In the New Yorker, Atul Gawande writes about "coaches" for doctors, teachers, vocalists, you name it. NPR discussed it on Talk of the Nation. I couldn't help but think about coaches for college professors. In a way, we already have them, although the sports analogy usefully parses the distinction between "referee" and "coach" --- the latter is on your side, the former not more often than half the time (or less in a multi-person game!). But coaches for instruction would be another matter entirely. I was astonished at the level of care taken by the middle school teacher in her approach to instruction according to Gawande's piece. But the article also reveals that she had been losing gusto for the job, and the coaching reinvigorated her by enhancing the quality of her teaching.
Journal referees often seem like they're doing anything but enhancing the quality of research, but that's probably because of the natural of double or single-blind reviewing. If they communicated by speaking, I bet it'd be clearer that they're trying to improve the quality of your output.