There is a growing interest in the subject of Team Coaching, with a wide range of articles, training programmes and practitioners,  But what is team coaching – and how could it be of use to your team ?

In team coaching, the whole team participates in one or more coaching sessions working together towards a common goal within a team or organisational context.  The coach helps to create a safe space for all the members of the team, ensures that there is alignment around the topic and helps the group to reflect on their dynamics and what they are learning from the process. Team coaching can cover any topic that is relevant to the team, often with a focus on how the team as a whole can operate more effectively.  A useful model of typical topics – which are relevant to all teams – is the 4 “P”s :   Purpose, Personal, People and Process. 

Purpose is often a good place to start, as it underpins the rest.  The basic question is – why does this team exist ? Exploring this leads into a wider discussion around who the stakeholders are, the mandate for the team, how success is measured and what needs to be communicated within the wider organisation to ensure alignment, and to update progress.  Although the purpose of a team is often explicit, there may be differences in how this is understood by the individuals, who may also have a personal bias or greater commitment to particular parts of this. 

Personal gets to the heart of by exploring and developing a consensus among the team around how they will work together to ensure that each member of the team is heard and is able to contribute to their best. This involves the establishment of a sense of psychological safety within the team which has been proved to be a key factor in what makes some teams particularly high performing. Also within the scope of personal is the recognition of the team dynamics, which may include its history,  previous relationships with its managers and how it is seen by the wider organization which may impact on how the individuals interact with each other.

This is further explored when we look at People.  This considers the contribution that each individual makes to the team  -  both on a formal basis associated with their role,  and on an informal basis related to the role they play within the team.  A very helpful exercise to understand this better is to conduct a team feedback session in which each individual identifies what each of their colleagues contributes to the success of the team, and what they could do differently to make the team even more successful.  This is also a powerful tool for building trust within the team, by enabling people to give and receive feedback in front of their colleagues.

The final P is Process – which looks at how the team is structured and how are decisions taken. Being explicit about this often surfaces many assumptions which may differ between the team members.  This can lead onto a useful conversation around how conflict is resolved – as some level of conflict is natural to an engaged team,  so what is important is that there is a recognised way in which conflicts can be brought into the open and resolved, rather than being ignored with the risk of lack of commitment or passive aggressive behaviour.

As with any form of coaching, the team coach has a clear role to play at the start, during the coaching session and at the end.   At the start,  their role is to contract with the team what the topic under discussion is, and to explore with them how they would know If they had been able to move the discussion forward, and what impact this would have on them as a team.

During the session the coach holds the space, ensuring that the conversation is happening,  that everyone is able to contribute, and that the discussion is in the direction of the original goal.  If it starts to move to a different topic, the coach may indicate this to the group and ask whether they agree to modify the objective to include this – or whether they prefer to stay with the original topic.   If appropriate, the coach may also ask the team to comment on the internal dynamic within the team – and explore with them how this may relate to the topic under discussion.

The coach also keeps an eye on the time and any breaks that are included and then as the session draws to a close, ensures that there is enough time to explore what the team has learned about themselves as individuals and about the team as a whole.   This leads onto a discussion about what they will do with this learning and what the specific actions and accountabilities are.

Effective team coaching is challenging, as the coach needs to be able to interact with several different individuals as well as their collective presence, and as an outsider to the group may be used as an outlet for frustration with the process or wider issues with the organisation.  Understanding the business context is often helpful – not to provide advice but to help build a trusted relationship with the team through an understanding that the coach has lived through similar challenges.