People, Purpose and Passion

Coaching understands that where people come together with a clear purpose and collective passion incredible results can be achieved.

This includes absolute clarity in terms individual and team values, collective assumptions and improved goal attainment.  Coaching approaches recognise the experience and skillsets of individuals and the remarkable resourcefulness that we all have but all too often fail to truly access.  Coaching also promotes and enables environments that foster healthy mindsets, good communication and behaviours that are performance orientated.

Lets take a few moments to look at some of these areas in a little more detail.

Avoid the ‘Groupthink’

Groupthink is the name given to a theory that describes the faulty decision making that can occur as a result of the inherent need for group cohesion.  It can lead groups or teams to make decisions that prioritise the maintaining of the status quo rather then developing a tolerance for difference of opinion and performance enhancement.  It can greatly stifle innovation and can lead employees to feel pressurised to conform.

Team coaching challenges team assumptions, behaviours, and meaning-making processes in a way that enhances their collective awareness and provides new insights. A team composed of many individuals brings a multitude of assumptions, experiences, behaviours, and meaning-making processes to the collective effort. The diversity in these factors, if left unchecked, can lead to team dysfunction, but if harnessed properly, they can greatly enhance team performance.

Clarify those Goals!

Most team members when asked what their teams’ specific goals are and how they are currently supporting these reply with a vagueness that reveals a real lack of clarity.  Coaching encourages dialogue and reflection to help the team identify their goals and so too the necessary steps to achieve them.  Team dialogue and reflection is essential in order to take full advantage of all team members’ knowledge and skills as well as creating a climate that promotes and fosters inclusivity and personal responsibility.

I trust you.  You trust me. We trust one another.

Coaching creates a safe space for open and honest team member interaction. It promotes the team in viewing itself as a single entity with a common identity and fosters expression of individual team members’ and the collective team’s feelings, perceptions, concerns, beliefs, hopes, and suggestions.  This in itself is enormously motivating for the team and reduces the frequency of conflict within teams.

For Individuals & Team Benefit

Finally, coaching is a process that can be delivered to both individuals and teams.  It is a hugely beneficial process that leads to impactful and long lasting positive change.

Joe McDonald is an experienced professional coach and trainer.  Founder of create10, he works with individuals, teams in business and sport as well as start ups, SMEs and MNCs.  Please email info@create10.ie for further information and see www.create10.ie for options