Building your group and team coaching toolkit

One of the main focus areas of this weekend's Group and Team Coaching Intensive is going to be the

focus on building your toolkit. Building confidence and skills in working with teams and groups. For any of you who have read my work, or joined me for a program, you know how passionate I am as a coach practitioner in this topic area of building our toolkit and innovating as we do it. Each client engagement - whether a team or a group - is different and usually requires a different blend of skills and approaches.

Here are some past posts on this topic of building your toolkit - I hope you'll check them out:

Group Coaching Exercises from 2010 - read it here

Why are exercises important for group programming from 2006 - read it here

Exercises - the backbone of any program from 2009 - read it here

Group Facilitation Tip - Debriefing Exercises  - read it here

You'll hear and see me talk more about exercises and tools in some of last year's Group Coaching Design Studio blabs which I hosted. Here's a 30 min video on Visual Cards- one of my favorite tools. View it here

Here's a really short 3 min video on 5 ways to use index cards - another essential item in your toolkit. View it here.

What are the tools you want to add to your toolbox in the coming months?

We'll be going through more than 2 dozen (24) coaching tools and approaches this weekend at the Group and Team Coaching Intensive (19 CCEs) here in Toronto. I hope that you will consider joining us for this rich weekend program - spots are still open for virtual and in person attendees. Grab your spot here.

Have a great rest of the week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC, CPCC
Group Coaching Essentials | Potentials Realized  
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)




About Us: Jennifer Britton is author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) andFrom 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. Our 2017 programming starts during the week of January  9th and will include: The Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar (8.75 CCEs), The Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs), and the Mentor Coaching Group for ACC/PCC portfolio routes. Our 2017 Learning Lab and Design Studio Group for Coaches who want to build their business and expand their group and team programs starts January as well (2 group calls on Fridays throughout 2017)

Difficult Conversations Group and Team Coaches Need to Have

Coaching is not always a positive, cheerful conversation. Many times there are difficult issues we

need to pose in a group or team, and sometimes we are the ones who surface the elephant in the room. Today's post focuses on five difficult conversations we may find we need to have as group or team coaches:

1. With the group or team member who consistently does not take action they have committed to. It's easy for coaches to fall into the habit of overlooking a group member who isn't following through on their commitments. Consider how it might be more in-service to have a coaching conversation with the group or team member who is constantly letting things slide. You might consider asking them:
What took precedence this week for you in respect to the commitments you had made?
What was important about doing that versus what you had committed to?
How is this change or pushing aside your own commitments showing up in other areas?
What value did the actions you ultimately took have on....
What would you do in the future if you faced this choice?
In our context what changes do you want to make around the commitments you make?
Do I/do we have the opportunity to check in on how committed you really are on your commitments each week, in service to what you've said you want to get out of the work we're doing (note this is a little long question - not the short snappy 5-7 words we often aim for in coaching questions!)

2. Another difficult conversation is surfacing the taboo issues teams have. Maybe there are things that are not talked about in the team. This might be an unspoken truth, the issue that is being swept under the carpet or something else. What's taboo for the team or group you are working with? What would be the value of asking that question to them?

3. Supporting a team through conflict, when the team is conflict avoidant, is not only a difficult conversation, but also a tricky one. It's important that we provide teams and other clients we work with tools, skills and approaches to navigate conflict. This may involve some "teaching" or the introduction of a model they can all have a conversation from.
What do you notice about conflict and the way the group and/or team members you are supporting approaches conflict?

4. The group member who constantly hogs or dominates the conversation. For some coaches supporting the dominant group member who may "hog" the space or bulldoze others may be a challenging type of person to support. Each one of us will probably find different types of group members more challenging to work with. In the many years I've supported coaches - it's often the challenger, or dominant group member who coaches note would be the challenging one for them to support.

5. The group member who is not engaged. In coaching, coachability always should always be at the forefront. Is this person ready and interested in being coached. Keep in mind, coaching is not training. As a coachee, they need to be setting their goals, and taking action. It's about the coachee driving the bus. Having discussions with clients who are not engaged around their coachability can also be a key issue.

What do you see as the most Difficult Conversations for yourself? I'd welcome your input and comments. Please do so below!

Best
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Group Coaching Essentials | Potentials Realized  
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)

About Us: Jennifer Britton is author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) andFrom 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. Our 2017 programming starts during the week of January  9th and will include: The Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar (8.75 CCEs), The Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs), and the Mentor Coaching Group for ACC/PCC portfolio routes. Our 2017 Learning Lab and Design Studio Group for Coaches who want to build their business and expand their group and team programs starts January as well (2 group calls on Fridays throughout 2017)

Group Coaching: The Group is often it's greatest own complexity

In any group work - coaching, retreats, training - the biggest complexity is often the group itself. For

years I've been talking about the importance of keeping things simple as the multitude of variables involved in group work can be what makes the work that more complex. The last few weeks have been chock full of group and team work for me - with both corporate and public programs, in person and virtual events. I've seen the complexity and fluidness of groups and teams play out with:

Last minute date and start time changes (a couple of times now in the last 2 weeks!)
Key players not being available as needed or being pulled out for other strategic priorities
Logistical glitches leading to last minute adjustments needed or phone lines being severed
Critical issues being top of mind for groups/teams that led us in entirely new directions
and of course, life and work happening for group members, and myself

Amongst all the changes I have to say it's been a really fun few weeks and as always when working with groups and teams, rich with learning!

What's helped move through the fluidness is to remember something that one of my graduate school supervisors told me decades ago which was to "embrace the chaos". In chaos theory, now known as complexity theory, it's easier to embrace and flow than to fight it. My travels over the last few weeks actually reconnected me with a couple of professionals I worked with in the early part of my career more than 20 years ago. It was so interesting that for one person who I reconnected with one of the things that had stuck out for her was my adage of "embrace the chaos". She herself has been applying it in her work over the last  two decades. We never know what mark we will make - for the positive and negative. Don't underestimate it!

 I have to say it takes a certain level of trust and groundedness not to get thrown by some of the changes that come our way.  Pre-preparation is essential. As is our own self-management and presence.

What have you been learning this year about fluidness in our work? What's helped you remain flexible?

Have a great week,
Jennifer

Jennifer Britton

Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Group Coaching Essentials | Potentials Realized  
Author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) and From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching (Jossey-Bass, 2013)

About Us: Jennifer Britton is author of Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010) andFrom 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. Our 2017 programming starts during the week of January  9th and will include: The Group Coaching Essentials teleseminar (8.75 CCEs), The Advanced Group and Team Coaching Practicum (10 CCEs), and the Mentor Coaching Group for ACC/PCC portfolio routes. Our 2017 Learning Lab and Design Studio Group for Coaches who want to build their business and expand their group and team programs starts January as well (2 group calls on Fridays throughout 2017)