We know coaching has benefits and that talking with a trusted guide can help you be more mindful of your performance and improve the ways you live, work, and lead.
The numbers show coaching benefits individuals and helps them increase impact:
- 72 percent of coaching clients reported improved communication skills
- There is an average 7X ROI when you employ a coach
- 63 percent of organizations employing coaches see an increase in revenue and growth speed
If individual coaching can produce those returns, what would happen if we had the power to 10X it?
That’s where team coaching can truly transform an organization.
Team coaching is not a new concept, but it is an emerging trend for good reason. It gives us the foundation we need to keep our organizations aligned and moving forward.
Why Team Coaching Should Be Considered to Develop your People
In an ideal world, everyone would have access to the same resources.
- Leaders would ensure the same lessons trickled down to their team members.
- People would approach others using the same vocabulary and aligned on the same priorities.
- Leaders would give consistent guidance and offer productive feedback and actionable steps to move forward.
If we had the option, we would ensure everyone had access to coaching because we want our people to improve, build capabilities, and be more equipped to succeed.
In reality, things often work differently. Companies have a hard time determining who gets coaching and who doesn’t because limited budgets don’t allow for individualized support for every team member.
Again, in an ideal world, leaders would be coaching their own people but that doesn’t always happen. In fact, the ‘leaders as coaches’ movement has largely collapsed because of the demands of leadership in today’s work world coupled with an overall unwillingness from leaders who are paid and promoted to deliver ROI, not deliver growth in their people.
In addition, priorities shift and people are moved, which means continuity is lost. Leaders are so busy playing defense or managing competing demands that they lack the energy and capacity to coach their people.
In these scenarios, coaching often doesn’t happen. Stop-and-drop leadership takes control, and coaching efforts are deprioritized because everyone is functioning in a state of urgency. Or, when coaching does happen, it occurs in so much of a bubble that people learn but can’t get the momentum to move themselves forward, much less to expand their knowledge to others.
Why Team Coaching Works
Team coaching is effective because it improves situations where people are not fully working together. It supercharges situations where teams are already on board and creates alignment, unity, cohesion, and continuity.
For example, I recently coached a team facing a difficult challenge. The organization’s leaders wanted to be conscious about leadership and accelerate a new way of working with internal stakeholders. The change induced fear among the team who were uncertain about messaging, holding new standards while standing strong together, seeking support from both formal and informal networks, and staying patient, a difficult reality in an impatient world.
It takes courage and commitment to seek and hold new ground. Individual agendas, unrealistic and separate goals, and lack of trust diminish enthusiasm and team performance every day.
Through our team sessions coupled with targeted individual coaching, we focused on identifying and clearing obstacles that were undermining engagement and performance. We worked to ensure accountability and ownership, build trust, cultivate collaborative spirit, inject fun and enthusiasm into a focused effort, and bring the leader’s vision to reality.
We saw a marked increase in the proactive work the team was able to accomplish in contrast to the mostly reactive task management of the past. Their ratios shifted from 30 percent proactive work to more than 70 percent. Together we built confidence, elevated performance, and shifted the perception of the group so they attracted better talent and earned recognition from key stakeholders and senior leaders.
How Team Coaching Goes Beyond Day-to-Day Work
The benefits of team coaching go beyond the immediate impact of a more satisfying, more sustainable work experience. Coaching teams builds on the sense that we are in it together.
People become more invested because:
- They believe what they are doing matters in the big picture. This increased connection reduces the potential that team members will look for greener pastures or leave because of compensation concerns. According to analysis from McKinsey, people often choose whether to stay or go based on how meaningful their work is and how aligned they are with leadership.
- They anticipate change better and are more proactive. Constantly playing defense is exhausting and pushes people toward burnout. When people are in this defensive stance, they feel less psychologically safe and less capable of thinking outside the box. When people have been united by team coaching and share a purpose, they have more faith in one another to work together. They’re more capable of innovation, one of the most desired and valuable traits in today’s workplace.
- They take ownership. There’s a different tone to the team when people are being coached and working together. They have a higher level of trust in each other to do the right thing. Their discretionary effort is unlocked. This coaching sets the expectation for the ways people will work together, which then gives them the capacity to be freer and more autonomous. They step up more and show up better, because they know what they’re doing matters to their shared goals.
Team coaching works when you know there is a better way of doing things, but you’ve been unable to prioritize those efforts. It’s ideal for teams that are filled with talented people – with leaders who know they could accomplish more if they were pulling together.
When you are trying to change a narrative and get to the heart of issues, or when you are trying to take concepts from a single person to a bigger team, team coaching can provide the guidance you need to get momentum and ensure sustainable high performance.