Goal Setting At Mulitple Levels: Group and Team Coaching

Goal setting is a critical part of the coaching process. As team and group coaches it is also important to look at goals from a number of levels. These levels can be different when working with groups versus working with teams.

Whether you are working with a group of individuals or an intact team who works together every day, a foundation part of the coaching process is on goal setting. In coaching, those being coached get to set their own goals.

Some of our clients may automatically think about setting SMART goals and start working away at them. For those that might not be familiar with SMART Goals, we want to make sure that they are specific, can be measured, are achievable, realistic and have some time indicators as well. I usually add an E on to include Exciting. If goals are not exciting to the person which created them it is unlikely that they will be followed through.

When working with teams, it can be useful to have team members consider goals at the individual, team and organizational level. What do these goals look like at each level? How are they similar? Where might they be in conflict? Building space in to the coaching conversation for a team using these questions can often raise some interesting insights for team members.

Another rich area to explore is to have people look at goals at what many coaching models call the META view - or big picture view, as well as the granular MICRO VIEW. One of my favorite questions to ask is what you see in today's selected Conversation Sparker Card(TM) here:

What's the 30,000 foot view? What's the view from the weeds?

When looking at issues from the 30,000 foot view it connects us to our passions, strengths, vision, values and the bigger picture. It can also be important to look at it from the weeds, or the ground level, where we can ZOOM into the specifics.

Notice where the individuals you work with naturally go around goals - the 30,000 foot or the grains of sand? Having them look at their goals from another perspective can be very insightful.

What focus do you want to put around goals with your clients?

Have a great weekend,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, CPCC
GroupCoachingEssentials.com
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
(416)996-TEAM (8326)