The gains from team coaching are huge: team members form a better understanding of their fellow team colleagues; they learn to respect each other and to build trust, they refocus on the task and objectives and are more likely to reach the full resources and talents they have available.
They find solutions to their problems, share experience and put in place foundations on which to further build their cooperation.
In short, a team coaching strengthens the team and allows enhanced performance in the long term.
The team as well as their leader learn a lot in such a process and they all grow together.
I consider I have done my job, when the team is independent, constructive and creative in the way they work together and I am not needed anymore.
The setting is carefully considered and always tailor-made. The content and team coaching frame depend on your needs. Spending time with you at the beginning and sometimes also interviewing each team member beforehand, is how you start moving.
The first team coaching session often takes place off-site for one or two days. It is then usually followed by one or more shorter meetings over a period of a few months or simply by a review after half a year to ensure sustainability.
I can also attend business meetings or listen in on conference calls and then convey my impressions to you and/or the team, as a basis for further learning. It depends on the setting and the agreements we have.
I can also offer an additional collaboration with external partners for in- or outdoor fun team-building activities in order to create playful experiences and memories and further strengthen bonding.
If I talk about team coaching and not team building or team development, it is because I have a certain approach to it which has proved to be very fruitful and more sustainable.
I approaches teams with the same posture I take when coaching leaders. I don’t know better than the team what is good for them.
I set a solid and safe framework, ask relevant questions, mirror what I perceive in some situations -for example when I feel there is an elephant in the room- and help the team to reflect on what is happening. It is a great learning for them and most teams I have worked with take over this reflective mode of operating in the way they work together later on.
I delegate a lot of the facilitation functions to the team not because I don´t want to do the job but because I give the teams the responsibility they deserve to tackle their own issues.
There are various reasons why a Team Coaching could be beneficial for you: