There is no “I” in Team: Team Coaching for High Performance

Are you a member or leader of a team?  In the workplace, a team could be comprised of the executive officers of a company, a departmental leadership team, a special project team or any number of other teams that come together to accomplish shared goals.  Teams are everywhere in organizational life today.  

And yet, only 10% of teams rate themselves as high performing. There is an urgent need for a better understanding of how teams can function at their best, and a growing awareness of how team coaching can provide that.  Team coaching is a powerful tool to drive business results.
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What is team coaching?  In team coaching, a certified team coach facilitates and coaches the team as a system or entity unto itself.  Each team has its own unique and special personality, reflecting the contributions of the individuals on the team and the environment in which it operates.  A team coach understands the system dynamics of a team and can help the team address issues that prevent it from achieving high productivity.

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A team coaching engagement might start with a team assessment that can help the group understand its strengths and opportunities for improvement.  The coach typically facilitates an all-day team kick-off to debrief the results of the assessment and create the basic foundational agreements for the team, such as shared goals and behavioral norms.  The team and its coach meet monthly thereafter to advance their interpersonal and business goals, and then re-assess at the end of six months to measure team improvements and identify improvements that are still needed.

Results of team coaching are seen in achieving business goals, creating a more positive organizational culture and encouraging individuals to reach their potential.  

Here are some events and conditions that point to the need for team coaching:

1. Mergers/acquisitions/reorganizations: When a new executive team is formed through the combination of separate organizations, the time is ripe for creating behavioral norms, identifying common business goals and aligning all hands to those goals.  A team coach can help create a powerful alliance among a newly formed executive or leadership team that can help the organization reach its intended benefits of the reorganization.  
2. Underperforming: A team that is not meeting its business goals needs an external coach to help re-align toward goals, set deadlines and monitor progress.
3. Newly formed teams: This is the best time to engage a team coach to help you do it right the first time and commit to performance excellence from the beginning.
4. Mission critical: Any team that works on projects that are crucial to the business needs team coaching.  Examples include all senior leadership teams, project teams where large amounts of money are at stake and healthcare teams.
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It’s no wonder that team coaching is the fastest growing segment of organizational development initiatives.  Are you ready to amp up your team’s performance? Team coaching might be for you.

Kristin Robertson is a certified by Team Coaching International (TCI) as a Certified Team Performance Coach, and is able to conduct TCI’s Team Diagnostic Assessment.  Kristin offers a complimentary Team Leader View assessment to anyone interested in exploring the benefits of team coaching. To schedule your assessment, please contact her at kristin@brioleadership.com.
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You can read more about mindfulness on our blog here and here.