What does the research say? Team Effectiveness and Team Coaching

Team effectiveness and team coaching literature review Jacqueline Peters and Catherine Carr, Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 2013 Vol. 6, No. 2, 116 136 Special thanks Brodie Gregory, PhD for this translation of research to practice. Team coaching is an increasingly popular tool for enhancing team effectiveness within organizations. This should come as no surprise, since team-based work is more prevalent than ever, with 82% of companies indicating that their employees work in teams. In their latest article, Jacqueline Peters and Catherine Carr provide a review of both team effectiveness and team coaching research. According to the authors and their research, the goal of team coaching is to foster team effectiveness and performance by coaching the team to enhance their effort, identify strategies to approach their work, and align work to individual team members’ strengths and abilities. Peters and Carr provide several recommendations that coaches can apply to their work with teams, including: 1.    Team coaches can help leaders be more strategic and purposeful in determining team composition and getting the team off to a good start 2.    Coaching sessions can be timed to match needs of the time. For example: ü  focus on motivational coaching at the beginning of the coaching engagement, ü  use consultative coaching when the team is in the midst of their work cycle ü  and using educational coaching at the conclusion of the team’s time together to enable learning and reflection. 3.    Coaches can help team members develop their own coaching and feedback skills, which will enable them to have more productive communication within the team. This paper is a great resource for anyone who is currently practicing team coaching or interested in getting started. How can you use their work to enhance your team coaching practice?