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Coaching

Building A CLST Coaching Collaborative: C3

Integrating the Science & Practice of Coaching

We represent a team of leadership researchers, coaches, educators, students, and consultants who have chosen to work together to foster the integration of both rigor and relevance with respect to advancing the science and practice of leadership coaching. The organizing principle for our collaborative is to strive to be an authentic representation of what we expect from those with whom we work and develop.

This means being intentional about our ongoing development in terms of building a generative, collaborative and professional coaching practice. We seek to continuously build our self-development leadership and professional coaching practice, which includes having a discipline for self-reflection, engaging in deliberate practice, setting hard and specific goals for improvement, and continuously learning from others across the spectrum of our coaching collaborative.

We work with individuals at all levels of leadership roles, as well as with individuals who identify as coaches, to foster the integration of high impact professional coaching into workplace and educational institutions, using research-based frameworks, techniques, and tools to support and accelerate leadership development. We seek not to replace current coaching certification programs, but to bring the entire coaching practice to what would qualify as a profession, driven towards high performance impact.

To learn more about coaching at the CLST and how to become involved, email [email protected].

Vision

To integrate the science and practice of professional leadership coaching by providing training and ongoing development support for coaches and leaders, while utilizing our learning collaborative to fully engage in applied scientific coaching research.

Mission

Integrating rigorous and validated training with ongoing high-quality research, our ultimate target is to support the development of leaders and their professional coaches, by first expanding their knowledge, and then deepening their understanding of how to effectively transform themselves and others to optimize both their development and performance.

Foster Peer Coaching Program

A UW community-based program to support individual development, collective learning and thriving

The University of Washington community is broad in its reach, scope, and expertise, but works towards a shared mission. Spread across three campuses and multiple facilities, it’s easy to become insulated, and yet, we are better together, learning from each other, collaborating, sharing experiences, different perspectives, wisdom and potential collaborations.

As the ways we do work continue to change and evolve, what endures is the powers of curiosity to drive ongoing learning, relationships to enhance wellbeing and belonging, collaboration, and leadership both formal and informal, to build an engaged community that can continue to a have positive impact on a broad range of stakeholders, so that participants are not only developing individually, but thriving together. Peer group coaching is unique in its potential to foster peer connections that support the development of each member, while also helping build the coaching skills and mindset that foster curiosity, demonstrate understanding, empathy, and support growth. Peer group coaching provides a place for leaders to develop and practice peer coaching skills that are transferrable to the workplace and other relationships, and a way to’ build powerful and enduring collaborations.

Overview

Building on a successful inaugural cohort developed by Center for Leadership & Strategic Thinking (CLST) at the Foster School of Business and supported by the Foster Purpose grants, this program is an evidence-based program to advance the development of leaders using a peer-based coaching curriculum, training and peer coaching model. Drawing on research from coaching psychology, developmental psychology, organizational change, and leadership studies, the program gives participants practical skills they can apply immediately, well beyond formal coaching conversations. At its core, this program invites participants to build the skills and mindset that supports a shift from advice-giving to inquiry, from assumptions to curiosity, and in doing so support their own development and the development of their peers.

This program builds your capacity to:

  • Ask better questions and listen more deeply in your daily interactions, one-on-ones, and across a variety of other situations and context.
  • Support strategic and innovative thinking by creating space for reflection and inviting other perspectives before jumping to action.
  • Build psychological safety and trust that effective teams and working relationships require to be optimally effective.
  • Cultivate relationships that becomes sources of peer-learning, resources for problem-solving and growth, and points of connection across the UW system.
  • Navigate complexity and ambiguity with curiosity, empathy, and confidence.
  • Engage in problem-solving with a discovery mindset that supports innovation and change.
  • Grow as a leader while supporting the growth of your peers and other colleagues you engage with inside UW and externally.

Program Overview

Participants are matched into groups of ~6 peers and meet for five 90-minute facilitated sessions over approximately six months, beginning with a coaching skills training workshop. The program is available in-person, hybrid, and virtual formats to accommodate a range of schedules and locations. Post-program, participants in the inaugural cohort reported increases in coaching conversation skills, leadership behaviors, psychological capital, and connection to colleagues across the community.

Now Enrolling: Summer 2026 Cohort
The CLST is launching a new cohort open to faculty and staff across the University of Washington. To learn more, contact Kaeleen Drummey.

Register here

Learn more about the pilot program

In 2022, the Dean’s Office at the UW Foster School of Business launched the Foster Purpose Grants to provide seed funding for projects that advance the Foster Purpose. The Center for Leadership & Strategic Thinking (CLST) was awarded a grant to create and pilot a peer group coaching program designed for faculty and staff in the Foster School of Business. The CLST subsequently received an additional Purpose Grant to extend the program to include training participants as peer group facilitators.

The inaugural cohort of 28 participants, representing program managers, advisors, counselors, directors, and associate and assistant deans from across a variety of units, roles, and leadership levels within the Foster School, met in six peer coaching groups over approximately six months.

What participants reported
Data from a pilot of this program within the Foster school of Business indicated that participants in peer coaching experienced an increase in coaching conversation skills, a growth in their professional development, increased coaching conversation skill confidence, and in increased connection their community. On average, participants experienced an increase in their authentic, transformational and transactional leader behaviors, and an increase in positive psychological resources, defined as Psychological Capital (hope, efficacy, resiliency, and optimism). as measured in pre- and post-program surveys.

Participants also described:

  • Experiencing empathy
  • Expanding their perspectives
  • Gaining new skills
  • Resolving workplace issues
  • Connecting around shared challenges
  • Applying coaching skills, including supporting peers in guiding themselves — well outside of their peer coaching group