Team coaching

Finding your team’s voice: a path to organizational success

Team coaching aims to build positivity and alignment within a team. I help teams within organizations find ways to work together more effectively. I support teams in their efforts to find their own voice and determine whether it’s the voice that suits them to face future challenges. In team coaching, I don’t coach individuals – I coach the whole team, principally through exercises, discussions, reading, and homework.

Team coaching helps teams move from ineffective or toxic internal communications that result in:

• Low team morale or burnout
• Conflict avoidance and non-resolution
• Lack of creativity and productivity
• Confusion about roles on a team

to a coaching culture in which:

• Curiosity builds bridges
• Conflict is a sign that something new is trying to happen
• An intelligent team is a productive team
• Change is inevitable, so the team leads the change
• “Leader” is a role shared within the system

How does it work?

I provide a mirror to enable team members to see what is happening among them so that the team understands its strengths. I challenge the team to leverage its strengths to address areas where improvement is needed. Because each team situation is different, the nature or methodology of my interventions will vary. Accordingly, I develop tailor-made proposals based on each team’s needs, always following a four-step approach: diagnostics; team coaching activities; integration; and assessment. For team coaching projects, I partner with The Leadership Circle, a highly-regarded global leadership assessment and development company.

To get started, a few questions

The diagnostic phase starts with an assessment of the leader and/or the team. A cultural survey is often incorporated as well, to enhance efficiency of the coaching process. Here are some questions to consider when deciding whether team coaching is right for your team:

• What is the team’s principal challenge today?
• What are you (the team) already good at, and how do you want to become better?
• In what areas is the team least effective?
• What changes are you looking for?
• Who is your audience?

For leaders of teams in transition:

• How comfortable are you with the way your team is changing?
• How actively involved are you in navigating your team’s transformation?
• How empowered do you feel in this change?
• How empowered do you want to be?
• How actively involved do you want to be?
• What are the outcomes you can’t satisfy?