Peer coaching, a mentoring process for individuals of equal status, is a highly effective, but underused professional development tool. This book provides the first rigorously researched and road tested three-part model for fostering peer coaching relationships at work.

This guide trains teachers to help each other refine their classroom strategies and tailor them to 21st Century needs. Insights include how peer coaching involves much more than just one teacher offering another advice, how a coaching relationship is first built on trust, and then on the willingness to take risks, and why peer coaching should focus on adapting teaching methods to the technological future of education.

How can educators work together more effectively to improve professional practice in a way that enhances student performance? The answer, says author Pam Robbins, involves combining collaborative activities and peer coaching—teachers supporting teachers. This book describes how any school can implement these proven practices and experience positive changes in teaching, school culture, and learning. Robbins explains how to develop a collaborative, learning-focused culture and build trust among colleagues; offers strategies for participating in difficult conversations that yield useful feedback; clarifies how to develop, sustain, and evaluate peer coaching efforts; and showcases exemplary peer coaching practices used in real schools. She also includes coaching tools, scenarios, process guidelines, and reflection questions that make it easier to transfer these ideas into a school setting. Peer coaching offers a job-embedded learning strategy; it’s a valuable structure for supporting schoolwide and districtwide priorities such as analyzing data, improving instruction, integrating technology, and implementing standards. In short, it creates an effective way to support the growth of every teacher and enrich learning processes in any school. Pam Robbins is a former teacher, coach, director of professional development, and school leader. She consults with high-performing and low-performing districts and designs and conducts workshops on leadership, school culture, organizational change, mentoring, and peer coaching.

The author describes how schools can implement a peer coaching program that serves as a professional support group.

THE MUST-HAVE GUIDE TO MENTORING For managers. For entry level. For executives. For entrepreneurs. For everyone. With job mobility increasing, globalization expanding, and technology advancing, you need more than a steady job and a solid network to keep your career on track. You need mentors--to learn and to grow--whether you're just starting out, are firmly established, or at the top of your profession. Everyone has something to learn, and everyone has something to teach. Introducing Strategic Relationships at Work: The first comprehensive mentoring guide written specifically for 21st-century career building, this entrepreneurial approach to work relationships addresses the key issues of our time: Job Mobility: How to make personal connections you can transfer from job to job Globalization: What you can learn from new mentors in a larger global context Technology: How to engage with the latest advances in social media and technology Pace of Change: What you can do to keep up--with a little help from your friends Using simple tools and proven strategies, this essential guide shows you how to leverage the relationships you already have to map out a new developmental network that grows with your career. You'll learn the secrets of companies with excellent developmental cultures, including IBM, Procter & Gamble, Sodexo, and KPMG. You'll discover the most effective ways to develop new talent in your workplace through formal programs that leverage mentors, sponsors, coaches, reverse mentors, and mentoring circles. You'll learn how leaders create work cultures where both formal and informal mentoring thrive. And you'll find handy charts and checklists to assess your work, your relationships, and your career path. MENTORING FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM Whether you plan to move in and out of the workforce, make lateral or nontraditional career moves, or simply want to learn or teach new skills, Strategic Relationships at Work will help you take control of your destiny--and build the career or company that you envision. This powerful guide helps you leverage your interpersonal skills using the most effective tools available. You'll find ready-to-use checklists and worksheets, self-assessments, refl ective exercises, graphs, charts, and other visual tools to map out your own personal network of developers inside and outside of work. This is how you build a career that grows along with you. This is Strategic Relationships at Work. "Receiving and providing mentoring are crucial for professional growth at any age, but too often we leave these learning opportunities to chance. This much-needed book offers a smart, practical plan for taking charge of our own development by building authentic relationships throughout our careers." -- JOHN R. RYAN, President and CEO, Center for Creative Leadership "Murphy and Kram show us why you can't go it alone--no matter how talented or hardworking you are--and that the best route to cultivating great mentors is learning to be a great mentee." -- SHEILA HEEN, coauthor of Thanks for the Feedback and Difficult Conversations "A perennial resource for people at all phases of their careers." -- RANDY EMELO, President and CEO, Triple Creek River "Life is tough enough--make it easier by reading this book and following the authors' insights." -- RICHARD BOYATZIS, PhD, coauthor of Primal Leadership

The Coaching Organization: A Strategy for Developing Leaders is the only book to provide practical advice on how a company can strategically manage coaching initiatives that strengthen organizations and enhance employee engagement and growth. Authors James M. Hunt and Joseph R. Weintraub offer best practices to help organizations deploy developmental coaching that drives leadership and employee effectiveness. Key Features: Offers a strategic view of how to manage developmental coaching: Coaching initiatives are often deployed on an ad hoc and unmanaged basis and as such often yield disappointing results. This book provides a guide for the strategic management of coaching initiatives including executive coaching, internal coaching, coaching by managers, and peer coaching, so as to maximize their impact and value. Presents credible and practical examples of successful coaching initiatives: Case-based research conducted by leading academics and practitioners illustrates how organizations can link coaching initiatives and organizational success. Case studies from organizations such as Whirlpool, Wachovia, Children′s Hospital Boston, and Citizens Financial Group offer clear guidance on the organizational use of coaching. Identifies assessment tools for developing and maintaining coaching initiatives: Organizational and coaching competency tools are provided to help design appropriate organizational coaching initiatives, select expert coaches, and train internal peer coaches and coaching managers. In addition, the book offers no-cost and low-cost ideas to help organizations spend less money while achieving better results. Intended Audience: This is an excellent text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Human Resource Management, Human Resource Development, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Organizational Effectiveness, Executive Coaching, and Leadership. It is also a valuable resource for executives, managers, and human resource professionals.

You don't need to be intimidated by the idea of being somebody's coach. Yes, many people make coaching their profession: executive coaches, business coaches, parent coaches, life coaches, athletic coaches, trainers, counselors, consultants, therapists, and others. For sure, they've had plenty of education and training to prepare them for these careers. But the idea that people can coach each other while they're trying to be more effective is not revolutionary. For example, experienced school teachers have always done this to help others who are new to the profession. And moms have been getting together to share their know-how with each other for, well, forever. Today, we call this helping activity "peer coaching." Coaching someone who is working to improve a skill is more like being a friend or a mentor. You do it because you care about someone else's success. Very likely the person who needs your help is someone you know well, such as a friend or a coworker. The purpose of this book is to give you a few ideas to make your coaching interactions more effective.