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Team coaching
Like coaching individuals, team coaching is a fairly short-term activity, a relationship between the coach and the team, focusing on developmental discussions around the current and future performance/behavior. It is an act of leadership, based on self-directed learning ([3] Knowles, 1975) - a process in which individuals:
- take the initiative in diagnosing their learning needs;
- formulate learning goals;
- identify human and material resources for learning;
- choose and implement appropriate learning strategies; and
- control and monitor learning outcomes.
Why team coaching
Teams need to meet the immediate organizational requirements, adapt to changes and learn from the challenges encountered. Teams engage in learning as the opportunity for exchange and a combination of ideas exist as a result of members being coupled together through the team structure. Knowledge can be generated through the interaction of team members based on its structure. The result of this combination and exchange of ideas and knowledge can be considered as the cognitive dimension of project teams. This opportunity to combine or exchange does not materialize unless members interact. To help a team develop towards high performance requires thus an integrative perspective of the team as a whole. Focusing only on the development of individuals is not enough for successful team functioning.
Team coaching is a response to the difficulties teams encounter to foster teamwork. It is intended to trigger self-reflection on team performance and promote the necessary...