by Nick Wright (UK)
Introduction
Team coaching is emerging fast as a new area of interest and experience for coaches who work with people in organisations. There are a number of reasons for this, most notably perhaps a growing recognition that:
- Potential: The performance of a great team can often outstrip the performance of individuals or teams who work in isolation from each other.
- Influence: People and teams can affect each other significantly in terms of e.g. their thoughts, feelings, engagement, behaviour and performance.
This raises interesting and important questions about how team coaching can add value and how to do it in practice. I believe a primary goal of team coaching is and should be to enable a team to develop critical reflective practice. This will typically include raising team awareness and insight, enhancing team vision and resourcefulness and increasing the range of options available for action. Most coaches are trained and used for coaching individuals so a shift to coaching teams can open up fresh opportunities and challenges.
Source: iCN Issue 19 (Group Dynamics: Team Coaching); pages 27-29
About Nick Wright
Nick Wright is a leadership coach and organisation development consultant. He has a masters degree in Human Resource Development, a post-graduate diploma in Coaching Psychology and is a Fellow of the Institute of Training & Occupational Learning. Nick blogs regularly and has over 100 articles published in people-related fields.
