Last month I hosted the
13th Annual Year-end Team and Group Programs call for alumni and
members of the group and team coaching community. In that call I highlighted the importance of "
getting out and doing the work" as well as having a robust toolkit to draw on. I also shared some of my favorite tools and approaches which I bring in to group and team coaching. I wanted to share ten of my favorite tools with you today - resources I tend to go back to time and time again, whether I am working with a team, a group, in coaching programs, training sessions and even webinars. There's always a way to tweak an activity to bring more engagement!
As you take a look at this list, consider what you would put in your top 5 of favorites:
Working with vision - whether it's providing group members with a reflective space of questions, or supporting a team in developing a storyboard of their vision, creating a pause for focus on where you want to go is a key focus of much of the work I do with groups and teams.
Working with visual cards. I've used visual cards in my work for the better part of the last decade and have had so much fun experimenting with different ways to bring them in for dialogue, insights and focus. From working with them on vision, to values, to what people bring that's unique to the group, visual cards are a fantastic tool to get the conversation going. There are a range of different visual cards available including CCL's Visual Explorer, the JICT Deck, Points of View-The Coaching Game, or the deck I created Conversation Sparker. I found that I was using cards so much that I created the
40 Ways to Work with Visual Cards e-manual about a year ago. It includes facilitated instructions to 40 different activities you may want to undertake with teams and groups in using any visual card deck.
Working with Strengths - Coaching is a strengths based approach and another rich area for exploration is working with strengths. Whether you integrate
VIA Strengths, or Strengths Finder 2.0 into your work, creating the space for group members and/or teams to explore strengths on an individual and/or collective level can lead to many rich areas of exploration, and action.
Working around Goals - Goals are central to the coaching process, and providing group or team members with skills in goal setting as well as goal structures that work for them can be another rich area for coaching conversations. From SMART-E goals (note I always add an E on SMART Goals for Exciting. As I mentioned in my book From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching, if goals are not exciting we are unlikely to be motivated to achieve them), to other goal frameworks like John Whitmore's CLEAR and PURE goals (refer to
Whitmore's Coaching for Performance book), there are multiple ways to work with goals with your coaching clients. What resources do you have, or want to acquire this year, in working around goals?
Working around awareness - Coaching is not always about moving people into action. When I first started out as a coach almost a decade and a half ago, my stretch zone was both personally and professionally around supporting clients around awareness. Given that I work with a lot of Type A leaders like myself who are great into getting into action, coaching can often be of greater benefit when we "put the breaks on" and explore the varying layers of awareness around an issue. This could include:
- exploring perspectives around an issue
- identifying mindsets
- looking at beliefs - enabling beliefs, inner critics/Saboteurs/Gremlins, derailers
- working with values
to name a few. What tools and resources do you have for supporting clients around awareness?
This list is no means comprehensive, but it is a great starting point for many different conversations. What do you notice about the resources you use on a regular basis? are there any areas you would like to be learning more about this year?
Have a great start to your week,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, PCC, CPCC
Potentials Realized/GroupCoachingEssentials
Email: info (at)potentialsrealized (dot)com
About Us: Jennifer Britton is the author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)
. Since 2004 she and her company, Potentials Realized, have supported
thousands of coaches, trainers, and leaders, design and create more
impactful team and group programs (in-person and virtual). Jennifer
offers customized programs for organizations, as well as virtual public
training programs. Our areas of specialty are team development,
leadership and coaching.
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