Why team coaching?

Whether it’s an executive team or a project team, organizations invest in and rely on teams to accomplish projects, manage complex processes, make decisions, and deliver results. They do this for a simple reason: When they work well, teams are capable of making better decisions and accomplishing more than any individual alone.

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.” — Katzenbach and Smith

And yet functioning as a team brings its own challenges – conflict, decision making, group think, organizational alignment, power dynamics, collective assumptions and blind spots. We can’t take a team’s ability to function for granted.

 

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” — Michael Jordan

 

What is team coaching?

The role of a team coach is to partner with a team to bring awareness to how they are being — and in particular, to what may be assumed, reflexive, or habitual — and how they want or need to be in order to achieve their shared purpose in alignment with their values.

Coaching respects and draws out the expertise and capabilities of team members, cultivating their agency, accountability, and collective identity. Each coaching engagement is designed in consultation with the team’s sponsor, leader, and members to ensure relevance for the business and meet the team where they are.

Consider team coaching to:

• Support a new or re-structured team to navigate change, (re-)establish relationships, orient themselves to their roles and goals, and negotiate conflict and accountability
• Enable a team to see the benefits and costs of their patterns of interaction
• Re-energize an established team that has lost the wind in its sails
• Help any team more effectively address challenges and achieve its purpose

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