Team Coaching
The goal of the team coaching process is to shift the culture at the leadership level in order to drive change in the culture as a whole. The leverage for change begins at the top and then ripples out.
Teams of course, come in a variety of forms and structures; they are dynamic systems of individuals, interacting to achieve a common mission. The more aware you are of the strengths and challenges of your team the more effective you can be in your role as leader.
Teams exist to produce results. But a focus on output alone tells only half of the story for high performing. The most successful and most effective teams in producing results are teams that have developed the ability to be sustainable as well. There are times in the life of any team when 100% of the focus must be on the task, the deadline and the deliverables. But the intensity of the heat of that focus is not sustainable. Burn out is the predictable result and teams that are burned out eventually disappoint when it comes to achieving results.
The question to ask then is, “What are the essential factors that go into creating a high-performing sustainable team?”
“What sets apart high-performance teams… is the degree of commitment, particularly how deeply committed the members
are to one another.”
— Jon R. Katzenbach and Douglas K. Smith
The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization
Do all five of these characteristics describe your team?
- Identity: A team is more than a collection of individuals. It is a dynamic, living entity with a past, a present, and an anticipated future. A team
has an identity, a personality, a reputation. - Mission / Purpose: There is a reason for this team’s existence and team members are clear about that reason; they also know how they contribute to the achievement of that team mission.
- Goals: There are goals and milestones that provide a measurable way for the team to know it is fulfilling its mission.
- Roles: The team and each member of the team make an essential contribution in support of the team’s mission; team members are interdependent. Roles and responsibilities are clear.
- Agreements: The team has clear, behavioral agreements and a process for updating or negotiating agreements.
When the conditions are right a sixth, and invaluable characteristic emerges and that is Commitment.
For more information on achieving an average 20% improvement in Productivity & Positivity conditions using the Team Diagnostic™
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”
~ Andrew Carnegie
Measure Team Conditions · Improve Team Performance · Sustain Team Results
Teams exist to produce results.
Our methodology includes identifying:
- business results the team delivers
- current metrics and improvement goals
- a plan for improving team dynamics that support improved business results
Most current organizational and coaching approaches assess and coach the team as a collection of individuals. In this approach, assessments measure the characteristics, preferences and performance of individual team members and the results are then compiled into a profile in which individuals can compare themselves to one another. This is valuable information for team members, but it is only half the picture.
The missing half: a picture of the team as a whole. The Team Diagnostic™ is a unique approach to working with teams because it regards the team as a dynamic “system”. A team is more than the sum of its parts. A team is a living, dynamic entity with its own personality, spoken and unspoken rules, vision, blind spots, even moods. With the Team Diagnostic™ the team’s needs are explored independent of the needs of any single member. This shifts the attention and the work of the team to the team itself.
Typical “Team” Assessment:
Aggregate of individual profiles
Team Diagnostic™ Systems Approach:
Assesses the team as a whole
Research shows that the most successful teams have the means to take action and build effective relationships to motivate and sustain that action.
The Team Diagnostic™ is built on these two fundamental axes:
- Factors that optimize productivity
- Factors that promote positivity
The Team Diagnostic™ model looks at defines seven separate productivity factors and seven positivity factors. This constellation of competencies and increasingly detailed layers of the report provide a complete picture for creating high-performing teams.
The Team Diagnostic™ model looks at two dimensions:
Teams that excel at both dimensions are high performing and sustainable. They are creative, adaptable and resilient.
Specific outcomes include:
Improved Team Dynamics and Interaction for the sake of:
- An average team improvement of 20% in Productivity and Positivity for projects as short as 6 months.
- Immediate Time and Cost Savings
- Ongoing Progress on Team and Business Results
- Return on Money and Time Investment
- Improvement on specific business metrics that the team delivers
- Spread of improvement across the organization
Practical, Convenient, Efficient
- Tools automatically identify highest priority areas without interviews or compilation/interpretation of answers.
- Only 20 minutes per team member to complete the online assessment (24/7). Ideal for virtual teams.
- Less than 5 minutes for reporting; a clear graphical map of the starting point and opportunities.
- Intuitive: great results (Productivity) are achieved via great relationships (Positivity). Immediate Impact.
Objective, Anonymous, Confidential
- Standard questions and all-inclusive answers; all questions and answers are given equal weight.
- Individual answers are entered privately into online system; no one else hears or interprets answers.
- Results are reported anonymously; individual answers are not attributed to participants.
Proven in research and application
- Diagnostic has passed rigorous validity and reliability psychometric testing.
For more information on achieving an average 20% improvement in Productivity & Positivity conditions using the Team Diagnostic™
The Approach
Assessment
This team development process begins with an anonymous, online 80-item assessment followed by a Team Reveal providing opportunity for rich dialogue focused on team performance resulting in a clear action plan for improvement developed by the team, for the team.
Alignment coaching sessions follow the Team Reveal workshop, to ensure the team is committed to making progress on their action plan and is clear on how improvement will impact business metrics in the organization.
Accelerate and Improve
Accountability sessions are held monthly with the team for continued focus on actions and development. These sessions are delivered live and if possible will co-incide with meetings the team already holds on a regular basis. These 60 to 90 minute sessions reinforce the action steps and accountability for the team and in some cases provide additional training to support the team’s on-going development.
Measure and Sustain
What gets measured gets improved. This unique approach includes a measure of the team’s progress, again using the Team Diagnostic™. This measure provides the team with a clear picture of their improvement and opportunities so they can plan next steps for continuing to advance and sustain their gains.
