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Team Coaching: A Systemic Perspective

July 13, 2025/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

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.

Poster of the Systemic Team Coaching workshop: Expanding Borders, with Susana Azevedo, Bianca Aichinger and Fátima Ribeiro

Systemic Team Coaching – Expanding Frontiers

August 10, 2022/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On August 9, from ICF Brasil Charter Chapter, in a workshop with more than 50 coaches from Brazil we shared our experience on Systemic Team Coaching.

Thank you to the ICF Brazil Charter Chapter for the opportunity to share and to all the participants who joined us!

Why Team Coaching?

May 31, 2022/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On May 18, from ICF Panama Chapter, in an event integrated into the international coaching week, we shared with coaches and executives from Latin America about Systemic Team Coaching.

Develop knowledge about team coaching, its importance today and how it differs from other interventions. Learn what to expect from a team coaching process and its benefits, through a real example.

Two people talking during a coaching session

Do we need to change for 2022?

November 28, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

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.

We live in a context in which change is no longer an event but a constant; in which stopping, thinking and consciously dedicating time to learning is increasingly important (as well as difficult due to the pace of life) to face the challenges of the future.

We are approaching the end of the 2021 year and I invite you to pause, reflect and integrate the lessons learned and plan for 2022.

How are the changes affecting us as individuals, families, teams and organisations?

What do we see and credit? What thoughts inhabit us? What beliefs are we focusing on?
How do we work and relate? What alliances, relationships and connections are we building?
Who are we being at different times, with different people and in different contexts?

Bringing awareness to how we feel, think, and are impacting our people of interest is important in a process of learning and change.

Complementarily validate our perception, with the perception of others, in periodic feedback and feedforward actions (suggestions for improvement) from our people of interest.

Having identified our values, talents, aspirations, patterns, environments in which we flourish, reactions and the impact on others, brings us a higher level of self-knowledge and self-awareness and allows us to clarify our strengths and weaknesses, perceive what differentiates us, what internal barriers we perceive, what resources we need and what we want to learn to enhance our value proposition considering the opportunities and threats of the context.

Identifying our triggers and perceiving where the stimuli that impact us come from helps us choose the behaviours that best serve our objectives, and not use emotional volatility as a tool for self-management and in the management of others.

Where are we on the curve of change? In denial, in resistance, in acceptance, in developing capabilities, or committed, investing time and resources in the process?

And what happens in our teams and organisations? How are they reacting to daily challenges, uncertainty and change? What are we looking at and co-creating? What value are we creating?

Environments of trust, psychological safety, high standards and responsibility, in which error is part of the learning process, are conducive to learning, taking risks and consequently more prepared for change as a constant. Conversely, environments of high control, micromanagement and low psychological security are related to anxiety and stress in change situations.

Having identified what communications we are having the majority of our time is also crucial in the context of change. Are we in the inform, say and ask? In persuading and negotiating? In co-creating and transforming? What mix of the three do we currently have and which one would we like or need to have?

The purpose of an organisation is changing, from creating value for shareholders to creating value for all stakeholders. What value are we creating for our internal and external stakeholders? What would our collaborators, teams, clients, suppliers and other stakeholders tell us about the path we are traveling and that we have to travel? What can we not stop paying attention to today, tomorrow and the future, in this context of change as a constant?

Increasingly, the management of polarities is a constant. Some examples of polarities we may be navigating are: results and well-being; today, tomorrow and the future; management and innovation; be strategic and operational; individuality and diversity. The current challenge is to manage both polarities simultaneously. It is shared leadership. It is developing a systemic vision, reinforcing relationships, connections and alliances.

An individual, executive, group or team coaching process supports, among others, creating new possibilities from the purpose and vision of the future, identifying patterns, adopting a perspective of curiosity, promoting creativity, trust, experimentation and responsibility. A professional coach, according to their specialty, has tools to support you on this path.

Author: Fátima Ribeiro

The author is a Coach in Professional Development, Leadership and Teams processes, ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

A professional leading a team working session beside a whiteboard

Developing Leaders as Coaches

September 19, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

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 three main Coaching modalities used in organisations are:

External coach, professional with training in coaching who is hired by the organisation for specific processes on a one-time or continuous basis.
Internal coach, professional with training in coaching and who practices it within a single organisation, being part of its staff.
Leader Coach, manager or supervisor who uses tools and coaching skills in his role as a leader.

Some of the challenges of the leader as coach are:

How can I effectively coach all my collaborators individually in the limited time I have on a daily basis?
How can I do this “virtually”?
How can I continually improve my skills?
How do I use coaching tools with my team collectively so they can apply them to each other and we can create a culture of team development?

To develop as a leader as coach, the leader needs to have specific training for this purpose, which allows the development and application of coaching competencies in the organisation in an ethical and professional manner.

The basis for coaching training are the 8 competencies defined by the ICF – International Coaching Federation, divided into 4 large groups:

Foundational Competencies or Foundations
1. Demonstrate ethical practice
2. Embody a coaching mindset
3. Co-Create the relationship
4. Establish and maintain agreements
5. Cultivate trust and security
6. Maintain presence
7. Communicate effectively
8. Actively listen
9. Evoke awareness
10. Cultivate learning and growth
11. Facilitate the growth of each client

This is a very brief description of the competencies by the author for the purposes of this article, and for a broader and more precise definition we recommend consulting them on the ICF website:

Demonstrate ethical practice, understanding and consistently applying coaching ethics and standards.
Embody a Coaching mentality that is open, curious, flexible and focused on the coachee.
Establish clear agreements with the coachee, and with the different stakeholders, where applicable, about the relationship and coaching conversations, process, plans and goals, among others.
Cultivate trust and security, creating in partnership with the coachee a safe and supportive environment that allows them to share freely, in a relationship of mutual respect and trust.
Maintain presence, giving your full attention to the coachee, using an open, flexible, grounded and confident style.
Active listening, focused on what the Coachee is or is not saying, for complete understanding in the context of the Coachee’s systems, supporting the client’s self-expression.
Evoke awareness, facilitating the coachee’s understanding and learning through the use of tools and techniques such as powerful questions, silence, metaphors or analogies.
Facilitate growth, to transform learning, knowledge and vision into action, promoting coachee autonomy.

For a more effective development of coaching skills, support in the training process with professional coaches, mentors and/or supervisors, and internally with peers and sponsors that promote the development of a coaching culture in organisations contributes.

Leaders, through the use of coaching tools, contribute to change in culture, promoting a focus on solutions, not problems. They also promote the development of communication and relationships, and an improvement in the trust and commitment of their collaborators. Lastly, the use of coaching tools helps employees become empowered, focus on solutions, and seek support to solve problems themselves.

International studies show that coaching is key in developing high-performance teams.

Author: Fatima Ribeiro

The author is ACC (ICF Associated Certified Coach), Coach in professional development, leadership and teams processes and member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama.

Tigo Business invitation to Fátima Ribeiro's conference on team management

Coaching Tools in Team Management

September 10, 2021/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On September 9, 2021, I collaborated with TIGO Business with the conference “Coaching Tools in Team Management” for the SME segment with transmission for 9 markets (Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay and El Salvador).

Coaching is a creative process and the focus is on the future, on developing solutions.

Key coaching competencies such as establishing trust, being present, developing effective communication and facilitating learning and results are very important in the current hyperconnected context, with greater volatility, complexity and uncertainty.

In this conference we explore how leaders can use coaching tools in managing their teams, exploring tools that contribute to enhancing results and taking care of the well-being of teams, supporting leaders and entrepreneurs to face the challenges of today and the future.

Thanks to TIGO Business for the opportunity and to all the participants who joined us!

Exploring the Contribution of Systemic Coaching

August 4, 2021/in Events/by Fátima Ribeiro

On August 4, 2021, I participated in a discussion organized by ICF Chapter Panama whose main objectives were:

Explore the contribution of systemic coaching, from two different perspectives.
Analyse/reflect how systemic coaching can impact people, processes and results in organisations.

It was an opening of perspectives from the field of systemic coaching, which allowed participants to learn about two different views of systemic coaching, and interact in a collaborative learning space.

Thanks to the participants who joined us!

A team sharing ideas on sticky notes during a collaborative session

Psychological safety and learning from mistakes

May 3, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

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 concept of Psychological Safety popularized by Amy C. Edmondson, a professor at Harvard University in her book Teaming, refers to the belief shared by members of a work team that, within the team, there is a safe environment to take risks and admit mistakes. Not to say that there should be no consequences for errors, but that errors can be admitted in an environment of psychological safety and at the same time comply with the organisation’s standards and controls. This is the way we can truly learn from our mistakes, find the root cause and creatively focus on solutions.

The responsibility for creating this feeling of psychological security in work teams falls mainly on the leaders of the organisations.

Through team coaching we can work with organisational leaders and their teams to raise awareness of the existing level of psychological safety and implement actions for its development. Team coaching can help facilitate spaces for conversation and feedback, develop trust in teams through observation and intervention methodologies that promote self-awareness, release of tension, critical self-assessment of performance, and recognition of worth, among others.

We can also support leaders to deploy their competencies as leaders who coach, through active listening and direct communication, a creative approach to visualizing options, developing solutions and integrating lessons learned.

In his 2011 article, Strategies to Learn from Failure, Dr. Edmondson, talks about creating an organisational culture where mistakes are seen as a source of learning, encouraging teams to detect, analyse and even experiment to learn from their mistakes. A leader at a technology company said: “We are in the discovery business, and the faster we fail, the faster we succeed.”

In this sense, in the aforementioned article, we talk about “The Spectrum of Reasons for Failure”:

Reasons with the greatest reason for Individual Responsibility:

Deviation: An individual CHOOSES to violate a prescribed process or procedure.
Inattention: An individual INADVERTENTLY deviates from existing specifications.

Reasons with some Individual Responsibility:

Lack of Skill: An individual DOES NOT HAVE the skills, conditions or training to perform a task.
Inadequate Process: A competent individual adheres to a prescribed process that is INADEQUATE.
Challenging Task: An individual is faced with a task TOO DIFFICULT to be performed reliably every time.

Reasons with little or no Individual Responsibility:

Process Complexity: A process composed of many elements suffers BREAKS when it finds new interactions with other elements.
Uncertainty: Lack of clarity about future events causes people to take APPARENTLY REASONABLE actions that produce undesired results.
Testing Hypotheses: An experiment to prove that an idea or design is successful fails.
Exploratory Testing: An experiment conducted to expand knowledge and investigate a possibility leads to an undesired result.

It is important to emphasise that this is a spectrum and there is no clear and defined border between each of these reasons. The idea is not to find guilty people, but to explore the reasons for the failure. Having knowledge of this spectrum helps to more consciously explore the root cause, find appropriate solutions and implement them in an organisational development process.

The leader can apply coaching competencies in a conversation of exploration and creative reflection between leader and collaborator, using open questions that explore the personal or systematic causes of failure, in an environment of psychological safety in which the focus is on integrating learning, promoting the development of people and processes and finding solutions that create value and sustainable results for all Stakeholders. Team coaching can support organisations in creating a culture of learning and responsibility.

Authors:

Alberto Navarro, He is an Executive Coach and Team Coach, credentialed as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC) by ICF. Vice President of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama Chapter.

Fátima Ribeiro, He is a Coach in professional development, leadership and team processes, credentialed as an Associated Certified Coach (ACC) by ICF. Member of the Board of Directors of ICF Panama Chapter.

A screen reflected in a professional's glasses

Agility and Coaching

March 22, 2021/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

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.

How do we look at and understand the world around us?

Everything we perceive passes through our the mindset, mindset, which can be defined as a combination of attitudes, beliefs and values that influence our behaviours, daily actions and the way we learn. As mentioned in the study conducted by Ashley Buchanan Margaret L. Kern, our mindset subconsciously affects the way we think, act, and even how we perceive future possibilities. However, mental changes can be generated consciously and in appropriate contexts that could improve one’s own and collective well-being.

Psychologist C Dweek talks in her book “Mindset: the new psychology of success” about 2 types of mentalities. The fixed mindset in which people believe their abilities are innate and cannot change or improve, therefore they fear challenges, give up easily when there are obstacles, and see the success of others as a threat. On the other hand, in the growth mindset these people believe that they can develop their skills through practice and effort, enjoying challenges, seeing obstacles or failures as learning opportunities and successful people as sources of inspiration.

C Dweek explains that in his research he found organisations and managers with a growth mindset, in which employees say they feel more empowered, more committed and that the company values creativity, innovation and teamwork. In organisations with a fixed mindset, there is also talk of creativity and innovation, however, when something does not work as expected someone must pay the price.

There are frameworks or reference frameworks that encompass agile principles and practices that allow companies to increase creativity, innovation, adapting quickly and effectively to the demands of the VICA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world.

The success of implementing these frameworks: Lean-Agile, requires leaders to have a growth mindset, which some frameworks often call the Lean-Agile mindset. This type of mentality allows us to drive the necessary transformation of the organisation, improving culture and business agility.

Through coaching, leaders can be accompanied to evolve from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset that offers great potential to generate changes at an individual level that impact the entire system.

Through executive coaching, we can support the development of leaders with a mindset focused on agile principles or practices, exploring values and beliefs (BE), mental models and cognitive structures (THINK) and/or working on what is visible, at the level of practices, behaviours and perceptions (DO).

The work of coaching can be done from the outside (what is visible and perceived), from the behaviours and perceptions inward to obtain sustainable results, or from the inside (values and thought structures) outward, always in accordance with the coaching contract established between the parties.

The coaching methodology to use is the one that the leader and the organisation recognise as having the greatest value. The important thing is to support the leader to involve his collaborators and other interested parties, to listen to them and value all opinions, in a learning process that is not only individual but collective, and in the creation of an agile and customer-centred culture.

Coaching could become a key piece for the success in the evolution of agile organisations, accompanying leaders in the development of their agile teams, promoting a growth mindset throughout the organisation.

Through the systemic coaching approach, agile teams can be developed as a self-managed team, defining more clearly its purpose, the creation of value, obtaining sustainable results, decision making, work organisation and the way of relating between its members and with other teams in the company. In this way, coaching contributes to reinforcing and consolidating the cultural change necessary in agile organisations.

Authors:

Romina Leveau and Fatima Ribeiro

Team Coaching: The Whole Is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

December 14, 2020/in Blog/by Fátima Ribeiro

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

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