top of page
When the team isn't fully teaming...
A group of experienced leaders doesn't always mean the team is working effectively.
Most senior teams contain committed, capable people.
But sometimes the dynamics can enter a problematic rut, the team feels tension or it isn't leading how it needs to.
The team may be busy and broadly cordial while still struggling to:
-
Have the conversations that most need to happen;
-
Make clear decisions and stand behind them collectively;
-
Work constructively with disagreement and difference;
-
Balance organisational priorities with functional interests;
-
Give and receive honest challenge;
-
Build trust without avoiding accountability;
-
Create space for strategic leadership;
-
Model the culture it is asking others to create.
These patterns often develop as understandable responses to pressure, organisational history, power, structure and uncertainty. Left unexamined, they can limit the team’s effectiveness, and shape the culture of the organisation.
Become the top team your organisation needs
Team coaching creates space for a team to work on how it leads, while remaining grounded in the real work.
Team coaching is an ongoing process that helps the team see itself more clearly - how authority is used, how decisions are made, whose voices carry weight, what happens when people disagree and which conversations repeatedly get avoided.
Rather than attempting to 'fix' individuals, we explore the patterns created between people and the wider conditions sustaining them. Team members can then experiment with different ways of speaking, listening, deciding and taking responsibility - together and in real time.
The work draws on systemic team coaching principles. This means looking beyond the relationships within the team to consider the wider system in which it operates.
Who is this for?
If you're asking how to become more capable and confident in leading your organisation together, team coaching will be helpful for you.
Perhaps one or a few of the following apply:
-
A new or reshaped leadership team needs to establish how it will work;
-
The organisation is going through growth, restructuring or change;
-
A culture transformation requires visible and aligned leadership;
-
Trust has been damaged or tensions are affecting performance;
-
Meetings are operational, repetitive or avoid the most important issues;
-
Roles, decision rights or collective responsibilities feel unclear;
-
Individual leaders are effective, but the team is not yet operating as a coherent whole;
-
Too much still depends on the chief executive, founder or a few people;
-
The team wants to strengthen itself before problems become entrenched;
-
The team needs to understand and respond more effectively to the expectations of its stakeholders.
How the process works
The work is designed around what your team is facing, what its stakeholders need from it and what it must become capable of doing.
A typical engagement may include:
1. Understanding the team in context: Conversations with the team sponsor, individual members and, where useful, key stakeholders to understand the organisational situation, the team’s history, its wider relationships and what is prompting the work.
2. Agreeing the purpose: A coaching contract covering the outcomes sought, the value the team needs to create, confidentiality, individual and collective responsibilities, and how progress will be reviewed.
3. Working with the live team: A series of coaching sessions focused on real questions, relationships and decisions - we don't do abstract exercises disconnected from real work.
4. Experimenting between sessions: Practical changes to meetings, conversations, stakeholder relationships, decision-making or leadership behaviour that allow the team to test new ways of working.
5. Reviewing and embedding: Time to examine what is changing inside the team and across the wider system, what remains difficult and what the team needs to continue without external support.
Where useful, the engagement may also include individual coaching, stakeholder feedback, observation of leadership meetings or facilitated work on a particular organisational challenge. These elements will be agreed explicitly so that everyone understands the purpose of the work.
Outcomes you can achieve through team coaching...
My philosophy around team coaching
This isn't about applying a generic model of the 'perfect team'.
I work with leadership teams as 'living systems'. What happens between team members cannot be separated from the organisation’s structures, history, culture, power dynamics, stakeholders and external pressures.
My systemic team coaching lens keeps several perspectives in view at once:
-
How individual team members show up and lead;
-
What happens in the relationships between them;
-
The recurring patterns created by the team as a whole;
-
What the wider organisation experiences from its leadership;
-
What stakeholders need from the team now and in the future;
-
The purpose and contribution around which the team must align.
I help you understand the team you actually have, the conditions in which it is operating and the patterns helping or hindering it.
My approach brings together systemic coaching, systems thinking, culture change, facilitation and experience of working with leaders through complex organisational change.
I pay particular attention to the voices and perspectives that are easily overlooked, the tensions beneath apparent agreement and the relationship between what the team says it wants and what its behaviour creates.
I will provide enough support for honesty and enough challenge for the work to move.
The objective is to strengthen the team's ability to notice what is happening, have better conversations, respond to its stakeholders and lead itself more effectively. I do not aim for the team to become dependent on me.
"Do we need consultancy, coaching or facilitation?"
Coaching is about supporting the team to examine and change its own patterns.
Facilitation is more about designing and holding a process that helps you reach a particular decision or achieve a particular outcome.
Usually, coaching and facilitation are both important as part of a wider culture transformation consultancy process for your organisation.
We can combine these different forms of support to bring about the change you need for your organisation.
How to get started
Register your interest. We have an exploratory call and take it from there.
On our call, we explore what is happening in the team, what the organisation and its stakeholders need from it, and what you would like to be different.
We figure out if my approach will be appropriate for your team and its circumstances. If it isn't, that's okay, I'll suggest a different direction for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are your services for?
I work with leaders, teams and organisations who know that something needs to change, but need help leading it well. You may be looking for clarity, assurance and practical support from someone you can trust.
Does the leadership need to be fully onboard with this before I approach you?
Though it helps if they are, they don’t need to be. Part of our service is helping you to obtain that buy-in from your leadership team and the wider organisation to ensure that the journey runs smoothly.
I have a small budget, is it worth me reaching out?
We bring big impact at competitive prices as a small organisation. We’re able to be flexible in how we design and price your project so you’re always getting the most competitive deal.
How long do your services take?
It depends on the size of your organisation and the service you need. Some programmes take as little as three weeks to complete. Larger, more comprehensive programmes may take a few months. Either way, we focus on bringing a sustainable impact from the word 'go'.
I'm worried you'll try to change us too much - is there a risk of that?
If some things are working really well, why change them? Everything we do is co-developed and keeps your best interests at its core. We’re all about building on your strengths.
Do you offer one-off workshops and away days?
Yes, we do deliver these. We provide short, sharp but high-impact offsites, workshops and events, bespoke for you.
Who will lead our project?
We match our consultant team to you to deliver your project most effectively. However, all projects are led by founder Lydia Paris.
bottom of page