2. What is Team Coaching?
Team coaching is a structured approach, where a coach works with an entire team to enhance performance, communication, and collaboration. It fosters a collective mindset, emphasising mutual accountability, and a unified purpose.
The team coaches role is to hold the space for the team, to explore their ways of working, identifying challenges and opportunities that the team have both within, and with their wider stakeholders.
3. How does team coaching work?
Teams are the function in which 60-70% of all 'work' is completed in organisations, and are increasingly cross functional and global in nature.
Team coaching usually starts with understanding is this truly a team? by identifying if there is a shared purpose that the people come together to serve.
The Core principles of team coaching is to empower the team to;
Understand their purpose
Have clear and aligned goals
Have clear role alignment
Build Trust and Psychological Safety
Commit to their journey and goals
Become a learning, and reflective team
4. How to implement a team coaching journey?
Teams usually have between 6-12 core members, and before we begin assessing
team readiness is critical. Initial discovery meetings will ensure that team coaching starts at the right time for the team.
Understanding the current
challenges the team faces, may include some one to one stakeholder meetings, as well as perhaps using some
psychometric tests such as;
Gallup strengths
Engage coach
Personalised questionnaires designed with the sponsor
Coaching can then begin with a 'team session' to agree the challenges, opportunities and journey that we will be entering.
The coaching journey will be fully personalised to each teams needs, and may include elements such as;
Team building
Team facilitation
Group coaching
All of which will support the journey of the team towards understanding and maximising their
collective strengths
Integrating learning into daily work practice becoming the new 'normal' for the team is critical, so that the work and progress may occur when we are 'apart'. Cultures are then re-defined and teams start to truly move towards being high performing.
Evaluation is also key to the 'team coaching' process. Setting clear goals at the start, allows the team to check in with their progress, and continue to refine their journey, and the coaching needs at each step.
5. Conclusion
Team coaching is a powerful tool to build high performing and value adding teams. By focussing on the teams purpose, shared goals, trust, open communication and collaborations teams can reach higher levels of performance and also satisfaction. When teams are aligned in their purpose, and embrace individuals strengths they contribute positively to all stakeholders and support workplace culture, and ultimately organisational performance.
