What is Team Coaching? And how to spot when it's required

What is Team Coaching?

Team coaching is a holistic enterprise that seeks to help a collection of individuals reach their full potential across multiple domains.

Coaching focuses on developing a group of people who are engaged, healthy and successful, and able to work together in harmony.

Coaching helps team members find a common purpose and align their goals.

It attempts to foster intrinsic motivation, improve sustainability and deliver superior outcomes.

Coaches help the team leader overcome sticking points that could prevent the team from succeeding, such as unhealthy behaviour patterns or embedded conflict.

How Does Team Coaching Differ From Group Coaching?

Team and group coaching are not the same. However, human resources staff and other business leaders can become confused on this point.

Team coaching is about challenging teams to reach their maximum potential.

Coaches insert themselves into team dynamics, observe sticking points or issues, and then help individual members overcome them to enhance performance and help them achieve organisational goals.

Group coaching, on the other hand, is about using the resources of individuals working towards a particular aim but with different performance goals.

Hence, team coaching sees the team as the client, while group coaching focuses on individuals.

Of course, this distinction is subtle and, in practice, these two forms of coaching appear similar.

Both focus on enhancing performance, and both are interested in getting the most out of your human resources.

But team coaching is a fundamentally communal approach and sees the team as a separate entity from the individuals comprising it.

What Does Team Coaching Involve?

The form team coaching takes depends on the precise goals of the organisation requesting it.

These can be diverse and overlapping. Examples include:

• Helping to establish better working relationships between team members
• Leveraging the full potential of the team by avoiding strict structures and paradigms
• Enabling the team to clearly define and understand its mission in relation to corporate objectives
• Establishing clear and consistent team practices that make sense for the context
• Managing and resolving conflicts to improve safety, productivity and harmony
• Recognising that teams are more than the sum of their parts
• Creating a culture of transparency, enthusiasm and engagement

Who Benefits From Team Coaching?

Organisations of all types can benefit from team coaching but particularly those that rely on the joint enterprise of individuals working in complex environments.

Cross-cultural teams, for instance, can benefit tremendously from team coaching.

Coaches give the team leader tools to improve communication and boost cohesiveness, even if team members are distributed across the world or come from radically different backgrounds.

Family businesses can also benefit from team coaching. Coaches help them to overcome traditional family conflicts and move forwards with their objectives.

They show them how to effectively work with each other, improving team performance.

Virtual teams are another group that can benefit from team coaching significantly.

Coaching helps to unify members and increase loyalty and engagement.

Workers feel more connected to the mission and are motivated to help the firm they represent reach its goals.

Even military teams can benefit from team coaching. The ability to work together more effectively improves their capabilities on the battlefield and in non-combat operations.

Which Teams Need Team Coaching The Most? 

Certain teams need team coaching more than others.

The teams that need it most are those in which there is conflict, disengagement or failure to meet basic organisational goals.

However, there are other situations, too...

For instance, some teams may have excellent dynamics, but team members are suffering from burnout, perhaps because of a hectic schedule or intense demands on their time.

Other teams might have high engagement, but individual members don’t understand the new direction the organisation wants to take.

Teams have high performers, but appear unable to change direction on a new challenging project.

What Competencies Does An Effective Team Coach Require?

A team coach requires a deep understanding of the complex dynamics that arise when collections of individuals work together towards a shared aim.

They need to understand how work style, employment history, personal characteristics and wider organisational culture affect day-to-day interactions.

Great coaches quickly get to grips with the complex interplays between team members and how they affect a range of outcomes.

They then challenge teams to adjust their practices and show them techniques to improve competencies.

 Becoming a team coach requires exceptional powers of observation, attention, and social skills.

How can we help?

Team coaching is one of the most effective approaches for aligning and optimising the wider potential available from the whole group.

We understand that companies with engaged employees are more successful.

1ovmany offer individually tailored programs for your talent, created using our specialist outcome approach.

Our coaching team will help you focus on:

• Team Relationship building;
• Performance, Productivity, and Effectiveness;
• Team building workshops;
• Organisational Coaching;
• Collaboration and Co-ordination,

Helping you and your organisation harness the full potential from your teams and individuals.

Book your consultation now!