Team coaching helps people understand how to work better with others. It’s an effective method for showing teams how to reduce conflict and improve their working relationships. The team can then focus on its real work and achieve its objectives. People must learn to work together and understand how to relate to one another otherwise, the team’s output will be less than it could be. We commence the team coaching intervention by understanding the dynamics of the team. This is the process of figuring out how team members relate to one another. We all have different styles of working and communicating, and when we encounter a person with a style that’s different from our own, we can often get frustrated with that person, and fail to recognize his or her unique strengths.

To achieve this, we conduct two assessments on team members, one being a learning style inventory and the other a personality and team role assessment. This forms the basis for the initial interaction with the team. Personality and behavior assessments are great tools for improving a team’s understanding of its dynamics, and they give team members a better understanding of why they react to their colleagues in certain ways. This new understanding helps them think about how they can relate to one another more effectively, at the same time that it breeds tolerance by helping people understand that different approaches may be valid in different situations. For example, if Sally knows that George is shy, she’ll have a better appreciation for why he prefers to do tasks independently. Rather than assume he’s just not interested in working with her, Sally can focus instead on finding ways to relate to George on his terms. Likewise, when George realizes that social acceptance is important to Sally, he can make an effort to be more friendly and interested in what she’s doing.

Once this has been completed, we move on to the methodology and work systematically through the 15 key criteria for successful teams. The outcome of the intervention is a comprehensive team charter document that defines the “rules of engagement” of team members. Our methodology does not stand on its own and is informed by the client’s corporate culture, vision, mission, and values. Coaching to improve team performance could need different approaches for different teams and different people within the same organization.  Our methodology is flexible and is customized per a team’s requirements as what works for one team may not necessarily work for another. Based on the premise that the team is a collective, team members need to share common insights and views to ensure high-performance teams.