Group Coaching for Teams
Helping the individual members of a team grow, both personally and professionally, serves the entire team and the organization.
Laszlo Bock, former senior vice president at Google has said, a leader's technical skills are "absolutely the least important thing. Much more important is just making that connection and being accessible. It's still about the people and making sure their human needs are being met so the whole organization thrives."
Why does group coaching work so well?
Groups are results-oriented and fun while giving people access to coaching and to a community of peers. Learning from each other is always a highlight.
Coaching for teams - six organizational outcomes:
- Diplomatically address the “elephant in the room”
- Renew the focus on the team’s and company's customers
- Reinforce the reasons to act in the best interest of the company
- Show individuals how to analyze the story behind relevant data
- Teach employees how to make confident decisions
- Lead employees to define their personal and professional vision
A common saying is that, "A team is only as strong as its' individual members."
My experience shows that a team is only as strong as its' individual members + their leader.
My client is typically a top performer who is "wearing 5 hats." Many of them thoroughly enjoy their work and they've come to me for help with challenges related to their management, colleagues or burnout - usually driven by the previous two. They have little interest in dealing with poor performers or the politics that require poor performers to remain in their position.
We all know people who are placed in a leadership role because of politics or because they performed well in a technical role. Often, they have little real ability to lead others. Even after taking the required in-house "leadership development" training courses, they are not able to successfully connect with people and coach them for top performance.
Important Notes:
- Gallup CEO Jim Clifton famously expressed, "Here's something they'll probably never teach you in business school: The single biggest decision you make in your job -- bigger than all of the rest -- is who you name manager. When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits -- nothing."
- Among the global business concerns of CEO’s, Human Capital is literally the top issue. And, unfortunately, Human Capital has been their #1 concern for several years in a row (Source: The Conference Board)
- "We must also realize that weak hires can take up almost one full day per week of a manager’s time. Additionally, one slacker or jerk in a group can bring down performance by 30% to 40% and a single toxic employee makes teammates 54% more likely to quit." (Source: Dr. John Sullivan)
Google is consistently ranked as a top employer. They spent several years dissecting data and found that successful managers consistently had these eight qualities, in order of importance:
- They're good coaches.
- They empower their team and don't micro-manage.
- They express interest in their team members' success and personal well-being.
- They are productive and results-oriented.
- They're good communicators and they listen to the team.
- They help employees with career development.
- They have a clear vision and strategy for the team.
- They have key technical skills that help them advise the team.