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Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo, co-authors of articles on leadership and team coaching

Leading through Uncertainty: The Path to Agility and Resilience

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This article was originally published in Portuguese in Líder Magazine, in the fall 2025 issue.

The online version was later published on the magazine’s website. The original article can be consulted here link.

Geopolitical and global trade tensions, technological disruption with the advancement of artificial intelligence and climate change are among the main risks identified by organisations in 2025.

These factors have a direct impact on leadership, business models and organisational structures. Leaders seek to develop organisations that are more agile and resilient to change.

But how to sustain a strategic advantage of the organisation in the long term? How to face the uncertainty and discomfort of change? And, in this process, how to transform resistance into experimentation, internal competition and silos into recognition of interdependencies, taking advantage of synergies between areas and turning disconnection into authentic collaboration?

There is no immediate answer or single model or solution.

After participating as research partners in the book Team of Teams Coaching: Using a teaming approach to increase business impact, by Professor Peter Hawkins and Dr Catherine Carr, published July 2025, we have developed learning and practices in leadership and organisational development projects. We seek to develop a “team of teams”: a fluid, networked, collaborative organisation with shared responsibility, prepared to face complexity and provide greater agility to organisations.

To achieve this agility, a clear and inspiring purpose is crucial. Values that translate into actions. Goals that align everyone, both on paper and in practice. It is important to prioritise the experience and well-being of employees, because motivated and empowered teams generate stronger connections between areas.
It is also essential to develop systemic awareness, continually identifying stakeholders and systems, to create alliances and collaborations that provide real value to everyone.

The coaching process usually begins with coaching the leadership team and a joint review of the purpose, vision and strategy from the perspective of the various stakeholders and systems. A prior systemic diagnosis identifies strengths, critical areas and opportunities.

We work on the “why” of the organisation, the coherence of the strategy, the clarity of processes and responsibilities, the quality of internal relationships between areas and the opportunities to develop relationships with the different stakeholders.

Subsequently, the coaching process expands its support to the different functional teams, focusing on interdependencies and mutual responsibility. It takes into account the transformation and transition challenges typical of the different life cycles of organisations and their connection with the challenges of the ecosystem.

This intentional approach supports a culture, language, communication and internal dynamics that leverage collective intelligence, along with a strategy that flows and evolves in search of creative responses to change, in a continuous learning process.

Systemic team coaching requires constant experimentation. In the course of work, each team and organisation discovers what works and shapes its collective authenticity, learning, adapting and creating new ways to generate value.

Authors: Fátima Ribeiro and Susana Azevedo

ICF Panama invitation to a presentation of global research on team coaching and stakeholders

Navigating Complexity: How Team Coaching Transforms Organisations

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Event held on Saturday, August 30 in Panama City,

Today’s organisations face an increasingly complex and interconnected business environment, which requires new structuring and team leadership strategies. To thrive, it’s crucial that your teams are more than the sum of their parts. The ability to collaborate quickly and agilely with all interested parties can be a decisive differentiating factor compared to other organisations.

In this event, we explore the key challenges facing leaders and teams today and in the future. We analyse the growing relevance of teamwork, the various internal dynamics and how teams and leaders can be more effective and better prepared to respond to future challenges, operating with greater flexibility.

We address how a Systemic Team Approach is critical to navigating complexity, breaking down silos, and fostering dynamic, cross-functional collaboration. We explore some of the key findings from the Team of Teams Research Report and will introduce Systemic Team of Teams Coaching (STOTC), a framework developed by Professor Peter Hawkins and Dr Catherine Carr.

ICF Panama group gathered at a meeting on team and stakeholder coaching

Colleagues celebrating a result with a high five

Team Coaching: A Systemic Perspective

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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, generate greater 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.

From my career as a leader in organisational contexts, team development is an important focus in my work as a teacher, in executive coaching, and in systemic team coaching.

As team coaches, we understand that the team as a whole is our client and that our role is to work with each team considering its system and context, encouraging “the team to be more than the sum of its parts”, so that each member is empowered, committed and collaborates with others, considering their unique purpose and vision of the future.

The team exists to serve a purpose, “which precedes the team and is the reason why it was created” (Hawkins, 2017).  Discovering the purpose thus involves the team understanding who it serves and the value it creates for its different interest groups or stakeholders, considering both the internal stakeholders, including the organisation as a whole, and the various external stakeholders, such as: customers, suppliers, strategic allies and the community.

This seemingly simple exercise involves an “outside-in” approach, a key principle of the systemic team coaching methodology developed by Professor Peter Hawkins. Doing it in depth, so that it is understood and internalized by all team members, promotes greater team alignment.

With a defined purpose, the team more effectively develops its team map, which includes, among others, its working agreements, what is acceptable and what is not, and how the team wants to relate to each other, its future vision, its objectives, its KPIs, roles and responsibilities. This work brings clarity and transparency and boosts performance.

From my experience, although many leaders believe that team alignment exists, we have verified that in most teams the purpose, vision or objectives of the team as a whole (different from the individual ones) lack clarity or a shared understanding among its members. This makes communication and collaboration difficult among them and with their main stakeholders.

The current context is complex and changing and implies a constant hiring and re-contracting of expectations. The team map, with its rules and agreements, is a dynamic instrument that must be reviewed at different team meetings to confirm that understanding is maintained or if changes are applied to ensure alignment. These team moments enhance relationships, connections and more efficient processes.

Executives and teams feel that they need to do more with less and that time does not allow them to stop. But we know that it is precisely this conscious pause that allows them to gain perspective, clarify expectations, rehire when necessary and be more agile at all times.

A story that I always remember is that of “Alice in Wonderland”, specifically the moment when Alice asks the Cat the way and he answers that “he will always get somewhere.” The important thing is to define and be clear about where you want to go.

Working on the personal dynamics of the team, trust and psychological safety, and the interdependencies between different areas is another factor that has a great impact on the performance and well-being of the teams.

In his recent book “Team of Teams Coaching“, Professor Peter Hawkins and Dr. Catherine Carr explore an integrated approach to systemic team coaching with organisational transformation. This approach can be implemented from two routes. One route is the incremental journey, which begins with Team Coaching of the Leadership Team or Management Team and expands to various teams in the organisation, and the other route is a planned organisational transformation that involves a “big-bang” approach and a culture change with the integration of the systemic approach to team coaching throughout the organisation system.

Team Coaching requires experimentation and development of mental models. As coaches we learn with teams what works and what doesn’t work, and we challenge ourselves on the journey of growth. Together, we create and implement changes to address what emerges at every moment. And it is in this development process that good teams become great, and great teams manage to defy the odds.

Author: Fátima Ribeiro

The author is PCC (ICF Professional Certified Coach), Executive Coach and Systemic Team Coach, and member of ICF Panama.

Fuentes:

  • Hawkins, P. (2017). Leadership team coaching: Developing collective transformational leadership. Kogan Page Publishers.
  • Hawkins, P., & Carr, C. (2025). Team of Teams Coaching: Using a Teaming Approach to Increase Business Impact. Kogan Page Publishers.