Team Coaching: A Series
Leadership coaching doesn't have to be a one-on-one process. Just like coaching a sports team, coaching a work team involves honing both individual skill and group talent.
Team coaching is the process of a single coach working with a team of leaders or an existing department. Team coaching provides groups and teams the opportunity to go beyond their current abilities. By working with the team in the context of its everyday work and challenges, a coach introduces new ideas and see opportunities for improving team performance.
As with individual coaching, team coaching should be focused on results. We work with the team to use their relationships, shared experience and interpersonal awareness in a way that supports their goals rather than detracts from them.
But not all skilled coaches work with teams. In addition to the skills and perspectives needed for one-on-one coaching, what should you expect from a team coach?
- A focus on the whole. The goal is to facilitate learning for the team as a whole. The team coach should find ways for team members to gain insight and practice different behaviors in the context of the team and it's goals. Individual assessment and feedback may be a component of the team coaching, but it is always related to improving team effectiveness.
- A systems-thinking perspective. Coaches must understand the complex organizational dynamics in which the team operates.
- Knowledge that the past is influencing the present. Team coaches understand that team members continue to operate from past experiences and do not change immediately until it is apparent that a new way is both safe and more beneficial than the old way.
- Awareness that most teams possess one or more of the most common dysfunctions including: The absence of trust, fear of conflict, a lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and inattention to results.
Team coaching enables an empowering culture within the organization to grow. It helps teams to work in unison to make their vision a reality. This translates to higher employee productivity, effective leadership development, greater company morale and higher profitability rates over the short- and long-term.
Benefits to Team Members Who Receive Team Coaching and Training:
- Improved team performance and a focus on results
- A greater sense of trust and respect
- An increase in motivation
- A clear relationship between the team's daily work and the organization's mission
- An increase in creative problem solving
- The ability to engage in appropriate debate
