Developing content for your group coaching program is vitally important if you truly want to help your participants learn and grow.  When you build on the design or content, the delivery falls into place quite easily.

Having masterful content ensures you know exactly what your ideal client wants from your group coaching program and you know how to make sure she gets it.  You develop masterful content based on what you want your learners to see, hear, think, feel, know and do after being in your group coaching program.  Listen to this audio and you'll discover the keys to designing masterful content that guarantees a content-rich, insightful and transformational group coaching experience specifically for your ideal client.

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Wendy Y. Bailey - Master Certified Group Coach

Wendy Y. Bailey is a Master Certified Group Coach, Certified Experienced Coach and Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner. Affectionately called "WendyY" by her business associates, colleagues and friends, she's also the Creator and Founder of Group Coaching Mastery - Master Group Coaching with an NLP Twist. WendyY helps coaches, speakers and trainers learn to create, design, market, fill and deliver bestselling group coaching programs using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (persuasive marketing, language skills and influence strategies.) More about Group Coaching Mastery programs

Going to the movies is one of my favorite outings.  Just the other day I went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie.  As usual, I wanted to be thoroughly entertained and escape into a world of mystery and adventure.

Well, I was totally entertained!  Holmes is portrayed as quite an interesting character who doesn't bathe often and lives in a constant state of clutter.  Fortunately, these things don't seem to have much impact on his keen deductive reasoning skills or on his ability to successfully win a fight every single time.  Amazing!  It's all about having a great process!

Group coaching works very much the same way and these steps work together:

• You must have a group coaching process.
• You must follow your group coaching process.
• You must know your group coaching process at all times.

I spent several years in telecommunications and IT managing processes.  I learned that a process is very simply a way of creating structure or organization by identifying all of the steps.  In group coaching, your process is the strategy or methodology you use to coach in your groups.  Your organized strategy (or process) determines the content flow to your group learners.  You see how your content excites and ignites your group.  You identify your learners' challenges more readily.   You learn how to coach your learners more deeply.  You gotta have a process!

The key to having a solid process or strategy is for it to be 1-repeatable and 2-without holes or flaws.  Follow your process again and again to identify the holes.  Your process will have flaws that you'll only recognize when you follow it consistently.  In my IT days, we called that continuous improvement.  Today, I say look for ways to constantly evolve your process and make it better for your community of learners. Your coaching clients will give you great feedback to support you along the way.  All you have to do is ask.  Pay attention to their responses and incorporate their worthwhile input to make your group coaching strategy better.  There is always room for going deeper and improving your process for your learners if you just listen.

It's not enough to have a process and follow it.  You must also know your process very well so you can call it forth and coach on your process in the moment — in an instant, to support your coaching clients in a group.  Repeat your process consistently and you'll find yourself standing confidently in your area of expertise.  You won't have to look for answers to questions or solutions to challenges in your written notes because you have the answers right there inside because you know your process.  That's pretty kewl, right?!

Do you have a group coaching process?  Do you follow it?  What steps do you take to refine your group coaching process?   I'd love to hear your comments.

Wendy Y. Bailey - Master Certified Group Coach

Wendy Y. Bailey is a Master Certified Group Coach, Certified Experienced Coach and Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practictioner. Affectionately called "WendyY" by her business associates, colleagues and friends, she's also the Creator and Founder of Group Coaching Mastery - Master Group Coaching with an NLP Twist. WendyY helps coaches, speakers and trainers learn to create, design, market, fill and deliver bestselling group coaching programs using Neuro-Linguistic Programming (persuasive marketing, language skills and influence strategies.) More about Group Coaching Mastery programs

I visited my mom some time ago and spent a day with her. My cousin came over to visit with her 15-month old daughter. First of all, let me just say - the little girl is just absolutely gorgeous. You know, all 15-month olds are gorgeous anyway. But the thing that I noticed about her as she was running around and, experiencing everything - she was soaking it all in.

She loved the fact that her shoes made a sound on my mom’s hardwood floors. She was fascinated by that. She was fascinated too by the difference between the kitchen floor and the floor in the den area. It's almost like a little step up, so she kept running up and back down the step. She seemed delightfully intrigued by this difference between the sounds her baby sneakers made on the kitchen tile versus the hardwood floor.

I started clapping my hands and sensed her reaction immediately.  She saw the movement. She heard the claps. She thought, “Wow! It is time for me to move.” And she started moving, dancing, bending her knees, raising her hands. Then I put on music, and boy she just grinned and oh, she just had such a ball with it all.

The learners in our group coaching programs are very much the same way.

They’re waiting on us to invite them into a sensory learning experience that inspires them to absorb our content.

Share your content so your learners soak it all in, using:

• Pictures, diagrams, charts and maps
  If you're delivering virtual groups, help your learners using your carefully crafted instructions to guide them.  It's actually fun because a few of your learners may be artistically challenged.  It's an individual experience and important for each learner to absorb it in their own way.

• Sound and music
  Clickers, clappers, melodies and voice are all powerful instruments to help magnify your points. I actually used the sound of the Staples Easy Button to anchor a concept in one of my sessions.  Remember, you're creating a unique memory your learners will always remember.

• Metaphors and stories
  Paint a picture of your content with delightful and appropriate metaphors.  Share heartwarming stories of life and business to illustrate your points.  You'll find your learners are inspired and motivated by their learning.

This was a fun post for me to write so you'll see more on this topic.  Leave me a comment and let me know how you help your learners to soak it all in.