Team Coaching

 

As the first practice in South Africa to support the development of business leaders through executive coaching, Change Partners is sometimes regarded as a personal ‘finishing school’ for individual top performers.  In fact, since inception in 1998, the practice has always provided complementary solutions for teams and groups. We deploy numerous tools to incubate tomorrow’s leaders.

Our vision is to become and remain Africa’s most effective catalyst for unlocking organisational value through enhanced leadership.

Our mission is to help high-potential individuals become the  best they can be in accordance with our marketing promise

The quest finds expression in numerous interventions:

 
Coaching Teams

This is targeted at the corporate leader’s direct reports and may involve six to twelve members of the
senior executive team. A typical intervention lasts six months and is shaped by an organisational brief setting out goals and benchmarks. Objectives vary from removal of any ‘disconnect’ between leader and team to accelerated decision-making and building resilience.

The process begins with confidential, individual interviews, focusing on roles, relationships and how interactions might improve. Road-blocks to greater team effectiveness are then identified at a two-day off-site event. One-on-one techniques encourage discussion of alternative behaviours and processes while personal commitments to improved performance are made.

Contact with the team is maintained for six months after the off-site event. Contacts range from one-on-one discussion of how newly defined goals are being achieved to half-day team review sessions to reinforce behaviours.

Team coaching is more than an event. It’s a process. It entails no physically challenging or personally embarrassing situations. The aim is to build on the strengths that are already apparent in the team.

 
Coaching Groups

Here we focus on four to six high-potential executives (tomorrow’s leaders) who do not yet form part of the top team. The process involves group sessions and one-on-one coaching and normally lasts six months.

Topics cover key competencies and may include coping with promotion, dealing with peers and subordinates, delegation, resilience and trust.

 
Coaching Skills for Manager-Leaders

This intervention uses coaching skills to ‘future-proof’ an organisation’s internal
mentoring structures. Discussion with stakeholders helps an organisation to position mentoring while promoting understanding of who should be mentors. The process also equips selected mentors with key coaching techniques to foster a more participatory, less prescriptive mentoring style.

Programme participants obtain better insight into their role and how to optimise the mentorship opportunity.  A six-month support process helps participants position themselves as effective mentors. Feedback over this period promotes the development of a Mentoring Community within the organisation. In this way, mentoring becomes a sustainable component of an organisation’s human capital development.
 

Customised Packages

These solutions are designed to assist managers with special needs. Areas might include leadership development programmes, performance management and safety management. Targeted coaching such as this can help executives become more creative and effective.

Building Organizational Value

Demand for team and group interventions has grown in recent years. One reason for this is growing international evidence that these programmes deliver substantial return on investment.  Experience at Change Partners supports this international view.

Results at Change Partners

By setting clearly defined objectives, Change Partners can demonstrate tangible results to clients, even though challenging timeframes are sometimes stipulated. Results are never shared outside the client-consultant relationship. However, the effectiveness of these programmes can be attested by referees (list available from Change Partners).