Coaching communities: the six kinds, and how to choose one

This guide describes each kind, shows them side by side, and gives you questions to ask before you join. It names no community and ranks none. The right one depends on what you want from it.

What do you want from a community?

Start here, before you look at any community. Coaches usually want one of five things.

• Coaching hours and feedback. You want to coach, be coached and hear how it went.
• Help with a credential. You want people on the same path: the same exam, the same log of hours, the same deadlines.
• A place to think about client work. You want to talk through hard sessions with coaches who understand.
• Clients and a business. You want to learn how other coaches find clients and set prices.
• Company. Coaching is often lonely work. You want colleagues.

One community rarely does all five well. Many coaches belong to two: one for the craft and one for the business.

The six kinds, side by side

Alumni communities

Many training schools keep a community for their students and graduates. Everyone in it learned the same method and uses the same words, so you can start a conversation without explaining yourself.

The limit is the same thing. Everyone learned what you learned. An alumni community is a good first home, and many coaches add a second community later, to meet coaches who trained in a different way.

Ask: how many people posted last week, and how many of them finished the course more than a year ago?

Groups that a professional body runs

The professional bodies for coaching run local chapters, interest groups and events for their members. These are good places to hear about changes to standards and credentials, and to meet experienced coaches near you.

Many of these groups are for paying members of the body. Some events are open to everyone. Check before you pay for a membership that you don't yet need for a credential.

Ask: what can I attend before I become a member?

Peer coaching platforms

On a peer coaching platform, coaches coach each other. You find another coach, agree a time, coach them and are coached by them. The purpose is the session, and conversation comes second.

This kind suits a coach who needs hours, wants feedback or wants to keep their skills sharp between clients. It asks more of you than a group chat does. You have to turn up and coach. If you are new to the idea, read what peer coaching is and how to find another coach to work with.

Ask: how many coaches are active now, and how fast does a new member get a first session?

Groups for one niche, country or language

These are small groups with one thing in common: executive coaching, health coaching, coaches in one country, coaches who work in one language. The advice is specific, and the time zones match.

Small groups are fragile. Many depend on one organiser. Look at when the last post was before you count on the group.

Ask: who runs it, and what happened here in the last month?

Open groups on social media

Large open groups are easy to join and quick to answer. Post a question in the morning and you often have ten replies by the afternoon.

Often nobody checks those replies. Some groups also fill with coaches who sell to other coaches. Use these groups for quick questions and for a sense of what other coaches talk about. For a question about ethics or a credential, go to the source or to a supervisor. Coaching supervision explained covers where to take the hard questions about client work.

Ask: what are the group's rules on selling, and does anyone enforce them?

Paid memberships and masterminds

A paid membership gives you structure: a programme, a leader and a small group that meets on a schedule. A fee can also mean that the members take it seriously.

Look at what the fee buys. Some memberships are a community. Some are the first step of a sales path that leads to a more expensive programme. Neither is wrong, but you should know which one you are joining.

Ask: what do members get each month, and what is the next thing I will be offered?

Eight questions to ask before you join

1. What do I want from this community in the next three months?
2. Who is in it, and are they at my stage or a step ahead?
3. What happened here last week?
4. What does it cost, in money and in hours?
5. What are the rules on selling to other members?
6. Who runs it, and how do they earn from it?
7. What does it expect from me?
8. How easy is it to leave?

A good community answers most of these on its public page. If you can't find the answers before you join, ask. How fast and how plainly someone replies tells you a lot.

How many communities should you join?

Fewer than you think. A community helps in proportion to how much you take part, and few people can take part in six. Choose one for the thing you need most now. Add a second when a different need appears. Leave a community when you notice that you only read it.