Building teams has been a long-time passion for me, starting in junior high when I noticed not everyone was my friend. That grew into a desire to work beneficially in teams – from group projects in school, then into pulling colleagues together to make things happen for the good of the whole organization.

Beyond extended team projects requiring a variety of skills and tasks to reach the desired outcome, there were also “team offsites” that focused on creating a fun atmosphere to play in for a day or two. Those days out of the office are often seen as a waste of time to those with task-oriented strengths, while those with people-oriented strengths may already have those relationships formed and need to focus more on getting things done.

Based on my interest in coaching groups and teams, I started with an online course that was available at the time. That learning was mostly on how to market and bring together a group to coach, as opposed to best practices for coaching a group or team for best results.

Soon after, an association colleague asked if I could work with his leadership team, based on their education director not being on board with the technology that could make the job more productive and easier to share with other departments. The CEO didn’t want everyone to know the exact reason I was called in, so we came up with a moniker for the toxic leader, “slon,” which is the Russian word for “elephant” (in the room). We worked together six days over several months – each day with workshop time together, and individual coaching for each leader. I thought that was team coaching!

When I started training in the inviteCHANGE “Generative Team Coaching” course, I realized instead that I was facilitating that team by asking them questions and sharing my own team experience with them. The good news is that they all developed self-awareness and they were better able to communicate authentically with each other. And shortly after completing our coaching program, the toxic leader decided to retire.

And what was the difference in Generative Team Coaching?

• Starting with a clear understanding of that team/organization’s desired outcomes and metrics to measure the results.
• Letting the participants lead the agenda to reach those objectives.
• A major focus on the Group Agreements – how the team will be with each other, not only in the coaching sessions but in their day-to-day work as well.
• Perceiving the field – the whole group together as the client – instead of focusing on one person at a time (usually the one doing the talking).
• Noticing patterns to unearth issues that they are often not aware of, allows the team to work at a deeper level together.