Team Coaching: What Is It and What Are the Benefits?
Creating an environment that fosters collaboration and open discussion among a team can be challenging if you aren’t sure how to initiate it. You're responsible for the development and success of your team, so you want to put your best foot forward. This can be incredibly overwhelming for team leaders that are still learning the ropes.
Team coaching is a tool that effective leaders utilize to help get their team on the same page and the right track. Whether or not you have the essential skills to coach your team, bringing in an outside coach to help facilitate can be much more effective. Using an external team coach is a way to generate new ideas that will achieve team goals and make leadership contributions to those around you while developing your skills as a leader.
Even though leaders need team coaching skills, it can be hard to figure out how team coaching should be structured or if you’re even doing it right. Working with a team coach can help you identify strengths and weaknesses in your leadership and team collaboration. A team coach can bring their own team coaching experience to the table and give you tips on how to become a more effective coach for your team and help solve team problems.
In my work facilitating team coaching sessions, I've helped teams foster trust, develop healthy debate, improve strategic thinking, commit to plans and decisions, hold each other accountable, and focus on team results. You can bring these benefits to your team with a team coach as well.
What Is Team Coaching?
Group and team coaching typically refer to a coach working with a team to sharpen their skills and develop team dynamics. Their purpose is to coach and develop team members to communicate better together, brainstorm new ways of collaborating, and have healthy debates.
A team coach can improve and clarify roles and responsibilities that align with the organization's goals and purpose. Bringing in an outside team coaching facilitator also allows all team members, including leaders, to participate in the team coaching process.
Team coaching can involve:
Facilitating group discussions
Developing strategy and committing to team actions
Improving feedback and conflict communication
Creating a decision-making structure
Defining and operationalizing organizational values
Working together as a team requires everyone to listen and comprehend, including team leaders. Understanding what an individual or the group is struggling with will help a team coach determine an appropriate strategy the team can use to improve challenging areas.
Benefits of Team Coaching
Through team coaching, you will strengthen your team as a group and individuals while building up your culture. If you’re wondering whether or not team coaching will be an asset to your team, consider these benefits:
1. People trust each other
Working on a team can be intimidating if you aren't sure you can depend on your team members. Team members need to trust others to get their work done and communicate when they need assistance. Team coaching allows team members to be honest and develop a bond of trust. A team that trusts each other to do their job effectively is better able to collectively achieve goals.
2. Improve feedback skills
For a team to become successful, there must be an environment that fosters open communication and healthy debate. Team coaching is an effective way to improve team members' listening and feedback skills.
Effectively giving feedback is a crucial skill to learn, especially in teams. To work cohesively towards a shared goal, team members need to listen and be open and receptive to criticism. This skill can take an overwhelming amount of time to learn independently but bringing in outside help can accelerate the process.
3. People hold each other accountable
As team members transition into a more trusting environment with improved feedback skills, they become better equipped to hold each other accountable. Having clear and open communication between the team allows someone to ask for the support they need and hold others accountable effectively.
There is always a possibility of conflict when someone tries to hold someone else accountable. When team members trust each other, they assume the best and lead with empathy to find solutions.
4. People focus on team results (not just individual results)
The benefits of coaching team members are twofold: both for each team member and for the team overall. As each member improves their skills through team coaching, the team works collaboratively to fulfill a shared goal.
A team leadership coach designs coaching sessions to benefit both the individual and the team without emphasizing specific individuals. Improving each person's skills is excellent, but the impact is more significant if the entire group can improve.
Focusing on the team also allows individuals to understand how their actions impact the team's overall success, without pointing fingers or destroying team cohesion.
Team coaches facilitate group coaching to develop trust and open communication to talk through struggles and challenges. This allows the team to create solutions and commit to actions that will solve those problems. An outside facilitator introduces models for your team to consider, enabling team members to contribute in a productive, objective way.
Start Team Coaching With a Team Leadership Coach
Team coaching is a tool that leaders can use to help their teams collaborate and get on the same page to achieve a common goal. Team coaching is a tool that leaders can use to help their teams collaborate and get on the same page to achieve a common goal.
Coaching a team can be hard if you don’t have the experience or know-how to facilitate it and even harder to do if you have other priorities or need to participate as a team member yourself. A leadership development plan that includes improving coaching skills will help you overcome team leadership challenges.
Developing team communication and team leadership skills is essential to your success and your team’s success. Working with a team coach can help determine a course of action tailored to your team's specific goals and introduce new ideas to help your team move forward.
If you’re ready to know more about how team coaching can help you and your team, let's talk.