Leadership preparation programs as well as professional development initiatives carry a heavy emphasis on knowledge and skills (Hargreaves, 2009; Møller, 2003; Scribner and Crow, 2012).  However, technical knowledge alone is not sufficient to help prepare principals in the development of a professional identity.

The purpose of this paper is to study how feedback and group coaching can contribute to and influence learning as part of personal and professional leadership development. The paper reflects the Swedish part of the EU-funded research project ‘Professional Learning through Reflection promoted by Feedback and Coaching‘(PROFLEC), with 10 participating countries. The project builds on the premises that feedback and group coaching can promote leaders reflection on their individual capabilities and actions in the practical circumstances they face in their contexts. In this respect, formal and informal continuous professional development (CPD) plays an important part in the professionalization of school leaders (Huber and Hiltman, 2011). Principals also need a valid and reliable system of feedback from which to understand and enhance their leadership (Goldring et al., 2009). However, research shows that even if principals are provided with valid and detailed feedback, the information is not enough to change principal behavior in meaningful ways. There is a risk of only focusing on positive elements of feedback to strengthen existing self-concept while denying or rationalizing negative feedback (Hattie and Timperley, 2007).

The Proflec project involves carrying out group coaching with school leaders. The group coaching is based on a self-administered, ICT-based, inventory integrated as part of the research project for school leaders.  The self-assessment exercise generates a personalised feedback report in a structured form. This feedback helps the participants to identify their individual strengths and weaknesses and suggests areas for improvement and will set the agenda for a workshop and group coaching activities. This is expected to promote reflection and personal leadership development which focuses on improving the participants’ motivation and competencies with respect to exercising leadership.

 The Proflec project serves several purposes. While carrying out feedback and group coaching in practice it aims at developing group coaching as a tool for improvement within the educational sector, and further, research within Proflec aim at understanding the different elements of coaching.The research questions reported on in this paper concern

• The role of feedback and group coaching as vehicles for personal and professional leadership development
• The role of the each of the different elements of the feedback and group coaching process used in Proflec

 Coaching may be conceptualized in a number of ways, including mentoring, peer support, counseling and socialization (Bush and Coleman, 1995). The guiding definition of coaching used in the Proflec project is based on Kilburg (2007) who defines coaching as: a helping relationship formed between a client with managerial authority in an organisation and a consultant who uses a wide variety of behavioral techniques and methods to help the client achieve a mutually identified set of goals, within a formally defined coaching agreement (Kilburg 2007, p 28). 

Proflec takes a performance based approach to coaching, focusing on practice and performance in relation to a school leader’s everyday life in school. As a consequence, carrying out coaching of school leaders here aims at (a) clearly reflecting life in schools, and (b) taking into consideration various types of feedback and use reflection processes in order to influence learning which in its turn will improve practices and performance. 

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