EXCELLENCE IN TEAM COACHING€¦ · Combined with Team Coaching Studio’s deep understanding of...

EXCELLENCEIN TEAMCOACHING

UnderstandingThe Core Competenciesby Georgina Woudstra, MCC, Principal and Founder,Team Coaching Studio Ltd

INTRODUCTION:

Driving better outcomes for people, organisations and the planetIn today’s fast-moving, complex world, there has never been a greater need for teams to collaborate and drive towards new and better outcomes for people, organisations and the planet. These challenges cannot be overcome by working in silos or where toxic cultures prevail.

Yet few teams reach their potential. Building an effective team takes time, and while some organisations may recognise the importance of teamwork, they often don’t truly understand what needs to happen for a team to perform at its best.

Effective teamwork can bring game-changing results, and team coaching is rapidly emerging as a route to competitive advantage. More and more organisations are seeking team coaching to support their teams in being the best they can be.

Setting the standards: The journey to team coaching masteryTeam Coaching Studio (TCS) is the leading specialist in the development of team coaches. At TCS, we believe team development comes through masterful practitioners who are committed to the development of team coaching through practice, rather than theory or tools.

At its core is a team coaching competency framework, a set of competencies for team coaches to guide their journey towards mastery, developed by Georgina Woudstra MCC, founder and principle of the Team Coaching Studio and the Faculty at TCS.

EXCELLENCE IN TEAM COACHING: Understanding The Core Competencies

1www.teamcoachingstudio.com ©Team Coaching Studio 2020. All rights reserved.

The first training organisation worldwide to offer team coaching development with a team coaching competency framework at its core, the TCS framework is founded on the global coaching competencies defined by the leading professional bodies for coaching, including the International Coach Federation and the Association for Coaching.

Combined with Team Coaching Studio’s deep understanding of executive coaching and coaching top teams with insight gathered from over 15 years team coaching experience, this approach sets the standard for excellence in team coaching.

The TCS Team Coaching Competencies Framework

Philosophy and Stance sit firmly at the heart of the TCS Team Coaching Competencies Framework as a coach’s mindset is what informs their way of being and every single intervention; it is what makes the difference between an OK coach and coach mastery. It is also what cuts the cloth between ‘similar’ roles such as consulting, teaching, training and facilitation.



Universally shared team coaching beliefsFundamentally, professional coaches around the world passionately share the belief that clients:

Are creative, resourceful and whole

Have the wisdom to find their own answers and solutions

Are full of the most amazing untapped potential

Therefore, the client sets the agenda for coaching.

They also know that the coach’s role is to:

Discover, clarify, and align with what the client wants to achieve

Encourage client (team) self-discovery

Elicit client-generated solutions and strategies

Hold the client responsible and accountable.

Coaches raise awareness as a catalyst for action, change, and learning and growth. And, in team coaching, the ‘client’ is the team.

Fundamentally, team coaching is about using reflection and dialogue to increase connection and collaboration. Team coaches support the team in learning how to work better together (as a team and with stakeholders) so that their capacity grows over time. When combined, these factors become a powerful driving force for team effectiveness.



Woudstra (2018) suggests a definition of team coaching based on the ICF definition as,

“Partnering with the team and it’s dynamics, relationships and wider context to maximize the synergy of their collective abilities

and potential to achieve their common purpose or shared goals.”

Creating the conditions: The use of competency frameworksThe coaching field has experienced a boom in recent years as organisations demand more professional coaching. Consequently, the quality of coaching provision is being reviewed and examined as never before. The emergence of the professionalisation of the industry has also led to a growth in accreditation for professional coaches. The first coaching competencies were identified and articulated in the 1990s to create a greater understanding about the knowledge and skills needed for effective coaching and has provided a strong foundation for coach credentialing processes ever since.

Competence is the demonstrated ability to perform an activity within a coaching environment that leads to expected outcomes based on defined and accepted standards. Most coaching professional bodies use competency frameworks as they are intended:

a) To be observable

b) To support the coach in progressing through different levels of accreditation towards coach mastery.

c) To provide guidance on the specific content necessary for the development skills of the coach.

Team coaching is far more complex in action than individual one-to-one coaching because each team member arrives to team coaching with different thoughts, feelings, energy and history. Ask a team of eight people an open question and at the explicit level you will get eight different answers. At the implicit, unspoken level you will get at least eight different emotional responses, at least eight different sets of beliefs, human needs, wants and desires. Ultimately, the aim is for team members to join up and to channel their disparate energies towards a common purpose. This requires them to connect differently, to think differently and to act differently.

The role of the coach is not to drive change but to create the conditions necessary to support the team in growing towards its potential.

Effective team coaching is systematic and based on multi-way interactive communication. It focuses on active co-emergence with stakeholders and the context and is a dialogic form of interacting with organisations.



Taking an ethical stance means to be in service to the team rather than the owner or the architect of the team performance.

The Helix: What makes a masterful practitioner The ultimate aim, of course, is to take the coach beyond mere understanding of the core competencies towards the journey of mastery. Becoming a masterful team coach is about more than paying attention to a greater volume of date; it’s also about demonstrating a far wider skills set. We see mastery as more of a helix—or strands of a rope woven together—with the elements consisting of skills and knowledge (the core competencies), practice and experience, and personal mastery.

Team coaching mastery demands more of a coach. It requires them to engage in deeper personal development, raising both their awareness and consciousness. Masterful team coaches can flex their presence, contain the space, authentically self-manage and intervene effectively, even with the most conflicted teams. Mastery requires a deeper self-examination and is as much about unlearning as learning. It can be a vulnerable experience, but it is ultimately liberating and deeply rewarding.

The road to team coaching mastery, therefore, takes years and master coaches have embodied a way of being that supports the coach in being an active instrument of change. Subsequently, this has led to major debate on the effectiveness of competencies versus capabilities in the assessment and accreditation of coaches.



The Great Debate: Competencies vs Capabilities

However, there is some debate “to which competency frameworks are appropriate for coach assessment, given the current evolutionary stage of coaching,” (BACHKIROVA, 2015:124).

According to Horton, (2000) the competency-based frameworks have become subject to critique when applied to many contexts (Hyland, 1993; Horton, 2000). Cox, (2003); Garvey (2011); Drake (2009); Cavanagh and Lane (2012) and Bachkirova (2015) argue that reliance on competency frameworks oversimplifies coaching practice and expertise and impedes more creative solutions for a meaningful “rite of passage”.

Others argue that applying competencies in innovative environments inhibits exploration and causes learning to be focused on the task rather than developing critical thinking, (Granstrand, Patel & Pavitt, 1997, Foss et al., 2004).

The coach has also underpinned his or her coaching skills with a ‘psychological mindedness’, including an understanding of group dynamics, team effectiveness and systems theory. In turn, this configures their approach, their questioning and how they show up to the team coaching. Therefore, capabilities emerge from competencies, not the other way around. Competencies are designed as a necessary grounding tool to enable organisations to differentiate coaches - although we recognise the inherent issues of measuring consistency and accuracy.

Ultimately, the task of the team coach is to facilitate the creation of an environment in which dialogue and active experimentation of new ways of behaving are likely to take place.



A competency was originally defined

“as an underlying characteristic of an individual that is causally related to effective and superior performance in a job,”

(BOYATZIS, 1982).

We argue that competencies are a valuable foundation from which the coach grows to his or her full potential.

The 15 Team Coaching CompetenciesThere are 15 team coaching competencies in total. This white paper will evaluate each in turn:

A. SETTING THE FOUNDATION 1. Meeting Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards 2. Establishing and Maintaining the Coaching Agreement

B. CO-CREATING THE RELATIONSHIP 3. Building Psychological Safety and Trust 4. Signature Presence 5. Modelling Effective Relating

C. FOSTERING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION 6. Active Listening 7. Powerful Questioning 8. Direct Communication 9. Use of Self

D. WORKING WITH SYSTEMS AND DYNAMICS 10. Focus on Relationships in the System 11. Engaging with the Wider Context and Stakeholder Expectations 12. Working with Power and Authority

E. FACILITATING LEARNING AND GROWTH 13. Creating Awareness 14. Active Experiments 15. Generating Results



The coaching journey begins with Setting the Foundation – laying the foundations on which all coaching relationships are built. There are two core competencies here that weave together to provide a good grounding for team coaching:

1. Meeting Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards 2. Establishing and Maintaining the Coaching Agreement

It is paramount that the coach understands and follows all the set ethical guidelines and professional standards in order to maintain the integrity of the profession. The coach clearly communicates the distinctions and differences between other support professions such as consulting, group therapy, team facilitation and training. The coach is also able to refer the client to another team coach or support professional as and when appropriate.

A code of ethics is important in a coaching situation because it provides a ‘blueprint’ to consult if any specific dilemmas occur, or if there are any ‘cloudy’ issues or misunderstandings to assess. This code provides support and certainty to both coach and team. For masterful coaches, it is also an ethical stance that shapes their attitude and behaviours as a team coach. It enables them to show up to every moment operating from the fundamental belief that the team is creative, resourceful and whole. It also enables the coach to remain clear minded about their role and its boundaries, preventing the coach from falling into the trap of advising, teaching or training.

A primary objective of the team coach is to make themselves redundant and leave the team with the capabilities needed to continue functioning without them. Independence of the coach is to be encouraged leading to ownership and investment of the issues by the team.

SETTINGTHE FOUNDATION

“Team coaching is not the same as facilitation, nor is it the same as coaching individuals, but both coaching and facilitation skills may form

a sound foundation upon which to build the ability to work purposefully with team dynamics.” (LAWRENCE, 2018).


The second core competency is Establishing and Maintaining the Coaching Agreement, by which we mean initially establishing the ‘rules of engagement’ between coach and team, creating focus and a pathway forward according to the team’s needs and wants. The coaching agreement can be established in two distinct ways; at the outset of any initial formal discussions and at the beginning of each individual coaching session.

Firstly, the coach clearly describes their own team coaching approach and any potential impact upon the team. It is important to be crystal clear about what is and what is not being offered in order to avoid any misinterpretations.

Secondly, the coach identifies who exactly the client is and with which parties the team coaching will ultimately be agreed, reviewed and updated. Any subsequent agreement or contract clearly outlines the roles and responsibilities of both coach and team. Aims, measurable outcomes, benchmarks, accountabilities, deadlines, fees, scheduling and work boundaries are clearly established, discussed and agreed. Mutually agreed expectations with the team’s leader and other stakeholders will engender both confidence and a healthy engagement in the team coaching process.

Thirdly, it is important that the coach explores fully what the team expects and needs and that suitable measures for success are put in place for each session. As the value of the coaching is the co-responsibility of both coach and team, it is helpful for both to offer feedback, checking in regularly with each other to determine that the coaching is continuing to serve the team’s purpose. Finally, the coach flexes and changes direction willingly and collaboratively based on the team’s progress and feedback, and the ever-changing context that most teams are operating in. If the match between coach and team is ineffective, then the coach is willing to gracefully pass on the team to another team coaching provider.

SETTING THE FOUNDATION


However, it is important to note that truly masterful coaches continually re-contract throughout the programme, thereby co-creating a series of ‘mini-contracts’ for each piece

of work within the team.

The coaching relationship is not stand-alone with the coach leading and the team passively absorbing information. It is a vibrant, dynamic and organic relationship between two highly invested parties. Building Psychological Safety & Trust is the third core competency and centres on the co-creation of a safe and supportive environment that produces ongoing mutual respect and trust. As human beings we are far more eager to self-disclose, experiment and innovate if our basic needs of safety are met. Harvard Business School professor, Amy Edmondson, says that

It is the duty of the coach to set a strong foundation upfront with the team, establishing expectations for an open and honest relationship. The coach demonstrates integrity, confidentiality, respect and support in their personal behaviour and attitude. The team feels valued, listened to and held in high regard. The coach shows genuine concern for the team’s welfare. They keep any promises they make; they show respect and understanding for the team’s learning style and personal being, and they endeavour to provide ongoing support for any new behaviours and actions.

The coach asks the team’s permission before coaching in any new and/or sensitive areas, making sure to respect the team’s sensibilities at all times. If the team suggests they may be prepared to take risks, these are validated and honoured.

It is the role of the coach to trust the process and to be comfortable with ‘unknowingness’ in the knowledge that new states to expand awareness may arise from such unknowingness.

Finally, in order to establish trust and intimacy the coach invites significant input from the team. The coach demonstrates self-awareness, personal responsibility and self-confidence, ultimately trusting in the process and allowing the team to be a full, participating partner in the relationship.

CO-CREATING THE RELATIONSHIP

“Psychological safety is a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes”.


Establishing trust and intimacy is hard work. It requires openness and a willingness to engage by both parties. It involves allowing oneself to be vulnerable and the possibility

of being ‘ejected from the village’.

It focuses on employing a coaching style that is open, flexible and confident. It centres on the coach using who they are; their personality, embodied sensing and their emotional and spiritual strengths to create empathy and openness with the client. The coach remains curious and exposed to new dynamics, they trust their gut and their own intuition whilst at the same time use humour to create energy and a sense of lightness.

This is a holistic approach; the coach remains completely connected to the team, observing who the team is, what the team does, how the team interacts and collaborates and how the team learns – also observing what the team can teach the coach. It is the role of the coach to stay curious to the needs, wants and desires of the team and be prepared to have a fully engaged and partnered conversation with the team, without any need or urge to ‘perform’ or control the coaching situation. In summary, the coach trusts that the value is inherent in the coaching process itself rather than having any necessity to create ‘forced’ value.

Exhibiting a sense of Signature Presence takes confidence. It is about being able to ‘dance in the moment’ and not be fixed on outcomes and expectations. It is a fine skill to be able to confidently shift one’s perspectives and to be able to experiment with new forms and possibilities. It is about remaining flexible, adaptable and open to change.

Finally, personal presence demands confidence in working with strong emotions in the team. The coach is able to self-manage and not be overpowered or enmeshed by the client’s emotions or the team’s dynamics. The coach maintains their own presence under pressure. Being ‘pulled into’ the team’s personal dramas will lead to an unhealthy, unhelpful and ultimately ineffective team coaching relationship.



The fourth core competency is Signature Presence. This is the ability to be fully present and conscious in order to create a spontaneous relationship with the team.

The fifth and final core competency under the banner of Co-creating The Relationship is Modelling Effective Relating. It is a natural segue from Signature Presence as it is a competency reliant on open and meaningful communication with both the team and any co-coaches. Modelling Effective Relating encourages the team to address each other directly, and to develop clear and effective communication by listening to, hearing and building on each other’s ideas. To reflect on what is happening between the individual team members or occurring within the team in the moment. The notable phrase here is ‘in the moment’ – it discourages deflecting or talking about what happened ‘back then’ or ‘out there.’ Its strength lies in immediacy and recognising the value of the here and now.

This fifth competency operates from an ‘I’m OK, you’re OK, they’re OK’ belief with the team and the system. The coach and team members are able to name their own experience and make requests which pertain to their immediate needs. Here, the coach is willing to hold a different perspective without either feeling intimidated or being intimidating. They are willing and able to work through any apparent differences constructively and without conflict, whilst at the same time create a safe space for any unsaid issues to surface. When and if any unsaid issues do surface, they might come from a place of vulnerability. It is therefore paramount that the coach attends to them respectfully and not ignore them. In this way, any tensions and differences can be explored safely with meaningful exchange.



Effective communication is the lynchpin of all human interaction and is an active and skilful procedure. The sixth core competency is Active Listening. The important word here is ‘active’.

Firstly, the coach is sure to attend to the team and the team’s agenda rather than their own prescribed agenda for the team. Once this is mutually agreed, the coach actively listens by summarising, para-phrasing, re-iterating and mirroring what the team has said in order to increase clarity and understanding. As the team verbalises its issues, needs, wants and desires, the role of the coach is to encourage, accept, explore and reinforce those feelings and thoughts that the team expresses. By listening without an agenda, the coach is able to distinguish between the words, tone of voice and body language of the team. These are all clues that the accomplished coach uses to fully understand the essence of the team’s communication.

The role of the coach in active listening is to hear the team’s perceptions, concerns, beliefs and suggestions without criticism or trying to ‘fix’ any perceived problem. As the coach explores the team’s concerns, they seek to build on any ideas and suggestions that emerge. In turn, this enables the team to clear the space or vent their feelings without judgment or attachment in order to feel accepted, move on and be more present.

Active listening is a dynamic process. To be truly effective, the coach listens at the logical and emotional level as well as the organic and systems levels. The coach recognises both their and the team members’ ability to perceive intuitively and energetically when a team member speaks of something powerful, when growthis occurring for the team, and when the team or individual team member is finding a powerful sense of self. Although the coach listens ‘in the present’, they are also attuned to the team’s potential for future development. Any limiting beliefs and patterns are ‘heard’ in the same way as the client’s ‘greatness’ or potential.

Master coaches practice a cumulative method of active listening from session to session and throughout each individual session. Active listening appears natural and is never forced or performative. The result is that the team feels complete acceptance, trust and openness from the coach and is able to respond accordingly.

FOSTERING EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION


Listening is not a passive endeavour by the coach, it is active and collaborative. It is vitally important that the coach hears the team’s concerns, goals, values and beliefs and

demonstrates their understanding through both their non-verbal and verbal behaviour.

Powerful Questioning is the seventh core competency in the paradigm. It supports and connects seamlessly with the skill of active listening. Powerful questioning reflects active listening and the coach’s understanding of the team’s perspective, as a more tangible method of support. There are numerous effective questioning skills, but the most appropriate in a coaching scenario is the use of open-ended questions, ‘what?’, ‘how?’ These exist to evoke discovery and encourage insight, commitment or action – especially any open questions that may challenge the team’s previously held assumptions.

They require significant thought by the client. The immediacy of powerful questioning raises awareness of the context and any stakeholder needs and leads to greater clarity and the possibility of new learning.

Master coaches mirror the team’s language (as well as non-verbal communication) and learning style to craft their questions. It is a mutual, inter-dependent method of communicating and the coach asks questions that help the team create an ‘illuminating future’ and to explore current dilemmas and limiting assumptions. The coach is not fearful of asking any challenging questions that may make either themselves or the team feel uncomfortable. Every open question is a learning experience and, when asked with curiosity, they open the conversation to further exploration. A possible result of powerful questioning is that the team finds the ‘hidden power’ within itself, takes responsibility for that hidden power – and embraces it. Ultimately, the role of the is to create awareness beyond current understanding and reveal information that is necessary for the maximum benefit of the coaching relationship.

Direct communication is the eighth core competency. Direct communication focusses on the ability to communicate effectively during the coaching session and to use language that has the greatest impact on the client. One method of achieving this is to remain clear, articulate and direct in questions, observations and feedback. Clearly articulating and directly sharing feedback serves to clarify objectives and the purpose of any exercises within the coaching framework. The aim of direct communication is to alleviate any misunderstanding, misperception and confusion on the part of the team.

The intention is for the coach to make frequent use of the team’s learning, thinking and creating styles. The coach aims to notice the language used by the team and in turn mirrors that language in order to support them.



The role of powerful questioning is to ask questions that raise awareness of what is happening in the ‘here and now’. They are designed to take the client to a new place,

to a new way of thinking about an issue.

By using metaphor and analogy, as well as language that is appropriate and respectful, the coach is able to illustrate a point or paint a verbal picture.

This dialogic approach creates sufficient space for the team to have equal or more communication than the coach and allows for the coach to freely share what is so for them without attachment. The coach trusts the team to choose the responses to the coach’s communication that best suits the team and encourage the team to communicate freely and openly without fear of judgment or evaluation.

A major part of direct communication is the ability to name and challenge any assumptions and limiting beliefs without intimidating the team. By reframing certain perspectives, the coach is able to help the team understand and acknowledge any differing viewpoints, creating a space for the team to engage in deeper level thinking, learning and discovery.

The final, and ninth, core competency in the pattern of fostering effective communication is the Use of Self. A coach’s primary resource is his or her ‘self’ and coaching is a mutual process whereby the coach uses his or her self to assist the team in becoming more curious and furthering their own development. In other words, the coach uses self as an instrument to help or hinder the team’s performance and to raise awareness about the impact the team may be having. In this way the coach inspires and supports the team to find the courage, energy, hope and perseverance necessary to reach their desired goals and expand their ‘awareness of possibilities’. This creates opportunities for targeted and transformational change born from the ‘lived’ experience of working with and experiencing the team.

Self-awareness, self-management and social awareness are all necessary proficiencies. A coach needs to be fully aware of their own emotional and behavioural responses in order to give their best to the team. Self is very much about ‘being the message’ rather than simply ‘being the messenger’.

By using the self, the coach shares how he or she is impacted by the team and the system in service of the coaching contract.

A coach invites exploration around their own experience of the team and the team’s dynamics without attachment. Consequently, the coach knows and understands their own triggers and is able to separate these from their own sense of working with the team. The use of self may take many forms including sensations, feelings, thoughts, images or metaphors – anything that has particular resonance with some-thing that is happening within the coaching relationship. Ongoing supervision is therefore recommended for anyone undertaking team coaching, to support the unpacking of any potential triggers and responses to the coaching process, allowing the coach to be fully ‘resourced.’



The use of self or ‘presence’ is powerful. It is rooted in relational intelligence and is a catalysing factor that inspires others

to become aware, to learn, and to act with intent and purpose.

The tenth core team coaching competency is to Focus on Relationships in the System. A system is a set of connected things or devices that operate together. Systemic thinking (and coaching) is about “taking a holistic approach that views the team and its environment as interconnected and co plex” (Clutterbuck, 2007).

A system gathers information from the wider environment in the form of feedback in order to direct the functioning of the system towards a pre-determined state.

Organisational systems are made up of teams and have open boundaries that are somewhat porous. This allows information to flow in and out, impacting on the system as a whole. Although the principle of homeostasis exists in systems, in which the system strives to regulate itself, the system can change, especially if it is an open system.

Here, the coach serves the whole team as a collective in a system, whilst at the same time acknowledging the interests, strengths, values and needs of each individual within said team: The coach leverages any individual strengths in service of the overall team’s effectiveness.

The task of the team coach is to support the creation of an environment in which dialogue is likely to take place. The coach aims to encourage the team members to connect and interact with each other. It is their role to manage the relationship by noticing any disconnections within the system and to seek to re-connect that which is detached. The coach needs to use their own ‘here and now’ experience to engage with and understand the team’s dynamics. Ultimately, the coach’s role is to support the team in identifying any interdependencies and opportunities for collaboration. The aim is to move the team to a position of alignment and growth.

WORKING WITH SYSTEMS & DYNAMICS


Both coach and team are working within a system and their conversations and actions respond to changes in the environment with responsive actions and solutions.

Change in one system can lead to change in another, and if it is a positive change the knock-on effects can be tremendous.

This is easier said than done. When a coach works with a team there are likely to be twenty or more relationships in the room. Each relationship will impact another; each will be dynamic and evolving. Hackman and Wageman (2005) argue that if (a coach) successfully manages motivation, alignment of tasks and team member’s knowledge and skills, then interpersonal relationships will look after them-selves. However, they also acknowledge that serious interpersonal conflicts can sometimes under-mine team performance.

The eleventh core competency focusses on Engaging with the Wider Context and Stakeholder Expectations. This is a macro position where the coach is able to demonstrate understanding and knowledge of the wider context within which the team is located, including any strategic and commercial drivers and organisational values and culture. One of the coach’s roles is to encourage the team to identify, clarify and engage with stakeholder expectations and needs. This requires the coach to em-bolden the team to engage in deeper level thinking and to delve into any complexities and challenges before moving into action.

By engaging with the wider context and stakeholder expectations, both the coach and the team will value the fact that all organisations are part of a wider system which affects and is affected by constant change and fluctuations over which they may have little control.

The twelfth (and final) core competency under the heading of Working with Systems and Dynamics is Working with Power and Authority. Any power structures are identified and clarified at the start of any coaching agreement. Once these have been established, the coach recognises how authority structures influence choices about possible intervention approaches; for example, working with the team leader versus working holistically with the whole team. The coach clarifies the organisational leadership structure and who is responsible for decision making, direction setting, monitoring, managing processes and executing the team tasks. However tempting it may be, the coach respects and works with this team’s culture and power structure rather than attempting to super-impose his or her own.

WORKING WITH SYSTEMS & DYNAMICS


Creating Awareness is the thirteenth core competency and comes under the banner of Facilitating Learning and Growth. Creating Awareness focusses on the coach’s ability to integrate and accurately evaluate multiple sources of information and to make interpretations that help the team gain awareness and achieve any agreed-upon results. The aim of creating awareness is to invoke enquiry for greater understanding and clarity and to help the team identify their underlying concerns and disparities between thoughts, feelings and actions. In this way the team strengthens its ability to take action and ultimately achieve success. The coach goes beyond what is said in assessing the team’s concerns and doesn’t get ‘hooked into’ the team’s ‘story’.

The coach identifies any interactional and behavioural patterns which may be helping, or indeed, hindering the team’s success, noticing any connections between what is said and what is being done. At the same time, the coach remains curious and able to name and challenge any limiting beliefs, incongruities or unhelpful mindsets and behaviours that may arise in the coaching session.

Creating awareness invites the wider contextual and stakeholder perspective into the coaching dialogue and allows for substantial exploration to take place before inviting any solutions to any perceived problems.

Learning and growth is facilitated by giving the team space to broaden their perspective and shift their viewpoints, leading to the possibility of new ideas and new action.

Creating awareness means that the coach is willing ‘to not know’ – to not have the answers to the team’s concerns. The coach’s role is not ‘fixing’ the problem or issue for the team. In this scenario, the coach allows the team to have a more prevalent voice than the coach. The role of the coach is to encourage the team to use their own intuition, thinking and learning to create awareness. The goal here is one of ‘connected observation’ where coach and team engage in a mutually supportive dialogue of awareness, thinking and learning.

FACILITATING LEARNING & GROWTH


The coach becomes a co-explorer along with the team. A safe space for exploration is the key here rather than focussing on a rigid task or pre-conceived set of rules.

There remain two core competencies under the banner of Facilitating Learning and Growth - Active Experiments and Generating Results.

Active Experiments are about creating a real-time shift in the team’s perspectives and behaviour. Experiments emerge spontaneously out of ‘live’ dialogue and actions, which in turn are played out in the here and now. These experiments are used as a vehicle through which the team can try out new ways of behaving and working together in an active and dynamic way, as a ‘sandbox’ for necessary change.

Active experiments not only facilitate here-and-now learning, they also provide a channel for the release of emotion and leverage opportunities for learning and growth that emerge through the team coaching environment. These opportunities may focus on alternative ideas and solutions or new options to be evaluated.

The fifteenth and final core competency in the team coaching competencies framework is Generating Results. This competency focuses on managing progress and accountability. Together, coach and team co-create actions that will enable the team to demonstrate, practice and deepen their new learning. The coach helps the team to explore specific concerns and opportunities that are central to the agreed-upon coaching goals and engages the team in exploring alternative ideas and solutions, evaluating options and making related decisions.

Coach and team co-develop and maintain an effective coaching plan and the coach helps the team identify and access different learning resources. Although the role of the coach is to hold attention on what is important for the team, the coach ultimately leaves responsibility with the team for any action or performance. However, the coach checks for progress and invites the team to monitor any progress themselves against the agreed plan.

The coach and team determine their own methods of accountability and the coach offers support to these methods. The coach’s role is one of support between sessions, helping the team stay on track and championing the team’s self-discipline and accountability. The coach, however, is responsible for the coaching process only, not the team leadership, any actions, follow-up or performance.

FACILITATING LEARNING & GROWTH


Active experimentation leads to self-discovery, enabling the team to immediately apply what has been discussed and learned during the session to their own work/life setting.

By encouraging experimentation, the coach helps the team develop more powerful, and effective action. These team successes and capabilities for future growth

are to be celebrated.

Core Competencies: A starting point from which coaching capabilities may grow and develop.

Underpinning the idea of team coaching is the notion of core competencies - a set of guidelines that demonstrate and measure effectiveness of the individual coach and the overall coaching process. Assessment of competencies ensure quality of provision and professional bodies assess coaches as part of their accreditation system by using competency frameworks.

The fifteen core competencies outlined are a set of basic criteria necessary for the standardised measurement of excellence in team coaching. The coaching engagement is a complex, adaptive system and measuring core competencies is subject to many external variables, all of which create ‘noise’. However, we believe that the fifteen core competencies explored above are the minimum standards and a primary starting point from which coaching capabilities may grow and develop.

CONCLUSION

“Team coaching is not the same as facilitation, nor is it the same as coaching individuals, but both coaching and facilitation skills may form a sound foundation upon which to build the ability to work

purposefully with team dynamics” (LAWRENCE, 2018).


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