Team Development
Unleash your team’s full potential and passion
Team coaching is time well invested. It creates a professional framework to enhance your team’s collaboration: making it more successful and satisfying. Teams usually have good instincts about imbalances and internal obstacles … and about the solutions that need to be implemented. Together, we’ll discuss these opportunities for improvement in a solution-focused approach, considering the diverse expectations, styles, and backgrounds that come together within the team.
Topics
At the start, I will thoroughly discuss with you which specific topic you would like to address in your team coaching. TopWe can explore challenges across a wide spectrum of team dynamics. Team development typically keeps two interdependent goals in mind: promoting your effectiveness as a team (results, performance, efficiency) while simultaneously strengthening team spirit (cohesion, motivation, satisfaction). In the long run, one cannot succeed without the other.
Some Examples
Purpose: What is our shared “North Star” – our team’s mission? How do we create identification from within? What values unite us? And how attractive is the common goal for the team … and each of its members?
Roles & Organization: How do we define our roles? How clear are they? How do we ensure smooth collaboration through structures and routines? When do we cooperate and where do we opt for task division? How do we distribute responsibility and control?
Regular Communication: How do we communicate regularly and purposefully? How do we discuss the current status and what lies ahead? How do we share feedback? How do we maintain appreciation for one another in stressful daily routines and talk about strengths? How do we celebrate successes … and openly address failures and tough times?
Conflicts: How do we trustfully and sustainably resolve conflicts? How do we handle role or goal conflicts that might affect our collaboration? How do we prevent tensions from becoming personal? How do we manage to discuss not just “positions” but also the underlying wishes and needs?
Working Styles: What mutual expectations do we have for our collaboration? What level of commitment do we want from each other? Where do we allow ourselves flexibility and individuality?
Growth: What roles or competencies are we missing in the team? In which direction should we develop? What do we need as a team to meet future challenges?
Team Phases
Each development phase that a team goes through requires its own unique form of guidance. This applies at the beginning when a team is newly formed, and repeatedly when framework conditions change. These dynamic phases are important and cannot be avoided. Changes happen – and they happen daily. Team coaching guides you through the process, helping you find the best possible solutions for you as a team, smoothly and purposefully.
B. Tuckman’s Phase Model
After the initial phase of getting to know each other and polite approach (Forming), there typically follows a challenging period of mutual positioning with underlying conflicts (Storming). Overcoming this conflict-rich phase means finding rules of collaboration together as a team. Through mutual feedback and transparency, different interests can be integrated (Norming). This is how the team ultimately reaches a phase of pronounced team spirit and high performance (Performing).
Process
In a free initial consultation, I discuss with you (or representatives from the team) the background, framework, and conditions for your team coaching. We also take a first look at your potential concerns. I’m happy to answer your questions and provide you with a proposal. Based on this, you can then decide whether and under which “heading” you would like to start your team development process with me as your coach. A virtual appointment is usually sufficient for the initial consultation.
The actual team coaching is individually tailored to your team situation and concerns. The goal is to accompany you as a team only until you have gained sufficient momentum and wish to continue the process on your own. Sometimes a single, extensive workshop is enough for this.
It’s crucial for me to start the process with the entire team. Together, we define the exact concern and bring together the sometimes very different wishes and expectations of all participants. This way, the concern is broadly supported within the team. Additionally, this creates a trustful framework to then move into potential individual conversations or coaching sessions. Whenever possible, this first appointment should take place in person. We focus quite quickly on the desired, changed future. This enables you as a team to have a unifying, motivating look forward and avoids accusatory blame.
If the team development comes about at the initiative of third parties (e.g., your supervisor(s) or the company) or if your coaching is paid for by third parties, it is crucial to clarify goals and key points in the triangular relationship at the beginning. The actual team coaching then takes place in an absolutely confidential setting, and nothing discussed leaves the protected framework of the team without your consent.