Team Coaching
Coaching for teams ready to close the gap between what they can achieve individually and what they can achieve together.
Teams are not just collections of individuals. They have dynamics, histories, or patterns that persist regardless of how talented the individual members are. You can have a leadership team of exceptional people and still find that the team itself is not performing at the level it should.
Team coaching is concerned with the quality of relationship and collective intelligence that determines whether a team makes good decisions, handles conflict well, adapts under pressure, and brings out the best in each member. It is often the highest-leverage investment an organisation can make in its leadership, and the one most frequently overlooked.
When Team Coaching Works Best
a team that is newly formed and needs to establish how it will work together before patterns become entrenched
a leadership team under pressure - from growth, restructure, or organisational change - where relationships are fraying and performance is suffering
a team whose members are individually strong but who are not yet operating as a cohesive whole
a team with unresolved conflict or a dynamic that is limiting honest conversation and good decision-making
a team preparing for a significant transition - a new strategy, a merger, a change of leadership
a team that is performing well and wants to move from good to exceptional
How We Work - The Process
No two Team Coaching engagements look the same, because no two teams face the same situation. Our approach is as follows:
DIAGNOSIS > DESIGN > FACILITATION & COACHING > REVIEW & INTEGRATION
1. Diagnosis. We begin by understanding the team - its history, its current dynamics, the challenge it is facing, and what success would look like. This typically involves individual conversations with team members before any group work begins, so that we arrive with a clear picture of what is actually going on beneath the surface.
2. Design. Based on the diagnosis, we design an engagement that fits the team and the situation. This might be a series of structured sessions over three to six months, facilitated conversations around key moments in the team's calendar, a combination of individual and collective work, or something else entirely. We tell you what we recommend and why.
3. Facilitation and coaching. The work itself combines team facilitation - creating the conditions for honest, productive conversations. Coaching is at the collective level, helping the team notice its own patterns, make different choices, and build the habits of high-performance. This is skilled work that requires deep experience of group dynamics and the courage to name what is happening in the room.
4. Review and integration. We review progress at regular intervals - not just whether sessions are going well, but whether the work is changing how the team operates between sessions. That transfer into daily practice is the measure of whether team coaching is working.
What To Expect - Practical Details
Team size. Typically four to twelve participants. Larger teams may require a different approach, which we will advise on.
Duration. Three to six months as a standard engagement. Some situations call for a shorter, more intensive intervention; other situations benefit from a longer relationship.
Session frequency and length. Typically one session per month, two to three hours. Adjusted for the team's rhythm and the nature of the work.
Format. In-person is strongly preferred for team coaching, particularly in the early stages of an engagement. Virtual sessions are possible and sometimes the right choice.
Individual coaching alongside team coaching. For teams where individual development needs are also present, we can design a combined programme - individual coaching for each member running alongside the collective work.
Pricing. Based on the scope of the engagement, the number of sessions, and the coaches involved. We provide a clear proposal following an initial discovery conversation.
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEAM COACHING, GROUP COACHING, AND COACHING CIRCLES?
These terms are often used interchangeably which can create confusion. Here is how we use them:
Team coaching. Works with an intact team - people who work together regularly on shared goals - on the dynamics, relationships, and collective effectiveness of that specific group. It is relational and contextual. The focus is the team as a whole, rather than the individuals within it.
Group coaching. Brings together individuals who share a common context or development goal - for example, a cohort of newly-promoted managers, or senior leaders from across an organisation. The focus is on individual development, using the group as a space for shared learning, reflection, perspective and mutual challenge.
Coaching circles. Structured peer-learning groups, typically of six to ten people, who meet regularly over a sustained period. They combine coaching with peer reflection, shared learning and accountability. Coaching circles can be offered as a standalone programme or as a complement to individual coaching, and can be tailored to the needs of your organisation.
When you get in touch, we will ask enough to recommend the right approach. Often what we hear points clearly to one of these approaches. Sometimes to a combination.
Frequently Asked Questions
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A workshop or away-day is an event - it creates a shared experience, generates energy, and can shift perspective. Team coaching is a sustained process. It works over time, across multiple sessions, on the patterns and dynamics that shape how the team operates every day. The away-day is often where people decide something needs to change. Team coaching is how that change actually happens.
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Team coaching works with an intact team - people who work together regularly - on the specific dynamics of that group. Group coaching brings together individuals who do not necessarily work as a team, typically from across an organisation, for shared development in a peer group setting. Both are valuable; the right choice depends on whether the issue is the team's collective dynamics or individual development in a group context.
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Most team coaching engagements run for three to six months, typically with one session per month of two to three hours. Some situations call for a shorter, more intensive intervention - for example around a specific transition or moment of conflict. Others benefit from a longer relationship. We design the engagement based on what the team is facing, not a standard template.
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Yes - and ideally the leader of the team commits first and most visibly. Team coaching only works when the team is genuinely in it together. We have an honest conversation about readiness before any engagement begins. If a team does not appear be ready, we will share this with the client upfront before proceeding.
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Team conflict is one of the most common reasons organisations come to us for team coaching - and one of the situations where it adds the most value. We are experienced in working with teams where trust has fractured, difficult conversations are being avoided, or dynamics have become entrenched. The process begins with individual conversations with team members before any group work starts, which allows us to understand what is happening beneath the surface before we are in the room with the whole team.
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Often, yes. The team leader's own coaching can run alongside the team coaching giving them space to work on the distinct challenges they face as a leader while the team works on its collective dynamics. Whether this is helpful depends on the situation, and we design it accordingly for each engagement.
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We strongly prefer in-person team coaching, particularly at the outset. Being in the room together creates a quality of presence, attention and connection that can't be replicated virtually.
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Possibly, and the two often complement each other directly. An operational framework structures how a team runs its processes; team coaching addresses how the team actually functions as a group of human beings. A leadership team can follow EOS or Scaling Up rigorously and still have entrenched conflict, poor psychological safety, or a founder whose presence shuts down honest challenge. The framework does not fix those dynamics - coaching does. If your team is meeting regularly and executing against a clear operating system but still not quite performing at the level you know it should be, that is a coaching question, not a process question.
Ready to discuss Team Coaching?
Tell us what is happening with your team. We will ask the right questions and recommend the approach most likely to make a real difference.