What are the differences between group and team coaching? I recently explored this topic in an article for the Spring 2018 edition of Choice Magazine - The Magazine of Professional Coaching.

You can view the article on pages 36-38 of the Taking Care of Business Volume.

For years I've written that group and team coaching are related siblings. While very similar, the stance of the coach can vary, as does where emphasis is placed. Another significant difference can be in the focus - individual versus collective - of the coaching conversation.

Consider these examples:

Scenario #1 - 

A group of new leaders comes together to explore what's possible for them in their career. They are from different parts of the business and do not normally associate with each other.

What type of coaching engagement is this most likely to be? Group Coaching.
The coach will play a significant role in starting the group and wrapping it up, as it sounds like members may not know each other. Key to cultivating the context for this engagement is connection between the group members as well as with the coach. The coach may also want to think about how the supervisor can support their team members during this work as well.

Scenario #2:

A team has engaged a coach to help them "kick it up a notch" for an upcoming project which has high visibility. They team is asking the coach to work with them before the project launch, during the launch and after.

What type of coaching engagement? Team coaching
Team coaching continues to expand in what it can look like and sound like. This coaching engagement may focus on results, and relationships, and each stage - pre project, during the project, and after the project may look very different. From full-day embedded conversations with the team where coaching may happen real time during key moments of the project, to shorter virtual conversations pre and post. The team coach always wants to make sure that the focus is on helping the team sustain the conversation and weave it into all processes and meeting touch ponts they are having, whether the coach is there or not.

What are the possible engagements on your dashboard? What are the considerations you want to keep in mind, to make sure it works well?

Enjoy your week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized
Group Coaching Essentials
Effective Virtual Conversations

PS - I'll be presenting at this year's June WBECS pre-summit sessions, and later this year as part of the main series. My pre-summit session is being held on June 13th at 9 am ET and will focus on Virtualizing Your Conversations, based on some of the writing of my new book - Effective Virtual Conversations.
If you haven't heard of WBECS it's a valuable, complimentary, content-rich series of conversations that will take place throughout most of June. I hope you will join me for my session.

Click here for more information about all the WBECS Pre-summit events.