As more development experts future-proof their solutions, there’s been a boom in the availability of group coaching online. With new businesses launching for an ever-growing global audience, and seasoned coaches going digital, we’ve created this resource to help you differentiate your offer.
We’ll show you why there’s never been a better time to take your coaching virtual, with a step-by-step guide to creating unique, professional programs with Quenza’s online coaching tools.
Before diving right in, why not try Quenza’s online group coaching software as you go along? Our 1 dollar, 30-day Quenza trial will give you all the tools you need to deliver seamless online coaching journeys from any connected device, so you can share your virtual solutions professionally from any device.
How Does Online Group Coaching Work?
As with conventional group arrangements, online group coaching can describe remote team coaching within an organization, or it may simply refer to a development journey that takes multiple participants with a shared goal through a structured virtual program.
More specifically, it involves:[1]
- An online coach (or coaches) and two or more coachees
- A focus on change and growth, and
- Joint, goal-focused work in a shared, online setting.
Group coaching describes a development journey that takes multiple participants with shared goals through a structured virtual program.
In practice, online group coaching may involve:
- Real-time group coaching video conferences or chat sessions, where participants share their experiences, knowledge, and opinions
- Digital forums for learning, discussion, questions, and peer support
- Structured courses with lessons, exercises, and/or interventions
- Online resources or psychoeducation
- Regular communications between participants, and between participants and their coach.
They may also include private one-on-one sessions with the remote coach if group members have questions or would like further guidance.
In contrast to dyadic, or one-on-one coaching, intra-group social dynamics play an important role in group coaching, and participants can benefit from mutual support and learning.
Just like traditional dyadic models, it relies heavily on good professional-participant rapport, and client engagement is a key factor in driving positive growth.
11 Benefits of Online Group Coaching
Professionals and participants both enjoy a few practical and developmental benefits from online group coaching.
This table gives a little overview of at least 11 advantages:[2]
Practitioner Benefits | Client Benefits |
|---|---|
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What Is The Best Online Group Coaching Platform?
To offer group coaching online, you’ll need a few things planned out.
These include:
- A Coaching Program: This will be a framework for your group work, rather like a course outline or structured framework for session content. It should provide a logical sequence for your different sessions, activities, and interventions.
- Online Coaching Resources: The lessons, videos, audio, and activities that you intend to use in sessions, as well as for homework.
- Communication Strategy: How you’ll support your participants and/or how they’ll interact with one another throughout the program
- Progress Monitoring and Evaluation: How you’ll stay on top of your clients’ learning, performance, and results over time, and
- A Marketing Strategy: Outlining the various ways that you’ll promote your online group coaching and attract more clients.
If you have your program and goals in mind, you’ll know what the right online group coaching tools are for putting together the rest of your package.
For example:
- For program design, you’ll need software that will map out your content in a logical sequence
- Custom activity and form builders such as Quenza’s Activity Builder can help you put together various exercises, lessons, and marketing materials
- A useful coaching software will support live chat or video messaging to help you touch base with clients, and
- Results-tracking features are important for monitoring progress.
Because you will also need to store all your confidential participant data securely, such as results, contact information, and correspondence, it’s a good idea to make sure your chosen coaching solution is encrypted.
Whether you specialize in life, business, or health coaching in Quenza, you’ll find that a clear idea of your unique offer is enough to get started.
With this next guide, you’ll be able to hit the ground running.
How To Use Quenza Software For Group Coaching
Whether you’re switching your virtual coaching platform or new to the digital game, putting your content together is the first step to crafting a successful online coaching program.
Quenza’s drag-and-drop Activity Builder allows you to create entirely unique content from scratch or digitalize your existing course material in a few clicks:
Your Activity Builder, just above, is where you’ll find custom fields to create quizzes, lessons, worksheets, and other course content for sharing with your participants.
Here you can create the main bulk of your curricula for sharing privately and securely with your clients through Quenza’s free apps.
If you’re unsure what Activities to begin with, you’ll find plenty of customizable templates in your Expansion Library which can be modified or used as inspiration:
When it comes to developing the practical exercises, metaphors, lessons, and interventions you plan to use, Expansion Library Activities can help you avoid starting from scratch.
Simply modify a relevant template to suit your specific program; once saved and shared, your participants will receive your Activity in their private Client Portal.
By organizing saved Activities into a curriculum structure, you can easily create larger, longer coaching programs.
We’ve shown here how simple it is to create an entire curriculum or course of your own. Simply decide what steps your program will take, based on your framework, and choose your own saved Activities from Quenza’s Pathway Builder menu.
You even can decide whether you’d like to send Activities to your participants as sessions unfold, or share them automatically by scheduling them in advance.
As your participants complete coaching content, you’ll receive client tracking updates and full results in real-time in your Dashboard, which looks like this:
Because you’re aware of what Activities are pending, completed, or canceled, you can easily connect with clients instantly to give timely feedback or advice.
Quenza Chat, in both your browser app and mobile device, is a fast way to have confidential conversations in real-time:
If you’re switching off for the day or only want to contact one particular client, simply toggle your notifications on or off accordingly.
Top Online Group Coaching Tools in Quenza
While they give you full flexibility over the why, how, and what of your virtual programs, Quenza’s online group coaching tools are incredibly easy to familiarize yourself with.
In a nutshell, they come down to your:
- Activity Builder: Where all your group coaching exercises, forms, assessments, and activities can be crafted from scratch, or where you can customize your ready-to-go templates
- Expansion Library: Your one-stop-shop for pre-made, fully customizable lessons, meditations, quizzes, and interventions
- Pathway Builder: For creating, customizing, and scheduling coaching programs, and
- Quenza Chat: To help you stay in touch with clients in real-time.
Everything else – from your live results to your client profiles and settings, is all centralized in your practitioner Dashboard, which gives you a full overview of everything you need to run your practice online from any location.
4 Activities & Exercises For Your Coaching Program
Ready to design some activities and exercises of your own?
A few great ideas can be found in Quenza’s Expansion Library, and they’re also quick to personalize with client name tokens or text and fields of your own.
Here, you can browse Activities by type (e.g. Assessments, Lessons, Meditations) or search for specific tags, such as online CBT interventions and wellbeing interventions.
Some popular pre-made Expansions include Quenza’s:
- 20 Guidelines for Developing a Growth Mindset – a powerful framework to help clients prepare for a coaching journey
- Goal Visualization – which uses mental imagery to enhance your participants’ motivation
- Self Contract – for creating individual accountability and building motivation in online group coaching, and
- Strengths Interview – a useful activity that helps clients discover their personal strengths.
With a few tweaks and your own unique videos, these Expansions can all be incorporated into your professional programs for a richer, more effective group coaching program.
Final Thoughts
Coaching groups online can be an intensely rewarding way to help more clients grow with the same amount of work. When you can achieve even better results with your own unique content, it’s even more so.
With a professional online toolkit like Quenza, creating and sharing your group coaching programs is easy – do let us know how your solution goes with a comment below.
If you’re all set to share your own group coaching online, don’t forget to start your $1 trial of Quenza’s online group coaching tools. Quenza will help you deliver more effective, engaging coaching journeys online, so that you can shape meaningful, positive behavior to transform your clients’ lives.
References
- ^ Brown, S. W., & Grant, A. M. (2010). From GROW to GROUP: Theoretical issues and a practical model for group coaching in organizations. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 3(1), 30.
- ^ Mühlberger, M. D., & Traut-Mattausch, E. (2015). Leading to effectiveness: Comparing dyadic coaching and group coaching. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 51(2), 198.
