If you’ve read any of the Harry Potter books, you’ll know Harry has many resources for coaching for success. He has teachers, his godfather, and lots of magical sources. He also has an exceptional peer group, and that makes all the difference for him. It can make all the difference for your clients as well–not just in how successful they become, but in how successful they stay.

Coaching for success can be helped or hindered by your client’s peer group

In terms of a client’s results, peer group plays two parts. One part is to help form and support the internal psychology that drives his behavior and emotions. The other part is to contribute to coaching for success by confirming whatever successes he achieves and encouraging further effort in that same direction.

Like many of your clients, Harry Potter starts out with no source of coaching for success. He has no peer group to speak of, a poor opinion of himself and his abilities, and little confidence that he can change anything important to him. Sound like any clients you know? When Harry makes friends with some fellow students, suddenly he has peers who believe in him and work together with him. With that strong peer group, his successes and his confidence in his abilities grow by leaps and bounds. Conversely, when Harry has a falling out with his friends, i.e. his peer group, his successes don’t mean much to him and he loses the drive to achieve more.

Help your client find a good peer group

When you are coaching for success, help your client find a peer group that will challenge him to be his best and that will help him in reaching his goals. That may mean helping him find acceptable ways to spend less time with family or friends who are important to him in his life. Some of those people may be like the “dementors” that Harry Potter has to cope with–people who suck the life and enthusiasm out of anyone they come into contact with. Your client can’t afford to maintain those relationships. He may also need to let go of some relationships that don’t fit comfortably with the person he is becoming. He must forge new alliances with people who challenge him to be better and more successful, who believe in him and who will participate in his growth.

For Harry Potter, the help and support he gets from his peer group is a matter of life and death. For your clients, it’s probably not an actual life and death situation, but the wrong peer group can cost your client his dreams, and the right one can help make them happen. When you’re coaching for success, which outcome do you want for your client? Who’s in your peer group?

Dorine G Kramer
JTS Advisors Strategy and Accountability Coach