I've been practicing a form of coaching that I call Coaching 2.0. What is it that makes it different from other forms of group coaching and why should people be interested?

Well, to start with, group coaching is more economical than one on one coaching, certainly a meaningful factor, particularly in today's economy. But every coach practices group coaching. So?

Well, there are two mindsets that make this unique. The first is the underlying premise of Coaching 2.0, which is that each client participates as well as I do, both as client and coach. And the second premise is that I will lead the conversations in such a way that it stays on purpose and produces value for all.

There are three ways I lead a session. The first is somewhat standard. My coaching is fundamentally goal oriented, so we will look at people's progress or stumbling blocks on fulfilling their goals. Of course, no one is ever forced to participate, because in any group coaching session, you can ask for discretion, but you can't guarantee it. My experience in this matter is that people are extraordinarily generous. So when one person 'reports' on progress or no progress, others join in. My role is traditional. I use all the technology of conversations - listening, repeating, interpreting and so on.

The second is that I may look at a general area, let's say requests and lecture about it for a very few minutes and ask what participants see when they broach that topic; how are they about making requests; how are they about accepting, refusing or counter-offering. These conversations are lively, pointed and invariably produce breakthroughs for more than one client, perhaps in many goals or goal areas.

And the third is that we dive in without any lecture. For example, last night I simply read a quote from Frederick Brown, "A thing can look beautiful or romantic or inspiring only if the beauty or romance or inspiration is inside you. What you see is inside your head." And then open the conversation. Again, that can be very powerful and results in clients having breakthroughs.

This is a fast and fruitful way to coach.