Relational Team Coaching- Daring to Dance on the Edge ICF ... · Relational Team Coaching Live...

© Executive Coach Studio 2017 www.executivecoachstudio.com

Relational Team Coaching: Daring to Dance on the Edge

Georgina Woudstra Principal, Executive Coach Studio

Agenda

• What is team coaching?

• Why team coaching?

• What team coaches do

• The role of the team coach

• The pulls on the team coach

• Relational Team Coaching

• Practice session

• Debrief

© Executive Coach Studio 2017 www.executivecoachstudio.com 2

Timings:

09.45 Workshop begins

11:15 Break (15 mins)

12:45 Lunch (45 mins)

15:00 Break (15 mins)

16:30 Close

What is team coaching?

In table groups:• Discuss “what is team coaching?”


What is Team Coaching?• “...direct interaction with a team intended to help members make coordinated and task appropriate

use of their collective resources in accomplishing the team’s work” Hackman and Wageman, 2005

• Helping the team improve performance, and the processes by which performance is achieved, through reflection and dialogue. Clutterbuck, 2007

• Enabling a team to function at more than the sum of its parts, by clarifying its mission and improving its external and internal relationships. It is different therefore from coaching team leaders on how to lead their teams, or coaching individuals in a group setting. Hawkins & Smith, 2006

• Coaching a team to achieve a common goal, paying attention both to individual performance and to group collaboration and performance. Thornton, 2010

• “…a comprehensive and systemic approach designed to support a team to maximise their collective talents and resources to accomplish and exceed the goals required by the organisation” Carr & Peters, 2013

4

“Relational team coaching puts connectedness at the heart of teams. In life, we learn, develop and grow in relationship; therefore

relationships are the heart of team effectiveness. A relational approach is about the quality of relationships; within the team,

between the team and the system ‐ and between the coach and the team

Woudstra, Relational Team Coaching, 2017

Why team coaching?

Helping a team to be more effective as a team is not an easy task. Team coaches need to create the environment for the team to develop the ability to reflect and dialogue on what is working well for them and what might be hindering their effectiveness.

High quality team reflection and dialogue results in:

• bringing into awareness what was previously unaware or undiscussable

• increased understanding and insight

• access to diverse opinions and views

• greater connectedness and stronger relationships


The 6th Ridler Report (www.Ridlerandco.com) shows that 76% of organizations expect to increase their use of team coaching over the next two years. Relational Team Coaching is about relating in a way that cultivates deeper, trusted connections.

What is the role of team coach?

In 4 small groups:• What is the role of a facilitator?• What is the role of a consultant?• What is the role of team leader?• What is the role of team coach?


Team roles and functions

• The leader focuses on the effectiveness of the team to get the work done, ie. on outcome, general direction and team strategy

• The consultant focuses on the processes that needs to be done; strategic objectives, tasks, allocation, control and efficiency

• The facilitator leads the team meeting and looks at learning and development of the team and it’s members

• The team coach looks at the team’s climate, culture and group dynamics, the way decisions and behaviour are grounded in relationships, reflections and feelings


Facets of Team Coaching

Team Facilitation

Managing the process of a meeting freeing up the team to focus on the task

Team Building

Helping a team in the early stages of team development to form and get to know each other

TeamDevelopment

Developing the team’s capability to work well together, with its joint task

Team Process Facilitation

Providing reflection on how the team is functioning while going about their task

Relational Team

Coaching

Live interaction with the team in the here‐and‐now, intended to foster and strengthen relationship connectivity in the team and system

Group Coaching

Coaching individuals in a group context, such as in action learning sets

Woudstra, 2012

The Role of the Team Coach

In relational team coaching, we see the role of the team coach as supporting the connectedness and relationships, both within the team, and between the team and the system in which it exists.

Team coaches achieve this by creating a safe and reflective space which allows better thinking and connectivity on team processes and tasks.

As a team coach, you are responsible for bringing about high quality connection, through authentic dialogue reflection and surfacing the patterns and dynamics which hinder a team’s effectiveness.

The coaching skills of holding and containing, listening and questioning, presence and use of self are their primary tools.


What does this mean for team coaches?

As team coaches, we need to be able to hold and contain the tensions, anxieties, hidden expectations, frustrations and disappointments that exist in teams.

These usually are unexpressed and lurk beneath the surface in the team’s dark side. Even the most experienced coaches will feel the affect of the system.

It is very helpful for team coaches to be able to recognise these dynamics in action, often through the ‘pulls’ they are experiencing on them.

As team coaches, you are only responsible for bringing out high quality reflection and dialogue and not for otheraspects of team work and team leadership.

Role clarity is essential for masterful team coaches.


Activity: the pulls on the team coach

In small groups:

1. Recalling examples when you coached or facilitated a team:

2. When have you have felt yourself getting pulled by the hidden pressures coming from the team

3. Give these pressures names eg. to lead, to be the expert, etc


The pulls on team coaches

As soon a you begin working with a team, it will pull you in! Examples are:

• trying to make you agree or confirm something about how the team perceives itself, eg. “we are so successful”

• inviting you to play a role, eg. you find yourself capturing the team’s actions and following up on them

• pressing you for allegiance, eg. don’t you think it’s insane to expect us to deliver more with less?

• to fix something for the team, eg. to clarify their vision, goals, strategy…

• to see one team member as ‘the problem’, eg. “we would be a better team if x were not a member”

• to blame other departments, eg. “we would perform perfectly if it weren’t for IT”

• and so on…


How coaches respond

It is common for coaches to react to these roles by surreptitiously getting drawn in. If they do, they become part of “the team” and part of “the problem”.

Team coaching literature does not tell you this!


© Executive Coach Studio 2017 www.executivecoachstudio.com

CONTR

OL

RISK

High

HighLow

Shifts in the role of the team coach


CONTR

OL

RISK

ICF CORE COMPETENCIES1. Meeting Ethical Guidelines and Professional Standards

2. Establishing the Coaching Agreement

3. Establishing Trust and Intimacy with the Client

4. Coaching Presence

5. Active Listening

6. Powerful Questioning

7. Direct Communication

8. Creating Awareness

9. Designing Actions

10. Planning and Goal Setting

11. Managing Progress and Accountability


PRESENCE&

USE OF SELF

RELATIONSHIP

AWARENESS

CO-CREATIVITY & MUTUALITY

HERE AND NOW

EMERGENT CHANGE

ACTIVE EXPERIMENTS

PRESENCE

USE OF SELF

Relational Team Coaching

Putting relationships at the heart of team effectiveness

Relational Coaching Competencies1. Relationship

• Establishing the Coaching Agreement

• Build Trust and Safety• Focus on the system

2. Reflection & Dialogue• Holding & Containing• Questioning• Listening• Exchange• Releasing

3. Intervening• Raising Awareness• Creating Experiments• Connection• Presence• Use of Self

4. Follow through• Maintaining progress

• In table groups:• what do Presence, Use of Self, and Connectionmean to you in team coaching?


“Presence is the integrated

totality of what we have

developed and worked to become;

use of self is how one leverages

one’s presence to impact and

strategically provoke client work”

Dorothy Siminovitch, 2017


PRESENCE

USE OF SELF

Presence and Use of Self

Connection

Connectedness, as a principle, shifts the frame of reference on the role of the team coach.

Instead of taking on the role of a facilitator or trainer, where the role is to navigate the group towards specific outcomes, a relational team coach is looking for ways to invite the team to connect more with each other.


How? The stance of the coach!

An optimistic view of human capability • People are doing the best they can at any given time. • Convey this through positive encouraging comments

Observe with ‘soft eyes’; relaxed waiting: • A patient, receptive stance. • Avoid going looking for issues, be open to what emerges.

Connect the team with each other • Instead of getting people to report into you, get them to connect with each other

Focus on the system versus the individual • Be interested in patterns of behaviour and how well the team is attending to the wider system

Encourage an experimental attitude • Encourage the team to experiment with new ways of thinking and behaving

Use and model bold behaviour • When you make an intervention, stay with it until you get a clear response

• Speak what others avoid saying; identify the ‘elephant in the room’• Share your experience as you take in the group• Use rich language, such as metaphors

Teach leaders to teach their group • Teach leaders how to be simultaneously more effective leaders and how to help followers become more effective self‐organising groups


Adapted by the Executive Coach Studio from the Cape Cod Model (Melnick & Nevis)

Team Coaching Model 1 – Action Sequence


Build Trust & Safety

Introduce Ground Rules for Effective

Teams

Focus on strengths

Relate development needs to strengths

Experiment

Connect relational & strategic behavior

Adapted by the Executive Coach Studio from the Cape Cod Model (Melnick & Nevis)

ActivityUsing the Timbuctoo team scenario provided:

1. Organise into groups:• 6 volunteers take on the ‘team roles’• 3 volunteer coaches, to work in pairs• the rest are observers

2. Team members:• each assumes a team ‘role’• assume the role and get into character

3. Coaches:• Coach 1: coaches the team for approximately 5 mins• Georgina will pause the process and ask observer to share how he/she is experiencing the group:

• “What comes up for me is…”• “I am feeling…”• “I am sensing…”• “An image that comes to mind is…”

• Coach 2: coaches the team for approximately 5 mins• Repeat…


Build Trust & Safety

Activity continued…

Role play contracting:• Stay relaxed and have fun• Assume the role and get in character• Imagine how you would feel and act in this role• Provide some ‘edginess’ but don’t be mean• Georgina may intervene or stop the process at any time for the purpose of learning

Note: this is an introductory workshop and relationships are not well‐formed. Keep the role play respectful and productive so that the coaches can practice team coaching skills


Exercise

1. Set the team up in a round

2. Introduce yourselves and be open about why and how you will be working with them

3. Ask team members to share whatever information they feel would be important with other team members.

4. Acknowledge the value of what they share

5. Encourage team members to:• speak to each other (rather than to you) • listen to each other and reflect on what they heard• relating it to themselves and how it impacted them


Daring to Dance on the Edge

When we put relationships at the heart of team coaching, we are dancing on the edge, where meaning is made; the edge of uncertainty and unpredictability. We open up ourselves as fully as we dare to the coaching relationship.

This means being fully present in this shared space, alive, responding emotionally and intellectually and using ourselves in service of the work. Through authentic relating we create awareness of the possible choices and help the client take responsibility and ownership for the decisions they then make.

We do this by using the natural creative tension of relationships as a source of change. For us as coaches, this means being available, exploring, building a relationship in which significant things can be expressed and transitions can be experienced.

Most of all, it requires us to not avoid, repress or ignore our own tensions and doubts. Instead have the courage to name them with curiosity and without attachment so client, and coach, can learn from it.


What does it take?

noticing what is evoked in you in the presence of the team and using this in service of the team


Recommended Reading

Senior Leadership Teams: What It Takes to Make Them Great. 2008. Wageman et Al

Group and Team Coaching: The secret life of groups. 2016. Christine Thonton

Leadership Team Coaching: Developing Collective Transformational Leadership. 2014. Peter Hawkins

Relational Coaching: Journeys Towards Mastering One to One Learning. 2008. Erik de Haan


ICF OFFER CODE “ICF 09/27”:Join the next Diploma in Team Coaching

Mastery and receive 2 x 1 hr free supervision sessions with Georgina

Thank your for participating in our Relational Team Coaching workshop.

Our next Diploma in Team Coaching Mastery begins on the 6th October

2017.

To find out more about our approach and courses, please join our mailing

list at www.executivecoachstudio.com

orcontact me at

[email protected]

Relational Team Coaching- Daring to Dance on the Edge ICF ... · Relational Team Coaching Live...

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