NOTE: The Coaching Commons and ReciproCoach have partnered to offer opportunities for coaching to Coaching Commons’ guest contributors and commenters. This generous offer is possible through a grant from The Harnisch Foundation. What is ReciproCoach? Read Kerryn’s story …

The Idea of Reciprocal Coaching - by Kerryn Griffiths

It’s a familiar story. I gave up my day-job to pursue full-time coaching only to discover that making it as a coach was much harder than the training school made out! I was living on savings that were dwindling quickly and had few resources with which to build a business, the most important of which was a coach of my own – I couldn’t afford one myself!

Eventually I plucked up the courage to go to my local ICF meeting and “confess” that I didn’t have enough money to pay for a coach. Low and behold, more than ten other coaches were in the same boat! I stuck my hand up and volunteered to organise us into coach-client relationships, so that each person gave 12 sessions of coaching to one coach, in return for receiving 12 sessions from another coach.

When word got out that this was happening in Brisbane (Australia), coaches with and without tight budgets from the rest of Australia (and then the rest of the world) crept out of the woodwork to ask to have a coach in return for coaching a coach too.

At this time, I did it all on paper… but when I reached the point when I was printing out more than 100 applications and trying to keep up to 40 coach profiles and preferences in my head at one time, I designed a website for the purpose.

Inspired by the popularity of online dating websites and eBay, Contra Coaching (the original name of the program) went live online. Full of technical bugs and glitches that the first ReciproCoaches must be commended for putting up with, this website was the prototype for the ReciproCoach website you see today that is now home to almost 400 coaches from around the world!

Now the vision has changed.

With MCCs, PCCs, ACCs, as well as certified IAC and AC coaches, and every coach in between among the ReciproCoach ranks, reciprocal coaching is no longer about saving money. ReciproCoach has become a community of coaches who believe in walking their talk, and take on coaching at least once a year for their own ongoing personal and professional development.

ReciproCoaches challenge their own willingness to consider different perspectives and possibilities AND allow themselves to be coached by another coach who may employ very different coaching methods than they have experienced to date.

The ReciproCoach vision? For every coach in the world to have their own coach, at least once a year.

As a bare essential for any coaches’ personal and professional development, the energy exchange (as opposed to a financial exchange) makes this possible for everyone. There are no excuses left – except time – but even that is something you can work on with your new coach!

Do you have the conviction to become a ReciproCoach and walk the talk too?

There is a round starting in early December, and several rounds starting early in 2010.

Sign up for free here: http://www.ReciproCoach.com

Kerryn Griffiths
Global ReciproCoach Coordinator