Some teams don’t want training. To get ahead as a team, they want to receive coaching.
Some teams want stronger cohesion, where members feel connected and know they can rely on each other’s strengths and abilities. Strong teams are those who have a deep understanding of each other – their similarities and differences. This diversity is a richness that lets the team deliver a stronger performance and set higher standards for themselves.
Addressing the team culture to strengthen unity
Team coaching can focus on uncovering the current team culture and how team members experience this culture. This greater clarity helps to achieve stronger endorsement of the ways of working and behaviours that the members engage in. This clarity helps to change customs or habits that are the group does not sufficiently support. Unspoken and unconscious rules and approaches are brought to the surface and reviewed – creating greater unity in the team.
Addressing the way we have always done things
Investing energy in greater understanding of ‘the way things are done here’ can bring improvements to processes, methods and habits. Some habits members of the team may not even have been quite so aware of.
Two examples of greater insights gained through team coaching: language and age
Larger organisations with international teams often have team members who need to communicate regularly across cultures and languages. Language barriers – and different levels of confidence of members to speak up and be heard – may, for example, hamper that sense of unity. This unity lets all voices be heard and counted equally.
Team coaching that looks at team interactions and team dynamics may help to uncover the current style and strength of communication and ways to finetune the way it works as a team. Another example is that team coaching can offer an opportunity to have everyone speak about how they perceive the make-up, the composition, the team: in terms of expertise, perceived level of influence or effects of age difference. Teams that engage in team coaching will find benefit from confronting any challenges (hitherto unspoken) and find opportunities for stronger harmony in the team – despite, or because of, its diversity.
Getting members on board for team coaching
Just like “training needs analysis” or TNA is a well-accepted phase in team development programmes and, more widely, learning, teams that are ready to up their game do well if they are open to surveying the status quo. Indeed, an early phase in team coaching should be to explore the current situation and agree on goals. Just as learning is a lifelong endeavour, getting members on board to team coaching is only part of the beginning.
A new approach to raise standards in your team
To conclude, in contrast to more traditional training-based initiatives, modern team coaching can be an effective and enjoyable route towards greater unity, productivity and more impactful learning within your team.
If you feel that you or your team could benefit from coaching, please feel free to drop us a message to organise a chat.
