Team Coaching

10.06.2022

Team Coach and  Development Consultant Ffion Jones gives an overview on how team coaching works and the impact it can have in organisations.

How is team coaching different to one-to-one?

Coaching one-to-one is a very powerful way to help someone reflect upon issues that affect their
performance and well-being. But just focusing on the individual and what is going on for them
internally, is only part of the picture. All really effective coaching addresses not only the
individual, but the systems, of which they are a part. Sustainable individual change can often only
be achieved, if the systems around them also change to support and reinforce new behaviours,
priorities and ways of thinking.

Research shows that individual performance is far more dependent on the team environment
than had previously been thought. Moreover, high individual performance by one or more people
in a team doesn’t necessarily lead to high performance overall – indeed, sometimes the opposite
may be the case.

What can Team coaching do?

· Develop a climate of psychological safety, conducive to collective learning. Team members
learn to have open dialogue, to share concerns and fears and to work with constructive,
empathetic challenge. As a result they build deeper levels of trust and higher quality of
collaboration.
· Gain greater clarity, coherence and consistency around priorities – what’s most important for
the team to achieve collectively. One of the signs that a team is successful in this is that
individuals routinely put the team priorities ahead of their own personal task priorities.
· Better understand the processes that underlie how the team works, and identify ways to
improve these. Team coaching helps the team question and validate its own assumptions,
with the result that radically new ways of working frequently emerge
· Manage all three types of conflict (task, process and relationship) constructively – so that
conflict becomes a driver of performance, rather than a barrier.
· Understand and value the contribution each member can make at their best, and how to
support each other in creating circumstances, where they can play to their strengths
· Explore the team culture and help it evolve in line with changing environment, while still
enabling everyone to retain their personal authenticity
· Increase the level of creativity and innovation
· Manage its reputation within and outside the organization
· Improve the effectiveness of communication, both between team members and with external
stakeholders
· Have a stronger sense of shared purpose
· Become more resilient to setbacks
· Adjust its temporal orientation (achieving a better balance between attention to the past,
present, near future and long-term future)

When is team coaching the most effective?

· A new team is being formed and needs to hit the ground running
· A key team is not working as effectively as it could, and the team leader and team members
agree that they want to do better
· A long-established team has lost its sparkle and wants to regain it
· A top team wants to become a role model for the rest of the organisation

What team coaching can do in all these cases is to re-energise, refocus and create collective
habits of success.

If you would like more information on how team coaching might be a great fit for your organisation, contact pip@insight-hrc.co.uk