Team Coaching Described

What happens in a Team Coaching program?

Each Team Coaching program follows a proven, successful structure—however every program is highly customised to align with the needs of each particular team. The team can therefore feel confident that it’ll reach its targeted outcomes, as well as the outcomes that its organization is after.

• Initially we’ll undertake a diagnostic exercise to determine where the team’s current practices align with the practices of a very high performing team, and where they differ. The results of our diagnostic activities will be fed back to the team—enabling it to come to an objective, realistic and shared understanding of its current performance.

• From there, Team Coaching closes the gaps between the team’s current and ideal practices and behaviours. We will produce results quickly by working directly on real problems and practical day-to-day issues that currently inhibit the team’s performance and stand in the way of strategic goals being achieved.

• We’ll use an effective, finely tuned and proven action learning process. The process will have continuity and follow-through. It includes providing each team member with on-going support and feedback. It also involves working closely with the team so that it develops ownership of its problems and solutions—and therefore learns to be highly functional using its own resources.

• Typically, we’ll meet face-to-face for three hours once a month. In each of our Team Coaching sessions we’ll focus on doing whatever needs to be done to close the gap between what’s currently happening and what characteristically happens in a very high performing team. We’ll work with real-life situations. We’ll leverage some of the existing strengths, add to the repertoire of behaviours, give the team members some more options by adding to their skill base, or figure out a new perspective on something—we’ll do whatever is necessary to give them the results they want.

• We’ll take advantage of occasional between-session telephone conversations or emails. I’m responsive and attend to the team members’ needs in a timely fashion. (Because I aim to be responsive, I work with only a small number of teams and leaders at any one point in time.)

• The team will be provided with its own personalized Coaching Resource Centre. Its customized, password protected web site will give team members immediate and convenient 24x7 access, via the Internet, to a valuable library of resource documents and materials that are relevant to their coaching journey.

• Organisational sponsorship is required to support a monthly retainer for a minimum of six months as well as a similar one-off fee to cover time and costs involved in the initial diagnosis. Most of the teams I coach find that it continues to reap the benefits of its Team Coaching program for at least 12 months.

• When the team being coached is a senior lead team, the organizational impact will be even more significant when each leader in the team is also exposed to 45 minutes of one-on-one individual coaching sessions with me each month. This requires organisational sponsorship of an additional monthly retainer.

• The team can be assured that our discussions have complete confidentiality. I do however encourage the team leader to regularly communicate with the team’s organizational sponsor about what the team’s achieving, and specifically how it’s progressing with its primary coaching goals.

Now that you know more about what my Team Coaching program will do for you, and what happens in a Team Coaching program, you can either look at some Team Coaching Case Studies that describe the results from some of my past programs—or go directly to the Contact Carolyn page and initiate a conversation with me about your needs and how they could be met.