Coaching Team Leader Program - in-house example

Background

An internal team of coaches sought to upskill in team coaching so that they could offer greater value to their organisational stakeholders.      

Connecting 

We initially connected with the leader of the team to understand what the need was and what difference they cared to make.   She decided to invite the whole team to attend the Coaching Team Leader program.  However, we needed to connect with the team also, to enable them to have agency in the decision.  Seven of the nine team members were coaches and interested in attending the program. But two others focused on coordination and support and felt it wasn't for them.      

Consideration

The seven coaches joined the in-house Coaching Team Leader program, a hybrid program spanning six 1/2-day modules over 2 months.  They had to consider if they were an inter-dependent or extra-dependent team, and also what type of team they would be coaching.  The program design features provide specific benefits:

• Hybrid program - skills and confidence to coach teams online and in-person 
• 2-months duration - ability to apply the learning with on-going support from faculty team
• Multiple modules - ability to reinforce and embed learning alongside the teams they were coaching
• Experiential - No case studies.  We use participants' real team coaching experiences to explore and support the challenges of team coaching, making the impact very real and pragmatic. 

Change

We experimented with the real team dynamics within the coaching team, enlightening the coaches to the different processes at work, and using core team coaching techniques and mindset.  Not only did the individual coaches develop key team coaching skills, but the program enabled the team themselves to explore their teaming approach in a most powerful way - live with the support of the faculty.        

Close

All the coaches confirmed that they had massively increased their awareness of teams, team coaching, team dynamics and the part they can play.  They recognised that the team is the client, rather than the team leader.  They were “inspired” with creative ways to stimulate discussion and emergence of issues within teams.  And because we covered Inter-Dependent and Extra-Dependent Teams, they could understand their own dynamics as different from many of the teams they planned to coach.  

Comment on this Case Study or give us feedback in our Community