An Evolutionary Leap in
Leadership Coaching and Team Coaching

Globally renowned leadership and team coaches gathered to celebrate
a significant leap forward in the coaching industry.

More than 70 professionals from the international coaching community gathered virtually during the summer of 2021 to celebrate the significant changes occurring in the coaching industry and to honor two team coaching pioneers: Chris Wahl, President of Miro Group Consulting and the Founder and former Director of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Program, and Alexander Caillet, Co-Founder and CEO of Corentus, Inc. The events that led to this gathering and the announcements that followed, mark an evolutionary leap in both leadership coaching and team coaching.

Leadership Coaching has Evolved

At this event, several shared the significant changes that occurred in the needs of leaders and in turn, leadership coaching.

“I can tell from the clients I’m working with, and what I’m seeing in the industry, that leadership coaches and team coaches are needed more than ever,” said Chris Wahl.

“I’ve been in this field since 1985, but right now there is a tremendous amount of anxiety in our world. And part of our job [as coaches] is being able to allow that anxiety and what feels negative, or doesn’t feel good, to get some oxygen. It takes courage for a leader to do that, and for a coach to do that. ‘Coach’ isn’t a big enough word for the type of work we will be doing going forward.”

Roberta Bantel, the Associate Director of Georgetown University’s Leadership Coaching Certificate Program joined the summer celebration and shared the changes made in their coach training program, “It was time for an evolution.” Roberts shared when she was a student in the Coaching Teams and Groups Course and how it had a profound impact on her life. She also share the new additions of the evolved Georgetown Program:

• Understanding the domains of human experience—mind, body, emotions, spirit, and identity—and their role in coaching and leadership

• Applying adult development and complexity theory to coaching leaders

• Understanding the role of identity, culture, and power in the coaching relationship and in leadership

• Recognizing the polarities that impact a leader at the level of self, team, and organization

• Coaching leaders within a systems context

For 20 years the Georgetown Program included a 3-day module on team coaching. After a long and successful run serving more than 1,800 professionals in 64 cohorts, the Coaching Teams and Groups Course was taught for the last time in May 2021. “We recognize that team coaching has evolved into something so much bigger and coaches need much more than 3 days to be learn how to effectively coach a team,” Roberta shared at the event.

In 2001, Chris Wahl invited Alexander Caillet, who by then was already practicing team coaching for over five years, to join forces to create the 3-day Coaching Teams and Groups Course as one of six requirements in Georgetown Coaching Certificate Program. In 2020, when Chris stepped away from teaching the course, Alexander was joined in instructing by Kimberley Parsons, Corentus Chief Solutions Officer, and Lori Zukin, Zukin Leadership CEO and Founder and a Corentus Consultant.  This trio, Alexander, Kimberley, and Lori, will continue as instructors at Georgetown as they lead the course: Coaching Leaders within a Systems Context.

Organizations are becoming increasingly reliant on teams and teamwork to drive business results.
Cohesive teams also engender the trust necessary for a team to fulfill its common purpose and achieve its goals.
Team coaching is a high-impact and sustainable way to bring effectiveness into teaming.
Just as leaders benefit from highly-trained leadership coaches, teams benefit from high-trained team coaches.
~ Alexander Caillet

Team Coaching has Evolved

The word has gotten out. Executive teams from complex global organizations are embracing team coaching— necessitating a significant change in the training needed for a team coach to have a sustainable impact with these teams.

“We are so grateful for the dedication of Chris Wahl and Alexander Caillet for more than 20 years of bringing the Coaching Teams and Groups Course to the Leadership Coaching program. As the field of team coaching evolves, team coaches need more intensive training.
We are thrilled Alexander and his team at Corentus have expanded their team coaching training offerings to meet the needs of teams and the needs of team coaches for this quickly evolving and highly skilled area of coaching.”

—Bill Pullen and Roberta Bantel, Program Directors, Georgetown University Leadership Coaching Program

Looking back at Georgetown’s first Coaching Teams and Groups Course, the inclusion of this topic was prescient. While team coaching has become widely recognized and sought after, this was not the case 20 years ago. The Georgetown Certificate in Leadership Coaching Program played a pioneering role, helping to establish team coaching as a distinct and important subfield and to introduce thousands of new professional coaches to the benefits it could provide.

“When we began offering team coaching to organizations back in 1996, the concept was relatively unknown and most clients were reluctant to engage in the practice. Fast forward 25 years, we have delivered team coaching to hundreds of organizations in over 30 countries in industries such as Pharmaceuticals, Energy, Financial Services, and Consumer Products, as well as to government agencies, non-profits, educational institutions, and health care systems. Time and again, across these organizations, team coaching delivered real sustainable improvements in levels of team effectiveness, cohesion and performance.

The word has gotten out: today team coaching has become one of the fastest growing segments in the coaching industry, dozens of books have been written on the topic, certification programs abound, and more and more organizations are seeking to offer this powerful approach to team development to their teams.”

Celebrating a Team Coaching Legacy, Summer 2021 Event

It was evident during the summer event with alumni represented from 20 years the Georgetown program that Chris and Alexander had a profound impact on their lives. Kimberley Parsons opened the event by asked everyone to share in chat what cohort they were in at Georgetown. A waterfall of numbers flowed through the chat—from cohort 1 all the way through to the most recent cohort 64.

As attendees reminisced about the program and Lori Zukin shared, “When I went through the Coaching Teams and Groups Course at Georgetown in 2009 as a student I’ll never forget the last thing said that Alexander said before we left, ‘What would love do?’ And we all cried. That question, that moment, it sticks with me to this day over ten years ago.”

Lori shared, “when I went through the course, I walked away feeling:
Excitement, excited, inspired, challenged, moved, curious, overwhelmed, and grateful.” Everyone was invited to share their feelings using the interactive polling tool, Mentimeter. Here was the word cloud result:

Kimberley asked everyone to post their favorite memory of the course. The conversations around this part were fun and powerful, (Links to some of the tools people remembered are in the reference list below.)

Kimberley asked everyone to post what they appreciate most about Alexander and Chris and several people shared heartfelt stories.

Rob Moran shared, “Chris and Alexander, you planted something for me about really reconnecting with my heart. And I really appreciate being invited today, because I felt I needed to come and say this to you. It's been 13 years since I took the course in 2008, but there's not a season of my life that has gone by without being impacted by what you shared so thank you.”

Grace Aduroja shared her memories of learning from Chris and Alexander. “I saw the invitation for this and I had to come on. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the program.. All of it really resonated with me, and I feel like both of you [Chris and Alexander] were able to see into parts of my soul. I think about you often and I thank you.”

Chris and Alexander shared how the faculty and the students had a profound effect on them:

“The years of leading the Leadership Coaching Program and co-teaching the Coaching Teams and Groups course with Alexander were a deeply creative and genuinely significant time in my life. I thank the students who devoted their time and energies to learning and giving us feedback, and who participated fully with their hearts and minds. You have had a lasting impact on me.”

—Chris Wahl

“It has been such a joy to teach the Coaching Teams and Groups course at Georgetown University with Chris for so many years, and more recently with Lori and Kimberley. I am so grateful to have been a member of this faculty and for the profound impact this experience has had on my life and on the lives of so many students.”

—Alexander Caillet

Chris and Alexander shared what they appreciated about each other:

Alexander: To me one of the greatest privileges is to have been side-by-side with you for all those years. Chris, I need you to always know that it was one of the greatest gifts to be your partner in this course. It was divine… and not always easy.

Chris: I feel the same and I think you are a testament to following my intuition because it really was an intuitive hit when I listened to you for the first time. I am one who trusts my intuition, and I get very lucky when it works out the way it has between you and me and everything that we were able to give to the good of the program and the good of the people. So thank you. We made a pact early on that we would stay together…

Alexander: and we did

Chris: And you're the one who initiated that and that was so amazing for me, to feel that kind of loyal connection with someone, who wasn’t afraid to say this is what I want. So thank you.

Chris and Alexander share their transition stories from the Coaching Teams and Groups Course:
Chris in 2020 and Alexander 2021

from Chris…

We ran our first cohort in 2000. I was involved in the program and the course for 20 years. In 2020, I transitioned out of the Director position and out of co-teaching the Coaching Teams and Groups Course because I felt things were running really, really well. What I’ve done since then is to continue working in adult development. I think most of you know I’ve been doing that for the last 10 years. I’ve expanded into doing work purposefully on transitions and helping coaches understand how to recognize transitions in their clients. And, I continue to use poetry with clients. It's been great to transition to a platform where I can follow the messages that I’m getting internally about what makes me really happy and what is useful as a contribution to other coaches and to leaders.

from Alexander…

Team coaching is now considered by the ICF to be one of the fastest-growing domains of coaching. This does not surprise me. I knew in my heart it would come to this moment. I did think it would come a bit earlier however I am glad the tipping point has finally arrived.

In 1995 I started seeing the impact of coaching a team live when they were doing real work. I started observing teams in their own real environments and asking permission to share what I observed, in the moment, during their meetings. The teams were amazed. They were excited about pausing, noticing, and speaking about what was really going on—engaging openly and speaking their truths. They saw by being aware of their actions and receiving coaching, guidance, and/or a quick tool on a decision making process, framework for accountability, for example, they could make changes right there and then. From meeting to meeting, they remembered what they had learned. This is the power of team coaching.

Over the years the word started getting out. Executive teams from organizations around the world began hearing about the impact of team coaching. The demand was increasing and the level of competencies needed to support the complexity inherent in these teams is why in 2016, my company started its own Team Coaching Certificate Program — a nine-month intensive program. Over 50 of some of the best coaching practitioners engaged in this intensive program and now have a Certificate in Corentus Team Coaching, many of whom came from the Georgetown Program.

After four cohorts of the nine-month program, we created a four module Pathway ensuring there is enough time between each module for practitioners to integrate the learning and deepen their understanding. The Team Coaching Pathway consists of two 2-day courses, a 5-month program, and a practicum. The successful completion of the Pathway earns a certificate in Corentus Team Coaching. In addition, we are launching courses on our tools — from Decision Making to Accountability. The combination of team coaching with time-tested and simple to implement tools is a powerful one.

I believe the world needs thousands of team coaches to meet the demand. I am very focused on building Corentus into a global organization focusing on delivering team development to clients around the world and building the capacity of practitioners. In addition, I still love teaching. We’re delighted to announce a new live online course at Stanford Continuing Studies, “State of Mind: The Key to Greater Effectiveness and Performance at Work,” by the trio: Kimberley Parsons, Lori Zukin, and me. The trio, as I mentioned earlier, is also still at Georgetown, teaching the Coaching Leaders in a Systems Course.

It is my ultimate desire to have a profound impact on the planet. Our vision at Corentus is '“A world where effective teaming drives the creation of a harmonious and sustainable future.” My belief is that Corentus and all of our partners, including Georgetown, can work together toward the realization of this bold vision.

Thank you to everyone who attended the event and everyone who has taken and contributed to the wonderful course at Georgetown. It truly was a great event to commemorate the end of an era and celebrate new beginnings.

Please note: since the majority of specialized team coach training is built on individual coaching skills, a high-quality coach training program—like Georgetown’s Leadership Coaching Program—provides an excellent foundation to be a skilled team coach. In past years, Georgetown-trained coaches have excelled in the Corentus Team Coach Certificate Program, and several have gone on to work with Corentus as program faculty, associates on client engagements, and full-time employees. 

Georgetown Leadership Coaching Program alumni are entitled to a discount for the Corentus Team Coaching Certificate Pathway and for the new Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies Certificate in Leadership Coaching.
To learn more, email us at engageus@corentus.com.

Reference Links

• Corentus Team Coaching Certificate Pathway

• Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies Certificate in Leadership Coaching

• State of Mind: The Key to Greater Effectiveness and Performance at Work Course at Stanford Continuing Studies

• Team Development Resources from Corentus on our Heart and Results Page