Is team coaching right for your business?

Do you want to get good “bench strength” in your business? Do you want to help the people in your business to achieve? Do you want to get better results for your business? Do you want to start planning for a time when you are not part of your business 24/7? If you answered yes to any of the above and you have a leadership team or are thinking of creating one then read on.

The world of coaching can be a bit confusing and still has an element of stigma attached to it so I have tried to identify the main types of coaching to help clarify things and hopefully help to show clearly why team coaching is one of the best solutions for businesses that are scaling up.

The business coach – works with business owners and MDs, and may work with their teams.

The role is to give a clear view of what is important and what is not, to drive change in an organization, and to assist the organization to focus the available resources in the most efficient way. Tends to be fact-based analysis, open communication, decisive decision making, and focused action.

The life coach – works with individuals.

A life coach can help you clarify your goals, identify the obstacles holding you back, and then come up with strategies for overcoming each obstacle.

This is a process whereby a group of people all have similar development needs and the coach facilitates a process whereby they use the knowledge and expertise within the group to work on their individual goals. This is often seen as a cost-effective way to develop by larger businesses.

The executive coach – works with high potential individuals or executives.

Works to help individuals to gain self awareness, clarify goals, achieve their development objectives, unlock their potential, and act as a sounding board.

THE TEAM COACH – Works with leading teams within the business.

Deliver similar outcomes to an Executive coach but for an entire team and the expectations and potential of that team who have much to gain from working well together. Working to gain self awareness, clarify goals, achieve their development objectives, hold each other accountable, and deliver the business goals as a team.

Team coaching for business is not new but it is on the up and up as leaders realise that teaming skills and team leadership are becoming increasingly more important. We need to embrace a teaming style of leadership and embrace more cognitive diversity to be able to cope as business becomes more and more complex. What a Team coach brings to you and your team is an independent voice, a facilitator to help challenge you to maximize performance and the enjoyment of working towards clear and meaningful goals.

A team coach works with the people element of the business to open up channels of communication, to create clear goals that everyone is committed to and develops the inner accountability within the team.

All lovely words which sound very impressive but what actually happens when you have a team coach?

1. We get to know each member of the team

How each team member feels the team is performing and what they do and don’t like about the team. We get to understand the direction the business is wanting to go and the challenges it is facing. If necessary we can help them to define their vision and mission and the values that represent the company.

2. We all come together to;

■ define what they need or want to achieve.

■ identify what works well.

■ highlight what doesn’t work well.

3. The magic happens

Together we create a set of actions and accountabilities to take the business to where it wants to be. This is one of the most powerful elements of team coaching and often results in real breakthroughs.

4. We stick with it!

We review every month, maintaining the momentum and taking the opportunity to continue to grow and learn as a team. As the coach can avoid being distracted by the day to day they can keep the team focussed on the goals and objectives and keep them moving towards the goal or help them revise the goals to adjust for the unforeseen.

For a team coach the team is the client, so focus will be on making the team more than the sum of its parts, gaining a laser focus on the results they each need to deliver to achieve for the team. The leader is part of that team and also has a role to play but having a team coach there to facilitate allows them to take their place in the team and gain a better insight into the team dynamics.

I work with leadership teams of all sizes and at many levels in business and I specialise in working with businesses who are scaling up, and looking to embed a strong leadership culture for the future.