preparations, as opposed to preparing for a panel-approach of dealing with issues and concerns in the office. It also means everyone can step into a coaching interaction with their peers at any point, regardless of whether any coach or manager is present.

Making everybody at ease using peer to peer coaching

This is the first step of using peer to peer coaching. Unless all parties feel safe before even setting the agenda, no coaching can work, let alone peer to peer coaching.

This is especially important if the manager is being coached by one of their subordinates.

Explore

The first aspect in this part of peer to peer coaching is listening. In fact, most of what transpires in peer to peer coaching is the ability of both parties to listen. Instead of directing questions, the two of you should encourage listening and express understanding.

The second aspect of this is using powerful structured dialogue methods that harness the friction between people. Precisely this friction tells them all they need to know to develop themselves and their performance. When all use the same structured peer to peer coaching method, then company performance grows and individual well-being at work too.

Set Goals

Of course, both of you should set goals so that even if the conversation is a bit casual at times, there is a point of reference that both of you can direct your discussion to.

But missing the goals is far more useful than hitting them. Because then much more can be done through peer to peer coaching, by using the friction that comes from missing the goals.

Establish a plan and make it a habit

At the outset, peer to peer coaching seemed like an informal activity, but far from being a spontaneous undertaking between two employees, peer to peer coaching is best when it becomes part of the way everyone works. When it gets used whenever there is a benefit, exactly when the need arises.

For some managers, this unique workplace coaching style takes time to accept. But for those who have tried peer to peer coaching, the benefits are appreciated by all.