The success of team coaching proves that leadership does not have to be maximized on an individual basis. Focusing on developing a team of leaders often leads to better outcomes than a purely individualized approach [1]. Using an approach that focuses on the entire team leads to more than individualized improvement. With a sports team, for instance, team growth is best achieved with an approach that takes the group’s collective strengths and individual skills into account.
This is where the HIGH5 strengths assessment becomes an invaluable tool. By helping team members identify their unique strengths, HIGH5 provides a solid foundation for team coaching. Understanding individual strengths allows coaches to leverage the diverse talents within the team, fostering a more cohesive and high-performing group. As you delve into the world of team coaching, consider how a strengths-based approach will lead to more impacts. However, there are many other benefits to using a team-focused coaching approach. We’ll show you how to perfect your approach to team coaching and the many benefits of this approach.
What is team coaching?
This coaching style focuses on helping teams achieve their goals while building or maintaining an inclusive environment. Team coaches can:
- Unite a team around a common purpose
- Develop team culture
- Boost their productivity
- Find their role in the organization
- Become inspired
When leaders use a team-oriented approach, they gain valuable insights into how employees interact with one another. Enhancing this understanding with a tool like the HIGH5 strengths assessment can be transformative. By identifying each team member’s top strengths, leaders can facilitate more effective collaboration, assign roles that align with natural talents, and create a work environment where everyone can thrive. The HIGH5 assessment not only reveals individual strengths but also provides a common language for discussing and leveraging these strengths within the team context. This deeper understanding of each team member’s unique contributions can significantly enhance the effectiveness of team coaching.
Collaboration among team members is naturally encouraged and leaders can find ways to optimize the effectiveness of their collaboration. Leaders and employees can work with our insights to effectively mitigate conflict, gain empathy, clarify their work purpose, and understand how each individual plays a unique role in the company’s success. You’ll motivate team members to boost their morale.
Pro Tip From HIGH5
Before starting your team coaching journey, consider having each team member take the HIGH5 strengths assessment. Use the results to create a ‘Team Strengths Map’ that visually represents the diverse talents within your team. This map can serve as a powerful tool for understanding team dynamics, assigning roles, and identifying areas where the team might benefit from additional support or development.
How does team coaching work?
Team coaching involves a continuous process where a coach collaborates with a team to enhance its overall performance and dynamics. The coach helps the team set clear goals, understand and leverage individual strengths, improve communication, and resolve conflicts. Through regular sessions, feedback, and support, the team is guided towards achieving its objectives and sustaining high performance over time. The focus is on long-term goals and development, ensuring that the team evolves and adapts to challenges effectively.
What are the advantages and benefits of team coaching?
Team-oriented coaching offers a plethora of benefits. For instance, there is no better way to unite a team than by proving they are all vital members of an organization. When you coach a whole team, each individual becomes motivated because it is not just their success at stake, but the success of an entire organization.
Support systems also become highly developed, so no one feels left out. Positive team dynamics start to flourish after you commit to team growth. Each person gets to use a range of skills to contribute to the team as a whole. However, collaborative skills are especially developed with a team-focused coaching approach. Other benefits of team coaching include:
- Additional leadership insights into how the team communicates and works together, so leaders can make informed delegation decisions.
- Internal relationships are developed so resources are exchanged quicker and more effectively.
- An inclusive environment allows employees to feel heard and validated. Employees feel the coaching lifts all employees instead of just some.
- Conflict resolution and more productive team conversations.
Coaching tips and techniques
Effective team coaching relies on several different techniques, each contributing toward creating the perfect coaching method. The following strategies can help you improve your coaching skills:
1. Build trust
Everyone in your team needs to be connected by the leader, and this connection is strengthened when you truly understand each member’s strengths and weaknesses. The HIGH5 strengths assessment offers a scientifically-backed method to uncover these strengths, providing you with a comprehensive picture of your team’s strengths. By leveraging this knowledge, you can ensure that work assignments align perfectly with each team member’s natural abilities. This strengths-based approach not only boosts productivity but also increases job satisfaction and engagement.
As a leader, using the HIGH5 assessment allows you to make informed decisions about task allocation, team formation, and individual development plans, all of which are crucial elements of effective team coaching. To ensure your coaching is met with a positive response, the group must trust you. One commonly used technique is active listening [2]. Take note of your discussions and after employees finish speaking, confirm and rephrase what they have already said to show interest. Try to see from the communicator’s perspective. What does their non-verbal behavior convey?
2. Display your emotional intelligence
EQ is crucial for being a great coach. While identifying an employee’s weakness may not be difficult, it can take a lot of emotional intelligence to find the root cause of the problem. Try placing yourself in your employee’s shoes to better understand their barriers and potential stress points.
3. Be motivational
Coaches and leaders often unintentionally demotivate their employees when stressed, for they resort to aggression or authoritarian leadership. You must assess how your team views you, both in the current moment and during chaotic times. Understand what motivates your employees, and consider using incentives. Now, workers will start performing tasks to meet their goals and for their own progression, not because you simply told them to act a certain way.
4. Realize the importance of accountability
Accountability is the key to making team discussions, improvements, and goals meaningful. Be clear when making due dates, ascribing tasks, or setting goals. Keep track of progress over the long term, and write down tasks you need to perform. Encourage others to do the same.
5. Prove you have passion
If you simply have business experience, you may not necessarily be a good coach. You must be equally capable of inspiring others, realizing their potential, and helping others succeed. Do not expect your team to be passionate and productive if you do not set this example. Ask yourself what you are passionate about, and which activities you get fully immersed in. Ensure you incorporate elements of such activities into your job.
6. Use learning cycles
True leaders are lifelong students. Hearing different perspectives and utilizing new techniques can make you a better leader and add to your coaching skills. Try researching other coaches from a high-performance team and see which methods you can use in your company.
Models and frameworks for team coaching
GROW model for team coaching
The GROW acronym stands for:
- Goal
- Reality
- Options (or obstacles)
- Will
The GROW model was developed in the 1980s by coaches Graham Alexander, Alan Fine, and Sir John Whitmore [3]. This model helps teams understand how to develop and achieve goals in a step-by-step manner.
Goal
See what your team wants to achieve or which behavior you would like to implement or eliminate. Goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound. Ask your team to participate in discussions about maximizing team performance and team effectiveness, and encourage them to ask questions, such as whether the goal aligns with their career desires or how you can measure goal achievement.
Current reality
When assessing your current situation, it’s crucial not to overlook the unique strengths that each team member brings to the table. This is where the HIGH5 strengths assessment proves invaluable. By incorporating the insights from HIGH5 into your evaluation of the current reality, you gain a more nuanced understanding of your team’s capabilities. This strengths-based perspective can reveal solutions that might otherwise be overlooked. For instance, you might discover that a team member’s top strength is perfectly suited to address a current challenge, or that a combination of strengths across the team creates a unique competitive advantage.
Asking employees about their current situation, coupled with the objective data from the HIGH5 assessment, provides a robust foundation for optimizing your approach toward achieving your goals. Ask them, in a team setting, to describe how the goal aligns with their ideals, how their skills can be used to build an outstanding team, if the goal competes with other personal goals, and if they have already taken steps to achieve the goal.
Options or obstacles
Now that you have a goal your team can agree on, determine the possible ways you can achieve it. Brainstorm options with your team and discuss which may be the best approach for each member. Team coaches should provide their own insights, but also encourage others to share their beliefs for a personalized and fresh perspective. Ask: do you have any obstacles that prevent you from reaching a goal? What factors will you use to consider the options? What is the advantage of each method?
Will or way forward
After following the prior steps, your team should have a collective awareness of how each individual can contribute toward reaching the goal. Now, members must get committed toward performing certain actions. Doing so will make them motivated and boost team member effectiveness. Good questions include: which tasks will you perform? When will you do them? Which obstacles may come in your way and how will you overcome them? How can you stay motivated? When should we review your progress?
Pro Tip From HIGH5
When exploring the ‘Current Reality’ in the GROW model, create a ‘Strengths-Reality Matrix’. List your team’s current challenges on one axis and the top strengths (identified through HIGH5) on the other. Encourage the team to brainstorm how each strength could be applied to address each challenge. This exercise not only helps in problem-solving but also in recognizing the value of diverse strengths in overcoming obstacles.
The META framework for team coaching
The META framework in team coaching stands for:
- Mobilise
- Execute
- Transform
- Agility.
The META framework is a structured approach to understanding team dynamics. It fosters engagement, drives transformation, and ensures accountability for sustained team performance. It’s also a framework that’s used by more than 3,000 teams.
How does team coaching differ from other key team interventions?
Team coaching is a powerful approach to enhancing team performance, but it’s important to distinguish it from other related interventions, such as group coaching, team building, and team facilitation.
Group coaching
Group coaching involves bringing together individuals who share a common interest or goal, but they may not necessarily work together as a team. The focus is on developing individual skills and knowledge within a group setting, with each participant working towards their personal objectives.
How does group coaching differ from team coaching?
While group coaching is centered on individual growth within a group environment, team coaching is focused on improving the performance of an entire team working towards a collective goal. Team coaching involves understanding and enhancing team dynamics, relationships, and collaboration. Group coaching, in contrast, focuses on personal development goals.
Team building
Team building refers to activities, exercises, or events designed to enhance the relationships, communication, and collaboration among team members. These activities often aim to strengthen the bond within a team, improve morale, and increase trust.
How team building differs from team coaching?
Team building is typically a short-term intervention focused on creating a sense of unity within a team. It is often used as a one-off event or a series of activities. In contrast, team coaching is an ongoing process that aims to develop a team’s effectiveness over time by addressing deeper issues such as team dynamics, goal alignment, and long-term performance improvement [4].
Team facilitation
Team facilitation involves guiding a team through meetings, discussions, or workshops to achieve specific outcomes. A facilitator helps manage the process, ensuring that everyone participates, the agenda is followed, and the team stays focused on its objectives.
How does team facilitation differ from team coaching?
Team facilitation is typically focused on managing the process of a specific event or meeting, helping the team reach decisions or solve problems during that session. Team coaching, on the other hand, is a broader and more continuous intervention aimed at developing the team’s overall capabilities, relationships, and performance over time. While facilitation is often about guiding a team through a particular moment, coaching is about long-term growth and development.
Example of team coaching
Teams often struggle with keeping up the rate of progress when new leadership strategies are introduced. One team had this exact issue: a new leader has difficulty connecting with his team, and the team also wishes to impact the business’s performance with their increased performance. Always ask how the team should work before jumping into action [5]. Team coaching helped the team become more trusting of one another as well as establishing a more productive and open workplace.
The employees were able to address conflicts while maintaining relationships and developing interpersonal skills. Each time someone made a commitment, they became more likely to follow through. Also, the group connected over common goals and values. Because of this, the team was able to become more supportive of its members while still challenging them. Team coaching helps leaders address issues in their business’s internal communications and other processes.
Team coaching FAQ
What do you expect from team coaching?
There are many benefits team coaching offers. Team members will likely learn new skills and problem-solving techniques with the help of a team coach. They will have a newfound confidence in their skills and ability to achieve goals.
What are the 5 steps for effective team coaching?
The 5 steps for effective team coaching typically include:
- Setting clear goals
- Assessing the team’s current state:
- Developing a coaching plan
- Facilitating regular coaching sessions
- Monitoring progress with ongoing feedback.
How do you conduct team coaching?
Team coaching is first conducted by understanding the team’s goals and dynamics. Then, by facilitating sessions that focus on improving communication, collaboration, and performance through targeted activities, discussions, and feedback.
What do team coaches do?
Team coaches guide teams in improving their collective performance by helping them set goals, resolve conflicts, and enhance communication.
Recap: Team coaching as an approach to organizational development
If you view one-on-one coaching as inefficient but still wish to optimize your business, consider using team-oriented coaching with a strengths-based approach. The HIGH5 strengths assessment serves as a powerful complement to team coaching, providing valuable insights into each team member’s unique talents. By integrating HIGH5 into your team coaching strategy, you create a foundation for more targeted and effective coaching sessions.
This combination allows you to address large groups while still honoring individual strengths, leading to increased engagement, improved collaboration, and ultimately, better business outcomes. The synergy between team coaching and a strengths-based approach like HIGH5 can transform an average team into an exceptional one. This way, you can address large groups of people at once. As a coach, you can help employees find their strengths and motivate them to push your business to succeed. Since the approach is group-oriented, expect productivity, collaboration, and empathy to increase in employees while lowering the occurrences of conflict. In the long run, team coaching can help everyone stay connected and turn an average team into an ultra-productive one.
References:
- Shuffler, M. L., Diazgranados, D., Maynard, M. T., & Salas, E. (2018). Developing, sustaining, and maximizing team effectiveness: an integrative, dynamic perspective of team development interventions. The Academy of Management Annals, 12(2), 688–724. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0045
- Gallo, A. (2024, January 2). What Is Active Listening? Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2024/01/what-is-active-listening.
- Brooks, P. J., Ripoll, P., Sánchez, C., & Torres, M. (2023). Coaching leaders toward favorable trajectories of burnout and engagement. Frontiers in psychology, 14, 1259672. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1259672.
- Siang, S., & Canning, M. (2023, February 23). Coaching Your Team as a Collective Makes It Stronger. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2023/02/coaching-your-team-as-a-collective-makes-it-stronger.
- O’Hara, C. (2014, September 11). What New Team Leaders Should Do First. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2014/09/what-new-team-leaders-should-do-first.
