Teamwork can be the single most important skill and business process in making your organization effective and better than the competition. 1
While teamwork is a critical component of the work environment, there isn’t a simple recipe for building great teams. Every team has different dynamics – from the skills of the individuals that make up the team, to the type of work they are focused on, to the culture of the organization.
When teams are dysfunctional, it often happens behind closed doors and senior executives are left puzzled as to why projects are not getting done and employee engagement is low. In addition to a lack of productivity, being part of a team that isn’t working can cause stress for employees and even result in people leaving their jobs altogether.
Why Teamwork is Important
To better understand the importance of teamwork, we can look at the analogy of a boat race where every team has a comparable boat that has an equal potential to win. It’s not the boat that wins the race, it’s the team.” 2
While boat racing may seem like a simple example, the benefits of teamwork are similar in boating to that of the workplace. The team is more valuable because of the collective skills of the group, and when employees work well together, they can create something more powerful than any of the individuals could accomplish on their own.
Organizations who are focused on developing teamwork tend to experience many benefits including “better decision making, flexibility among the workforce and focus on achieving organizational goals with a highly motivated workforce and synergy among team members”. 3
Benefits of Team Coaching
In theory, it might seem easy to build a strong team. But with the complexity of the current work environment, that is far from the truth. The reality is that “today’s teams are different from the teams of the past. They’re far more diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic with frequent changes in membership.” 4
Despite changing workplace dynamics, the success of teams depends on strong collaboration. That’s where coaching can play a role. Coaches are well-suited to encourage group interaction and open communication. A coach can listen and adapt to each unique situation, offering team members an environment to build trust and stimulate ideation.
If teamwork is met with resistance, a coach can break down the barriers by allowing the group to resolve conflicts in a safe space. An experienced coach will leverage the strengths of each individual while bringing everyone together under newly established ground rules.
Commitment to Shared Goals
The reality is that putting people together in a room doesn’t automatically make them a team. A team only forms once individuals start to work collaboratively towards a shared goal. This goal serves as an anchor to point the team in a common direction and can be effective at moving people forward.
As part of the facilitation process, it is imperative for the coach to help team members connect the goals to something bigger. Research has found that the “connection to mission or purpose is a key supporting object during times of change and transition.” 5
Employees seek out work that makes a difference and having a purposeful mission helps to take a team to the next level where they are working towards something more important than before.
Key Factors to Success
The success of the coaching engagement is tied to some key factors, like the buy-in of executives, the mindset of the participants, and the skill level of the coach. Effective coaching allows teams to work through their differences and find common ground, allowing them to grow and succeed both as a group and as individuals contributing to a group.
As the complexity of the workplace evolves, there is a greater need to work in groups to solve problems and drive innovation. “Forming, storming, norming and performing is the 55-year-old, simplistic model for leading high performing teams that most managers are aware of.” 6 Yet we need to ask whether there’s a better way.
Allowing a team to struggle through the forming and storming stages can take weeks, or even months. What does this do to the moral of the team during this time and what is the loss to productivity? Onboarding a team with an experienced coach allows individuals to form together as a cohesive team sooner rather than later, and it can help to avoid or reduce the storming stage altogether.
Summary and Reflections
It’s fair to say that achieving great teamwork is easier said than done. The answer doesn’t lie in a textbook and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to making teams work. That’s one of the reasons that team coaching is one of the most effective ways for teams to achieve success.
Coaching help teams move from dysfunctional to functional or, better yet, from functional to optimal. By exploring the opportunities and challenges of teamwork, along with the role of coaching, it is evident that every team across your organization has the potential to achieve great things with the help of a coach.
At Spireworxs, we specialize in facilitation, coaching and team building workshops that bring groups together to collaborate and innovate more effectively. Talk to us about the options that would best suit your unique needs.
1Forbes: How Mastering Teamwork Will Make Your Organization Successful, 2Forbes: Fast is Deadly: Why Your Organization Should Slow Down, 3Bloomberg: Workplace Coaching Isn’t Just for Bosses Anymore, 4Harvard Business Review: The Secrets of Great Teamwork, 5Harvard Business Review: 3 Tools to Help Leaders Steady their Teams during a Transition, 6Forbes: Evidence-Based Strategies For Better Teamwork
