Lift Your People to High Performance!

Lift Your

People

To High

Performance!

team coaching

Lift Your People To High Performance!

Team coaching is the most sure-fire way to get your team aligned and performing at their peak. When a team is stuck in conflict and politics, it’s unlikely that any member of that team will reach their potential. Conversely, every member’s personal performance benefits from a high-performing team.

Is your team narrative what you would want it to be?

Is your team narrative what you would want it to be?

What is Team Coaching?

THE TRADITIONAL business model is to strive to have teams that stay together for years. The assumption was that, by getting to know their jobs and each other, they would perform better. However, just like a dysfunctional family, their “stuff” can get locked into the system and they can spend years going around in circles, holding each other back, and never really reaching their potential as a group or as individuals.

Recognition of the missing potential, and a particular intervention from someone who is both skilled and not part of the system, are key elements required to make a difference.

All that said, an increasingly common issue today is that people don’t stay around for that long. Team members change every few months and the face of an entire team can change within two to three years. In addition, people are expected to be more collaborative, and a lot of work in corporates is being done on a per-project basis. The leader of one project may not be the leader – may not even be part of the team – for the next.

This brings with it a different challenge: people need to be able to band and disband with minimal fuss, and hit the ground running each time.

Either way, team performance has become more valuable than ever.

What are your team performance needs?

There is most often a fair degree of uncertainty and tension when a new leader takes over, or when new members join a team.

It takes time for relationships to form. Often, with even a small change, the team can return to the forming stage (to use Tuckman’s Team Stages model) and has to work its way back through the stages to high performance.

The quicker you can embed new leaders or members, the better.

Often when a team is new, or when there are sensitivities because people take things personally, then we have this problem of too much politeness and not enough honesty.

This is not to say we should give bullies permission to not be polite or sensitive. People’s sensitivities should be acknowledged, but should not be allowed to dominate at the cost of honesty.

Honest, polite, sensitive feedback is crucial for high performance and getting the balance right is a skill that can be learned.

When conflict is high it may be a natural phase while people sort themselves out.

If the conflict continues, it can often be due to team members being more invested in their personal agendas than in the shared goal of the collective.

It can also be an indicator that team members have not managed to recognise, accept and harness their differences and play to each others’ strengths. Teams often get stuck because each member expects everyone else to do things they way they do and nobody wants to budge.

Complacency can arise when a team has been successful doing things a certain way. This can become entrenched and innovation suffers.

Teams can get stuck in this way and not see it, even when everyone else can. A high-performing team has the characteristic of constant challenge and shaking things up.

Every team member needs to consistently challenge other members to operate outside of his or her comfort zone.

If a team is not doing that it’s not standing still, it’s going backwards.

The greatest danger of success is that it gives rise to complacency.

There is a story that after winning a tournament, golfing great Gary Player was on the course the next morning, practising his bunker shots. He, more than most, has demonstrated that greatness doesn’t happen without conscious effort.

A team that wants to sustain high performance needs to know precisely what practices got it there; it needs to define what new practices will keep it there; and it needs to do them.

What is Team Coaching?

THE TRADITIONAL business model is to strive to have teams that stay together for years. The assumption was that, by getting to know their jobs and each other, they would perform better. However, just like a dysfunctional family, their “stuff” can get locked into the system and they can spend years going around in circles, holding each other back, and never really reaching their potential as a group or as individuals.

Recognition of the missing potential, and a particular intervention from someone who is both skilled and not part of the system, are key elements required to make a difference.

All that said, an increasingly common issue today is that people don’t stay around for that long. Team members change every few months and the face of an entire team can change within two to three years. In addition, people are expected to be more collaborative, and a lot of work in corporates is being done on a per-project basis. The leader of one project may not be the leader – may not even be part of the team – for the next.

This brings with it a different challenge: people need to be able to band and disband with minimal fuss, and hit the ground running each time.

Either way, team performance has become more valuable than ever.

What are your team performance needs?

There is most often a fair degree of uncertainty and tension when a new leader takes over, or when new members join a team.

It takes time for relationships to form. Often, with even a small change, the team can return to the forming stage (to use Tuckman’s Team Stages model) and has to work its way back through the stages to high performance.

The quicker you can embed new leaders or members, the better.

Often when a team is new, or when there are sensitivities because people take things personally, then we have this problem of too much politeness and not enough honesty.

This is not to say we should give bullies permission to not be polite or sensitive. People’s sensitivities should be acknowledged, but should not be allowed to dominate at the cost of honesty.

Honest, polite, sensitive feedback is crucial for high performance and getting the balance right is a skill that can be learned.

When conflict is high it may be a natural phase while people sort themselves out.

If the conflict continues, it can often be due to team members being more invested in their personal agendas than in the shared goal of the collective.

It can also be an indicator that team members have not managed to recognise, accept and harness their differences and play to each others’ strengths. Teams often get stuck because each member expects everyone else to do things they way they do and nobody wants to budge.

Complacency can arise when a team has been successful doing things a certain way. This can become entrenched and innovation suffers.

Teams can get stuck in this way and not see it, even when everyone else can. A high-performing team has the characteristic of constant challenge and shaking things up.

Every team member needs to consistently challenge other members to operate outside of his or her comfort zone.

If a team is not doing that it’s not standing still, it’s going backwards.

The greatest danger of success is that it gives rise to complacency.

There is a story that after winning a tournament, golfing great Gary Player was on the course the next morning, practising his bunker shots. He, more than most, has demonstrated that greatness doesn’t happen without conscious effort.

A team that wants to sustain high performance needs to know precisely what practices got it there; it needs to define what new practices will keep it there; and it needs to do them.

What is Team Coaching?

THE TRADITIONAL business model is to strive to have teams that stay together for years. The assumption was that, by getting to know their jobs and each other, they would perform better. However, just like a dysfunctional family, their “stuff” can get locked into the system and they can spend years going around in circles, holding each other back, and never really reaching their potential as a group or as individuals.

Recognition of the missing potential, and a particular intervention from someone who is both skilled and not part of the system, are key elements required to make a difference.

All that said, an increasingly common issue today is that people don’t stay around for that long. Team members change every few months and the face of an entire team can change within two to three years. In addition, people are expected to be more collaborative, and a lot of work in corporates is being done on a per-project basis. The leader of one project may not be the leader – may not even be part of the team – for the next.

This brings with it a different challenge: people need to be able to band and disband with minimal fuss, and hit the ground running each time.

Either way, team performance has become more valuable than ever.

What are your team performance needs?

There is most often a fair degree of uncertainty and tension when a new leader takes over, or when new members join a team.

It takes time for relationships to form. Often, with even a small change, the team can return to the forming stage (to use Tuckman’s Team Stages model) and has to work its way back through the stages to high performance.

The quicker you can embed new leaders or members, the better.

Often when a team is new, or when there are sensitivities because people take things personally, then we have this problem of too much politeness and not enough honesty.

This is not to say we should give bullies permission to not be polite or sensitive. People’s sensitivities should be acknowledged, but should not be allowed to dominate at the cost of honesty.

Honest, polite, sensitive feedback is crucial for high performance and getting the balance right is a skill that can be learned.

When conflict is high it may be a natural phase while people sort themselves out.

If the conflict continues, it can often be due to team members being more invested in their personal agendas than in the shared goal of the collective.

It can also be an indicator that team members have not managed to recognise, accept and harness their differences and play to each others’ strengths. Teams often get stuck because each member expects everyone else to do things they way they do and nobody wants to budge.

Complacency can arise when a team has been successful doing things a certain way. This can become entrenched and innovation suffers.

Teams can get stuck in this way and not see it, even when everyone else can. A high-performing team has the characteristic of constant challenge and shaking things up.

Every team member needs to consistently challenge other members to operate outside of his or her comfort zone.

If a team is not doing that it’s not standing still, it’s going backwards.

The greatest danger of success is that it gives rise to complacency.

There is a story that after winning a tournament, golfing great Gary Player was on the course the next morning, practising his bunker shots. He, more than most, has demonstrated that greatness doesn’t happen without conscious effort.

A team that wants to sustain high performance needs to know precisely what practices got it there; it needs to define what new practices will keep it there; and it needs to do them.

Outcomes

What you can expect to gain

  • A better understanding of self and others within the team context;

  • Recognition of, and greater willingness to work with, differences in style and temperament;

  • Awareness of one’s own and others’ defensive trigger points and how to work empathically together;

  • Improved levels of “psychological safety”;

  • Understanding of where the team is in terms of high-performance and what needs to happen to get there;

  • Having addressed the “elephant in the room” and able to deal with any other “sacred cows”;

Benefits

What this can do for your team

  • Improved rapport, with less time and energy wasted on thinking about “how to say” something;

  • A deeply felt, shared clarity of purpose, which has the knock-on effect of greater decisiveness, both individually and collectively;

  • Team members knowing how to be firm with each other, and when to be flexible;

  • A greater shared confidence in the future, and in the team’s ability to handle what comes;

  • A greater capacity to inspire and influence each other, and to call on this power, or energy, at will;

  • Improved relationships within the team, and a better team reputation within the organization;

  • The competence to quickly reach agreement, take greater accountability, and achieve results.

Outcomes

What you can expect to gain

  • A better understanding of self and others within the team context;

  • Recognition of, and greater willingness to work with, differences in style and temperament;

  • Awareness of one’s own and others’ defensive trigger points and how to work empathically together;

  • Improved levels of “psychological safety”;

  • Understanding of where the team is in terms of high-performance and what needs to happen to get there;

  • Having addressed the “elephant in the room” and able to deal with any other “sacred cows”;

Benefits

What this can do for your team

  • Improved rapport, with less time and energy wasted on thinking about “how to say” something;

  • A deeply felt, shared clarity of purpose, which has the knock-on effect of greater decisiveness, both individually and collectively;

  • Team members knowing how to be firm with each other, and when to be flexible;

  • A greater shared confidence in the future, and in the team’s ability to handle what comes;

  • A greater capacity to inspire and influence each other, and to call on this power, or energy, at will;

  • Improved relationships within the team, and a better team reputation within the organization;

  • The competence to quickly reach agreement, take greater accountability, and achieve results.

Outcomes

What you can expect to gain

  • A better understanding of self and others within the team context;

  • Recognition of, and greater willingness to work with, differences in style and temperament;

  • Awareness of one’s own and others’ defensive trigger points and how to work empathically together;

  • Improved levels of “psychological safety”;

  • Understanding of where the team is in terms of high-performance and what needs to happen to get there;

  • Having addressed the “elephant in the room” and able to deal with any other “sacred cows”;

Benefits

What this can do for your team

  • Improved rapport, with less time and energy wasted on thinking about “how to say” something;

  • A deeply felt, shared clarity of purpose, which has the knock-on effect of greater decisiveness, both individually and collectively;

  • Team members knowing how to be firm with each other, and when to be flexible;

  • A greater shared confidence in the future, and in the team’s ability to handle what comes;

  • A greater capacity to inspire and influence each other, and to call on this power, or energy, at will;

  • Improved relationships within the team, and a better team reputation within the organization;

  • The competence to quickly reach agreement, take greater accountability, and achieve results.

What does a Team Coaching program look like?

Transformation seldom happens as the result of a single intervention. Balanced against that is the question of time and budget. Here are the three levels — or degrees — of team intervention that are available, taking into account the factors just mentioned.

For a light intervention, such as a team-build-with-a-purpose or to embed a new leader or members, I recommend the Team Discovery Day™ (TDD), which was developed specifically to kick-start a team’s journey to high performance.

The program uses the enneagram, a model of personality types, to facilitate understanding of self and others. It also draws on Tuckman’s Team Stages model and Naomi Klein’s Time To Think model. The day ends with individual and team declarations. 

The outcomes of this one-day process are:
+ Clearly understand what a high-performing team looks like and what the benefits are;
+ Define where the current team is, relative to a high-performing team;
+ Clarify individual and team behaviour and what needs to shift to unlock the possibility of high perfomance;
+ Commit to individual and team actions to begin the journey to high performance.

This program is useful for:
+ Team-build programs;
+ Accelerating the integration of a new leader or team members;
+ Settling a project team as quickly as possible.

You don’t want to move a houseful of furniture with a light pickup, and so you wouldn’t expect to resolve major team issues in a single day. Therefore, a two-day offsite workshop is needed if there is more to deal with than a simple one-day team build can handle.

A rule of thumb is that if there is “stuff” to unpack, you need a day to do that, whatever it is. Then you need another day for the coach to play Humpty-Dumpty and put all the pieces back together again so that people can leave feeling empowered and inspired.

An ideal program will weave in the enneagram, a model of personality types, to facilitate understanding of self and others. It will also draw on Tuckman’s Team Stages model and Naomi Klein’s Time To Think model. The process should end with individual and team declarations. 

The outcomes of the two-day offsite are:
+ Clearly understand what a high-performing team looks like and what the benefits are;
+ Define where the current team is, relative to a high-performing team;
+ Unpack any and all issues the team is having and deal with them, or map a path to deal with them;
+ Map a strategic path for the team and/or business (if relevant);
+ Commit to individual and team actions to begin the journey to high performance.

This process is relevant for:
+ Executive-level teams;
+ When the issues are complex and/or strategic and need some unpacking;
+ When there is a high degree of change and complexity;
+ When high levels of conflict and/or other forms of dysfunction keep surfacing within the team. 

NOTE
There will usually be a lead-in process where the coach spends time with each team member and perhaps even gets input from people around the team. Follow-up interventions may be recommended or required as well, for example:
+ Coaching for the leader;
+ Coaching for one or more team members;
+ Further team sessions to check in, hold accountable, and embed the learning.
A critical success factor is that the leader and all team members must engage in the full process.

Real, sustainable change does not happen as a result of a single event. It requires a series of planned and integrated interventions.

The full integrated process begins with the coach spending time with each team member, and possibly some people around the team. This is to gather the narrative – the story about what’s really going on in the team – which gets fed back to the team anonymously during the two-day offsite workshop (see previous tab).

The two-day offsite will be followed by a series of individual and team coaching sessions. The latter may be expanded into half- or full-day modules to develop particular competencies, based on what emerges during the process. The following are themes that typically arise: making and keeping agreements; conflict management; giving & receiving feedback; developing trust; enabling collaboration; creating a listening environment; developing a coaching style of communicating; building resilience.

The scope of this program, and frequency of interventions, will depend on budget and time availability. To give an indication, a full program will usually last about nine months.

The outcomes of the integrated process are:
+ Complete the transition to high performance;
+ Develop the range of behavioural competencies needed to sustain high performance;
+ Begin to develop a collective leadership style that can devolve the high performance culture into the business;

This process is relevant for:
+ Executive-level teams;
+ Teams that need to operate with a high level of autonomy (eg. the exco or manco in a founder-owned business where the founder is seldom present);
+ Any team totally serious about and 100% committed to developing high performance. 

NOTE
The journey to high performance is a tough one and the rewards are a direct function of the level of commitment shown by every member of the team. A weak link in participation is likely to reveal exactly the weak link in the team. For example, if the team keeps changing dates, or one member keeps missing sessions, right there is your weak link. The integrated process will reveal any such weak link and the team will be forced to deal with it. 

VIDEO | Making the shift from expert to leader

One of the greatest challenges we face is giving up our role as a subject matter expert and taking on the mantle of leadership.

What does a Team Coaching program look like?

Transformation seldom happens as the result of a single intervention. Balanced against that is the question of time and budget. Here are the three levels — or degrees — of team intervention that are available, taking into account the factors just mentioned.

For a light intervention, such as a team-build-with-a-purpose or to embed a new leader or members, I recommend the Team Discovery Day™ (TDD), which was developed specifically to kick-start a team’s journey to high performance.

The program uses the enneagram, a model of personality types, to facilitate understanding of self and others. It also draws on Tuckman’s Team Stages model and Naomi Klein’s Time To Think model. The day ends with individual and team declarations. 

The outcomes of this one-day process are:
+ Clearly understand what a high-performing team looks like and what the benefits are;
+ Define where the current team is, relative to a high-performing team;
+ Clarify individual and team behaviour and what needs to shift to unlock the possibility of high perfomance;
+ Commit to individual and team actions to begin the journey to high performance.

This program is useful for:
+ Team-build programs;
+ Accelerating the integration of a new leader or team members;
+ Settling a project team as quickly as possible.

You don’t want to move a houseful of furniture with a light pickup, and so you wouldn’t expect to resolve major team issues in a single day. Therefore, a two-day offsite workshop is needed if there is more to deal with than a simple one-day team build can handle.

A rule of thumb is that if there is “stuff” to unpack, you need a day to do that, whatever it is. Then you need another day for the coach to play Humpty-Dumpty and put all the pieces back together again so that people can leave feeling empowered and inspired.

An ideal program will weave in the enneagram, a model of personality types, to facilitate understanding of self and others. It will also draw on Tuckman’s Team Stages model and Naomi Klein’s Time To Think model. The process should end with individual and team declarations. 

The outcomes of the two-day offsite are:
+ Clearly understand what a high-performing team looks like and what the benefits are;
+ Define where the current team is, relative to a high-performing team;
+ Unpack any and all issues the team is having and deal with them, or map a path to deal with them;
+ Map a strategic path for the team and/or business (if relevant);
+ Commit to individual and team actions to begin the journey to high performance.

This process is relevant for:
+ Executive-level teams;
+ When the issues are complex and/or strategic and need some unpacking;
+ When there is a high degree of change and complexity;
+ When high levels of conflict and/or other forms of dysfunction keep surfacing within the team. 

NOTE
There will usually be a lead-in process where the coach spends time with each team member and perhaps even gets input from people around the team. Follow-up interventions may be recommended or required as well, for example:
+ Coaching for the leader;
+ Coaching for one or more team members;
+ Further team sessions to check in, hold accountable, and embed the learning.
A critical success factor is that the leader and all team members must engage in the full process.

Real, sustainable change does not happen as a result of a single event. It requires a series of planned and integrated interventions.

The full integrated process begins with the coach spending time with each team member, and possibly some people around the team. This is to gather the narrative – the story about what’s really going on in the team – which gets fed back to the team anonymously during the two-day offsite workshop (see previous tab).

The two-day offsite will be followed by a series of individual and team coaching sessions. The latter may be expanded into half- or full-day modules to develop particular competencies, based on what emerges during the process. The following are themes that typically arise: making and keeping agreements; conflict management; giving & receiving feedback; developing trust; enabling collaboration; creating a listening environment; developing a coaching style of communicating; building resilience.

The scope of this program, and frequency of interventions, will depend on budget and time availability. To give an indication, a full program will usually last about nine months.

The outcomes of the integrated process are:
+ Complete the transition to high performance;
+ Develop the range of behavioural competencies needed to sustain high performance;
+ Begin to develop a collective leadership style that can devolve the high performance culture into the business;

This process is relevant for:
+ Executive-level teams;
+ Teams that need to operate with a high level of autonomy (eg. the exco or manco in a founder-owned business where the founder is seldom present);
+ Any team totally serious about and 100% committed to developing high performance. 

NOTE
The journey to high performance is a tough one and the rewards are a direct function of the level of commitment shown by every member of the team. A weak link in participation is likely to reveal exactly the weak link in the team. For example, if the team keeps changing dates, or one member keeps missing sessions, right there is your weak link. The integrated process will reveal any such weak link and the team will be forced to deal with it. 

VIDEO | Making the shift from expert to leader

One of the greatest challenges we face is giving up our role as a subject matter expert and taking on the mantle of leadership.

What does a Team Coaching program look like?

Transformation seldom happens as the result of a single intervention. Balanced against that is the question of time and budget. Here are the three levels — or degrees — of team intervention that are available, taking into account the factors just mentioned.

For a light intervention, such as a team-build-with-a-purpose or to embed a new leader or members, I recommend the Team Discovery Day™ (TDD), which was developed specifically to kick-start a team’s journey to high performance.

The program uses the enneagram, a model of personality types, to facilitate understanding of self and others. It also draws on Tuckman’s Team Stages model and Naomi Klein’s Time To Think model. The day ends with individual and team declarations. 

The outcomes of this one-day process are:
+ Clearly understand what a high-performing team looks like and what the benefits are;
+ Define where the current team is, relative to a high-performing team;
+ Clarify individual and team behaviour and what needs to shift to unlock the possibility of high perfomance;
+ Commit to individual and team actions to begin the journey to high performance.

This program is useful for:
+ Team-build programs;
+ Accelerating the integration of a new leader or team members;
+ Settling a project team as quickly as possible.

You don’t want to move a houseful of furniture with a light pickup, and so you wouldn’t expect to resolve major team issues in a single day. Therefore, a two-day offsite workshop is needed if there is more to deal with than a simple one-day team build can handle.

A rule of thumb is that if there is “stuff” to unpack, you need a day to do that, whatever it is. Then you need another day for the coach to play Humpty-Dumpty and put all the pieces back together again so that people can leave feeling empowered and inspired.

An ideal program will weave in the enneagram, a model of personality types, to facilitate understanding of self and others. It will also draw on Tuckman’s Team Stages model and Naomi Klein’s Time To Think model. The process should end with individual and team declarations. 

The outcomes of the two-day offsite are:
+ Clearly understand what a high-performing team looks like and what the benefits are;
+ Define where the current team is, relative to a high-performing team;
+ Unpack any and all issues the team is having and deal with them, or map a path to deal with them;
+ Map a strategic path for the team and/or business (if relevant);
+ Commit to individual and team actions to begin the journey to high performance.

This process is relevant for:
+ Executive-level teams;
+ When the issues are complex and/or strategic and need some unpacking;
+ When there is a high degree of change and complexity;
+ When high levels of conflict and/or other forms of dysfunction keep surfacing within the team. 

NOTE
There will usually be a lead-in process where the coach spends time with each team member and perhaps even gets input from people around the team. Follow-up interventions may be recommended or required as well, for example:
+ Coaching for the leader;
+ Coaching for one or more team members;
+ Further team sessions to check in, hold accountable, and embed the learning.
A critical success factor is that the leader and all team members must engage in the full process.

Real, sustainable change does not happen as a result of a single event. It requires a series of planned and integrated interventions.

The full integrated process begins with the coach spending time with each team member, and possibly some people around the team. This is to gather the narrative – the story about what’s really going on in the team – which gets fed back to the team anonymously during the two-day offsite workshop (see previous tab).

The two-day offsite will be followed by a series of individual and team coaching sessions. The latter may be expanded into half- or full-day modules to develop particular competencies, based on what emerges during the process. The following are themes that typically arise: making and keeping agreements; conflict management; giving & receiving feedback; developing trust; enabling collaboration; creating a listening environment; developing a coaching style of communicating; building resilience.

The scope of this program, and frequency of interventions, will depend on budget and time availability. To give an indication, a full program will usually last about nine months.

The outcomes of the integrated process are:
+ Complete the transition to high performance;
+ Develop the range of behavioural competencies needed to sustain high performance;
+ Begin to develop a collective leadership style that can devolve the high performance culture into the business;

This process is relevant for:
+ Executive-level teams;
+ Teams that need to operate with a high level of autonomy (eg. the exco or manco in a founder-owned business where the founder is seldom present);
+ Any team totally serious about and 100% committed to developing high performance. 

NOTE
The journey to high performance is a tough one and the rewards are a direct function of the level of commitment shown by every member of the team. A weak link in participation is likely to reveal exactly the weak link in the team. For example, if the team keeps changing dates, or one member keeps missing sessions, right there is your weak link. The integrated process will reveal any such weak link and the team will be forced to deal with it. 

VIDEO | Making the shift from expert to leader

One of the greatest challenges we face is giving up our role as a subject matter expert and taking on the mantle of leadership.

To find out about executive coaching for leaders and individuals, follow this link.

To find out about executive coaching for leaders and individuals, follow this link.

What People Have Said

What People Have Said

What People Have Said