The Fundamentals of Group Coaching: Key Takeaways from Our Webinar

Moving from one-to-one coaching into group coaching is one of the most common, and most intimidating, transitions coaches make. This post breaks down what group coaching actually is, how it differs from team coaching, workshops, and masterminds, and includes the five steps to creating an impactful group coaching program, the elements of a cohesive coaching cohort, and answers to the most common questions coaches ask when starting their first group.

‍

Team Coaching vs. Group Coaching: What's the Difference?

A lot of confusion around group coaching starts here.

Team coaching works with a specific type of group: one where all members are already working toward a shared, common goal. As the coach, you treat the team as a single entity, even though you draw on individual strengths, every action connects back to the team's collective objective(s).

Group coaching brings together a group of individuals who are each working toward their own individual goal, united by a shared interest or shared challenge. Participants may share values, but the outcomes are personalized to each person. This is often clearest when group members come from different companies or backgrounds entirely. The diversity of context (different industries, cultures, day-to-day realities) is part of what makes group coaching so powerful, because participants gain perspective they wouldn't get from people inside their own organization.

‍

What Group Coaching Is, and What It Isn't

Group coaching is frequently confused with three other formats: masterminds, workshops, and training. Here's the distinction:

• Not a mastermind. In a mastermind, participants take turns receiving advice from the group on a specific topic. Group coaching deliberately avoids advice-giving. Instead, together, the coach and the group help each participant reach their own conclusions, which builds confidence and develops a self-authoring mindset.
• Not a workshop or training. Workshops and trainings deliver predetermined content, agendas, and materials. In group coaching, the coach sets the structure and holds the space, but the content of each session comes from the group itself: their live challenges, their questions, their reflections.

This is also exactly why the transition from one-to-one to group coaching feels hard at first: many new group coaches instinctively want to perform or "do the coaching," when the real skill is trusting the group to generate its own wisdom and letting the coaching happen.

‍

Why Group Coaching? The Benefits for Coaches and Participants

For coaches, group coaching offers:

• More impact — participants coach each other, multiplying the value created in every session
• More income — you can coach more people in the same number of hours
• More time back — one session serves many clients at once
• Continuous learning — group coaches consistently report sharpening their own skills by coaching groups

‍

For participants, the benefits tend to fall into four categories:

1. Perspective — participants apply insights from others' situations to their own, reflecting on how others handle similar challenges
2. Connection — a peer network forms, reducing the isolation many professionals (especially founders and executives) experience
3. Courage — members practice asking powerful questions and giving/receiving challenge in a safe environment
4. New skills — participants develop real coaching skills themselves: deep listening, holding silence, observation, and reflection

‍

‍

Example Contexts for Group Coaching Programs

Group coaching programs tend to work best when built around a shared context or life stage. Common examples include:

• Professionals in career or life transition
• Underrepresented groups in a specific industry
• Job seekers or those re-entering the workforce (e.g., parents returning after time away)
• Graduate program cohorts
• Founders, executives, or functional groups (e.g., CTOs, healthcare founders)
• Empty nesters or other life-stage-specific groups

‍

‍

5 Steps to Creating an Impactful Group Coaching Program

1. Identify Your Audience
Build your group around a shared context. Participants relate more deeply and understand themselves more clearly when they're going through a similar experience. Define your program goals around that specific population's needs.

‍

2. Curate Your Groups Intentionally
Where possible, bring together people committed to their own growth and to the group. Set expectations clearly before the program starts: the time commitment, the level of engagement expected, and the fact that this is an active, sometimes vulnerable experience.

Two things to avoid when curating a group:

• Don't pull people from the same team (within an organization) as this can undermine psychological safety, since colleagues may hold back from sharing openly with each other.
• Avoid creating an "only": a single person with a difference (e.g. the only parent). If unavoidable, have a direct conversation with that person in advance so they can advocate for what they need.

‍

3. Structure Your Group for Success
Decide on format (hybrid, fully online), and if there's content involved, separate it from the coaching time itself so coaching sessions stay fully coaching. Let your "why" drive structural decisions:

• Program length should reflect how long it realistically takes to achieve the group's shared goal (e.g., job seekers need urgency; executives may need a full year).
• Session length: a useful rule of thumb is ~10 minutes per participant. six people for a 60-minute session, eight or nine for 90 minutes.
• Cadence: aim for at least twice a month to maintain connection; monthly can work for executive groups with less available time.
• Group size: there's no fixed "right" number. Even two participants can create a powerful group coaching experience. We recommend no more than 8, with 6 being a magic number for us!

‍

4. Educate Your Group Members
Most people have never experienced group coaching before, so they don't inherently know how to show up. Run an orientation session a few weeks before the program begins to set expectations: what coaching is (and isn't), what it means to adopt a coaching mindset, and what's needed to build a psychologically safe space, which is a shared responsibility, not just the coach's job.

‍

5. Get to Know Your Participants
If possible, meet each participant one-on-one for 15–20 minutes before the program starts to understand their goals. If that's not feasible, an onboarding questionnaire works well, asking what they want to walk away with, and what excites (or worries) them about a group format.

‍

The Elements of a Cohesive Group Coaching Cohort

Once a group begins meeting, certain dynamics need to be intentionally cultivated:

• Trust — built between each participant and the group, and between participants and the coach. Trust is the foundation that allows psychological safety to form.
• Insight — as trust grows, participants deepen their self-awareness. Coaches can prompt this directly: "What are you taking from this for yourself?"
• Inspiration — participants' stories and questions inspire one another, often sparking "that's absolutely true for me too" moments.
• Challenge — once trust and safety are established, members start to hold each other accountable respectfully "calling each other in" rather than out.
• Curiosity — the coaching mindset of staying with questions rather than giving answers remains central throughout.
• Movement (Action) — like a one-to-one session, group sessions should end with reflection and a concrete commitment to action.

‍

Frequently Asked Questions About Starting a Group Coaching Program

How do you get started as a group coach?
By noticing a shared need across existing one-to-one clients, then simply asking if they'd be interested in working through it together as a group. You don't need a large audience to start, even two or three participants is enough for a meaningful first cohort.

‍

How far in advance should you start marketing a group coaching program?
At least three to four months. Group coaching requires a real time commitment from participants (often 90 minutes, every two weeks), so people need enough lead time to plan around it.

‍

What tools are best for enrollment and onboarding forms?
Simple is the best! Airtable, Typeform, and even Google Forms are workable options. Since group coaching cohorts are intentionally small (often 6–8 people), there's rarely a need for complex infrastructure, unless you are working at scale within an organization.

‍

Should I record group coaching sessions?
This is a judgment call, and should always be the group's decision, not just the coach's. If you do use an AI note-taker or recording tool, be transparent about where the recording goes, who can access it, and continue checking in, especially after emotionally significant moments in a session.

‍

How do you handle a participant who undermines group trust?
Context matters, but the general approach is: address it one-on-one with the individual first, then decide how (or whether) to bring it back to the group, often anchored to the group's own stated agreements (e.g., "we agreed to keep cameras on," or "we agreed to hold each other accountable"). Handled well, these moments can become some of the most transformative in the entire program.

‍

‍

Ready to Build Your Own Group Coaching Program?

Group coaching sits at a unique intersection: the depth of real behavior change, combined with the connection and scale that one-to-one coaching can't offer. If you're ready to go deeper with templates, frameworks, and a full certification pathway — explore the Group Coaching Certification Program at Group Coaching HQ, or watch the full on-demand recording of this webinar for the complete walkthrough, including live Q&A.

‍