Common theme areas for group and team coaches

There is a dynamic tension between structure and letting it all go in team and group coaching

engagements. As a fundamental approach, coaching is shaped by the coaching client. In a team or group coaching engagement there are often multiple "agendas" or priority focus areas for the individual members of the group or team. In addition to facilitating conversation at the start with the team or group to decide on potential topic areas, it's likely that there may be some very common elements that show up in your conversations - whether you are working with business leaders, or new managers, new moms, or those in career transition. The same holds true when working with teams.

Some of the common theme areas you may find yourself working with are:
- Vision
- Values
- Strengths
- Beliefs
- Goals

When working with a team you may opt to have people explore these topic areas at the individual level first, and then look at it from the team and/or organizational levels. Consider what is going to work best with your approach, especially if you are working with the team as a system

Activity:
For each of these areas, identify what resources you have at your disposal already?
What can you do to adapt them for the group or team context?
Thinking about the specific group or team you are working with, what do you think their preferred approach is going to be?
What will support them into action and further awareness of these issues?
What other resources do you want to add to your toolkit?

Resources you may want to look into:
- Strengths - There is a multitude of resources out there for working with strengths. Marcus Buckinham's books, StrengthFinder and VIA Strengths are all popular choices within the coaching world

- Vision work can take on a variety of shapes from having individuals create a vision board to visualizations, to index cards and MindMapping. What tools do you already have at your disposal?

- Values work - Again, values work is foundational to much of the work we undertake with our clients. Values checklists, visualizations, coaching are all ways to get at values. What approaches do you think will be valued most by this group or team right now?

For more ideas and detail, you'll want to check out the Appendices of both of my books (listed below). What resources would you recommend to others?

Have  a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, PCC, BCC, 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)