This fascinating question arose during a supervision group a few days ago. The stimulus was a cluster of cases, where, for one reason or another, the pause button had been pressed on the team coaching assignment. The coach(es) felt a variety of negative emotions about this, but particularly disappointment and frustration that the “good work”...
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Just as focusing on individual performance doesn’t necessarily lead to improved collective (team) performance, high performing teams don’t necessarily work together to deliver a high performing organization. In his book Team of Teams, retired US general Stanley McChrystal offers a number of examples of how functional silos within organisations or even within departments can undermine (more…)
There is a severe lack of both empirical research and theoretical models relating to the concept of teams of teams. Google Scholar lists just one publication – an autobiographical account of the concept at work in the theatre of war (McChrystal et al, 2015). So, it is hardly surprising that coaches struggle to know where...
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Teams are a special form of group, where shared purpose and interdependencies replace common purpose and individual activity. The distinction between a group and a team is often blurred. A group may exhibit some of the behaviours associated with teaming, but not all. Groups in the workplace often describe themselves as teams, because they feel...
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One of the signs of a coaching culture in a team is when everyone is comfortable with being coached by everyone else. A tipping point in achieving a coaching culture is when the team leader is happy to be coached by direct reports. A five-stage approach can be helpful here: The team leader is coached...
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It’s a rare privilege to listen to someone, who has experienced great discrimination in the workplace, but has nonetheless achieved a highly successful career. Lord Browne of Madingley, former Chief executive of BP, this week gave at consultancy Arup in London, an impassioned speech , which was partly about his won experiences and partly about...
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No, it’s not a typographical error – it’s the latest neologism from the Clutterbuck word factory! I talk a lot about stakeholders (people and entities affected by what we do) and influencers (people or entities that enable or constrain us in what we do). Mistakeholders are a special subgroup of stakeholders – people, who suffer...
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It’s a truism that change is often more noticeable from outside than from within. Team coaches often assume that, just because they can see significant improvements in team behaviours or functions, the team itself is equally aware. That’s often not the case. So, how do we make them more aware? Some of the simplest approaches...
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The expansion of team coaching as a profession has been remarkably rapid. Yet the future of team coaching lies increasingly not as an additional skill for external professional coaches, but as an essential skill for leaders at all levels in organisations. A significant proportion of people training as team coaches are team leaders, who see...
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A high proportion of team coaching assignments arise from one-to-one engagements with leader clients. The client gains increasing confidence in the coach and gradually comes to understand that there would be value in applying coaching to the team as a whole. However, a straight jump from individual to team coaching can be disastrous, for several...
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