How Can Team Coaching Help An Executive Team Lead As One

In our work with leadership teams we have often found that there is more attention given to individuals within an executive team, driven by different performance objectives set within each function, rather than working together with a common purpose and shared outcomes which has the potential to add greater impact. In addition, with little attention given to the diversity of team members and the challenges of difference, is it any wonder that many struggle to reach high performance.

Team coaching encourages collaboration within teams and what Adam Galinsky of Columbia Business School sites as ‘perspective thinking’ (the ability to look at the world from someone else’s vantage point) which enables leaders to consider not just their own role in the team but also those of the other individual team members and their wants and needs. Team coaches can give an external view which can help to consider solutions to support collaborative interactions.

Furthermore, encouraging the team to really engage with the 3 elements of effective leadership – Empowerment, Diversity and Transparency gives the space and opportunity for difference whilst valuing the impact these things can have on improved team performance. In recognising this, the executive team can build on the benefits of different points of view, ideas, and growth of each member in an atmosphere of safety and trust in one another.

Using these lenses, the team can see how the systems in which they operate are influenced by other stakeholders and can consider how as an executive team they can positively impact the organisational system to a far greater extent than they could as individuals. Top teams often talk to one another but not to achieve overall purpose and deliverables, team coaching encourages this. As we partner with executive teams to develop their performance, we have found that every strategy requires specific capabilities and those come with people in different shapes and sizes with their own needs and characteristics. The work of the executive team is to inspire and empower belief in those who look to them for behavioural cues. They need to be seen to be united in their overarching purpose to inspire others - working as one .

Teamery holds up the mirror to executive teams and partners to support them on their journey to cohesive high performance