Will Team Coaching Add Value to My Organisation and Deliver Growth?

Any business or faculty investing in an organisational development programme will ask the question; How will my business benefit?

As evidence emerges for team coaching, it suggests that not only does this intervention improve performance and effectiveness for the team in question but it also helps those reporting into, or collaborating with, the team in partnership.

Studies show there are three predominant factors that underline improved team performance from team coaching.

1. Allowing the team to co-create a purpose for why they were put together.

a. Identifying the values which are required and the mindset needed to achieve them

b. Recognise how the team is perceived by their direct stakeholders and by each other

c. Agree the goals aligned to their purpose that they are motivated to achieve

2. Providing an environment of psychological safety where team members are emboldened to have courage and respectfully challenge practices and decisions discussed by the team; being open and honest whilst giving healthy feedback.

3. Delivering enhanced team and individual learning through sharing knowledge, expertise and creating thought leadership.

Further evidence indicates as a response to team coaching there is;

• increased collaboration

• stronger relationships

• enhanced individual learning

• better communication and

• increased contribution within the team

So, what is team coaching and how is it different from other team activities?

There is consensus for a number of important criteria with regards to team coaching; the most defining of which appears to be establishing a relationship with a team over time i.e., not a one-off event.

Just like individual coaching which tends to roll over many sessions, team coaching cultivates a relationship, gains trust and shifts the dial to achieve greater insight and change whilst navigating a journey which is likely to include multiple landmarks and breaks.

Other key criteria include:

Establishing a common purpose supported by a common goal, owned by collective members and supporting individual and team learning.

Enabling more as a collective entity than could be achieved as an individual.

Acknowledging the connection of the team to the wider organisational ecosystem and their accountability to key stakeholders including the greater universal ecosystem.

Other team activities embrace;

• One -off team building events which tend to happen with new teams primarily to build relationships or with more mature teams to inject a sense of fun as an interlude to a strategic planning review or other such task. After the event, team members typically return to business-as-usual behaviours.

• Team facilitation where the facilitator plays an active part in helping the team to come to a conclusion with contributions to the discussion.

• Team consultancy which requires the consultant to impart knowledge and transfer skill sets to team members to enable them to adopt a process within the client’s environment.

Team coaching may include a facilitative approach and even implement a team building exercise; however, the coach is principally there to build a container around the team and empower members to create and own their own dialogue.

Which teams are most suited to team coaching?

Any team with a common purpose and shared values can benefit from team coaching.

Typically, teams range from executive teams and boards, senior leadership and management teams to account teams and networks of teams.

They can be locally based or geographically dispersed and range in size from 2 to ideally no more than 12.

So how will team coaching help my organisation to grow and add value?

Team coaching increases performance by developing greater interdependency and connection from team members, greater clarity and focus on what needs to be achieved and increased accountability by participants to deliver.

It builds team resilience by exploring in a safe environment, ambiguous and complex actions, creating a skill set for co-ordinating responses in uncertain times with a single voice.

It helps the adoption of strategic change events by allowing discussion with greater acceptance, in an environment of psychological safety where everybody’s voices are heard and the way forward is approved in a collaborative setting.

It brings systemic benefits by team members embracing similar practices when engaging with teams above and below, with associates and external communities. Encouraging feedback and collaboration with other organisations and recognising the consequential outcome to stakeholders of each and every decision made.

In performance terms, research has indicated that only a small percentage of teams are considered high performing, the majority languish in the category of poor performance, lagging or even derailing.

However, it’s acknowledged that customer-facing teams are more likely to be in the high performing range with teams that perform at the highest level having an economic benefit more than 20% greater than those poorest performing teams.

Acknowledgement: Widdowson, L. and Barbour, P.J. (2021). Building Top Performing Teams. London: Kogan Page.

9th May 2024, © AQUULA 2024.

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About the Author | LYNDA SIMMONS - AQUULA MANAGING DIRECTOR

AQUULA is a global executive leadership and systemic teams’ development agency. We specialise in c-suite, board, senior leadership, systemic team coaching and group dynamics with full consideration given to the wider organisational ecosystem.

Our interventions are evidence-based, using researched methods from leading institutional academics, business schools and coaching bodies on neuroscience, systems psychodynamics, behavioural change and humanistic psychology, personality profile assessments and team 360 diagnostics.

We bring personal leadership experience from international commercial and purpose-led organisations with a focus on delivering excellence and net positive impact on the world’s societies and their ecological footprint.

Systemic Team Coaching