Organizations and their teams have been stretched taut in 2020. Most employees did their best to juggle work and school. They have made communication work via screens rather than in the cafeteria or over coffee. Yet team connection and performance have fallen a bit short. Even in the best of times, many teams function well enough but turbulence beneath the surface or between “silos” hampers progress and results in lost revenue. Turbulence can cause “drag” on forward momentum in culture, change initiatives, openness to diverse opinions, productive conflict and communication among internal customers and with external stakeholders.
An accredited Team Coach partners with the Team Leader and the Team itself, to identify hidden gaps that may be hampering key performance indicators. Now is a critical time to assess, correct and prepare for the unknowns of 2021 and 2022. Now more than ever, organizations and their teams need a solid foundation on which to pivot to meet the systemic challenges ahead.
Here are some questions your Team may discuss to assess whether Team Coaching is right for your organization:
What is the Team’s culture? Do members experience the Team as safe to participate, contribute and challenge prevailing opinions?
Does the leader create a blame-free zone, so mistakes are welcomed as learning opportunities for the entire Team and the wider organization?
How does the Team interact with other entities in the organization? Is it an open or closed system?
Does the interaction between organizational “silos” facilitate the Team’s goals or do those interactions block those goals?
How easily does communication move up, across and down within the organization and among its external stakeholders?
Is the Team keenly aware of its integral role in the organization’s success?
How often does the Team look ahead and plan for the change we cannot see vs. resist it when it occurs?
Is change blocked by “the way we’ve always done things”?
The specific question(s) that are critical to your organization’s success may be elusive. As an EMCC accredited Team Coach at the Foundation Level, I will partner with you to ask these and other unspoken yet critical questions and work with your Team to get clear about your roles, norms, blocks, and opportunities so together we map a path forward to a thriving organization.
Marjorie R. Johnson, LCSW, PCC, President of Ascend Consulting, Inc, is an ICF credentialed professional coach who has been delivering executive coaching for 18 yrs. She is Dare to Lead trained, a 4 Stages of Psychological Safety Coach and a Conversational Intelligence Enhanced Skills Coach. Marjorie can be contacted at www.ascendconsulting.net; Marjorie@ascendconsulting.net.