Team Coaching: The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
This article was originally published in the newspaper “La Estrella” and is part of a biweekly column from the ICF Panama Chapter to disseminate what Professional Coaching is. It seeks to inform, create more awareness and differentiate professional coaching, in which the Coach is governed by ethical principles and is continually improving his or her skills.
See the original article in this link.
The team, as a work unit, is today a critical element for the success of almost any organisational effort. This is an assertion that very little can be questioned.
In the 2016 Deloitte Human Capital Trends study, the #1 concern among more than 7,000 companies (in more than 130 countries) was how to redesign the organisational structure for current conditions. The bottom line was to move to what Deloitte calls a “network of teams.” The pandemic has caused an amplification of this effect, making the effectiveness of work teams even more key to the success of the organisation.
This is why Team Coaching is an increasingly important modality in organisations to consistently and lastingly achieve a high level of performance, aligning teams around a collective purpose and objectives.
It is necessary for the whole to create more value than the sum of the parts, for each team member to take responsibility for their contribution (individual leadership), as well as for the functioning of the entire team (collective leadership). The team must be a learning team, where members, together, develop and adapt to the increasing speed of change and increasing complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity.
The Team Coach works with teams in real time, with a systemic perspective of the needs and challenges of stakeholders, to expand self-awareness, deepen capabilities and broaden abilities. In this way, the levels of effectiveness, cohesion, learning and performance can be transformed.
Other intervention modalities at the team level include: Facilitation, Training, “Team Building”, and Consulting. We will explore these and how they differ from Team Coaching. Each of these professional practices has value, and each is appropriate in certain circumstances. The important thing is to be clear at any given moment about what need we are trying to satisfy.
Team Facilitation: It serves to manage teamwork, in real time, in the implementation of a process or a tool, to achieve a goal. The facilitator promotes dialogue and clarity. Generally it is for a short period and the focus should be on the team collaborating to obtain the intended result.
Team Training: It is learning through reading, classes or exercises. The time is also short and increases knowledge in a specific area. It is, in essence, acquisition of new knowledge or development of skills.
“Team Building”: It works through games, simulations and other experiences organized during special events. It results in greater enthusiasm, cohesion, trust and respect among participants. The duration is even shorter and so is its impact.
Team Consulting: Led by an expert in the field, focused on proposing solutions and recommendations for implementation. The time is variable and is based on a work map that needs to be achieved to reach the desired goal.
Team Coaching: It is a medium to long-term process, in which the focus is on the team as a system, in which sustainable changes are promoted over time. The Coach works with the team in alliance, with regular interventions and/or work sessions. The Coach challenges the team to observe and reflect on how they are operating, and how these interaction patterns are affecting their performance. The Coach helps the team meet the needs of its “stakeholders” or interested parties, and accompanies it to expand the common purpose and vision. In response, the team makes specific adjustments to increase its strengths and develop areas of opportunity for improvement, integrating lessons learned. Team Coaching is different from Group Coaching, due to its deeper and more systemic intervention with the team as a whole.
Team Coaching, with increasing use worldwide for the development of teams and organisations, is thus a collective learning process, with the potential to have a transformative impact at the individual, intrapersonal, performance and results levels, and relationships and connections with interested parties, in integration with the organisational and global environment.
Authors:
Alberto Navarro and Fatima Ribeiro