10+ Ways to Help You Find Coaching Community!

Coaching can be lonely work sometimes. Many of us work alone from home offices so we don't have those regular interactions with colleagues or bump into people regularly on the bus/car/train/walking route to and from work every day.

Then, when we do go out into the world professionally, it's to network or run a workshop where we have to be super-professional - representing our businesses.

So, where can we find those relaxed business interactions - where we can talk about our jobs, how things are going and ask questions? Where can we go where someone will understand - without always having to have our "game face" on?

Well here are 10+ Places You Can Find Coaching Community:

1. The Co-Active Network - This area is a universal gathering place for coaches to assemble in one central community. Simply register as a Co-Active Network Member, then mingle online with fellow coaches, ask questions or answer other people's questions! There are niche and geographic communities to choose from or just be part of the main community.
2. OUR Facebook Group Coaches Helping Coaches is now over 12,000 members, has just celebrated it's two year anniversary and is extremely active!
3. LinkedIn Coaching Groups. There are many LinkedIn Groups for Coaches - each one is different. Some are run by coaching schools, some by coach-serving businesses, some by coaching organizations. People post questions and start discussions and share what's going on with them. Here's our 10 LinkedIn Groups to consider joining if you're a coach!
4. Coaching Groups on Facebook. There are also many Coaching Groups and Pages on Facebook, and each has their own community, rules and memberships. An example for CTI Coaches is KickAss CTI Coaches with over 4000 members. Just do a search.
5. ReciproCoach is an international community of coaches who engage in reciprocal coaching, mentoring and supervision for their own personal and professional development. It's FREE to join (you then pay to join "rounds" of coaching where you coach and are coached). What are you waiting for?
6. Take a course! Meet fellow coaches and like-minded people by taking a course - whether it's for official CCEUs (Continuing Coach Education Units) which count towards your accreditation or simply for fun and learning. (For ideas you could see our post with 9 ways to get CCEUs - from our end of 2018 blog post here)
7. Attend your local ICF Chapter Meetings. Most chapters allow guests to attend, so you can always check it out before joining. Find your local ICF chapter here >>
   - Don't have a local ICF Chapter? You could always set one up!
   - You could also check in with your coaching school and ask what groups they know of/could recommend.
8. Attend a Coaching-Specific Conference or Event! See our list of 2019 Coaching Conferences and Events here >> You'll get to meet other coaches, hang out in the breaks and evenings with like-minded people, learn and grow and maybe even make some potential joint venture connections!
9. ICF Communities of Practice. Each community offers a quarterly webinar, and some other form of ongoing community - like a Linkedin or Facebook Group, as well as other occasional programming.
   

Am I missing a useful community for coaches? Tell us below!

Finally, Why Not Create Your Own Community?

10. Do you know a few coaches locally to you? Why not set up your regular monthly get-together for coaches? You get to set your own goals for the group (eg. will it be purely social, for business support, more of a book club, a mastermind group?) and parameters - how often, where and for how long you meet. Will you keep it small and intimate - or will it grow? Who knows - but I guarantee you will enjoy yourself!

Contributing Author:

Emma-Louise Elsey is passionate about kindness, coaching and personal development and has been coaching since 2003. She's the Founder and Former CEO of The Coaching Tools Company, and Founder of Fierce Kindness. Originally a project and relationship manager for Fortune 500 companies she loves to create coaching tools and exercises, including lots of free coaching tools for you here at The Coaching Tools Company. Through Fierce Kindness she helps people create a life they love, make a difference and learn to be kind to themselves.

She'd love you to sign-up for the Fierce Kindness Newsletter and grab a free How to Be Kind to Yourself Workbook. Or connect personally on Linkedin, Facebook or Instagram.

Learn more about Emma-Louise & see all their articles here >>