One-on-one peer coaching
for humans with high aspirations

There are two areas I really get value from and I can’t choose between them! Firstly, having a co-founder for life who has alternate points of view and can tease out things I’m not consciously aware of which is SO helpful for solving hard problems. Secondly, I get to practise coaching consistently in a ‘low-stakes environment’, which is phenomenally helpful to me as a developing manager and for supporting more effectively those who I interact with in my work or personal life. I wish I had it a long time ago – it’s a skill everyone can learn and no one is born good at!

One of the main benefits I've experienced is having someone question my assumptions and see problems and opportunities from a different perspective. This has changed how I’ve acted in the company for the better. Our sessions helped us both take ownership of problems and realise that blaming others is unproductive. Accountability is the other key benefit – if I had to write a journal, I would not be as committed (and those commitments compound!). Lastly, sharing with each other real practical solutions that we’ve not thought about even if they were staring us in the face.

Having conversations with a like-minded individual experiencing similar challenges and being able to communicate impartially has enabled me to think more clearly about my challenges and facilitated a rate of change which I would not have experienced on my own. This has led to changes in the business – I became bolder and braver and accepted less the status quo. It’s resulted in me stepping up to the plate, taking ownership and responsibility more bravely. If RunYourself no longer existed, I'd be very disappointed!

Where it’s been most helpful to me is in making better decisions faster (time is valuable!) – during our sessions, I move from 50-60% to 100% conviction. I’ve also had an accelerated shift in my understanding of the purpose behind what I’m doing and what matters to me – having that scheduled time to think with questions from someone else is what helped bring that clarity. The RunYourself session structure is key to how impactful our sessions are, especially being forced to reflect more broadly at the start and to note down actionable commitments at the end.

The main benefit to me has been having someone, to whom I’m not connected to in any other way, be a soundboard and provide accountability. They are detached from from the rest of your life, but care about you. Journaling is powerful but it’s a static page, here you have an engaged human who is acting as a mirror. In practical terms, I have a much better understanding of how to solve professional problems, I understand myself a lot better, and I’m in a much better routine in life (the commitments and a 3 week session cadence help with that).

The key benefit to me has been getting clarity on how I am personally and thinking through the challenges and issues I'm facing. Because we have this time scheduled, I can't ignore them. Talking out loud adds that extra bit of focus. I also find that being forced to set actions and next steps is so helpful. And having made those commitments to my peer coach, it means I'm more likely to complete them. Lastly, recording thoughts in the app makes everything easier, otherwise the notes would go into my bank of notes and I'd probably lose them.

Having dedicated reflection time helps me understand better what I'm going through and to deal better with feelings I'm often not aware of. Having my peer coach ask me questions and share experiences helps me deal with friction and challenges in a way that I feel good about. I can also see how practising coaching in the sessions transfers into the rest of my life – in the past I had a bad habit of interrupting when someone was speaking, now I’m mostly listening and asking questions with the intent of understanding rather than responding.

The main benefit to me has been having an outlet for a stream of consciousness and clarity of thought. It’s an affordable way to access a safe space that you’d normally find in working with a professional coach or a therapist. There’s also a sense of camaraderie that builds up over time because you're being open and vulnerable with each other. In practical terms, it's helped build more accountability and intentionality into my life. I believe that being intentional about how one is spending their weeks and months requires having a good infrastructure in place.